Flat Pack Heaven!

Hello, I'm short of that precious commodity called time (as usual) but I wanted to check in with you all to say 'hello, how are your 20 minutes going?'

I'm afraid I haven't spent much time in this room lately!

That's because I've been in this room with a screwdriver, 43 packages of flat pack furniture and enough sheets of A4 instructions to paper a wall.

It's all good though, apart from poor hubby rupturing something important in his shoulder after about 6 screws! Even this had a good side though as it meant our teenage son had to step in and help us, so a little bit of quality time was spent together. (Although I'm not sure he saw it like that, lol.) Bless him, that big lolloping lump with feet like canoes and an appetite like swarm of locust did a really good job. Well, I couldn't have managed without him.

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Right, I really must go to bed now as it's late and I've had a busy few days recently. As well as building furniture,

I've started a craft afternoon in our village,

I've had one migraine,

I've had family to stay,

I've had a birthday,

We've taken delivery of our first hen house.(more of that soon)

I'm going away at the weekend (my birthday present from WM)

And my job partner at work is away on holiday for a fortnight.

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So I really need my bed.

Catch up with you all soon,

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a little bit frazzled Fi x

Work in Progress (well, one of them!)

Hello you lovely people. Just thought I'd bring you up to date and show you my current WIP.

I had to show you the back. You know how much I like to take a peek at the reverse.

Lots of textures, lots of ribbons and trims.

Lots of table top tidying to be done!

And a smile.

Thank you Tilly Rose for this 'Make me smile' Award.
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Can I just say thank you for all of your super-dooper comments. I read each and every one of them and if you ask me a specific question I do try and answer them but you must leave me some way of contacting you. Sometimes my lovelies there is no way of contacting you, but I do try, honest indian!

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Love Fi x

Arm Candy!

Hello there.

Not one but two new bags to share with you today!

I had such fun designing and making these two beauties.
And yes, I do feel justified calling them 'beauties' lol.

Lovely fabrics

Pretty vintage buttons

Special stitches

Pretty trims

Lots of machine embroidery (this is the back, isn't it wonderful! It's a secret that only you and I have seen, safely hidden behind the pretty lining fabric now)

Here's the front.

And the front of the second bag.

I do like to hand finish. It makes all the difference, much neater, a way of adding a little bit of love and care to each project.

I nearly forgot to show you the inside! I'm quite a practical girl, I like pockets and a long ribbon tape to secure my keys. (long enough to unlock my door with out removing the keys.)

Here's the back of one of the bags.

And the back detail of the other one.

Hmmm...floral goodness.

A bit of recycling, a bit of vintage, some re-purposing and a lot of pleasure (for me making)

Ta-daa!

One front, one back

Ta-daa! again,

both fronts.

Thank you for letting me share my art.

Love Fi x

Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop

Aaaaaaaargh!

I'm feeling a bit bogged-under!

The weekend before last, I foolishly suggested to the family that we needed to swap bedrooms around to make the best possible use of the rooms we have. (I must learn to keep my mouth shut.)
You see wonderful man works from home, ideally I need somewhere to sew, we need a bedroom, we have 2 teenagers who need a bedroom each and we also need a room with a double bed for guests.(All our relatives live at least 120 miles away) Now I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to maths, but I make that an idealistic 6 rooms.

We don't have 6 bedrooms.

Well I won't bore you with all the gorey details and ins and outs but you can see from the photo above it's not been simple! This was my attic studio/guest bedroom, it is now my teenage daughters bedroom/my sewing room and guest bedroom when needed!

We desperately need some more bedroom furniture as my clothes are now residing on my bedroom floor due to a reassignment of my chest of drawers! I've now reached a plateau with my sorting, tidying and condensing. I really can't find anywhere else to stuff...stuff! Aaaaaaargh!

So when a friend asked if I fancied a ride down the Dale to the Wensleydale Longwool Sheepshop, I jumped at the chance.


Aaaaaaaaah... I feel better already. Look at all that beautiful soft wool. The colours are the most scrumptious shades.
And the smell... hmmm, a lovely... well... woolly smell.

That's a picture a Wensleydale sheep on the wall. They have very long lustrous ringlets of wool. Rather pretty as sheep go, don't you think?

Ann and Ruth don't just sell the wool from their sheep, there are also lots of other goodies, all wool related.

Pretty buttons in finger-fiddling sized baskets. You can't help but dip in and feel their smooth flat surfaces.

