Baby Goodness

My very good friend Fiona had a little baby boy nearly three weeks ago. Congratulations!!! He is a very gorgeous and quiet little boy.

I have been crocheting a blanket for weeks now


and luckily got it finished just in time for my first visit. But I knew I also wanted to make her a bag. So I spent nearly three days solid a couple of weeks ago on the sewing machine and again got it finished just in time.



The pattern is from Anna Maria Horner's new book, which I can only recommend for anybody who either just had a baby, is expecting one or likes to give handmade presents rather than mass produced ones. I have been making blankets now as presents for over a year and can hardly imagine ever buying a baby present again. The book has lovely patterns for different things and I will certainly make some of them for our own little baby.
There is also a changing mat for the bag.


I filled the bag with a few goodies:



My favourite is the book. It helped me a lot through difficult times in Lucy's first 18 months. The book describes different phases of mental development of children and why they can be a bit more difficult than usual in those times.

This was my last baby present. From now on its all for our own little one. I still have until November, which isn't really that long I guess.


P.S: I have been writing on this post for a week now I think. So, my apologies if it doesn't flow, but I was having difficulties concentrating on it. I am feeling like that a lot lately: restless and bored. Must be the fact that I am soon entering my third trimester and its all coming to an end...

Oh my.....I cannot believe that it has been nearly two months since my last post. how bad am I?

Life is crazy at the moment. I will not pretend that I find it all easy going, looking after a toddler, who is in her terrible twos, while being pregnant and getting heavier. Today I think I started to waddle....yes, we are at that stage now. Any lady out there, who has been pregnant or is pregnant at the moment will understand what I am talking about. Your legs feel heavy and your whole gravity shifts to the front. You are not quite as mobile anymore and therefore have to walk like a freaking duck. But hey, it's all good.

On Monday ware having our big 20 week scan, where they check all the organs and where we can potentially find out if we are having a girl or a boy. I am really excited and cannot wait. We found out with Lucy, too. I know there are a lot of people out there who will say say love the surprise. But hey, it's a 50/50 chance. No BIG surprises there. You are either having a girl or a boy, right? Anyway I am one of the curious, nosy ones who has to find out ;)

Lots of people seem to be having babies in this part of the world. Two friends of mine, whom I met when Lucy was a little baby, just had their second children (for one of them I made the blanket above). My very dear friend Fiona is due at the end of the month (any time now really) with her second baby (how exciting). And another girl I know found out she is pregnant a few weeks after I found out about my pregnancy. Is it in other parts of the world like this, too at the moment?

So, anyway, I have been tired a lot and feeling nauseous, which means I have not been up for much crafting lately. But at the moment I am making another blanket, which I will not be able to show you until the person has received it as she snoops around here from time to time ;) and I will be doing some sewing soon also, which again I will be showing you a little later.

The only other thing I wanna say is: if anybody out there has any experience with a Phil and Teds tandem buggy please let me know how you got on. Thanks a million and I hope you are all well. Have a nice weekend

Birthday Celebrations and the finished blanket

On Monday, the 22nd February 2010, my little baby girl Lucy turn 2. Very emotional times, I have to say. She is now officialy not a baby anymore (even though she seems to think she is ;) she calls herself baby all the time at the moment, just so she gets a cuddle), but a little bouncy toddler. funnily I even treat her differently now, let her do more and give her more little tasks. She really enjoys that. I even style her hair differently now, which makes her look more like a proper little girl. So cute.

We had two parties. One, on Sunday, for my husbands parents and sisters, and one on Monday, for children. Both were nice in their own special way. Lucy loved the attention, the presents and most importantly, the cake. Well, one in particular: the chocolate cake.


It is her favourite cake in the whole world. She ate three pieces on monday ;) And being her birthday, I didn't deny her any cake. I might share the recipie later with you, if you are interested. It is the simplest cake ever and has no flour in it. Perfect for people with a gluten allergy.

