Miss Aine

Made using a vintage pattern that was my mother's. For a little boy who just turned 3 and whose party we are going to tomorrow. Now I just have to decide what to make for his sister, who turns 1 in two weeks and whose birthday is also be celebrated tomorrow. Time to panic?!

In DH's work they have team meeting every month or two. And some of the team members generally bring in goodies to eat for their elevenses. This time DH asked if I would make some - he put me down for around 50 buns!!!! So I did some baking Saturday, Monday and Wednesday (freezing saturday and monday's stuff to keep it) and some icing this afternoon. All in all, I made Banana Cupcakes with white chocolate icing and walnuts, Blueberry Cupcakes with icing sugar dusted on top, a Apple Streusel Cake and Cappucino Squares. Hopefully it all turned out well as they've not been test eaten as I wanted to save everything for the actual meeting!

One of my designs was featured in an Etsy Ireland treasury yesterday. Check out the loveliness: link

There are quite a few people I know expecting babies in the next 2-3 months so I decided to get a head-start and start knitting and stockpiling baby clothes for presents. First to catch my eye was the Owl Baby Vest . This little vest is beyond adorable. Its a really easy pattern to follow and knits up really quickly. Some other Ravellers had done lovely embroidery on theirs so I thought I'd give it a try and it really does add something extra special to the top. This is definitely a pattern that I will make again, and would recommend it for any last minute presents.

All-over lace dress for the bride this time, with a veil with lace on the end. I also had to knit their little dog.

Another doll from the Wee Wonderfuls book. I think this one caught Smem's eye as it was pink in the book, so had to make sure I made her a pink one too - although there are lots of lovely colour variations on Flickr. You should have seen her face when I gave it to her - priceless!

Another doll made from the Wee Wonderfuls book. The pattern is actually called 'Pixie', but I call them the balloon dolls as that's what they remind me off. They didn't have plain white socks in the local Tesco so I used ones with embossed hearts. The placement of the hearts this doll's face is unfortunate - she kinda looks like she has facial hair! I also did the hair a little differently. I didn't have a nice fluffy mohair as in the actual pattern so I did the hair as for the dolls in 'Kit, Chloe and Louise' pattern (for sale on the WW website) and gave her little buns. Someone seems to like her anyway.

Our neighbour had given us a Roses tin for Christmas. When we opened it there were no sweets. Instead there was this.... A box stuffed full of homemade biscuits and cookies. Probably the best Christmas present ever!

The Good: I quit my job. Wasn't back at it for long but I had to travel too far to get there and back each day and it was making me very tired and putting a strain on family life at home. Plus I wasn't exactly making much money and I wasn't working for a particularly nice lady. So it was good to quit. The Bad: A girl I went to school with died from cancer on Saturday. Only 29, just married last year, like me. I played hockey with her in school and was in the same class for a few years so I knew her pretty well. Well enough to be able to tell her apart from her twin. So that sucked. The Ugly: Me trying to deal with Smem at the funeral today. She's sick at the moment and very tired and I was too upset to be dealing with her. We had to leave the church before the mass was over and I had a battle with her to get her to stay in the churchyard until the coffin came out. But we got through it, a few more battles during the day but we finished it up okay. So here...

From the Wee Wonderfuls book, made as a present for the childminder's little girl, whose birthday it was on the 3rd January. A really quick make, using some socks, a little bit of fabric and a little yarn.

I'd suggested two books to DH as gifts for Christmas and told him that if I just got one I would be really happy. But, Christmas morning I got two coveted books: I nearly went mad over Christmas as I no time to make any of the cool toys. But keep tuned to see some finished projects popping up over the next month. Woo hoo!

The wedding party: The flowergirl and all the bridesmaids: Smem did a sterling job at the wedding and was on her ultimate best behaviour all day long. We were both very proud of her that day. And of course, congrats to my brother and his lovely wife and best of luck to them in the future.