my lovely presents...

I have been spoilt rotten this year and consider myself a very lucky girl, I have been taken out for dinner and lunch, been bought a balloon (!), been baked a cake by a lovely co-worker and been given lots of lovely presents, my girls are very good at taking note of my hints!

Here is a glimpse....

Toasty neck....

I made this neck-warmer to keep my Dad nice and toasty during the winter months, he requested something that would be tighter than a snood but loose enough to be comfortable, so I found a nice 2x2 ribbed neckwarmer pattern through Ravelry which you can find here :

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/red-hot-neckwarmer

I changed it slightly so it was longer at the bottom part (extending to his chest rather than just the hollow of his neck) so that he could wear it with his favourite fleece which zips open at the neck, without there being a gap to let the breeze in!

Luckily he seems very happy with it and the only complaint is with the rather hairy yarn I used, Wendy Serenity, a lovely and soft Alpaca/wool/acrylic blend but can leave you looking a bit like you have been rolling around in the dog's basket!

The baby and the rose...

This is my Dad's favourite picture of me as a little girl, it's so Seventies it almost hurts...I am 32 today, a world away from this chubby little thing :-)

my super siblings....

I'm so lucky to have such super siblings, I wouldn't change them for anything :-)

BOOM! 1 hr Snood/cowl....

Last night I made a Snood / Cowl for a colleague at work as a thank-you for all her help during Men's fashion week, without her support our job would have been so much harder last week and would have meant me travelling on a grueling two day trip to Milan, which I really didn't want to do!

The design for this snood was really easy and only took me 1 hour, so gratifying :)

It was inspired by *THIS* design, the Around the way Cowl from *Pickles.no* and is just garter stitch on 12mm needles, knit using Lion Brand Thick & Quick yarn (which I bought in March last year in NYC!) and I just kept knitting until it was wide enough to go around the neck, plus a bit more, and then seamed the ends together, I'm calling it the 'BOOM! - 1hr snood/cowl'.

This year I am trying to make more effort with wrapping and presenting gifts for people, so my new favourite thing to do is to use textures from a Jpeg library that my friends and I have built up over the last year, which I then alter or resize in Photoshop and then print out and use as gift-wrap, above is how I wrapped Giulia's snood to present to her today.... I hope she likes it!

Wishlist....

Current faves, all reasonably priced I think (click on the prices to link to the websites).

Matroyshka measuring spoons - £5.50

Glass bell jars - Small £16, large £22

Love birds cushion (although I could definitely make this one myself for a lot less) - £69.95

Mini Patchwork pouffe (another one I could make if I put my mind to it) - £35

2011 inspiration.....Sewing

I can feel the sewing urge approaching again, and this year it's earlier than usual and competing with all the knitting I am doing and have queuing up....

My amazing sister gave me 'Built By Wendy Dresses' book for xmas, and there are so many projects I want to make already!

A big slouchy canvas tote bag to replace my XL gold tote of wonder which bit the dust a while ago, this one is by Built by Wendy and is very similar to what I would like to make.

A dress like this for my best friend's wedding....

Customising some existing items of clothing that need a little revamping....

I loved this idea from Cal Patch of Hodge Podge Farm, it looks like she uses crocheted doilies as templates to create bleached out prints on jersey which she makes into leggings, I think this would look good on a plain black t-shirt or washed out black jersey items like vests, old leggings and jeans too.... I plan to try this on one of my old black cardigans to give it a new lease of life and change up the buttons too.

I'm a twit....

I finally did it.

I joined Twitter.

For the good of all things creative, I do solemnly swear to make no comments regarding the boring minutiae of my daily life and make 'tweets' only about things I have made or work I admire from other creatives.

You can 'follow' me at : http://twitter.com/#!/lululovesmaking

splasher....

It is raining cats and dogs this morning, I think its about time I invested in some decent rainboots, and these black ones by Fouganza from Decathlon are perfect, and at the ridiculously cheap price of £12.99 there is nothing to feel guilty about with this purchase!

No more tiptoe-ing through the puddles on wet mornings for me, I will be able to stride with confidence on my way to work...

2011 inspiration.....Crochet

These pics are my idea of colour and crochet heaven.... this year I intend to :

Make a blanket of many colours...inspired by this beautiful work by Lucy of Attic24

Finish my hexagon cushion, which was also inspired by Lucy of Attic24

Make a crochet covered Ikea stool like this one by block a day blog

Make a Crochet bag like this one from the Japanese book 'Pretty colour crochet & knit goods'

My favourites of 2010....

Here are some of my favourite projects from 2010, and here's to many more in 2011!

