Miss Aine

I had a very productive day today. C brought Smem to see his parents this morning so I had about 3 hours at home alone - woo hoo! I made up a toile for my bridesmaid dress from an old sheet. It's from an old pattern of my mother's. It's quite simple but I think it will be nice - in navy, with a ribbon trim, or a sash or some beading or something to lift it. I just have to try it on the two girls now and see how I have to adjust it to fit them. As a family we've had a good two days - lots of family bonding time. Smem is turning into a real chatterbox. She is just chattering away at complete goobledegook all day long. She's so sweet cause it sounds like its really important, but we have no idea what she's on about. Here's a picture of her having kisses with her dad, And a picture of her new hairdo!

Oh my gosh, what a week. Smem has been suffering pretty bad with her teeth and just been plain frustated that she can't move around as much as she'd like so each day has been pretty tough. The high point was on Wednesday afternoon with her face down in her cot screaming and kicking her legs, and me downstairs crying on the couch - I just couldn't do anything for her. Since then its been better though. She's been sleeping right through every night so that's a big plus! There has been some crafting done but no FOs and I haven't taken pictures of work in progress. So instead, here is a picture of the lovely yoghurt and blueberry muffins I made on Tuesday. They were really nice!

Sophie's pattern is now available for sale in my Etsy store .

I intended to post last night but our stupid internet connection kept crashings - stupid internet!. Yesterday, and today for that matter, I was really tired so I didn't really do much crafting. I did make these two little felt flower ornaments - although they look more like stars! Today, not much crafting again. Myself and Smem went to the library in the morning and then shopping in the afternoon. My replacement engagement ring finally arrived so I got to pick it up (the original was way to big). Its lovely and shiny!

I was going to post about how I connected with my domestic goddess and baked muffins this morning but as it is my 100th post I thought I would share a pattern with my readers. This is Piggywig. I only started him this afternoon so he is a super quick knit if you needed a present in a hurry. He's about 12cm tall. You'll need straight 2.75mm needles, a darning needle, some polyester stuffing and oddments of yarn in pink, blue, green, cream and black. Gauge is not too important - I knit at about 9sts:10rows:1 inch - just make sure that your knitting is nice and tight so the stuffing doesn't show through. Body Using pink, cast on 30 sts. Mark the centre of the cast on sts. P 1 row. Next row: Inc K-wise into every st - 60 sts. Beginning with a P row, st-st 7 rows. Next row: (K2, K2tog) to end - 45 sts. P 1 row. Break off pink and join on blue. Beginning with a K row, st-st 10 rows. Mark the centre of the last blue row. Break off blue and join on green and cream. Work 10 rows...

I was feeling uninspired to create new stuff last night so I decided to finish this cardie, which I had posted about before. My mam got me the wool and pattern for Christmas. It was pretty quick and easy to do - baby clothes are the best! Smem looks quite cute in it. She's in an odd combination of every shade of pink today!

I've been listening to Jack Johnson the last few days. I have to say, the state of the world doesn't seem to good at the moment. I actually cried watching the news yesterday evening when I heard about the creche incident in Belguim. To think of those women trying to protect the babies - it broke my heart. However, there is some good out there, even if on a much smaller and insignificant scale. I bought lace on eBay to make my wedding dress. The seller was really nice and gave me the name of her shop in Etsy. While I checked it out, she also took a look at mine - and then send me a message to say it looked really nice and congrats on all the sales. Gina at FabricConnection . She really didn't have to do that, but it made my day! Can't really comment on most of my crafting at the moment as I'm going to submit some pieces to one or two magazines. What I can show are the few ATC's that I finished yesterday - 'Sue with Present'.

