Bit of silliness to end the week

Last week I had a massive clearout. I found a couple of half-finished projects from years ago that I had totally forgotten about. I found a couple of hats that only needed a couple of rows adding. To be honest they are both pretty silly (but great at the same time I say!). I thought as it's nearly Friday I would show you the first. Its is a pattern by Sarah of RepeatCrafterMe. I started it a coupe of years ago to make for a friends' little girl, but the first size I made practically fitted me! All I needed was to untangle the yarn, add a couple of rows and hey presto! Don't think it would win any prizes on the catwalk but its crocheted in Rowan 100% wool so is lovely and soft and warm....

I would also like to say thanks very much for your kind comments on my last post, I think I;ll got for that Etsy shop ya know, especially now there are more hours in the daylight for taking photos!

Have a great weekend,

SSxx

Re-stocking and taking stock

Phew, so I survived my exams. The relief was enormous to say the least. After a sleepless night dominated by sciencey words whizzing around my head, and anxiety about my performance I immersed myself in my little yarny, crochety world for a couple of days and it was AMAZING to say the least. I made a few new pieces for the CAM Hub Shop in Chorlton, Manchester,  where I stock some of my crochet bits and bobs. What do you think? 

I think I have a new favourite crochet colour combination......burnt orange and mustard yellow all the way. I also quite like the pink ones too! I've just sat down to write this post and to crochet another set but can I find the yarn? Can I heck! Must have left it in Manchester....

In the last few days after my exams I've had many a transient thought about where I want this blog and SallyStrawberry to go. Obviously I can't devote as much time as I would like due to working full time and doing a lot of travelling but if I put everything into it then perhaps. These transient thoughts are becoming less and less transient and more and more permanent so you never know. Here are a few of the things I have been thinking of doing.....

• Set up an Etsy shop for some of the pieces I'm happy to make over and over (mostly the above!)
• Do a couple of markets. I LOVE doing markets, chatting to customers and other traders. I don't even mind getting a bit cold. It's really hard with all the travelling to fit them in though so may just try and do a couple nearer Christmas. 
• Set up my website. I've had the domain for an age, just need to bite the bullet and do it (likely with a bit of help from Pete).
• Join/set up a craft group in Merthyr. I really miss a bit of communal crafting. I've tried to find a craft group over Twitter but to no avail. If anyone reading this is from the Merthyr Tydfil area of South Wales and into crochet/knitting/sewing/anyothercrafting then please please get in touch, I would love to meet you. I may even try and get back into teaching crochet if the demand is there. 

For now, that's it, but knowing me there's probably plenty more to come, likely in the middle of the night when I have an early start the next morning. 

Take care,

SSxx

Life right now

As some of you may have gleaned from Facebook I'm in the the midst of a revision nightmare. I have 5 exams over Monday and Tuesday and am definitely not loving it. Roll on Tuesday afternoon when I can relax and have a drink. 

This is my dining room table right now.....coffee, tea, papers, nail varnish (for when I'm really procrastinating), phone (for the odd Google search, and yes, more procrastination) and most excitedly, the newly vegetarian Party Rings! These are my favourite biscuits by far and they have just made them vegetarian :-)

On another (much better) note I went to a hand embroidery workshop this afternoon to have a bit of a break from the science and did this! I'm thrilled with it! The workshop was run by the hugely talented Katy of Pixiecraft. Check out her work and be amazed.

Early night and back to work tomorrow. See you on the other side. 

SSx

Easter weekend

This weekend I made the most of living minutes from the Brecon Beacons (Wales) and went on a 9 mile walk with friends. The stunning views made up for the gail-force winds at the top of Pen-y-fan. We also spent most of the walk up in the clouds! 

Wales is a bit underrated I think....

SSxx

Highs and lows

There have been ups and downs here over the last couple of weeks. Spring has truly arrived, which is such a relief after the cold and drizzle of winter. This photo was taken in the town of Brecon in the Brecon Beacons in Wales at the weekend. It was gorgeously sunny and it was lovely to just wander, popping into shops, drinking tea etc. 