The most wonderfully elegant knitting needles and crochet hooks. Very tactile.

And...my favourite. Curly wool tops in a rainbow of softness.
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Gosh I'm feeling much better now.

I have a something new to show you next time.

But before I go I want to say thank you for all of your encouraging words and sentiments. Thank you for being there. It's great to have you along for the ride!

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Love Fi x

Spring

Hello!

Well if this isn't a sign of Spring then I don't know what is!

Just in case you're wondering... it's a lambs tail. Yes a real one! Apparently some farmers tie them tightly so that they die and drop off because sheeps tails can get rather messy and then get infested with maggots.

I didn't really plan to mention maggots in my Spring/Easter post but I thought it better to explain why it's done.

And here they are looking none the worse for being short of a tail.

As you can imagine we're not short of lambs around here.

So Spring must definitely be here now, even our last little patches of snow up on the Fell tops have finally melted this week. At last!

I'm a little late showing you my exciting parcels but I can assure you... they're worth the wait.

This is my Japanese crochet book and it's absolutely delicious. If you want to see some of the projects inside and I'm sure you do just click here.

This is the other parcel. It's a giveaway prize that I won, from Rachel at Contented. Hmmm... pink tissue paper and pretty ribbon...my favourite.

Look at this beautiful Spring bag, isn't it lovely?

Rachel knows what she's doing, it's just the right size.

And if that wasn't enough there were lots of little parcels inside the bag! I was very good and saved them until child #2 came home from the youth club so that we could share the opening excitement together.

After a lot of tissue tearing and gasping and grinning we had all of our little parcels open and the contents spread on the table. Within seconds child #2 had the Easter decorations dangling from the kitchen mirror.
I can't believe I have my very own hand knitted facecloth covered in hearts. I'd see these being made on Rachels blog and fell in love with them straight away. I thought that one day I would get around to knitting one of my own but now luckily I don't have to!

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At the top of the picture is my very own personal, handmade birdie brooch ready to be pinned onto my favourite bag; but the item I fell head over heels in love with was the tiny white china bunny. I love him. Yes I know he has a pink ribbon and a little bell but I'm sure he's a boy bunny. Now this is very odd for me as I don't do 'ornaments' or 'dust collectors' as I call them.

But... I... do... love this bunny.

Oops! You caught me!

Well it wouldn't be Easter without chocolate would it!
Thank you Rachel.

Till next time

Love Fi x

Crochet Hanger

Hello. Here's a little 'how to' for the crochet hangers I've designed after being inspired by the ones in Lucy's Japanese craft book.

Firstly you need a wooden coat hanger. You then need to crochet a rectangle as long as the hanger and wide enough to cover the front and back joining at the top. Mine was 12 chain wide and 75 rows long in double crochet (UK) using double knitting yarn and size 3.50mm hook.

Then crochet down the centre, 6 chain and then a double crochet to join into the base fabric.

I folded it in half longways and held it like this.

When you have completed the first row, chain 4 and turn, attach with a double crochet through the first chain space.

Then crochet 3 chain then slip stitch through a flower petal, chain 3 and then double crochet through the next chain space.

I alternated a flower loop with a plain loop.

When the trim is finished fold the cover in half length ways and start to join the two sides together from one end using slip stitches on the short ends and changing to double crochet across the long top edge.

When you get half way stop and slot the hanger into the cover and then carry on joining.

Nice neat edge.

The leaf was made by making 8 chain and then working along one side and then back down the other. Each leaf I made was slightly different so just do what you feel using tall treble stitches at the fat end and small double crochet down to slip stitches at the pointy end. (I did say it wouldn't be an exact pattern!)

For the flowers make a loop around your finger and draw the yarn through with your hook ready for your first chain.

For the flowers on the trim chain 4 and then slip stitch back into the loop to create a petal. Do this 4 or 5 times. To finish pull the little end of yarn and this will draw the centre of the flower up tightly.

I made the three flowers on the front decoration a little larger by making the petal chains a little longer.

Sorry it's not an exact pattern, but I'm sure you'll be able to follow it. Any questions, just leave a comment or email me and I'll do my best to try and make it clearer.
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I have to say, I liked the look of Lucy's Japanese crochet book so much that I had a little look on the interweb and chose one for myself. My first ever eBay purchase... and it's luuuverly!

I just hope I can follow the instruction diagrams!

Maybe we'll take a little peek next time.

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Till then

Fi x