I also made a German strawberry gateaux with a white chocolate and joghurt mousse. It was sooo yummy.



The children party was more enjoyable from the aspect that I could decorate the table a little bit more.




I made little individual bug cakes in the shape of a butterfly,


a bee,


a dragonfly


and a lady bird


for the children, with each having a windmill stuck in the middle of it.

The main birthday cake was a butterfly. I used the same mould last year and think it might turn into a bit of a tradition :)


Our present to Lucy was, if you remember, the den under the stairs. Well, the space under the stairs is still looking the same as the last time I showed you. For one did I just about manage to finish the blanket, but we also have tilers in the house this week and she wouldn't have been able to use it any way. I decided that it has to be a slower job instead of rushing and pressurising myself. So, I thought I would share the finished product of the blanket with you.




Lucy also got a mini table from Ikea with two matching chairs, which was the biggest hit ever.

Granny Square Crochet

I have decided to make a granny square blanket for Lucy. In the spirit of the colour scheme I am useing for her birthday i am sticking to lime green, orange, purple and cream. I just love those colours at the moment and it makes me happy working with them.

My dear online friend Carina was so kind to get me the beautiful yarn she is using from Denmark. This is the nicest yarn. It is so soft, easy to work with and has these amazingly vibrant colours.


The only thing that scares me now is the amount of squares I have to make in comparison to the time I have left. I have started on Monday and have made so far eight squares. But I only have until the 22nd of February. Ah well, I have always been a positive thinker ;)

Happy New Year! and wintery past times.

First of all: A Happy New Year to all of you!!!

I have been so busy in the past few months that this little blog of mine had to come last on the long list of making presents, preparing the house for several visitors and first of all of course, taking care of my sweet baby Lucy. Not so much a baby anymore, she will be turning two next month. And I will be boring you with all the birthday preparations as I am making her present myself. But more about that the next time


This is the way Northern Ireland looked yesterday. Well, at least my part of the country. There was not only a lot of snow (if you consider that we nearly never have snow), but also a loooot of fog. This is nothing unusual, but the combination of snow and fog made everything look really eerie and quiet. As if the world is wrapped in cotton wool. There were hardly any cars on the roads and I think not many people left their home. Unless they had to work of course.

This kind of weather calls for lots of wintery indoor activities. So, this is what we have been up to yesterday:


You gotta have a fire to keep you warm.


Lucy was entertaining herself with this lovely wooden jigsaw/puzzle.


And I was finishing off a granny blanket for friend's new baby girl.

The Tale of Lucy and the Electric Rainbow Blanket

There once was a little girl, who was so happy and kind that every person that saw her fell in love with her. She was full of energy and vibrant and her aura shone in all the colours of the rainbow. Very rarely was this little girl in an unpleasant mood, instead she took it upon herself to make everybody else in this world happy as well.
One day a fairy watched the little girl as she went shopping with her mother. So many people turned their heads and looked at the girl, smiling to themselves, that the fairy knew there was something special about her. She decided to watch her a little bit longer. Soon she was also under the spell that the cheerfulness of the girl cast on everybody and she decided to create something that would catch the many vibrant colours of the girl's aura so that every child that enters this world will be surrounded by the happiness and kindness of this special little girl. So she made the Electric Rainbow Blanket....



Well, the girl really exists. She is my little baby Lucy, who is very special indeed. The blanket also really exists and is created (pattern and colour sequence) by the fabulous Carina, who in my opinion has created a blanket so cheerful, every baby should have one.







I made this blanket as a trial, as Carina wanted to see how easy to understand the pattern and instructions are. as a newbie at crochet I found it very easy. It was a real pleasure and joy to work with these fantastic vibrant colours and cheered me up every time i saw them. It took 10 days to complete and Lucy is now the proud owner of a real Electric Rainbow Blanket.



Anybody who is interested in the pattern should contact Carina or else you can buy similar blankets on her Artfire shop. It is really worth it!

Happy crocheting and my love for greens...

