A Bit of This and That...

Hello dear friends!!

Thank you all so much for your responses to my Kids Zone idea. I'm VERY excited about it as I have an absolute stash of crafts and ideas to share and it will be so good to get them out of the dusty cupboard and into the bright light of day!!!

A bit of a mixed bag today as I haven't got a new finished bits to show you but I have got lots of 'this and that' to share....

Firstly, you HAVE to go and have a look at this.

Is it not the most exquisite blanket ever? When I first saw it I actually gasped! That edging is so delicate and gorgeous and antique...... Please pop over to Coco Rose Diaries and see for yourself. I defy you not to fall in love.....

Secondly, I was wandering through Matt and Dennis' blog and I saw this ripple blanket that Dennis made.

I've seen so many ripples in so many colour variations that I thought I'd seen it all but this REALLY appeals to me. Single colour but worked through the backloops so the ripples stand out. And that grey...gorgeous!

And finally for those gardeners and foodies among you, please pop over to Mark's Veg Plot if you have a moment. His blog is FULL of all things growing and cooking and his photos are AMAZING! His latest post is entitled Goulash and has this pic -

- it made me so hungry that I'm off to get a piece of chocolate cake from a nearby coffee shop.......

Til soon.

xxx

Launch of Kidszone - Quick & Easy Easter Egg Hunt Bag!!!

Having been a preschool teacher for many years, I've accumulated masses of files, books and interesting articles all about children! I was wading my way through it all the other day when I suddenly realised that my blog would be the perfect place to share it all!!!  Whilst most of these posts will be aimed at children aged 3-5, I'm sure that many of them can be 'adjusted' for children either older or younger.

Good idea? Bad idea? Waste of time? What do YOU think????  Please let me know your thoughts......

I thought for my first Kidszone post I would do something crafty (and by that I mean something to make, not something sneaky or sly...) and something Eastery (is there such a word?).  But what to post? As usual in times of dilemma the children in my class came to my rescue. This week we've been discussing all things Easter and today we made Easter Egg Hunt Bags for the very exciting Easter Egg Hunt we're holding tomorrow morning!! Needless to say, as far as the children are concerned this is the MOST thrilling thing since Christmas and there was much discussion in my classroom as to whether the Easter Bunny comes down the chimney like Santa or whether  he/she (the sex was never identified) pops out of the ground like a normal bunny.....!

Whilst this terribly important and animated discussion took place, we made the bags as follows......

First they coloured in bunny faces. This bunny face is in fact on white paper (not grey)....I'm not too sure what my camera was thinking of but I'm sure you get the idea......

Then I cut out the faces and the children stuck them onto smallish brown paper bags -

Then they added cardboard handles -

And there you have it, a gorgeous Easter Egg Hunt Bag absolutely and totally ready to be filled with masses and masses of lovely chocolate........

I really hope you liked my first Kidszone post. Do you think I should do some more or should I quit whilst I'm ahead.....

Til soon.

x

Baby Blanket No 1......

Hello!!!! Thanks for stopping by. Firstly, I want to say a HUGE thank you for all your heartwarming comments about our recent loss..... It really made it much easier to get through knowing that other people were with us in spirit and thinking of us..... Thank you again.....

It's been a bit of a mad week for me. I took my class of 12 three year olds to a local dairy this week for a school trip. We saw how yoghurt is made and how milk is put into bottles and cartons. Lots of big machines, lots of noise and then lots of yoghurt afterwards!!! They had a ball and thought the funniest thing was that we all had to wear hair nets inside the factory! I must have looked very comical as every time one of them looked at me, they broke out into riotous giggles!!! I aim to please......

I had both sets of parent/teacher interviews for my boys this week too as well as having parent/teacher interviews with the parents of the children in my class. It's very strange to have one meeting where I'm the teacher closely followed by another meeting where I'm the parent. I kept forgetting who I was, where I was and why I was there!!!!

On other subject all together, there is obviously "something in the water" in this area at the moment. Three friends have recently told me they are expecting and another two friends are due pretty soon (one this week and one in July)!

One of them asked me to make her a baby blanket which I've done. She loves all things vintage so it was either going to be granny squares or granny clusters. I opted for the clusters. What do you think?

I'm pretty pleased with how it came out. She wanted something she could keep in the car, either to put over baby in the car seat or to use on the grass to put baby on when she's out and about! As you can see, I haven't yet blocked it but hopefully it will even out a bit when I do....!

I'll wash and block it this week and then post a few more pictures to see the difference! I'm always amazed at how much better things look when they've been blocked. I did, however, hang it on my washing line just for some eye candy......

Doesn't it look fab??? There's nothing like a bit of colourful crochet to make me smile... I hung it on the line yesterday morning and went inside to make the boys lunch and when I came back out and saw it hanging there, it gave me that warm fuzzy feeling in my stomach...do you know the one I mean???

As you can see, I did the centre part in simple rows of granny clusters. Once I reached the length I wanted I bound off then rejoined the yarn to the sides and worked around the rectangle. I finished off with two rows of trebles and then Lucy's border found here. I love blankets with borders. It really does finish them off so well.

So, at least one project is finished. Have 3 WIPs waiting to be completed but we break school on Friday for 3 weeks and I intend spending my holiday time crocheting and gardening.... YAY!  I love the holidays.....

Til soon...

xxx

Not My Greatest Week....

Hi there....
This is very short and sweet today as I've had a really horrid week. My Grandfather passed away very suddenly and I've travelled to Johannesburg and back this week for the funeral. Very sad and very emotional. As a result I haven't managed to put together a post so huge apologies......
Please be patient - normal service will resume shortly.
xxx

I need your help and cows in the field......

Hello my friends!!! I can't tell you how much I'm missing my Blogland friends and being able to blog at a moment's notice when the muse strikes!!! It's just not the same blogging once a week.....

As my blog title suggests, I need some of your creative advice as I have a bit of a dilemma. I need to buy new bed linen and I've decided to go for plain white as our bedroom is quite small and one wall is a deep blue which is quite overpowering. To tone down the white bedding I thought I would crochet a throw and have found three that I like. My problem is that I can't decide which one to base my pattern on so I need your help........

The first is this one.

I like the simplicity of this. I would probably make it in a dusty blue/grey colour but would keep it as one colour as this one is. My DH is not into 'girlie' things at all so I really don't want to go down the colourful flowery blanket route. Whilst such blankets are totally gorgeous, I know it would turn DH's stomach if he had to walk into our bedroom and see one on the bed!!! However, the above blanket seemed quite masculine to me and wouldn't offend DH which has got to be a big plus! The one thing that worries me a little is that will I get bored working in one colour with one pattern for such a large project? Mmmmm.....

The second one I found is this.

I know it's a bit tricky to see the detail here but I think it's a basic straight stripe in trebles. Again I could keep the colours muted on the 'dusty' side of the colour spectrum with maybe a blue/grey border to tie in with the wall? What do you think? I wouldn't get bored with this and it looks pretty cool just folded at the end of the bed. A definite possibility methinks.

The third choice is this and I have to say I really like this. I've taken a photo of a pic in a magazine and there is no pattern that I can find on the internet so I'll have to wing it and make it up as I go along. I'd use very similar colours to the pic but maybe omit the pink and tone down the red a little. I'd also like to get a blue tone involved somewhere........

So, those are my choices. What do you think? Which one would you go for and why?

Can't wait to hear your views.

On a more artistic front, I took these pics the other morning from my dining room. It was 7am and the mist was just clearing in the valley .....

And slowly as the mist cleared, I saw these coming back from milking......

There are days when I'm very happy to live in the country.......

Til soon.

xxxx