Thank you so much for visiting me in the Attic, it's lovely to see you. My name is Lucy and I'm a happily married Mum with three children. We live in a cosy terraced house on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales in England which we are slowly renovating and making home. I have a passion for crochet and colour and love to share my creative journey. I hope you enjoy your peek into my colourful little world x
Oh my. I look at these images that capture my year and I suddenly feel a weeny bit emotional, a bit choked up actually. I feel so blessed, so grateful for this time in my life that is giving me such happiness. It's been a good year here in the Attic, a full and busy year for sure. A year with a couple of extreme highs (my Studio, and Yarndale of course) and loads of happy mediums. I have loved our family time this year, the walks and picnics, the little jaunts away to the coast, and the summer spent with Connievan.
I have loved watching my Little People grow and thrive (seems they have grown so much this year). Seeing them step so confidently into new academic settings has been such a good thing. I'm so proud of them. I want more than anything for their childhood to be dusted with happiness and love, and chocka block full of good memories.
This is the sixth end-of-year that I've blogged about here in the Attic. I've written 141 posts this year and I continue to love everything about this Blogworld that we are all a part of. It's pretty marvellous, don't you think? Thank you so very, very much for your visits, for your sweet and enthusiastic words, for keeping me company as I skip through my days. Wishing you a wonderful, creative, happy, colourful New Year. It's going to be a good one.
I found the above image a while ago when I was searching for a Home-Sweet-Home picture (it's a cross stitch pattern). It looks very like my street in fact, and the house with the green door looks very much like number 24 with it's little dormer attic window. I really like where I live. Occasionally we toy with the idea of moving somewhere a little more spacious, perhaps with a garden, but we always end up feeling too sad about leaving this cosy house in this friendly street. And so we stay. I have become a real home-bird since we moved here and my time spent within these four walls always makes me feel like I'm in exactly the right place.
I enjoy celebrating these hours, days, weeks and months spent at home, enjoy reminding myself of all these little moments of domestic pleasure. Hope you enjoy it too......................
Awwwwww, how precious! Sixty-six images of nothing and everything, these little snippets are so ordinary yet extraordinary. I absolutely love creating these end of year review posts, most especially these Homely ones, and spending the last days of each year strolling down memory lane is soooooo enjoyable!
It's the last day of the year tomorrow and I've got one last review to share with you....thanks so much for calling by. See you tomorrow xxxx
ps my archive Home Reviews are listed below, just in case, you know.......
June :: garland/pelmet thingy for my studio window. I never got round to writing about this properly, but have had many requests about it...coming soon.
Gosh, it's certainly been a busy year for me and my hook! I have been a teensy bit amazed to see so much colourful hooky appear on this page today, there is rather a lot of it!
The most noticeable thing for me has been the scale of it all, ie how s-m-a-l-l everything has been this year. Aside from the completion of the Granny Patchwork blanket, everything else has been small decorative items. Of course Yarndale had a lot to do with my itty-bitty makes, and I put a huuuuuuge number of hours/days/weeks into making many bits n bobs for the yarn bombing, not to mention my funky lamp.
So what's in store for next year? Welllll........I will continue to work on my poncho of course, such a lot of pleasure in those stripes. Then there will definitely be a Winter wreath. After that, I have a new bag design that I am DEsPerAte to bring out of my Creative Mind, and then possibly a floral scarf idea that I have in mind for spring. Oh, and new cushions too, I've got lots of cushiony ideas brewing. I think we can safely say that there is still a heck of a lot of mileage left in my hooky journey. Here's to many happy hooky days ahead, bring it on!
ps. my crochet reviews from previous years are in my archives, just in case you feel the need to peek....♥ 2012 ♥ 2011 ♥ 2010 ♥ 2009 ♥
pps. tomorrow will be all about the Home..awwwwww!
We moved here to number 24 at the very end of November 2007, just over six years ago now. From the very first time we stepped into this house, I was captivated by the attic room under the eaves with it's stunning view from the front dormer window. I love that I can see so much sky from up here and that the light, clouds, weather and seasons seem so much more vivid when they play out across a window of familiar landscape.
If you've been visiting me here in the Attic for any length of time, then this view will be very familiar to you by now, just as it is to me. I photograph it dozens of times during the course of a year, in all weathers and at all times of day. It brings me a huge amount of pleasure to follow the seasons in this way, and to feel connected to the landscape that surrounds our home.
This is a very self indulgent post really, apologies for that. It is just something that I wanted to create purely for my own satisfaction, so I hope you won't mind indulging me as we follow a year of views. The first picture was taken on 8th January and the last one this morning, 28th December.....
Thank you for sharing.....see you tomorrow for a whole year of HooKy HapPeNiNgs :o)
I really love love love this particular day in the year, I call it my "breathing" day. It's the day I breathe deeply outwards, exhaling away all the underlying tension that inevitably creeps in during the run up to Christmas. Phffffffffffffeeewwwwww. A sigh of relief and contentment, and a day dedicated to relaxation and slobbery. Pyjamas all day. Cosy, comforting pursuits. Yes, this particular day suits me very well indeed. Today has been made even better by the weather, gosh it's been (and still is) very stormy indeed. The wind has been howling down the chimney all day, and the rain has lashed against the house.
J returned to work today, and so I have been confined to home with the Little People. They are pretty adept at pleasing themselves these days, so long as there is a steady stream of foodstuff delivered to them. There has been lots of fun and games, and lots of chocolate consumption and they have been very happy.
Occasionally during the day they would break away from the screen and turn to their new Christmas toys. Duplo lego was unwrapped and built, puzzles were completed....
....and meticulous drawing, designing and colouring took place. It is at times like this when I am glad of our one-room living arrangement, when I am more than happy to sit quietly doing my own thing whilst they noisily do theirs alongside.
I've found some time to crochet today, nesting myself into the big chair which is currently rammed up against the raditator underneath my funky lamp. Although the Christmas tree has made our furniture arrangement look pretty crazy, the squished up chair next to the radiator is actually perfect for snuggly hooky. I am having a whale of a time with my poncho stripes, oh the pleasure! I am enjoying it hugely. The more it grows, the longer the rows get, so I am now into that particular soothing rhythm that comes with long rows of trebles. It sends me into a bit of a meditative trance, and has allowed me some fantastic thinking time. I have made many plans in my head today!
I've also spent time at my laptop immersing myself in many hundreds of photographs, composing my year-end reviews. I have enjoyed it so much, pootling through my archives, reliving all those hundreds of colourful moments that have made up my year. Above is my December mosaic, a seasonal memory of light and landscape, Christmas and Solstice, celebration and creativity. I'm looking forward to sharing more with you over the coming days, and would like to say thank you for your regular visits to the Attic during this year. It is really good to have you pop by.
We had such a lovely, simple, happy day yesterday, full of all the right things. The pace was perfect, I just loved it all from start to finish. For the first time in many years we got a lie in.....yippeeeee for the number 6 instead of the number 4 or 5 on the clock!!!
The Little People were pleased with all their gifts, which were pretty modest this year. Small toys, puzzles, books, balls, socks, gloves, pens, clothes, and a little hard cash for our rapidly maturing eleven year old. And sweets, yes lots of those. It tickled me that all three Little Peeps requested sweets, and how completely delighted they were when they received them.
The weather yesterday was unexpectedly mild and sunshiny, so on a complete spur of the moment we decided to go out for a walk in the morning. We've never done this before (we usually always stay put, loafing about in pyjamas), but it was sooooo good to be out in the fresh air amidst beautiful scenery. Little Lady and I even managed to keep our new pyjamas on and simply pulled coats and wellies on top, which felt completely, ridiculously naughty. The light was incredibly beautiful and I ate the most juicy clementine.
We ate a very late breakfast after our walk (the Little Peeps were full of sweets and chocolate anyway), and a simple roast chicken dinner at 3pm. I painted my toenails with a rather decadent gold/glitter-bling nail varnish, and drank prosecco topped with fresh raspberry and cranberry juice. We lit candles, pulled crackers and popped poppers and our house was warm and messy and felt cosy and festive. I watched television with my feet up on the sofa and alternate Little People climbing on top of me for continuous snuggles and cuddles.
I've been enjoying the pre-Christmas days very much, and despite my completely slap-dash, last minute approach to it all, it has been remarkably stress-free. I have refused to give in to even a millimetre of anxiety and have breezed through the preparations in a whirl of light hearted feelgood.
I decorated my mantel late this year, just in time for the Winter Solstice on Saturday. I used a collection of mismatched glass jars with tea lights, red baubles and lots of fresh greenery gathered from the muddy footpath down the road. In between I added the cutest little wonky snowmen and some little glittery trees (with dinky coloured pom poms added by me).
I like it a lot. It is simple and quite minimal for me, unlike my tree...................
Yes, nothing has changed here, and we have the usual colossal collection of brightly coloured decs jostling for branch space. I left the decking out entirely to the Little Peeps and the only interfering I did was to gently move the nine decorations that Little B crammed onto one single branch.
This year we jiggled around the furniture in order to give our tree pride of place in the bay window. It wasn't easy and our furniture arrangement is very quirky as a result (our sofa is in the middle of the room, weird but cosy). I wanted to join in with the rest of my neighbours who all display their trees in the window. It makes our street look incredible at night, with lights shining brightly from every house.
I am about to go and cosy up in front of the fire on our middle-of-room sofa with the Little Peeps for a while before bed now. We are all wearing new pyjamas and life feels so good.
Wishing you a wonderful Christmas time, full of all that is jolly, merry and bright. Enjoy it to the full.
I really enjoyed making these little Lacy Stars, they were a simple solution to a decorative need (bare twigs needing a touch of seasonal hooky colour!) Made in just two quick rounds, they make perfect use of all those teensy scraps of left over yarns that you can't bare to throw away. Here I've used up some colourful odds and ends of Stylecraft Special DK acrylic, on a 4mm hook.
They would look great strung into a delicate garland, or do what I did and hang a whole handful on a simple twiggy arrangement. Of course, I've done my usual full colour thing, but I think they would look amazing made all in red (a bit of Scandinavian influence), or all white (like mini snowflakes) or even perhaps made with that yarn that has a little bit of sparkle running through it.
The pattern is a breeze, using just chains and double crochet stitches (that's UK double crochet = US single crochet).
To begin :: chain 6, slip stitch into first chain to form a ring.
ROUND 1 (work out of the ring for this round)
Chain 1, [1 dc into ring, chain 4] 6 times, then slip stitch into the top of the first dc to close the round. You should clearly be able to see six chain loops.
ROUND 2 (work out of the chain loops from the previous round)
Slip Stitch into the first chain loop. Chain 1, 1 dc, chain 4, 1 dc.
[work 1dc, chain 4, 1dc in the next chain loop] 5 times, then slip stitch into the top of the first dc to close the round. Fasten off.
Your little Lacy Star may well look a little bit squished and more flower like than star like. You will need to give it a bit of TLC and treat it to some loving Steam Treatment.
Fold up a towel so that it is thick enough to stick pins into, then take six pins (these T-Pins are excellent for this) and pin out your six star points. Pull the star a little so that the stitches open up and the little holes look cute and lacy.
Use a steam iron on a LOW setting.
**IMPORTANT NOTE - DO NOT ALLOW THE IRON TO TOUCH THE YARN**
Hover the iron a centimetre or so above your star and puff some steam onto it. Steam it for about 4-5 seconds. It's quick! You can unpin your star straight away (no need to leave it to dry!) and it'll miraculously stay in shape, complete with pointy starry corners.
Hang them or string them, embellish them or leave them plain. Add a little bit of happy hooky to your home this Christmas :o)
There is something indescribably exciting about starting a new crochet project. The feelings of joy and happiness bubble up inside until I feel like I can't possibly contain them a moment longer.
I have been yearning for this project for months, looking forward to a time when I could focus my ideas and settle myself down with a good long project (there are always so so so many ideas jostling about in my Creative Mind, it's chaos up there!).
I've been looking for something biggish, an antidote to the very itty-bitty decorative crochet I've been occupied with of late. My initial idea was to start another blanket, something delicious that would carry me right the way through winter. But just as I was starting to form a new blankety idea, something else popped into my mind. Something quite surprising, but oh-so-good in a slightly bonkers kind of a way.
I was straight on with it last night, yes, just last night once Little B was safely in bed. Despite my desperation to just get stuck in, I forced myself to sample my pattern ideas first so that I could try hard to work out the maths. It didn't come easy. And when my poor tired brain refused to co-operate, I decided just to jump in with both feet and fly the project completely by the seat of my pants.
The numbers have miraculously worked out, although I couldn't possibly tell you whether a multiple of six is needed, or a multiple of four. But either way, it is one or the other, and the pattern is working out just fine which is a true blessing.
I continued hooking away today at the studio as I was there this afternoon welcoming the most delightful visitors to our creative space. We had such a lovely afternoon, thank you SO MUCH to all of you who made time to come and say hello.
Incidentally, the flowers on my desk have nothing whatsoever to do with this new project, but I thought I would show you as they do look rather pretty. They are left over from a little something I was working on last week and are destined to become a small garland/shelf edging type thingy.
Anyhow, back to the new project. Oh, and my lunch. I had a hoooooge slab of the most divine carrot cake today for my lunch at the studio, it was lush and rather naughty. Tut tut. My eating habits have slipped rather alarmingly into the Naughty category of late, but I confess I am rather enjoying the indulgence.
Apologies for the weird lighting in this last photo, but is is night time now and no good for taking decent pictures. But I really did want to give you a look at my project in it's entirety so you can see what fabby progress I have made in just twenty four hours.
Do you get what it is, what I am making for myself? It's a Wearable Blanket!!!! Truly. A poncho type thingymagjiggy, for keeping out the winter chills at night when I am sat working at my (drafty cold) desk by the (drafty cold) window. And for wearing in the early mornings when Little B gets me up at 5am and the house has yet to warm up. It's going to be BIG. A big, giant concoction of stripy gorgeousness to sling about my person.
Yum yum yum.
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Edit to add :: the yarn is Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, rather an embarassingly large stash left over from my ripple blanket. Guess I completely over-purchased for that blanket, possibly accidentally on purpose ;o)
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