Blanket

I'd been wanting to learn how to crochet for ages, and in particular I'd been wanting to make my own blanket. I'm so pleased that I managed to learn how to do it! I'd been trying to teach myself for ages but never quite grasped it, then last year I worked with a girl called Sarah who crocheted and she kindly taught me.

It was really easy to make, so simple and worked up quickly. I didn't use any particular online instructions, but you can find them easily by a quick google! I made it pink to go in my spare room/office.



It's not massive, just a lap blanket and it was done up until a few days ago, when I decided to add a couple more rounds to it to make it slightly bigger. But I love it and I'm excited to snugglee up under it this winter.



I've already crocheted a couple more things too - a tiny bobble hat for an egg and one baby shoe!

Fat Ball Bird Feeders

Now that October is here, the cold weather is starting to draw in, the garden is winding down (although I still have some kale and other bits to continue to feed myself with!), and we start spending more time indoors again. One thing I love to do in the winter is to make fat ball feeders for the bird, and hang them around my garden. I'm sure the birds love them too! This is a great little project to do with little ones as well, as if you have the patience you don't even need to melt the fat, you can just soften it by beating it with a wooden spoon and stirring the ingrdients in. They're absolutely so easy to make



You will need:

Block of lard or solid vegetable oil

Whatever else you have on hand! Raisins, coconut, nuts, seeds, oats, biscuit or cracker crumbs, bacon rind

Netting/mesh

Wool or string

Method:

Gather your ingredients for the fat ball, if using biscuit or cracker crumbs either bash them by hand or add them to a food processor and process until crumbs

Melt the lard/vegetable oil until it is a liquid (or soften it by beating with a wooden spoon), leave to cool slightly

Add the other ingredients. I usually make these when I have some stale crackers or baking, or old cheap biscuits that aren't being eaten. I add this first and stir together, then add in the other ingredients a bit at a time. You don't want the mixture to be too dry - it needs to stick together to form the balls.

If you melted the oil, let it cool until almost set. If not, you can start straight away. Using your hands (or if you don't want to get them dirty an ice cream scoop works well) form balls with the mixture about the size of golf balls. Transfer to a piece of kitchen roll or baking paper and let cool until completely set.

Cut squares out of the netting/mesh and wrap a ball in the centre of each one. I used pea and bean mesh that I bought in the summer to grow my plants up. If you don't have any, using a needle you can thread wool or string through the centre of the balls whilst still soft and hang them up this way.

Hang them around the garden, then watch the birds come!

A big project

Yesterday I was overcome with an urge. An urge to get started on my garden! Our garden needs a lot of work doing to it before it can be as lovely as I imagine it, and yesterday was the day I got to work. I hired a skip and began getting rid of all the old flags and bricks that were cluttering it up. It felt so good to get my teeth into a project, and I've already cleared quite a lot!

I dug up one of the beds which had become overrun by weeds, and imagine my delight when I dug up about a dozen of these little beauties:



Pasnips! Rather suprising too, as I haven't planted any parsnips since we first bought the house - three years ago!

I think my project to turn my garden into something beautiful is going to be hard, but it will be so worth it in the end. Mind you, it probably wouldn't be quite so hard if I didn't try to rescue every last ladybird that I saw!

'Joy' Christmas Gift Tags

So as promised, here are the second lot of Christmas gift cards. You can see how to make the glitter star gift tags here.



You will need:

Card
Pencil
Scissors
PVA glue
Glitter - either to match or contrast with your card
Ruler
Hole punch
Sheet of paper

Method:

1. Divide your piece of card up into squares or rectangles. Size is up to you - the one in this picture is about 2 inches square, but I made some smaller ones too.
2. Cut out using pinking shears - this will give you a nice fancy edge but if you don't have them, don't worry, regular scissors will be fine too!
3. Using a hole punch, punch a hole in one of the corners of your shape - this is for threading the ribbon through.
4. The glue I used had a thin nozzle for the glue to come out of, otherwise using a paintbrush, write the word "joy" on your square.
5. Holding the square over the sheet of paper, tip glitter all over the glue word. Make sure that it's completely covered.
6. Leave your square on the piece of paper to dry.
7. Repeat for all remaining squares. You could try different words too, I made some which said "snow" and "noel"
8. When tags are dry (I left mine in a warm room overnight to make sure they were completely dry), tap each tag over the paper on the surface to get rid of any excess glitter. Move all tags to the side.
9. Carefully tip any glitter on the paper back into the tube or container it came from.
10. Write on the back of them, and use them to decorate your gifts!

Handmade Christmas Gift Tags

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in our little house! The tree is up (which by the way, Izzy is obsessed with. If she's not laying in front of it, she's snuggling up under it!) and everything is officially in full swing.



For once, I actually have all Adam's presents sorted. I still have a couple of bits to get him, but I actually know what I'm getting. That in itself is a little Christmas miracle - normally I have absolutely no idea, that boy is impossible to buy for!

Shopping for Christmas presents then wrapping them up is easily one of my favourite things about Christmas. I love to give gifts, especially when you can tell the person you've got them for really loves it! And I like to try and make my gifts look nice too, especially since I have them sitting under my tree for the entire month. This month, I thought it would be really nice to make my own gift tags for the presents. It was so easy, and I enjoyed doing it so much, I thought I'd share how I did them.







You will need:

Card
Pencil
Scissors
PVA glue
Glitter to match card
Star template or stencil
Hole punch
Sheet of paper

Method:

1. I used a star shaped cookie cutter, and drew around this onto some red card.
2. Cut out the stars.
3. Using a hole punch, punch a hole in one of the corners of the star. We'll use this to thread the ribbon through later.
4. Spread glue thinly and evenly over one of your cardboard stars.
5. Holding the star over the sheet of paper, tip glitter all over the star on the side that you've just spread glue onto. Make sure that it's completely covered.
6. Leave your star on the piece of paper to dry.
7. Repeat for all remaining stars.
8. When stars are dry (I left mine in a warm room overnight to make sure they were completely dry), tap each star over the paper on the surface to get rid of any excess glitter. Move all stars to the side.
9. Carefully tip any glitter on the paper back into the tube or container it came from.
10. Write on the back of them, and use them to decorate your gifts!

Note: After drying, I noticed my stars were a little bit bent in the middle. To fix this, I just laid the stars on my desk, and put a heavy book over them. After a couple of hours, they were perfectly flat again!

Check back on Monday for the how-to for the 'Joy' Christmas tags that I made! Hope you have a wonderful weekend.