Attic24

♥ Four Things ♥

Four Things that are making me feel warm and cosy this afternoon......

:: Thing #1 :: out of my window :: A perfect Wintry view ::

We only had a small flurry of sleety snow this morning, and most of what landed yesterday has now melted away. The surrounding hills are still dressed in their gorgeous winter-white coats though, it looks soo beautiful, peaceful and serene.

Thing #2 :: in my kitchen ::  The delicious wafting smell of tonights dinner cooking ::

I was recently given a super little book by my mother-in-law, and every recipe I've tried so far has been a terrific success. The book's called Easy Slow Cooker and I can highly recommend it. It's a lovely feeling to come home from the school run, open the front door and smell the dinner cooking away all by itself. Marvelous!

:: Thing #3 :: on my sofa :: A sweetly sleeping Little B ::

How I love my quiet, gentle after-lunch hour when Little B takes his nap! It allows me some breathing space in the middle of the day when I can just relax and be Me for a wee while. I love to sit quietly nearby with a hot cup of tea and and listen to the sweet sound of his rhythmic breathing. It's one of the most soothing sounds I know.

:: Thing #4 :: on my table :: hooky holly in progress ::

Yayyyyyyyyyyyy!! Holly leaves are happening!! Whilst Little B slept this afternoon, I sat in the bay window and worked like the clappers to get the holly leaf tutorial photographed for you. Just need to upload the thirty five pictures and write up the words to go with them, will try and do that this evening if I can.

Ps I've got this type of slow cooker and love love love it. I just need to remember to use it more often. Going to make a slow-cook curry on Thursday I think. Or maybe Moroccan lamb meatballs? Or maybe beef with cheesy dumplings? Mmmmmmm I love Winter cooking!

 

 

 

 

 

Change of Plan

I gave up my car a year ago as it spent way too much time sitting idle on the road and I could no longer justify the expense of owning it. I figured I can pretty much get whatever I need in my town by using my feet, but it does take some energy and effort. I've altered my shopping routine and no longer do one big weekly food shop. Instead I shop daily, both at the supermarket and in town from the market/butcher/baker, and carry it home using Little B's pushchair in lieu of a shopping trolley. It's hard work (we live two thirds up a steep hill), but needs must. Yesterday also involved a two mile round trip to go to the Post Office depot to collect two parcels for J. Plus a trip to the hardware shop to buy a large bag of kindling wood for the fire which I managed to carry home (along with the food shopping) balanced precariously on top of the pushchair hood.

What I'm trying to say in my usual round about way is that I've been busy this week, and I've felt really physically tired at the end of each day. Too tired to sit and write. Last night, I really, really wanted to spend time writing my "November" post. I settled down at my desk and uploaded all my pictures, it was about 8.20pm. Little Lady came by and said in her sweetest voice that she really wanted us to sit on the sofa by the fire and do some colouring together. I moaned. I tried to put her off. I told here this was My Time. I told her to go and colour by herself cos I needed to Get On With My Writing. And then I heard my own voice and it sounded so gruff and mean and selfish. Silly, silly me. So I closed down my laptop and made a Change Of Plan.

I pulled the green sofa right up in front of the fire and plumped up all the cushions. I lit candles. I put a huuuuuuuge log on the fire. Then Little Lady and I settled down together. To chat, to sing, to snuggle, to listen to music, to watch the fire. It was sooooooooooooooo cosy. A lovely, peaceful end to the day.

A little while later, when the Little Peeps had finally been persuaded into bed, I went and made up my bed with freshly laundered sheets, still warm from the tumble drier. I filled my hot water bottle and slipped it under the duvet. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh my sweet bed!!! How I look forward to seeing you each evening!

Just before I drifted off to sleep I browsed through a few pages from one of my bedside books. This one is called "Words on a Simple Life", I've mentioned it once before....the words fill my heart with happiness and gratitude.

So.

I've still not managed to write my November post have I? Already it's 3rd December, Advent has begun, Christmas is fast approaching and I've got that all-too-familiar feeling that I am behind with absolutely everything.

Never mind. It doesn't matter. It'll be OK.

So until I can find the time to sit quietly with my thoughts and write about November, this mosaic of images will have to suffice. November was good, wasn't it?

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Creative Christmas Inspiration

I like Christmas time. I'm not madly in love with it for I am a Summer Girl at heart, but since having the Little People it has most certainly grown on me. I think it's true to say that it's actually the pre-Christmas period that I like bestest of all. As from about now (a week or so before Advent) I start to feel pretty ants-in-the-pants excited about all the Decorative and Creative possibilities that surround Christmas. Yyyaaaayyyyy it's late November and we can go forth and start making Festive Things! We can do colourful, creative, happy, joyful decorative Christmassy things in abundance!! We can do glitter and sparkly bits and buttons and bells and baubles!!!

I was shopping with Heather a few weeks ago and we went to a charity shop in our town that had just put out it's christmas things. Boxes of baubles for 10p each, oh yes perrrrlease, let me at 'em. You can see my dear little £1.20 haul up above there :: four sweet red vintage glass baubles, and some long shaped baubles to go with my rather sizable collection of round shaped baubles.

Ahhhhh baubles, I do so so so LOVE to see a good collection of baubles. The above ones are also a recent purchase, again aided and abetted by the kind and helpful Heather. These ones came to me (via Heather) from The City after I spotted them on t'internet and nearly melted with desire.

They must be MINE, I said.

I am going to The City, do you want me to see if I can find them for you? she said.

Why that would be FanTAStic, I said.

And sure enough, here they now sit in the Attic and I gaze at them adoringly every single day. They are teeny tiny, about the size of a small cherry tomato, and I have Big Plans for using them in a creative twiggy combo. You know how I like to do twiggy things every so often.

I bought this wonderful Christmas magazine way back last month, it was an extremely good find and has provided me with oooodles of ideas and a huge amount of visual pleasure. I've not seen it in the shops in recent weeks, but you can still purchase it online (go here to see), it really is lovely and well worth the three pounds ninety nine.

The styling (and I am a sucker for good styling) is beautiful, very, very beautiful. The emphasis is on creativity, and there is lots of colour and inspiration in these pages.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, very swoony indeed.

There are some awesome shopping pages........

.....but it's the creative projects that really make this publication special. I've become completely smitten with these sweet little mice, I just love them. They are the work of designer Clare Youngs, and her style and talent is just incredible. I found out that many of the creative projects in the Prima magazine were in fact Clare's work, and that more importantly they can all be found in a book. Well now. Say no more. Whizz to Amazon, search it out, pop it in my shopping basket and b-boom, it's mine.

The book's called "Christmas Crafting In No Time" ** and is absolutely blooming wonderful.

There's a wide mixture of crafts combining a variety of mixed media materials. I love almost all of the paper craft ideas, they are simple but oh-so-appealing.

This pretty little paper Rosette Garland is right up there on my To Do list.

Oh yeah, I definitely have to make me some little Birdy Pegs too, although mine will be multi coloured of course. You knew that without me saying I suspect.

And the owls, oh, so sweet! Yup, on my list. Must makey some Festive Owls with tufty ears.

And horses too? Yes, why not, lets give it a go. I love that these are made from aluminium food containers, how ingenious is that?

Towards the back of the book are some beautifully detailed templates and patterns. I love that they are full size and full of detail.

Ah, I'm off in a creative spin now after writing this, I've got that buzz buzz buzz thing going on. So much fun to be had with Making Things!

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ps ** here is the US link for the book, for those of you across the pond **

pps will be bringing you my crochet holly pattern in the next few days.

 

 

 

Hooky Trim

One of the upsides of having a sort out is that I've been coming across some long-forgotten and much loved objects. Look what I found at the weekend! I found my basket! Yaaaayyyyy!! Might seem an odd thing to have misplaced, but misplace it I did, until I went a rooting through the Attic eaves looking for _________ (insert random object) and there it was. Hiding. It was still holding the balls of yarn left over from when I made my bag, and if you go here you can read about the basket makeover and see the beginnings of The Yarn Bag too. Cripes, it seems a long time ago don't you think? Well I suppose it was more than three years ago now.

I've absolutley L♥VED being reunited with my basket, I've been so happy carrying it about the place with my ripple tucked up inside. I've found that if I just keep the blanket, hook and current ball of yarn in it, it makes it very easy to do a little bit of hooky in between doing other things. Cos it's there and it's on view and I can instantly pick it up and work a few stitches whenever. I can also instantly drop it safely back into the basket mid stitch when I'm needed by the Littlies (which I frequently have to do).

Thinking about my sweet little yarn basket reminded me of the above picture, which has forever embedded itself in my memory banks. I know, isn't it just? Just SoOOOOoOooo beautiful?? I kept seeing this image in my mind since my own basket made a reappearance, and  yesterday I rooted out my Japanese crochet books to indulge in a little Visual Upliftment.

The yarny basket image comes from one of the above books, I think it's inside the one with the red and white motifs.

If you've not already come across these delicious books, you can read more about my love for them in this archive post. I bought both books from a great Etsy seller called Pomadour's Craft Café, the one with the red and white motifs on the cover can be found here, and the second volume with the red chair can be found here. In my experience, these books tend to sell out quickly but are also replenished regularly so if you bob along to Pomadour's shop and find them out of stock, give it a day or two and try again OK?

Ahhhhhhhh I really love these books, so so much. They never fail to delight and inspire. I must've looked at these pictures dozens of times, but never tire of them.

My eyes breeze through the pages, my heart flutters and my mind begins to buzz.

Buzzzz-buzzzzz-buzzzzzz.

Ideas begin to fizzle and pop and before I know what is happening, something takes hold and I am reaching for my hook and yarn bag to try it out.........

I have this idea to crochet some sort of sweet decorative trim to add a touch of prettiness to something. It's such an unnecessary, silly little idea really, but I am incredibly excited by forcing it into reality. I am making the creative fluttering and buzzing come alive and it feels wonderful.

Heeee-heeee!!! This is what I came up with after a few hours of frantic hooking, frogging, hooking and frogging. Looks a little silly I know........

.....but I just need to start darning in all those ends.

There, that's better!!!!

Do you like it, my sweet little piece of colourful hooky trim?

I need to join it into a ring in order for it to trim the object I have in mind.

So shall I show you what this pretty trim is for?

OK...

Look..................................................................................

Ta-dah!!!!!

It's a little bit of colourful decoration for my new Home Blessing Candle.

And I'm so happy with it!!

I treated myself to a new candle on Friday, as I felt the tealight-in-the-peanut-butter-jar wasn't quite up to the job. I found this simple little glass jar candle in the supermarket (Tesco, £3), it's vanilla scented (not overly so) and now with it's hooky trim added it's beautifully at home on my table.

Hmmmm, please do try and ignore the Shelves of Doom in the background. My Decluttering Mission is going through a short hiatus, although I do really need to try harder at getting myself back on track where that's concerned.

Oh yes, that's much better, lets just zoom in and concentrate on the pretty little bits in close-up. Ignore the big messy bits in the background.

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ps I'm sure you'll let me know what you think of my potty little creative buzz and if you think it's something you'd like a pattern for? I'm thinking these would make sweet gifts. Right, off to find my basket now, it's coming upstairs with me for a little bedtime rippling xx

 

 

 

 

Cute & Easy Crochet :: The Babushkas

I've been meaning to chat about this book with you for months and months as I bought it way back in the Spring, but somehow I just haven't found the time to do it before now. But as I mentioned the other day, I'm on a mission to catch up with myself re my hooky endeavours and I've got some lovely bits and bobs to share with you.

So this book then....Cute and Easy Crochet written by Nicki Trench. It's always a little gamble ordering a book from Amazon when you're not quite sure if the contents are going to really twang the old creative heart strings. Sometimes the cover image can look inviting but the projects inside don't quite measure up. Not so with this book. It's quite simply GORGEOUS from cover to cover.

There are 35 projects in the book, and almost every one is guaranteed to bring forth an ooooh or aaahhhhh or wwwoooowww. 

It's incredibly inspring, makes you want to  start crocheting first thing in the morning and not stop until last thing at night.

It makes you want to crochet things just for the pure joy of it. Do I need another crochet bag? Probably not, but oooooh that one is just soooooo cute! 

There are one or two familiar projects in this book. Things that remind me of my own style of hooky.

The colours are softer than my own choices, but the style is definitely familiar.

Yes, definitely right up my street.

The styling and photography throughout the book is sublime, with each crochet project sitting in beautiful surroundings. There is a touch of shabby chic about it, with pale distressed furniture mixed up with quirky accessories. I love it. I love the whole look and feel of this book, and just flicking through the pages is enough to make one sigh with pleasure.

Many of the projects in the book are made using Laughing Hens "Rooster" yarn, and this defines the overall style and colour palette. They are kind of soft, but not pale. Think pretty vintage rather than sweet icecream or baby pastel.

This is page 97 and when I landed here my oooooohs and aaaaahhs and woooowwws definitely went up a notch. How totally, fabulously adorable are these sweet little Russian dolls? They almost took my breath away with their cute little flowers and sweet little headscarves. Awwwwwwwwww!! 

The very uselessness of them appealed to me enormously, I have a definite weakness for decorative but useless crochet items (bunting falls into this category). I couldn't wait to get started.

These sweet dolls are worked from the bottom up and they are made in traditional amigurumi style ie by working the rows round in a continuous spiral. It took me a while to get used to this idea as I hadn't ever done it before, but it's not that difficult. Two things I learnt the hard way ::

1. when the pattern instructs you to place a stitch marker at the beginning of each round, you should really take note and do as you are told.

2. Concentration and the ability to keep count are essential when making these little things, you cannot easily wing it.

There are four sizes of doll (large, medium, small and tiny) and I chose to start out with Miss Medium. As you can see, I couldn't bring myself to use white for her body so she was given a pink top instead.

You can see her white crochet face (the small white circle) sitting there on the page too, awaiting some embroidered features. Actually stitching the faces was quite a challenge, it's harder than it looks to embroider eyes and a mouth and make it look smiley rather than grimace-like. I can also tell you that when the pattern tells you to "press face" you should do it cos it makes a big difference. It's worth the trouble of getting the iron out before you try and stitch.

