... 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.