Weaving in those loose ends

As I mentioned in my food for thought piece the other day, Steven and I are gearing up for a HUGE clearout. So I thought I would make a start by clearing out my crafting spaces of unfinished projects, they are nearly all crochet projects and it's the weaving in that needs to be done.

It's really odd that this is the part I put off, when you get down to it you can probably weave ends in a couple of hours, if that.  But there's just something a little uninspiring about doing it, even although you will have a fabulous finished item at the end!  Or maybe that's just me!

So here is what I've been doing over the past few days, one is completely finished, the other I'm still crocheting, but weaving in as I go, much better!

This one is good to go, it was supposed to be a gift for Steven's Mum on Mother's Day (in the UK Mother's Day is in March, woops missed that deadline!) but now it will be for her birthday in July!

This next one I'm way ahead of the game as it's for my niece for her Christmas! I'm still working on it, but as I'm on the border it won't be long before it can be tucked away until it's time to forward it on to Santa for delivery on Christmas morning.

 

ends woven in on work so far!

first 4 rows of border done

I'm on the next set of 4 rows in a darker pink, which will be followed by 4 rows in a very light pink and finished off with a picot edge in purple.  I also plan to put a few random daisy type flowers on or around the G, haven't quite got that set in my mind yet.

As you can see from both projects I have been up to my eyes in shades of pink and purple for quite some time now!

My final blanket on this post I made for myself before Christmas and I made it to use up coloured wool I had left over from making a massive granny square scarf for my sister's Christmas. (I will try and get pictures of it from her, it's fabulous even if I do say so myself!!)

As you can see I had an abundance of colours left over (still do actually) and my rainbow blanket just came to life.

It doesn't really go with the chocolate and turquoise colour scheme of the bedroom, but hey, I love it and in Scotland a cosy blanket can be needed at anytime of the year!  And for the eagle eyed amongst you, yes, those accent cushions feature in my jewellery photos and I made those too!

My next project will involve the non pink and purple wools left in my stash from my Christmas makes, I have my eye on a couple of things from the blogosphere - a hexagon granny square blanket and a stripey bag, I may have enough for both!!

With ends woven in it feels great to have projects completed so, if you are like me and move on to the next thing before finishing off, stop procrastinating and get it finished, you'll be glad you did!

Happy weaving in!

xoxox

Flip Flop Frenzy!

Well I'm just on a flip flop frenzy!  So here are two more that I made over the past couple of days to go with some summer outfits.  Keeping my fingers crossed that this run of sunny weather goes on so I can wear them outside the house!!

These flowers are the 17 chain rosette from Lion Brand Patterns  (search under crochet rosettes for the pattern), I then sewed on alternating purple and pink beads, I used two beads at a time as they were smaller than I had thought, but I think it makes them stand out more.

I plan to wear these with a pair of purple palazzo pants, or even just my regular blue jeans. But, I also have a pair of red skinny jeans and I think these flip flops will look really funky with these!

 These flowers are the 35 chain rosette and I combined some brown DK wool with gold metallic crochet thread and I think it makes them really pop!

I'll be wearing these with some brown leggings and a knitted tunic that has a kind of Missoni feel to it in red, gold, cream and purple waves.

My Mum and Dad are hopefully bringing back some other colours of flip flops from their trip to Orlando, I hear that Walmart is selling flip flops for 98c!  Think I'm gong to be busy!

xoxox


     

Jewels for the Jubilee!

If you don't live in the UK, then you may not know that this weekend the nation is celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee.  She becomes only the second monarch in history (the first being Queen Victoria) to achieve the milestone of 60 years on the throne.

Everything here has gone a bit RED, WHITE and BLUE crazy.  You name it, it now has a Union Flag on it!!  Now I love a bit of red, white and blue, but when my shampoo bottle is covered in it, I think we need to draw the line!

So I've been working on some non Union Flag inspired pieces of jewellery, no self respecting Queen would ever be seen without a bit of royal bling and quite frankly neither should anyone else!

I read somewhere recently that the value of the British Crown Jewels has been estimated to be around $3.5 billion!! Slightly out of my price range and probably out of yours too, unless of course you happen to be the Queen, in which case, congratulations on 60 years, Your Majesty!

My inspiration this week comes from New York & Company and H&M.  I like big bold jewellery, necklaces that are long and dangly and anything that looks a bit Art Deco.  These all fit the bill in one way or another.

                   Necklaces from NY&Co, H&M and NY&Co

All lovely, but I'm just not a gold person and I'm really not sure that gold and turquoise go together, but that's just me!

Once I decided on these three pieces it was just a matter of rummaging around for beads and jewels that would create something similar but was more me.

And here's what I made

I'm not entirely happy with the black pendant in the charm style necklace, so I'm keeping my eye out for something more in keeping with the rest of the colours.  Any suggestions greatly received!

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.  And if you are having a Jubilee party this weekend, don't eat too many scones with jam and cream!!

xoxox