Thursday 26 May 2016

Roses and bookmarks and other crafty things...

Hello Friends!

Oh well...clearly not much has happened on this blog lately - SORRY! - but IRL lots of things have been going on in My Little X-Stitch Nook:)

My mum has an allotment and in a couple of weeks all the allotment owners and their families are having a kind of 'flea market' sale for the general public, and my sister and I are planning to have a little 'stall' where we are going to try to sell some homemade baked goodies (baked by me), and some beautiful homemade paper craft like greeting cards and flowers (made by my sister), and some small crochet things (made by me). We did it a couple of years ago too, and we were surprised to see that we actually made some money!!!

We are both looking forward to it as well as dreading it and battle with a lot of negative thoughts...Will people really want to PAY for our things? Will anyone even be interested? Do we even make things that are good enough to sell?!  Etc, etc... But we try to stay positive and think of it as a fun day that we can spend together; if we make any money it is a big bonus!!! And if we don't sell anything we have both got all our Christmas gifts made already LOL!

So, as you may have guessed by now I have spent all my free time lately with various small crochet projects that may be turned into something that could be sold. I have made little colourful crochet roses...

...that I'm turning into bookmarks...


 ..like this one...

 
I'm also making some more small crochet hearts as well as these African flowers:)
 

I haven't quite decided how to use these ones yet; maybe they'll be turned into pincushions...:)
As usual my inspiration comes from the lovely Swedish crochet blog Bautawitch !

I've also been working a little bit on my leftover-yarn crochet blanket and I took a picture of it as it looks right now:

 
It is quite large (150 x 115 cm) but I like my blankets big enough so I can wrap myself in them properly from head to toe, so I still have plenty more granny stripes to do:)
 
Finally I actually do have some cross stitch to show you since last time:
 

Aren't you impressed, LOL?!
OMG, how on earth did I manage to stitch soo much since last time?!

Hopefully I'll get back to my stitching once this allotment business is over and I've been able to order some missing threads. If we can sell some homemade stuff we'll have more money for more craft stash etc so it is definitely a priority for my sister and I right now:)

Hope you all have a nice crafty weekend! Over here in Sweden the weather is atrocious right now; cold, very wet and very windy. The only good thing about it is that it is perfect weather for long hours of crafting indoors, so I'll be spending the weekend on the sofa watching Midsomer Murders with a crochet hook in my hand and plenty of yarns in my lap:))

Annie

Sunday 15 May 2016

PS Santas and Swedish crochet vibes:)

 Hello dear friends!

Thank you very, very much for your kind and supportive comments on my last post! It really warmed my heart, especially since I've felt so bad about not getting around to reading all your wonderful blogs. But I have begun to feel better - for the time being at least - so I hope I can catch up with you all properly in the next week or so.

One afternoon this week I made an effort to stitch on my PS Santas. So this is where I picked it up...


...and in an afternoon I managed to get this far:


 I'm afraid I have seriously fallen behind on this project, and my hope to catch up with my lovely stitching buddy Gominam is completely lost. And even more so now, since I also ran out of my red Santa colour DMC 221...:( My birthday is in June so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for some birthday cash so I can order some more threads, as well as a chart for a forth PS Santa:)

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With all the sporting events this summer, including the Olympics and the UEFA EURO 2016 (football), I'm feeling very patriotic at the moment and have decided to make some Swedish crochet decorations for my home. In case you didn't know, this is the Swedish flag...


...and in my local craft store I was lucky enough to find the perfectly coloured yarn. I'm working on a crochet bunting for my balcony, using these Maybelle flowers. Since one of my furbabies like to destroy my plants I don't really have any flowers on my balcony, so I thought a Swedish-style bunting would cheer the space up:))


 I have also made this little crochet heart as a decoration for my summer bag:


I have made hearts in other colours too...


 ...since they are kind of addictive lol.

I'm doing other crochet projects too, but they are going to be Xmas gifts so I can't show them here. Last Xmas I made a promise to myself to make sure I started VERY early with my gifts so I could take some time to relax in December, and now I'm making good on my promise to myself!

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Sometimes I get a feeling that my furbabies think I spend too much time crafting lol. Especially my smallest furbaby. He's VERY devoted to me and likes to be very close so sometimes he can get quite frustrated when he has to compete with piles of aida and balls of yarn. Last night at my sister's place, he was desperate to lie next to me whilst I was crocheting, which meant that he had to lie on top of the armchair's armrest...


...and hang his head down next to it in order to lie as close to my legs as he could!


I tell you, we all laughed at him and were amazed that he could lie like that and sleep for over an hour LOL! Such devotion really makes your heart swell:))

I guess that's all for now. Hope you all have a lovely week and lots of time for some happy stitching and crafting!

Annie

Thursday 5 May 2016

Struggling with life....

Dear Friends,

Life has been a bit of a struggle lately. My computer has crashed and I've struggled with my depression and aches and pains.    
Except for some crochet not much else is getting done around here and that sadly includes blogging and reading all your lovely blogs, for which I'm very sorry. I've been given a second-hand computer that I hope I can get up and running soon, and meanwhile I'll have to use my iPhone  for everything, including writing this post.

The only project I've stitched on lately is my PS  Santas...


...but it is going very slowly.

Instead I've been doing lots of crochet since that has been the only thing that has inspired me lately. I've been doing a version of granny squares...


...for a cushion and...


... a potholder. I've also made various little pieces...


...that eventually will be turned into various things like...


....this little crochet heart. The inspiration for these projects mostly comes from the wonderful Swedish crochet blog www.bautawitch.se.

Hope you're all doing well and finding time for your crafting😊

Annie