miss marie's miscellany

Happy Christmas

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Christmas. Enjoy!

Crochet Christmas countdown - day 1.

What better way to count down to Christmas than with some crochet loveliness? Over the next few days, I'm going to post about all kinds of crochet, things i've made this year and am currently making, links to projects, patterns presents, and as much crochet and craft related things that I can find to talk about.

To start, I thought this cushion cover I made at the start of 2011 deserved a revisit. It is much admired ar Ravelry and it sits in my lounge looking great as we speak. Quite festive colours too methinks!

It's made from African flowers, I just made enough to cover a cushion pad and used the points of the hexagons to act as button loops. A few shiny green buttons later and there you have it.

I love how it turned out:-)

Here's a link to lots more African flower crochet...... it's a real feast for the eyes, enjoy!

 

 

November and making stuff

I thought these photos will be a good way to summarise my November, because there's been a LOT of crcoheting going on this month.

I've made loads of there flower brooches recently; I sold a lot at one craft fair, sold not very many at another and quite a few have gone to good homes through Etsy and with my colleagues too. I thought I should take a photo of them all before they all disappear, and share  these lovely vibrant colours with you!

 

Poppies and roses too :-)

 

There are lots more makings to show you but I'll save them for tomorrow.

Happy Saturday!

Still here, just busy

Hello, it's ages since I popped my head round the door. Time seems to be flying by so fast this year, and I'm busy at work, with not much time for blogging at the moment unfortunately. There's been quite a lot of crochet going on......

Most of these are en route to a craft fair this week, or have already found homes with some lovely customers. It's been great to start selling a few more things - I make them because i like doing so, but it's even better when someone likes and wants to buy my creations. Very heartening!

Anyway, the house is a mess, the garden is covered in leaves and I have 101 things to do! I really should get on...see you soon!

Snapshots from the week that's been

A bit of garden colour -this rose is called 'Rhapsody in Blue'

Something newly made (and now in my Etsy shop)

A lovely gift

I think I have a lodger

The calendulas still look good, both outside

and in

I made this cover for my mobile phone

and some digging in the garden produced this little lot

That's all I had time for!

Flowery laptop case

Remember those bright yellow/orange/pink African flowers I was crocheting a few weeks ago? They have turned into something I'd not thought of making before, but the end product is really lovely and useful too!

I was sitting with my laptop next to the growing pile of these flowers and I had one of those eureka moments. A laptop sleeve is not what I'd had in mind when I started making them in this particular vibrant colour scheme, but once I'd had the idea, it came together really quickly and I think it looks just peachy. I used 21 hexagons and 3 half hexagons to make this cover for my 13 inch MacBook; the 2 corners are full hexagons folded in half to re-inforce the corners and give a little more padding. The buttons were requisitioned from an old cardigan which was headed for the charity shop. I thought they would echo the colour scheme and give it a retro feel.

Here's the back view

Just goes to show, computer accessories don't have to be drab and purely functional, they can be pretty and colourful too!!

 

 

August 2011

Sorry this is a bit late; busy, busy, busy! For August's photo, I've chosen this beautiful calendula flower.....I'm having a bit of a love affair with the colour orange just now, so I couldn't resist this!

Castle in the sun

Working in Edinburgh, I had time for a seat near the castle between rehearsal and concert. It was another of those times when I was glad that I had my camera; the sky was dark and threatening but just for a few minutes the sun shone and lit up the castle.  Lovely!

 

In a pickle

It's been a good year for courgettes but there are only so many of them one can eat before a mountain of them start to take over the kitchen! I've been looking for some different ways to use them up and happened upon this brilliant recipe. It uses up quite a stack of courgettes and the smell is heavenly. I didn't have exactly the same spices as the recipe; I improvised and used cumin seeds, fennel seeds, black onion seeds, mustard seeds, pink peppercorns and chilli flakes.

I'm looking forward to tasting them, once they have matured a little!

Sunset

There've been some beautiful skies in the evenings lately

This was on Sunday evening........one of those times when you're glad you had your camera with you :-)