2014

Hello Lovlies!
I do hope you have all had a very special Christmas and that you are gearing up to start the New Year with a bang!
I couldn't let 2014 come to an end without having a reminisce through this years previous projects and posts.
2014 has zoomed by and I haven't blogged nearly as much as I've wanted, nonetheless, looking back over my posts I'm extremely proud of all of the things I've created this year.
From completing the Japanese flower Blanket that Dennis started years ago, to "making over" an ikea lamp, its been a year full of crochet and colour.

Weddings were a common theme this year, as Dennis and I made a crocheted bouquet for his best friends wedding. It was a challenge to make, but the outcome was better than we could ever have imagined.

I also made a rather interesting contraption so that my little furry dog friend, Hayley, could carry her owners wedding rings down the isle.

Little projects were made to make our apartment that much more homely.

Dennis got to work on a rather scrummy knitted blanket! Its not quite finished yet, but will be a project he continues with into the New Year.

I crocheted galore!! Spiral cushions...

Sunflowers...

Granny squares.....

Dozens of flowers....So bright and cheery

They added a rather unique tough to my ikea lamp!

Of course the common theme of the year was colour!
I am so drawn to all things bright and cheery and get a huge amour of inspiration and energy from these little splashes of vibrancy.

I'm hoping that 2015 turns out to be just as colourful and even more creative than this past year.
I'm wishing each and everyone of you a very special start to 2015 and thank you all for coming and paying me frequent visits here on my blog......Until next year!!!
Have a very Happy New Year!!!

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The Greatest Gift

Hello Lovelies!

Thank you all for the comments on my last post and also for all of the very useful suggestions on how I could improve on my angel. You've all given me a lot to think about and inspired me not to give up on perfecting this festive project. 

I mentioned last post that I only had 4 days left at work before I fly home to England! Well... now I only have 2!! The count down is well and truly underway and the anticipation of seeing all of my family is verging on being too much for me! 

Earlier in the week,  I received my first Christmas card of the year. What a special card it was,

full of Christmas cheer. It warmed my heart!

Now those of you that have read my previous posts and followed me for a while will know that 90% of the time I stick to blogging about my projects, but every now and then I get a little sentimental and a little personal. This is one of those personal occasions, so I'd stop reading now if you don't want to hear any of my sentiments. 

This Christmas card was extra special because it featured two little penguins sharing a kiss. Two boy penguins! Special, because it was blatant acknowledgment of the relationship that I have with Dennis. 

Here's the card in full:

Isn't it sweet!!

So here's why the card means so much to me!
Firstly it's the first gay Christmas card I have ever received!
Secondly it's from my Mum and Dad.
I hope my parents don't mind me telling you this ... but when I first came out to my Mum as being gay, she had an extremely hard time coming to terms with it.
A few years have passed since then and I can honestly say that both of my parents are totally cool with their gay son. In fact they couldn't care a less.
They see how happy I am with Dennis, they realise that with Dennis, they have gained an extra member to their (already) wonderful family! How could that be a bad thing!
They have gone full circle and fully embrace Dennis and I. For that I am grateful and extremely proud of my Mum and Dad!

Finally to top it off, This year I finally plucked up the courage to tell my Nan and my Grandma that I am gay. Enough was enough, I was tired of lying to them that, telling them the reason I didn't have a girlfriend was because my career was my priority. (yeah right!)
They were missing out on a huge part of my life and I was saddened by that. They now know about Dennis and were totally unfazed by my "coming out",  in fact, they didn't care.
They told me that it only mattered that I lead a happy life!  Which....is true. Happiness is the key!
So this year I go home for Christmas and  for the first time Dennis.
My grandparents will meet him (finally) as my boyfriend and we will all celebrate Christmas together.
Happy with no secrets.
This card is a symbol of that and that's greatest gifts I could ever have imagined to receive! Thanks Mum and Dad for the perfect card!

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Christmas Angel

Hello Lovelies!
How are you all doing? I hope that your preparations for the holiday season are going well?
I'm jolly excited that I just have 4 more days left at work before I fly home to England to spend the first Christmas in 7 years with my family! EXCITED is actually an understatement!!

I've been rather organised this year with buying all of my Christmas presents for the family, and I'm extremely proud to say that I'm done.......nothing left to buy or organise. This is a rather nice feeling, especially when I head into the city and see how manic it is with everybody rushing around. I feel like I can relax a little and I'm gearing up to fully enjoy this Christmas.

Even though I'm not actually spending Christmas day here in Stuttgart, it was still important for me to buy a tree and decorate the apartment. The build up to the big day is important to me, it creates excitement and focus throughout the dreary, dark and cold months. I for one, am grateful for that focus throughout the Winter.
As part of my christmas decorating, I (of course) wanted to crochet some little Christmassy projects! I had the idea to crochet an angel, maybe to sit on the top of the Christmas tree? I worked for weeks on this little project trying my best to perfect it.

I started with forming a simple crocheted head, that moved down to the angels shoulders and on to her white dress. I formed the dress around a toilet roll tube for extra stability and to help in maintaining a nice cylinder shape.

I increased my stitches as I worked further and further down the dress and finished off my rounds with a simple picot edging.