If I may say so myself (LOL!!) Smem very kindly let me try on two dresses in Debenhams today, just to get some ideas for what kind of wedding dress I want. This one had a really nice swish to the length so I will definitely look for something with swish. This dress was supposedly a size 8 and was hanging off me - maybe it was tagged wrong? Was a bit annoyed that I couldn't go look at fabrics. All the stores in Dublin City have their fabric on either the first floor or in the basement, all accessed only by stairs, so I couldn't go anywhere with the buggy. Most annoying! All my shopping my be done via the internet - probably be cheaper anyway. Not much crafting as a result of the window shopping. I have an idea for a doll quilt so I'm going to start that and send it in to Sherry for Irish Quilting if its anyway good.

The winners this month are: Dukey Carrym Laurie I'll try to contact you all today but if you don'e hear from me, please send me an email. Thank you to everyone who took part. Be sure to try again next month as I'll put another pattern up. Happy Knitting!

Meet the completed Evie - isn't she pretty! Leave a comment by Thursday morning, 22nd, and you could be in with a chance to win a copy of the pdf knitting pattern. Three will be chosen at random.

On my blog travels yesterday I discovered that Laura over at Bugs and Fishes had posted another wonderful felt tutorial. I just had to try it out for myself. I don't have a great variety of buttons or felt so my colour choice was limited. And I chose to use sequins as I know Smem likes shiny things. I think it turned out quite pretty. I will definitely be keeping it in mind for little girls presents in the future.

The last few days have been pretty busy. Wednesday myself and Smem were out all day. I'd put together the patchwork for a quilt on Tuesday which had to be off-loaded on Wednesday. We also went shopping for C's birthday present and called in to Smem's Dublin grandparents. Busy, busy, busy. This is my next pattern, so far. I have a picture of Holly Hobbie in my head but any pictures of her I remember in blue clothes. So this doll won't be called Holly. Instead, she will be Evie.

I just realised today that I haven't taken pictures of Smem in ages. She's major cute now! In crafting news, I have nearly finished knitting a cardigan for Smem with wool that my mam got me for christmas. Only have to do the borders. I am also working on a new knitting pattern. I have a picture of Holly Hobbie in my head, but whether it turns out like that is another thing!

We booked the venue for our wedding this evening. It was the first hotel we went to visit and was just lovely - The Leixlip House Hotel. So hotel, church and registration sorted. We can relax for a while! Can't really post about my crafting as I've just been making ATCs for the swap organised by Kate . I have to make 5 for February so I thought I'd get a head start on it.

Blogging has taken a back seat this week. Every time I turn on the computer I just seem to end up googling various wedding stuff. On Monday I got a Martha Stewart flower kit that a lady on Etsy was selling, so that has been my main crafting for the week. They're various shades of red and pink roses, which are the colours I was thinking so using. I have now exhausted the paper in the kit so I have ordered some generic crepe paper from a company in the UK. I'm quite proud of them as they turned out pretty well. Just have to go check up on all the blogs I read now!

Pattern in my etsy store now.

He's coming to get you! I was originally influenced by a Mama's and Papa's toy attached to one of Smem's chairs but he turned out a bit evil looking! I kinda love him for it.

Now that Christmas is over, I can print pictures of two of the presents I made. The first is the Gigi Cardigan which I made for my sister. The second is Stardust, which I made for my friend. Both were super quick and easy and the patterns are available on Ravelry, for free!

To one and all. I actually had a nice New Year's. We just had three friends over, we opened a bottle of champagne, I got quite drunk. I haven't done that in a long time, and I'm feeling it this morning. Oh well! I'm also a little miffed this morning. Turns out nobody reads my blog. Boo hoo! Not one comment was left for the December giveaway. I thought this month that I wouldn't publicise it in the forums on Etsy and Ravelry to see how many comments I would get. And there were none. I did however get one sale of the pattern from one of my lovely repeat customers through Etsy. A little glimmer of hope! For the rest of the day now I plan to look at wedding dresses on the internet. Everyone keeps asking if I'm going to make my own dress. Kinda makes me feel like I should - bit scary though 'cause it would have to be absolutely perfect. Lots of decisions to make.