... Birdy

March is a bit of a crazy month for us present wise.  My Mum and Dad have their birthday's 10 day apart and our newest nephew Zach is at the end of March (4 days after my Dad).  When you add that Mother's day is usually in March as well, that is quite a few cards to make and presents to source.  If you are making gifts it becomes a real project production line with more deadlines than a hobby should really have.  But I do love making things for people so I am definitely not complaining!

Here is the latest of my March makes.. Birdy.  Zach is one today and I really wanted to make him something as his two older brothers both have things I have made but he does not yet.  Zach is a super cutie and so is Birdy, I hope they will get on great.

3 birthdays sorted, two Mothers day cards and gifts to go.....

... a Jelly baby

My Dad loves Jelly babies.  As he (like most Men) is a bit tough to buy pressies for he nearly always gets a bag of Jelly babies from me for his birthday or Christmas, it has become a sort of family tradition.

I had no idea what else to get him this year and was bemoaning how hard it is to make things for him - I always feel a bit guilty that I make my Mum loads of stuff and don't make him anything apart from his card.  Thing is, he is not really a crochet basket or lavender bag kind of man!

I am experimenting with creating patterns for small figures at the moment and realised my pattern experimentations could be be made into a Jelly baby - here it is.  I am particularly pleased as it is another step away from needing to rely on the patterns of others and anyways being able to make your own up is much more fun!  It might not be as tasty as the real thing and might be a bit of  a weird pressie for a man in his seventies.  But hey, I'm a bit weird.

... crocheted baskets

There are some things you can make out of crochet and some you can't.  Somehow some things just look super cheesy while some look super cool.  I decided that crocheted baskets fell into the good catagory and decided to have a go.  These one's were made for my Mum's birthday.  She seemed very pleased with them when I spoke to her this evening so it seems like I made the right call.

For examples of things that should never have been bought into this world via the crochet hook check out one of my favourite blogs ever - What Not to Crochet - http://whatnottocrochet.wordpress.com/

For examples of things that should have been - check out the rest of my blog!

... Admiral Ackbar

A friend asked me to make him an Admiral Ackbar. I don't think he really thought I would. But I did!

... orange cushion covers

As previously discussed I am a shocker for starting things and then not finishing them for ages. I have sort of accepted this as part of my 'creative flow' but never the less this lovely pair of orange cushion covers really do take the biscuit. I started these a long long time ago. Like so long ago I had just started writing this blog. The problem with this philosophy is that if I had finished them earlier I would have been enjoying them for longer. Anyway as it is I have them now and absolutely LOVE them.

They are made from a really chunky wool which was lovely to work with and I loved making them. What I did not love as much was making the orange fabric cushion covers to sew them to. I had to dye the fabric as I could not get any the right colour but worst all they have zips in. Zips are my nemesis (well in truth they vie with buttonholes for that particular honour) and these were no exception. Seriously I am glad you cannot see them and more importantly I am glad my Mum has not seen them - she was a needlework teacher (hence my love of all things sewing and craft) and she would seriously doubt me if she saw the state of them. Mental note - hide cushions from Mum next time she comes over!

...Croc Socks

Fact #1 - Dan is very attached to his Crocs.
Fact #2 - Dan gets cold feet.

These two pieces of fact are indeed interrelated. Dan's Crocs make a big difference to how cold his feet get and so he wears them ALL the time. However the weather has been super cold recently and we have floorboards so frostbite on the toes is a real possibility at this time of year even with Crocs!

I saw this clever idea of making wooly liners for Crocs on my favourite crochet pattern site Ravelry and putting all the above facts together decided this would be a good Christmas pressie for Dan. Little did I realise my one key mistake was ignoring fact #1. Dan never takes his Crocs off unless he is in bed or at work and as I am in bed and at work at the same time getting hold of his crocs to measure them and check to see if the Croc Socks fitted was a bit of a nightmare. Luckily (well sort of) I was off work poorly and was able to get my hands on them while he was at work.

These were one of my closest calls as last minute Christmas gifts go - they were finished at about 5pm on Christmas Eve!!

... cat toys

These nifty little things are cat toys made from jute string and laced with catnip a herb which the packet tells me will drive cats wild. I am not sure if the friend I made these for wants her cats driving wild but that is what she is facing!

This is both the first post of the new year and the first post of my Christmas makes. I wanted to make a sort of new years resolution (well I sort of made it to myself in November, making it a new birthday year resolution I suppose) that I would try to post things as I finish them, I got a bit behind in 2010 and did some things late and didn't get round to posting some things at all.

Anyways armed with my resolution I ran into the obstacle of Christmas where actually you can't post anything you finish as it would be a bit of a giveaway. To make matters worse the weather then scuppered a variety of plans and as a result some people don't have their presents yet. Present and blogging chaos! My well meaning aim of making my blogging life simpler has gone down the pan and I am not sure I will be back on track until the end of January ........ oh well, I was never much good a resolutions anyway.

... Bebe the giraffe

Bebe the beautiful giraffe was made for a little girl who outstrips Bebe in the cute stakes by a mile and Bebe thinks she is pretty damned cute! She is the sister of Gilbert the giraffe who some of you may remember from last year - check out this post if you haven't met him before - http://debbiemade.blogspot.com/2009/12/gilbert-giraffe.html

I know, I know, giraffes are not really blue and pink but if small children love them all the more for it who are we to argue?

... a pair of cups

These little beauties were made for a friend who has wanted a crocheted tea service for ages. I love making things for other people and am especially lucky to have friends who really appreciate it when I make them things - happy all round!


There is a possibility the cups might get added to soon but any more information than that and I would be giving too much away this near to Christmas.......

... a beach bag

This is one of things I aluded to that I made over the summer and didn't get round to blogging. I think I felt like blogging something as I have just finished a project but can't post it anywhere as it is a present for a friend and therefore meant to be a surprise.

This bag was made to take all of our stuff to the beach as we basked in the glorious sunshine on our hols this year. As we went to North Wales for a week it did not as much sunny beachy laziness as it might in warmer climes but it did get to see some beautiful beaches and spectacular scenary. It was really useful - it is huge!

This was another reclaimed project - red fabric from an old sofa cover, calico lining donated to me by someone, cotton came free with the machine, the strap and metal bits come from an old belt and the binding bits left over from another project. So about as free as it gets. Super bargain!