The weekend before last we went to Norwich to visit my family. My little sister was coming back from India where she had been teaching in a village school. I hadn't been to Norwich since Christmas so it was really great to catch up with everyyone. I was also super creative which I felt had been lacking for a while, I really do think creativity feeds off creativity and to be around family and friends I was really inspired to get crocheting. In the end I designed two new items (eek!!). Here is a little sneak peak as I really do hope to write the patterns up ASAP (I know from experience that the longer I leave them the less likely I will be to get it done). Any guesses?

As you may have become aware I have been making things from other people's patterns recently, such as this and this, and now these socks by Simone Francis in Simply Crochet issue 26. This was my first ever go at crocheting socks and I loved the pattern. I gave them to my sister as I thought she might be a bit cold coming from 6 weeks in India. 

These are back on my 'to make' list for a friend's upcoming Birthday.

So you've had the highs, now for the lows...... 

Sadly this little puppy was put to sleep at the weekend. Chloe was a rescue dog and she had been in the family 10 years. Luckily her health went down-hill very quickly so she didn't suffer. I was so glad to have played with her and cuddled her lots over the weekend when she was full of beans and her normal self. This photo was taken a couple of days before she became really ill last week. She has had cancer for a number of years so we were very lucky to have had her in our lives this long. Bye bye Chloe, you are missed. 

Take care and have a good week,

SSxx

New product- crochet flower hair bobbles!

This is how I spent my Sunday morning. These are the same flowers that I use for bunting but sewed onto hair bobbles. These will be on sale in the Chorlton Art Market Hub Shop next week. What do you think? Simple yet pretty and effective I think.

In other news I made this peanut butter cake I saw on Craftsy. Three ingredients- no kidding. Peanut butter, eggs, sugar. It was basically an overcooked peanut butter soufflé and I'm sorry to say I wasn't convinced. Onwards and upwards, it was worth a try!

In other other (more exciting) news I'm back to Norwich at the weekend to see family and am so excited! I have also just spent a small fortune on yarn but more about that to follow!

SSxx

Faffing

I don't know about you but I sometimes have moments where I just want to play with my camera for no reason other than to have a bit of a faff around.

Sunday morning held one if these moments. I had been doing some product photography and after a lot of fiddling around managed to get a good set-up (which is pretty difficult in my small, clutter-filled flat) so decided to make good use of it. These are just snaps of bits and pieces around our flat that I have accumulated over the years (hence the clutter). 

As I write this I realise that each piece comes with a bit of a story too. 

I HATED this china cat for the first couple of years. I still think it's pretty horrible, what with the remnants of a sticky label on its head and the (most likely real) fur. We have a bit of a family tradition of having a long weekend in Bruges, Belgium every couple of years. There is this brilliant second-hand shop spread over three floors and we have a challenge where we do a secret santa and buy each other a 'lovely' gift for a euro. these gifts have to be displayed in your house for at least a year.  Imagine my delight when I received this cat!? The worst part was that I'd unwittingly helped my sister choose it! 

Despite my initial hatred of this poor cat it has been displayed in the living room of every house I've lived in for the last 6 years. I guess I just got used to it!

These elephants are from the same shop and aren't much more tasteful. I chose these myself though so say no more!

Now, these are fabulous! These were being given away by someone local to me on Twitter. I just couldn't say no. There was a whole bin bag of these, and I gave them away bar these two, as lets be honest, I didn't have the space or any use for them really, just couldn't bare the thought of them being thrown away. 

Yep, its a pine cone! I was at a local market where there was a stall that made the most beautiful chopping boards and carved wood ornaments from trees that were felled in the local area. Whilst chatting with the stall-holders about their work my eyes were drawn to the vast array of these huge pine cones on the stall and the stall-holder kindly gave me one. It was all closed up when I took it home but after a couple of months opened up. So beautiful to photograph. 

Have a great week.