A Crochet House

This month's issue of Simply Crochet had some brilliant patterns including this crochet shed. I've adapted it slightly to make it more 'house' like by adding an extra row for the roof, a plain colour for the back and I used Rico Cotton Aran to make it a bit thicker. I just need to work on my embroidery skills to make it look a bit prettier with some flowers.

I've been after a house shaped pattern for a while as I have another project in mind - more details to come soon!

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and managed to enjoy the lovely sunshine :)

Betty xXx

Lazy Weekend

This weekend in the UK, the weather actually reached a spring like temperature. Of course this meant that people seemed to multiply everywhere meaning it all became a bit too crowded for my liking.

Sunday is my favourite day of the week. It's a chance to have a lie-in, cuddles with Toby, eat a cooked breakfast and catch up on all the things I haven't been able to do during the week. With the weather being so nice we decided to take a trip to Richmond. I haven't been for years but it was still as nice as I remember, besides the amount of people. We took a stroll down by the river which was lovely and I managed to not wear a coat or jacket for the first time in months! We also had a gander at the lovely shops and my ever-growing shopping list has now expanded. I particularly fell in love with a chair from Oliver Bonas (below), mainly for the colour but priced at over £500 I'm not sure I'll be purchasing it any time soon. Why is it that more expensive items are just perfect?!

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to do any more crochet as Saturday I was overcome with a horrible headache which saw me going to bed at 9:30pm (rock 'n' roll or what?!) and by the time we came back on Sunday I was so tired I just couldn't be bothered to do anything more than lay around and look up things on the iPad.

I'm still working on the car bunting which I will hopefully finish this week. I actually don't have any other projects on at the moment which is lovely, although I have my eye on the Chanel inspired jacket as featured in this month's Simply Crochet. I'm just deciding on a colour - I'm obsessed with yellow at the moment or maybe a nice pale blue.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and enjoyed the sunshine :)

Betty xXx

Brunch Snacks // Mini Pasties

Following on from my first 'Brunch Snacks' recipe I decided last night to try another recipe. When cooking I generally like to just chuck a load of things together and hope for the best - obviously for most things I do follow some kind of recipe but generally I like to mix flavours and see how they turn out.

This week I bought some roll out puff pastry to make a spinach type cheese tart thing and had some left over so thought why not try some mini pasties to take to work for my mid-morning snack. This is super easy and can be adapted to your own taste, adding pretty much any ingredients that will fit. I only managed to make four from the left over pastry but I think with a whole sheet of it you could probably get at least 8 depending on size. You could, of course make bigger pasties too! Here's what I did...

Ingredients:

Roll out puff pastry
Fillings: I used Spinach, Cheddar Cheese, half of one Red Pepper. (Other suggestions: cherry tomato, pesto, broccoli (small), curry potatoes, quorn mince and onion - or real meat of course)
Seasoning: Black Pepper

1. With your pastry rolled out decide how big you want your pasties to be - I just did this by eye and cut a rectangle - it will be folded over so bear in mind what you want to put inside and if you have enough room
2. Arrange your filling in the centre of one side of the pastry. I did a couple of spinach leaves folded, then cheese, a few slices of pepper and then another spinach leaf
3. Fold over the pastry and use a fork to crimp and seal the edges
4. Optional - brush the top of the pastry with some beaten egg (I didn't do this and they came out fine)
5. Pop in a pre-heated oven on 180C/Gas 4 for 20 minutes until slightly golden. 

I've tasted one this morning and they came out yummy! One tip I have is to use a mature cheddar - the stronger the better if that's your thing! It adds a lovely flavour.

Enjoy!

Betty xXx

A Week in WIP's

This week I've been busy working on the many projects I have on the go and trying to finish them up so I can start new ones!! My mind is seriously never lacking on ideas!

               

I'm pleased that I've managed to get a couple of them out the way as well as carrying on with current ones (all links to patterns are listed at the end of this post). I finished a teddy bear baby rattle on Wednesday which was actually really easy to make. The pattern is from One and Two Company - I love all the patterns and they are so easy to follow with detailed pictures. I've used Drops Paris in Dark Beige and Rico Creative Cotton Aran in Light Blue with Drops Paris in Off White for the snout and black for the eyes and nose. This is a gift for a new baby boy as well as some dungarees I'm also attempting to make.

                                

So far the pattern is easy to follow and I've manage to make the bottom half without any problems! I'm using New Fashion DK in Glacia.

                           

I made this cat cushion a while ago for my sister-in-law who's birthday was this weekend. See my previous post for details of the pattern. I used some lovely DK yarn from Sirdar (Hayfield Bonus DK) in Primrose and some Drops Paris in Off White.

                                    

Also mentioned in the same post as linked above I've been working on some car bunting for my Godson's 2nd birthday coming up in March. I've decided to add the letters of his name in there too and I just made up a simple square shape with a point on the end, using this lovely red yarn from James C. Brett in Cotton on DK, shade 15. I'll be purchasing some felt letters and sewing them on at the end.

So I have a couple of things still on the go which will hopefully be finished/near completion by next week!

Betty xXx


Links: Teddy Rattle

Dungarees

Cat Cushion

Car Bunting