So, I have started the Rainbow Blanket by Carina yesterday evening and I have to say I am very pleased with myself. I have already done one whole round of the colour sequence and started on the next round. This means of course (so far) that Carina's pattern is very easy to read and understand, but to me it also shows that my crocheting skills are getting better and better. It didn't take me very long to get the hang of the granny square. I know it is very simple but I am a complete crochet beginner.





I just love the colours. They cheer me up. especially the lime green. Green is my favourite colour for many years now and I could just surround myself with it at all times. But all kind of olive and lime greens are the best. They make me happy. I would love to own lots of that yarn. I guess I have to keep an eye out for something similar in Germany the next time I am going over ;)

The one really good thing about crocheting is that it started to give me ideas of things that I could crochet without using a pattern or somebody else's ideas. This means essentially that I can sell these things in my etsy shop that is all set up but unfortunately very empty. Fingers crossed I will get started on these ideas after finishing the Rainbow Blanket.

A very colourful treat...

I got a very exciting parcel last week. It arrived on wednesday, even though I only expected it to get here at the end of the week. It came from a person that quite inspires me lately in the crocheting department. She is a very talented lady: the lovely Carina.



The envelope was filled with lots of bright coloured yarn and a pattern for her famous Electric Rainbow Granny Square Blanket, as I agreed to 'test' the pattern for her.



I love the colours Carina uses and when she mentioned on her blog that she was thinking of selling patterns and the matching yarn, I literally jumped at the opportunity. I didn't know which pattern it would be but I have to say I was very pleased to see it was the Rainbow Blanket. This will be perfect for Lucy's room.

Carina was ill with the flue and therefore unable to send everything out straight away, which I did not mind of course. But she sent me also a little something for the delay and I can now say that I am the proud owner of an original embroidered bookmark by Carina. Thank you very much. I will honour it. :0)

Baby Blanket

I had finally finished all the squares for the blanket yesterday. 36 squares!!! About time, too as we wanted to go and visit the new baby today.



The next stage was the sewing together of all the squares. That was quite a big job as you can imagine with 36 squares. It took me several hours and I think I was not aware of just how long it would take.



And this was the result of probably 5 hours work:





Lucy would not leave me alone when I tried to take a photograph of the blanket in one piece. But at least this gives an idea of the size of the blanket ;)

The next step then was to crochet the edge, which according to the pattern was meant to be all three colors. So you crochet on edge of tr crochet around the blanket in one colour then the same in the second colour and the same again in the third colour.



The cream edge took me about 4 hours as (of course) my crochet hook broke (it was made of wood and the hook part just snapped off) and I had to rush into town to buy a new one, also had to put Lucy to sleep, who then only slept for 50 minutes and then had to sit on my knee while I tried to crochet....*gasp for air*....so I decided I couldn't finishe the whole edgeing and that it would look nice also with just the cream. Nice and simple, right?





Weeelll...like I said: we were gonna visit the new baby today! But as usual my husband had to work longer than planed. he is a vegetable grower and the orders were just enormous today....sooo, we never made it to see the baby. All the hard work and long hours for nothing....but I guess I can finish the edge now properly. I also have a new project to start and therefore it is good that I don't have much work left on the blanket.

My new passion

A few months ago I developed a real crush on crochet. I secretly 9I guess everybody will know now) blame my sister-in-law as she told me she was gonna join a crochet class. I was just in the process of trying to learn to knit....well I had to face the truth: it was just not gonna happen. So I gave crochet a try and fell head over heels in love. I am still a beginner I would say but I have always been a quick learner.

Friends of ours were expecting a baby at the end of May and I had been really looking forward to this baby as this was the last friend of my husbands who did not have any children yet. Rather exciting and certainly an occasion to give something handmade rather than the ty[ical baby clothes or the 20th cuddly toy. So I decided to crochet a baby blanket!!! It is not quite finished yet as I will still need another 9 squares and then sew it together and give it a nice border but this is the result so far:



This is what it will look like together: