Dot-to-dot and colouring - Fox

Wow! I forgot how much I really enjoy blogging for you guys. It's also a really good way of keeping some good memories for myself too.

Just over a week ago now, I wrote my first blog in ages and I had really enjoyed writing again for you guys so I actually started writing this one straight afterwards as well.

It was a little over a month ago now, I had a small amount of money spare and I had had a pretty horrible week at work so on my way home one Friday lunch time my husband told me to go out and treat myself. So I did!

I stopped at a supermarket on my way home and treated myself to some new PJ bottoms which could not be more perfect for me really. They're covered in sheep! and they're really colourful. I love them! I bought an adult dot-to-dot book, some colouring pencils and a packet of my favourite biscuits.

I just really needed some time to escape from the world for a bit so I went home, all phones and social media were turned off. I just had some relaxing music in the background, a nice cup of tea made ready to dunk my biscuits and I had a go at the dot-to-dot. I did have Henlow around for a bit of company but that was ok - about all I could cope with really, being sociable with him isn't exactly difficult!

He must be getting bigger than the last time you saw him.

Sorry, I went off on a little tangent there but hey - back to the dot-to-dot. I know this is going to sound ridiculous but it was actually not that easy. I'm not going to say it was really difficult - at the end of the day, my job is working with numbers all day - but it was't always that easy to find where to go next to make the pattern.

The first picture of the book was of a fox. I quite like that you don't know until you are part way through the drawing what it is actually going to be.

I really like the way that it turned out. I know that it's not exactly difficult to draw when someone else is telling you where to move your pencil from and to but I still like it. I always want to be able to draw and think that it should just be something that I should be able to do until I sit down with a blank piece of paper and then I have no idea what I'm doing.

It was really good but definitely needed some colour and at the end of the day, I think thats probably what I went in the shop looking for was a colouring book but I just couldn't find any with pictures in that I liked.

I was't 100% sure of the exact colours of a fox so google came in really handy with the photo that I found to copy.

He turned out looking like this!

I know that this was completely the part that I was waiting for - the colouring in. I used to love it as a kid! But if I do say so myself, I am really pleased with this one. It was a bit of a practice attempt really to see how the shading would work with the pencils that I have and everything but I loved it and am more than happy with the outcome.

If you haven't tried it yet - I'm sure a lot of you are thinking, "I just don't have time for that" or "colouring is for kids" but I have to say that it is a fantastic escape for an hour or so. You don't even have to be able to draw - you can start with a colour book or even just a page full of dots and create whatever you want. I could have coloured this in a luminous green colour if I'd have wanted and I'm sure it would have looked totally different. All that stops us is time and our own imaginations.

If you can then this week try to find yourself a little bit of time, even if it's just 15 minutes and completely escape from the rest of the world. You can, write, colour, draw, knit, sew, anything but just make sure you concentrate on you and only you for that little bit of time. And if you feel you can then please share with me what you create - I would love to see/read! Take care of yourselves and I'll see you next time,

Happy Easter

Hi again everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter and managed to spend time with family and of course most importantly that you ate copious amounts of chocolate.

This year I just happen to be one of the really lucky people who loves chocolate and isn't on any sort of strict diet stopping me from eating it and therefore I think I have done quite well out of it.

I had my annual Easter egg hunt around the living room and hallway. There were a few new hiding places this year and conveniently as I had birthday cards up in the living room too these came in handy for hiding places. There were also a few of the old standard places too which is always good.

I got a pretty good haul over the weekend, supplemented hugely by the bunnies that my hubby brought me home from work. They had all been given one each on their desks in the morning on the Thursday before the Easter break and also later in the day had a chance to win a second by answering a quiz question correctly.

Adam answered the question and so did his mate at work. I have done really well by this friend over Easter as he is on a diet as is his wife so he very kindly donated his winnings to me! On Tuesday there were yet more prezzies from what is turning out to be one of my favourite people! Another egg! Adam's mate (the same one again) turned up to work with yet another egg for me and not only that but it happened to be my favourite chocolate.

I love white chocolate and above all Milkybar chocolate. At Easter it is always more special to me than any other time that I have white chocolate - This is mostly because every year I would always get a Milkybar egg from my Gran.

We have a couple of other things around as well at Easter. The chicken always comes out for her annual appearance - she's quite happy sat on her nest of eggs and a couple of tiny little chicks in there too. There are even a few yarn flowers in the basket now too. I received them in a craft swap that I did a couple of years ago. Thanks Hannah! - they still brighten up our Easter basket every year

She always seems quite happy sat there in her little basket i always think.

This year she has gained a new little companion to keep her company down on the hearth. We made this little cutie!

We had to add to our lego collection for him! Daft I know but I like him.

Finally and of course definitely not least - I got this last night from my friend that I go to the gym with. It's a little egg hat! Well, it started off as a water bottle hat.

Soon made itself at home when I got back though and made one of my little eggs all snuggled up and cozy for the night

Thank you again to everyone that contributed to making my Easter celebrations special this year. I know it's probably not something that I should really encourage but I am really liking that at the minute Easter seems to be getting bigger. The Easter bunny seems to be making much more of an appearance in families that I know who have kids - he's almost getting to be as big as Santa in some cases. I like that it is a good time to see family too. I would really like to make it a fantastic excuse to be able to see one set of parents for one holiday (xmas) and the other for Easter each year. I would like it to be proper event. I did this year manage to see both sets of parents over the Easter weekend which was nice.

I hope that this week back at work isn't treating everyone too badly - I think even most of the schools are back now. Take care and I'll see you again real soon.

Hello again

Yet again I have to start this blog with an apology that I've not been around for a while again. I have just been really struggling for time towards the end of last year and the beginning of this - other things sort of took over.

It was recently my birthday - last Sunday in fact - and this coming year is the last of my twenties and is going to be a good one!

Part of this is that I have made a deal with myself - I am going to come up with 30 things that I have always wanted to do that I will make sure that I do before I'm 30. Some of these will be small things, some will be slightly bigger but all will give me a sense of accomplishment and hopefully bring some laughs and joy along the way. I can't guarantee that these will all be craft related and in fact I can tell you now that lots of these definitely will be but I would like to bring you along the journey with me if this is ok.

The first of these and the only one that I am going to tell you about today is a deal that I am going to make with myself (and with you guys) that I will make sure I blog at least once a week - or at least 52 times in the current year if one particular week gets a bit manic meaning that I simply can't write for you.

This is therefore the first of (hopefully) many times that I will see you over the coming weeks.

Now comes the tricky bit - what do I tell you about today. There are a few things that I have lined up ready to tell you about so I am not sure what to go with today really...

How about this - something that I was working on for a long time and that you have seen crop up in my blogs many times already but that never quite managed to get finished.

Well here it is - the granny square blanket that I started a couple of years ago.

Seams all finished and ends sewn in and everything!! I'm pleased I chose the light yellow colour to join everything together - it doesn't show up too much and it blends in with all of the other colours nicely.

You can't even see it at all from the "front" or the "good side"! I am quite pleased with myself for getting this done really.

The only thing that I wasn't sully sure of is if it needs an edge...
And really I know that it should be "blocked" (wet and pinned out to stretch it into shape) but you know me I'm far too excited for all of that!

It had to go straight into my crafty room which contains some more exciting news. The corner that I had for a while as a seat to watch DVDs and craft from, had gradually been filled up with boxes and more and more crafty stuff that I had acquired meaning that it was totally unusable. Decorating the hallway including replacing all of the door frames meaning that the insides of the rooms upstairs needed a bit of work and at least a lick of paint anyway meant that I have ended up with this!!!

I got my little snuggly corner back! Complete with fluffy cushions, blankets and everything that I could ever need on hand and easy to get to. I can't wait to get a bit of time to myself to go and hide up here for a few hours/day and just chill out with some movies or episodes of some girly TV show.

When we went out to look for the paint to touch up the wall in the same colour as the rest of the room we discovered that that colour we had used originally doesn't exist any more. We weren't totally sure what to do as it definitely needed something doing to that wall so why not go a little crazy. We picked a bright colour that would go with the rest of the room and made a "feature" wall. I love it! It really does brighten up the space too.

I hope you are all having a fabulous Easter weekend. Make sure you eat far too much chocolate and I'll see you again soon!

Remembrance Day

I know that I'm a little bit late really with this post but better late than never I guess.

This one isn't really one of my crafty things - this one comes courtesy of my hubby!

He decided that he was fed up of buying at least 3-4 paper poppies each year as they would inevitably either break or get lost etc. Instead, he would like to donate his £3-5 to the poppy appeal but make his own poppy that may last for the full 2 weeks that he wanted to wear it.

He took it upon himself to make a couple of poppies for me and him based on the paper poppy that we had already bought.

He raided my sewing box to find what he wanted to use to make them - black and red felt, some random black buttons off an old coat, and cotton to sew it all together.

The poppy shape was cut out in both red and black felt (the black only slightly bigger than the red) and these were sewn together with a visible black running stitch around the edge.

A button in the middle made the centre of the poppy.

And at the same time also attached the pin to the back so that the poppies could be worn.

Adam made two of these to start with (one for each of us) but his went down so well at work - there were a number of blokes who said that they liked it as it was much more substantial than the paper ones and not girly like some of the knitted or crocheted poppies that you see people wearing.

He offered to make a few people at work them for a small donation to the British Legion, which was ok to start with when it was only two or three. He made these first ones in one night but the more he made for people, the more people that saw them and the more people that wanted them.

A few nights it got a bit daft as there were a lot to make so I was roped in as his assistant.

We got a production line going and got through a few more between us.

They are all slightly different depending on the buttons that we had to put on each one. There were also a couple of slightly smaller ones made towards the end with some leftover felt that we had after cutting out the full size ones.

When they went into work for people to buy the poppies. Adam had typed up the poem "For the fallen" which contains the words of the eulogy and presented the poppies in bags with the card inside.

Each poppy was sold for between £3 and £5 - depending on people's chosen donation and all funds received were donated to the British Legion.

He raised £50 in total for the poppy appeal which the volunteers were very impressed and pleased with when he took this in to make his donation.

I think there will be more made for next year - when I've replaced the felt and buttons that have vanished from my sewing box!

If anyone would like to place their order early then please let me know by email on happyhenlowcrafts@gmail.com

Catch up of knitted squares

On Monday I wasn't too well. I was up most of the night being poorly so didn't go to work in the morning.

That was pretty horrible but let's just brush past that part shall we?

Once I was starting to feel slightly better and had made it downstairs to the sofa I actually ended up having quite a nice day.

I sat and watched all of the remaining episodes of the original Cold Feet that I have on DVD and did a bit of a catch up of the knitting project that I started my Mum L and shared with you in my last blog.

I finished off my second round of each colour so I now have 2 squares of each colour.

I think that this means that I am one ahead of Mum L now!! Although she's probably done more since I saw her a couple of weeks ago but at least this makes us just about even.

As I went through and added more colours to our completed pile, I started to think about what patterns they might be able to make so this seemed like the perfect opportunity to dedicate a double page spread in by BuJo to working it all out.

So far I have included the scrap of paper that was used on our girly day together to work out the pattern that we would each follow to get the same size squares at the dimensions that we thought would look nicest within the finished blanket.

Mum L has started knitting all of her colours in a pattern which does make sense to ensure that we get an even number of each so I think we will stick with this.

I have started to come up with a few combinations of what order we could put the squares in at the bottom of this page but until we get a few more to have a look at I find it hard to tell what it will look like. I have saved the whole page on the right so that we can fill all of the little squares with the colours of all of the squares that we have made once we decide that we have enough for a blanket.

This way we will really see what it is going to look like before it is all sewn together.

Hope you're all having a good week. Please check out my previous blog about the start of this project  if you haven't already read it as I think I forgot to share this one on social media. It may make what you have just read a lot more understandable!

I am feeling a lot better now. I hope you are all well.

Catch up with you again soon.

Knitted squares

I have been struggling a little lately to keep up with the knitted squares that I started with Mum L on the girly day that we had together and that I told you about here.

I was made to feel a little bad at the weekend when we saw them as I was handed a bag full of squares - 11 in all!

I am really pleased with the way they look - the colours are really nice and look really good together as well.

I felt I needed to play catch up a little so I managed one more square last night bringing my total to 6 so not too far behind. They don't take too long to knit up so I'll get there soon.

I like the pattern that Mum L has knitted hers in. I know that we were going to go for a random pattern but that often ends up being more difficult than just creating a pattern and following that.

I think that we should go with this as the order of our squares and maybe just alternate between mine and hers. Perhaps something a little like this...

I think that this could work.

We'll see what they look like a bit more again when there are more squares to see it in full. I'm excited to see how it turns out.

I got my new BuJo

Hope you are all having a good week.

This post is a little bit overdue but I am still excited about the new journal that I got about 6 weeks ago.

I treated myself to the Leuchtturm 1917 which is one of the ones recommended by lots of other BuJo-ers and is a notebook with an index in the front and space to jot down all of the ideas afterwards.

I chose the dotted notebook as I felt that lines or squares could be too restrictive if I ever got into making my BuJo pretty but I knew that I would struggle writing without any direction so I couldn't cope with a blank notebook.

It's too pretty that I almost daren't start to write in it.

It has this little pouch in the back to add in anything that won't quite fit in the journal itself.

Being so brave as I am. I quickly came to decide that this was the easiest option for the first way to include the first thing in my new journal.

Only a couple of days earlier we had received this letter in the post...

Handwritten envelopes never come through our door so either someone has got my husbands birthday really badly wrong...or he's ordered something off the internet.

It was a lovely letter from the company that we are currently ordering our food boxes from. It has a photo of the guy who handwrite the letter inside as well holding our envelope before it went into the post.

Argh! The first mark in my new book - it had to be my name inside the front cover.

After this I bottled out again for a little while and started instead to stamp and colour onto some plain cream coloured paper that I could then decorate my pages with as I went along. Postponing the actual writing in the nice new book again I guess.

I started off by stamping a few little images that I thought I could use to decorate

 Coloured them in

 And eventually got up the courage to stick them into my book to form a part of my Key dates page for this year

Here is the page completed

I'm pretty pleased with the way that it turned out. Even though this was the first page that I did in my BuJo I think that this is still one of the best ones.

I'll update you again soon with some of the other things that I have been doing and with a few newer pages in my BuJo.