Ummm....Happy New Year! Plus Secret Santa goodies

Hello lovely blog readers. I have been a very bad blogger and missed January entirely. Hope you all had a great Christmas and New Year and January.  I accidentally started 2011 by deleting my last post of 2010. Whoops! Blame it on the seasonal lurgy.

Due to the affore mentioned lurgy and bit of mojo loss and internet loss due to broken router, I took a little break from listing daily on Folksy and hid under a rock for a bit. Feeling much better now though and have rejoined the madness of the Valentinos!

Also, back in Decemeber, I joined in with Secret Santa over on Crafteroo. I was a bit rushed mid December so forgot to photograph what I sent to Claire but she blogged here if you'd like to see.

I was very lucky to have Jane of Hooked Yarn as my Secret Santa. Look at all the wonderful goodies she sent me!

The scarflet and mitts are very warm and cosy, plus the flower is detachable so I can wear it in the summer too. Jane also sent me some cute little hands, feet and face in an old tin along with some old sewing snaps. She also sent me some tumbled gemstones and some chocolate. And look at the cute card. Its based on a drawing her son did a few years ago. So cute!! Thank you so much Jane. Love all the bits and pieces and the supplies will be put to good use. The chocolate already has been ;op

Carmen

A while back Caroline posted a dragon on her blog. I was blown away and needed to make one myself. This was her second dragon using this free pattern by Marjorie Jones. Unfortunately I couldn't crochet then but now I can a bit so for thought I'd have a go as my Thursday night project on crafteroo. I'm usually too busy with school stuff to get involved but the snow days this week enabled me to take part for the first time.

Things were going great...but then...oh no...I ran out of yarn!! I couldn't finish her last night. Looking through my yarn stash this morning, I found some more but it wasn't quite the right shade. So I treated last nights efforts as practice and started again.

Let me present to you, Carmen. She was made with cheap double knit acrylic yarn and a 4mm crochet hook. Like Caroline, I added wings from the cthulhu from Christen Haden's Creepy Cute Crochet. I omitted the spikes as I liked her without them.

Crafteroo Secret Santa swap

Finally got round to posting this! The wonderful Vonnie from over on crafteroo (her blog) organised a Secret Santa swap for us all. It was great fun to be a part of- lots of second guessing myself and much excitment when my parcel arrived (and I was vey good- I waited until Christmas day to open it).

Abbi from Edwina.Simone sent me this gorgeously unusual necklace and some choccy pennies (they aren't in the photo as they didn't last long enough to be photographed!)

Its fantastic! So different and exactly my colours. Thank you, thank you, thank you Abbi!! xxx

I sent a pressy to Eileen (her blog). Her main pressy was a pair of silver and crystal earrings.

I made them from 2mm wire and used a jig to make the shape. They're quite big so not for everyday use. Hope she liked them. I also sent her some choc and fizzing lavender bath melts roughly based on this tutorial. (One of many great tutorials to be found on this site) Thanks again Vonnie for organising this.

My first post!!

Hello world!!

I have been inspired to start a blog by the wonderful folks from crafter...oo (great forum for all kinds of craft inspiration; problem solving; chitter chatter; etc.)

The idea is that I will update every now and then with my crafting projects; rants/ponderings about life; cool stuff I find...possibly other stuff....I'll find out as I go I suppose.

Was going to make my blog all pretty before making my first post but wanted to tell you all about what I found just now. Had nipped out of the house to feed a friend's cats and pick up some milk. In the shop I found "The Art of Crochet" issue 1. Its one of those ringbinder collecty thingys. I have been meaning to learn more than a chain stitch for years and have been recently inspired by TheBijouDragon on crafteroo (see post) who has very recently started. It must have been a sign!! 99p for the first issue which includes 2 little balls of 'wool'; a 4mm hook; a dvd; some basics and some patterns.

I don't know if I'll bother subscribing but love the cheap first issue!