I made her some skinny little arms that extended into bell shaped sleeves, which concealed her dainty little hands.

I fashioned her a cape, to keep her warm throughout the Winter. Adding golden edging and some shiny diamonds for an extra special touch.

Of course she needed some hair! Golden hair seemed most angelic, so I went with a cute blond bob.

At this stage I was SOOOOOO pleased with how angelic she was looking. She looked very regal and for a crocheted angel, she was simple yet sophisticated!

It happens from time to time with a project that you just can't reproduce what you have in your head. Sometimes the outcome turns out better than you could have imagined and sometimes...well...lets just say it doesn't quit go to plan. It was the latter for this project.

I struggled to finish this little angel off. I played around with her facial features trying out different eyes and mouths, but honestly wasn't over the moon with any of them.

The same for her wings....
I designed many types of wing, experimenting with a circular based wing:

And trying a more triangular shaped wing:

I finally settled upon her features and decided to go with an already existing angel wing pattern by Michelle Kovach. This wings turned out perfect and I'm very happy with how they look!
I still think that angels facial features are not quite right. She doesn't quite look how I wanted. I feel like she is verging on Postman Pat in drag, which is not quite look I was going for!

I wrote down the pattern as I went along, with the hope of sharing it with you all. 

However, I'm going to hold off on publishing the pattern until I am totally happy with her. I want to be proud of my finished pattern and be able to say she is truly how I want her to look and at this stage, I'm just not there. I know I'm being dramatic, but I know when something can be better. So.... hopefully for next year I'll deliver you a rather charming Christmassy Angel pattern, at least that gives me some time to fully figure her out. 

Despite not being quite the finished project I was hoping for! She is fun and definitely has Christmas spirit. She's homemade and from the heart, which I think are important characteristics for anything, especially at this time of year. So even though she's not quite what I wanted, she's still sitting proud and happy along with all of my other decorations!

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The Christmas Tree

Hello Lovelies!
How are you all?
I'm ever so sorry for not coming to visit over the past month. Not only has time been zooming by making it difficult to find a moment to spend on my blog, but the truth of the matter is.... I felt like I needed a little break.
Having pretty much the month of November free of blogging, I've had some time to think and to focus. I've come up with some really cool ideas for future projects and am feeling rather ambitious in terms of the direction of my blog for 2015. Feeling energised and inspired, I'm looking forward to getting back into my blog and spending more time with you all.

I've been meaning to write a post for the past few days, but strangely felt like I didn't know where to begin.
I decided to wait until the calendar page flipped over and we hit the 1st of December. I new month and a fresh start in terms of getting back into the swing things!
Of course with it being December, you know you're going to be hit with a MEGA dose of Christmas?! I can't help it! I love December, the countdown 'til Christmas and all of the glories it brings!

With yesterday being the 1st of the month and coincidently, happening to be my day off from work, I thought it was the perfect opportunity to go and buy a Christmas tree. I know that It's a little early and I'm not too sure if my tree will last all of the way to the end of the month, but I couldn't resist.

I wrapped up nice and warm and made my way to the garden centre, where I know they have a large selection of trees. I spent a good hour looking for the perfect one and was chuffed to bits when I found it!
The man at the garden centre trimmed the bottom of the tree and wrapped it nice and tight in net, so I could get it home a little easier.  Whilst he was sorting out my tree, I had the luxury of sipping on a delicious hot mug of gluewein and enjoying the warmth it gave me.
Once he was done with my tree, I made my way home.....
Half way through my journey home I did stop and question "Why I do this to myself?".
You see, I don't have a car and so I had to walk to the train station with my tree, catch a train home and walk from the station back to my apartment. Simple enough! Apart from the fact that I was doing this alone (Dennis is away rehearsing for his next cruise ship contract) and I'm a not the tallest of people, reaching a mere 165cm, yet my tree was just over 2 metres! It was a sight to be seen and pretty funny thinking about it. I'm sure passers by just saw what looked like a walking Christmas tree!

Anyways... I made it home in one piece, along with the tree and got to my favourite part of decorating it! I went down to the cellar and picked up my storage box of decorations, popped Mariah Carey's Christmas album on and got to work.

First adding fairy lights, followed by baubles baubles galore!

I continued with: sparkly stars,

wooden hearts,

Pretty ornaments that I received as a gift from friends a couple of Christmases ago,

My trusty crocheted snowflakes which I made two years ago and they're still holding up perfectly!
(The pattern can be found here)

 Glittery pine cones,

Finally I added a new adition....

Some cute crocheted snowmen!

I made the pattern for these snowmen a few weeks ago, as I was writing a guest blog post for the blog "Skiptomylou". The pattern can be found here.
I'll also be uploading the pattern to my blog over the next few days, so that you can find it easily along with all of my other patterns and tutorials.

The cosy glow from the tree lights add so much warmth to my apartment. Look how how the lights reflect on my shiny silver ornaments. BLISS!

There we have it! My Christmas tree is pretty much finished, it just needs a little something on top (which I'm working on. yiiipeee!).

I'm going to go and lie down under my tree now and look up at all of the lights! It's one of my absolute favourite things to do! I urge you all to give it ago! Lie under your Christmas trees and enjoy the prettiness, it's pure magic!!!!

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