Happy Crafty New Year

 We have had a merry and bright christmas week and i hope you have too.......warm cosy times and plenty of time to enjoy family fun and quiet reflection too..........new books to read, music, films and crochet............

 .............the crochet baubles were made a while ago ........

 .............and the colours inspired me to begin a new bright multi coloured granny blanket......

 ...........i am still working on the alpine flowers blanket too and it is coming along well.....i find it more inspiring to work on two projects alternately and to be able play with lots more colours :)...............

 .........it is lovely to see my dearies enjoying using my blankets and other makes...........

 ...............below is the cute button applique pincushion that i made for the january 2016 issue of crafts beautiful magazine which is out now....you can find out more about it here............

 ..............i am loving the bulbs and other plants growing now, with their promise of flowers and scent and spring time on the way...............

 .............today i was pottering in the greenhouse and enjoying the light there and new growth in the pots and containers......lots of seeds to plant and lots of cuttings to nurture for the coming spring and summer............

 .................thank you for all your good wishes in my last post, dear readers, and for keeping me company all through this crafty year............i hope you will come with me into the new one too.....x

...............i would like to wish you all a very happy new year and a healthy, peaceful and joyful 2016........sending love to you wherever you may be...............back soon xxxxxxoooooooxxx

Merry Christmas

 This will be my last post before christmas............i am getting the house ready for family staying and organising the kitchen ready for me to cook the christmas dinner this year....so lots of cleaning and tidying going on here......

 ............the christmas angel is watching from her berry bower.............

 .............(the pattern for this little angel is in my new book modern vintage gifts)........

 ..............this year i had an idea to have a christmas tree in a grey basket.......so we bought a suitable basket and mr p made it so :)...............we like our new look old tree.....it has white and grey decorations and white lights and looks nice with our new grey sofas............we still have the pastel snowy tree in our other room but this is our main sitting room..........

 ..................once i started moving things about there was a whirlwind of re distributed decorative things all around the house....even i am surprised to see some of them in their new places ;)....

 ..............below are the christmassy dresser shelves with my little button houses garland on display (also a pattern from my new book).............the shelves look different each day as things are added and removed for use but they stay mainly red and white for the holidays...........

 .........on the landing.....i moved the grey chest of drawers out from my studio and it looks so nice here instead.....

 ............despite doing the housework, finishing a design commission whose deadline had crept forward unexpectedly, shopping and wrapping gifts i have of course been indulging in plenty of crafting too.............below is the new alpine blanket.............lovely to crochet lots of sunburst granny squares in stylecraft special dk...the colours are candyfloss, fiesta, aspen and white and then silver and the join as you go method to crochet them together............

 ..........in other crafty news i am pleased to say the winter bunnies are finished and ready for gifting.....i will show pictures of them when my dearies have received them..............i piled them all into last year's sleigh for a quick picture without revealing too much of their outfits.....there has actually been a lot of clothes swapping going on between them to get the right look...........

 ...............some of my crafts from previous years are here again..........i love christmas hearts, white bells, gingham ribbon, striped fabrics and my paper decorated candle is still going strong......

 ............i would like to say a big thank you to all my sweet blog friends who visit me all year round (and some for many years).....i do love your visits and your kind and interesting comments......thank you to those who have sent me sweet greetings both on the blog, by email and by real mail too......so much appreciated by me....thank you so much dear readers......x

..................i wish you all a very merry christmas and happy holidays.........have a wonderful. joyful, peaceful time over the coming week........ back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxoooooooooxxxxxxx

Christmas Crafting

 It is certainly feeling (a lot) like christmas here now....with the trees decorated, the wreaths up and the cards arriving daily........i am still creating work designs for the coming year....but there is some christmas crafting going on too...............

 ......i made this fabric wreath as a project for my latest book.....it was an idea i had wanted to create for a long time..........

 ...........i wanted to make lots of fabric embellishments and add them to a fabric covered wreath....and then to add extras like bells, bows and buttons...........

 ............it was such fun to make and i loved the light scandi feel of the colours..........

 .............the individual elements can be used on their own for decorations too, like the candy canes below........

 ............and the little birds can be used in endless decorative ways..........the christmas wreath is from my new book modern vintage gifts which can be found in all good book stores, on amazon or here.......

 .............i have just finished a quick festive crochet cushion made with granny stripes....two white stripes alternated with one coloured stripe made this an easy crochet design to hook up.........the yarn i used is stylecraft special dk in pomegranate, bluebell, grass green, fondant and white.......

 .............i have more candles than ever this year, i love them so much....my daughter gave me the pudding bowl candle and i think it looks lovely.....

 .................some more (secret) crafting has been going on too........little grey rabbits in the making....it is like santa's workshop in my sewing room at the moment.......i look forward to showing you these cute little girls very soon :) ........

 .............you can tell it is christmas here when my kitchen has festive mugs all around and big bowls of satsumas.........

 ...........my latest crafty project is a new crochet blanket....it was inspired by my alpine scarf made a couple of winters ago and i am looking forward to hooking this over the christmas holiday........i made a good start on it this weekend watching christmas movies.....

 ......i hope you are enjoying the festive countdown....getting those lists ticked and feeling the spirit of the season and not the stress :)...............i still have lots to do........but am sure it will all be finished in time ;).........

.................thank you so much for visiting me here in my little blog world, dear readers, and for your sweet comments...... wishing you a wonderful week with happy crafty festive days as we move through december...........back soon xxxxxxxxxoooooooooooooxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Merry Making

 There has been lots of crafting going on here over the past week, some work things being made for next year's magazine issues, some things being made for gifts for my dearies and some being created just for fun................here is my new festive version of the little dogs doll's quilt from my book *modern vintage gifts*.............

 ..........this version was just as much fun to make as the original one................

 ..............the fabrics are mainly *little joys* by elea lutz for penny rose fabrics.......the plain red and white are kona cottons and the binding is a michael miller stripe which made me think of candy canes.....

 ..........when the quilt was completed i looked around for someone to snuggle underneath it....and there was the little bear also from my new book :) ......

 ..........a sweet friend of mine gave me the scottie dog shortbread biscuits below.......it does seem a shame really to eat them (but they are delicious)................

 ...............still making festive things with the little joys fabrics...they are so pretty.....

 ...........also busy crocheting something new with some bright festive colours............

 ............while waiting for the new order of yarn to arrive last week for my next blanket, i began hooking up a quick cushion cover...........will show you this soon......just doing the back now....

 ..................below: work in progress crochet and christmas mug of tea...love getting out the christmas china again and finding favourite decorations each year too......

 ..............at the weekend we visited a beautiful garden centre (the grosvenor garden centre, chester) and i took a few pictures there......there were so many gorgeous plants including dozens of hyacinths in flower which gave out the most intoxicating scent and made us think of spring..........will show you those another time as this picture seemed more suitable for my theme today :)...........

 ..............before i go back to my crafting and merry making i would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who has bought my latest book, or who has it on their christmas wish list, or is gifting it to others..........and thank you so much for all your kind words about it too........x

..............thank you for visiting me here in my little bit of blogland dear readers, and for taking time to leave such lovely comments, especially when life is so busy............wishing you a wonderful week ahead with plenty of merry making.................back soon xxxxxxxxxxoooooooxxxxxx