Lucky Cranes

I'm enjoying an origami revival at the moment, when I was younger I was really keen on paper folding and origami, and I had a great book that had pre-printed fold lines which made it much easier!

However, now that I'm older and a little braver I thought I would to challenge myself a bit and try to do more complicated shapes, but one that I had wanted to do for a while was the Crane, because they are so delicate and I can think of so many creative applications in which they could be used, but also because they are supposed to be lucky, as the legend below describes (although I really cant see myself doing 1000)....

"An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Japan, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true."

found via Wikipedia : HERE

Darn good....

Last night I darned my first ever sock, it is not a tidy job, in fact it is a bit of a monster, but the socks are the first pair I ever knitted and are full of mistakes too!

Despite this fact they hold a fair amount of sentimental value and I wore them around the house and in bed for a few years before they developed holes in their soles!

Bizarrely I found the process of darning the holes very therapeutic and can once again wear my monstrous socks with pride :-)

I found the tutorial on how to do THIS via the Craft:zine website, it is a collaboration with the Martha Stewart Living editors and has lots of good tips for fixing and embellishing.

Engrish tea.....

Hmm, what do you suppose these mean....?

One of the Japanese girls at work brought them in, the green one says 'Herb tea for a hanggard face' (haggard maybe?!) and the purple one says 'Herb tea for a loose idea' (lets hope its only the ideas that are loose...).

Block printing....

I can feel a new hobby / obsession coming on.....

Found via : http://www.flickr.com/people/klara/

Need an extra pair of hands? All you need is Liv...

My lovely friend Liv has just launched her brilliant new website called :

All you need is Liv

The idea behind her new venture is to offer an extra pair of hands, as a business and lifestyle support service.


"For all those times you wish you has a PA to tie up all the loose ends....All you need is Liv."

For your home....

Personalised handmade cards / invitations

Handwritten cards / invitations

Children's party organisation

Handmade children's party decorations and party bags

Unique gift wrapping

Gift selection and purchase

Bespoke handmade cushions

Bespoke handmade personalised cotton bunting

Travel arrangements

Sourcing babysitters, stylists, dog walkers, plumbers, etc

Dinner party arrangements including centre pieces and menu planning

One of Liv's beautiful original christmas cards

For your business....


Media buying

Database management

Mail merges

Diary management

Email correspondence

Online research

Travel arrangements

Writing up minutes

Proof reading

Data collection

Receipt management

Raising invoices

Creating presentations

Client press coverage collation

Social media maintenance



Now isn't that a fabulous idea?! I know I could always do with an extra pair of hands, and now I know exactly who to call!

One of Liv's lovely handmade cushions

Making Whoopie!

It was my lovely friend Anwen's birthday this week and so my friend Katey and I made her some cakes to celebrate!

I made some Whoopie Pies for the first time using THIS recipe from Bakerella's website, and a cream cheese frosting made with Philadelphia, icing sugar and butter, they didn't quite turn out as expected, so they really ought to be called Whoops Pies but never mind, it was only my first attempt.... I need to perfect the art of the smooth finish rather than the volcanic eruption!

Katey made some delicious Raspberry cupcakes with butter icing and raspberries to top them off, but by far my favourite part is that they have jam and raspberries on the inside - heavenly indeed.

Something useful...

In an ever growing concern over the amount of mess in my bedroom (never helped by the mountain of clothes taking over my life) I at least want to be able to have something pretty and functional on my bed beside the other mountain of cushions and teddy bears (totally appropriate for a nearly-32yr-old of course)....

So this morning, as I absent mindedly threw my PJ's under my pillow I thought that it was high time I made myself a Pyjama case, something that can both act as a pillow/cushion but be useful at the same time!

Lo and behold, I am looking through my bloglinks this afternoon and I found this little beauty from the ever brilliant Prudent Baby......

Picture via http://Prudentbaby.com

Click HERE to go straight to the tutorial, thank you Prudent baby!

Otherwise, I think this free pattern for a Cat cushion from Amy Butler (find via her website HERE) would be another good starting point?!

Picture via http://amybutler.com

Xmas portrait....

Of the kids in my family, myself included :)

Christmas pastime....

Whilst at home over Christmas I managed to knit quite a few things for people, by far my favourites are the 'House Socks' that my Dad requested whilst on a trip to the local knitting shop, he chose some lovely Noro Silk Garden yarn and some contrasting charcoal merino, both of which were a pleasure to knit with and didn't take long at all, although I have come to realise that my Dad has very long feet, the socks looked like Christmas stockings when I was done with them!

He seemed very happy though, and I would definitely knit with those two yarns together again, the resulting fabric was so soft and the colours were beautiful.