This is Mrs Large, all stuffed up and waiting for face and decorative details. Oh how I LOVED making the Decorative Details!! I mean, I did enjoy the challenge of working and shaping the body and creating those ingenious little headscarf ties, but really in my mind the project was ALL about The Flowery Bit.

It gave me a ridiculous amount of pleasure to prettify these little Babushkas. The combination of crochet flowers (teeeeeeeeny tiny, worked on a 2.5 mm hook) with embroidered detail (chain stitches mainly) was a complete joy to work on. 

I could have gone on and on and on covering these dolls in flowers, stems and leaves but the trick is knowing how much is enough. Deciding when to stop is often harder than it seems.

So here we have them, my three little Babushka dolls, Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mrs Large, Miss Medium and Little Miss Small........

......sitting happily on my mantel, smiling their sweet embroidered smiles.

I confess to having a soft spot for Little Miss Small. Her neatness and smallness is captivating.

But she does have a tendency to keep diving head first off the mantel and into the coal bucket. Naughty Little Miss.

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Japanese Flower Scarf

Today I'm going to share my current hooky love affair with you, but before we launch into all that I just had to show you these beautiful tulips....gorgeous aren't they? They were tightly closed when I first put them in water on Saturday and literally within a few hours the petals had started to unfurl.

Now then, did you spot the soft focus crochet behind the button jug up there? Just lately I've found it easier to do my hooky at the table rather than on the sofa  so I've had the extra pleasure of working right alongside the tulips. The two go together beautifully, it's a double pleasure. And I'm all for finding and enjoying life's little pleasures, as you well know. As a matter of fact I've been having a terrific time with my latest crochet project, I absolutely adore the beginning of a new project, especially when I find myself falling head long in love with it right from the word go. Not all my crochet projects happen this way. Quite often I remain uncertain of my feelings for a good long while and sometimes it's not till right at the end that I really get to fall in love. But not so this project. This project was kind of like CA-POW! Instantaneous L:O:V:E.

So do you want to know what exactly I'm going on about?? Let me tell you the story.........

It all started with the yarn and it really was love at first sight. This is Debbie Bliss "Andes" which is a very luxurious blend of baby alpaca and mulberry silk. I came across it last autumn in my local yarn shop, the hanks were all piled into a basket inviting you to pick them up and stroke them, and really truthfully, therein lies it's charm. It's the softest, most snugglesome yarn I've ever come across. Its unbelievably soft and it feels amazing to have it next to your skin.

And then there're the colours. They are just b-e-a-utiful. Kind of intense but soft, rich but subtle, bright but gentle at the same time. The yarn has an incredible lustre which makes the colours seem to glow in real life, the above photo maybe doesn't do it justice. I chose nine colours in total, surprising myself by including that neutral colour in the centre (I know! Neutral!! Me choosing neutral and actually loving it!!) So....this is a link to my LYS where I purchased the yarn, and these are the colours, going from left to right ::

08 ruby  15  fuschia 07 coral  06 gold  05 camel  10  apple  09 sage  12 denim  11 tea green

So I met the yarn in October last year, but could not at the time justify the expense of it and sadly had to walk away. But I could not get it out of my head. It became the Stuff of My Dreams. I really, really, reeeeeeeeeeally wanted it. Badly. A few months passed. Christmas came and went and still I dreamt of getting my hands on that gorgeous Andes.

30th December and I decided that I could stand it no longer and I was going to Go And Get It No Matter What. So off I trotted to my LYS and I had a heart skippy time scooping up those hanks and Making Them Mine.

In my mind I had already formulated a loose plan for my Andes :: I  imagined it worked up into something breathtaking to drape around my neck and shoulders. A scarf perhaps? A wrap? Shawl? Stole? Something generous in proportions, something utterly scrummy to drape about my person. I searched. I searched and searched for a suitable pattern/idea/snippet of inspiration. I put the word out on my Ravelry group and we discussed various ideas and options, but nothing truly seemed worthy of my beloved Andes.

Several weeks passed by and still I was waiting and wishing for inspiration to present itself. Then two weeks ago I received a comment on my blog with a possible pattern suggestion {Bernadette, I will be forever grateful}. This is where it took me.............................

..........to France, to this beautiful blog and then onwards to a wonderful, stunning creation made by a very talented French lady.

Wow!!! Oh WOWOWOWOWWWWW!!! I was totally and utterly smitten, love at first sight (again). It seemed that it was indeed the pattern of my dreams. Now my comprehension of French is a little bit sketchy, but I did manage to fathom that the original pattern came from a Japanese crochet book, and oh boy, I know all about the temptations found in those amazing little books. I eagerly followed all the links on arbrealaine's blog, discovering a written (French) pattern, plus a copy of the original Japanese diagram-pattern. There were also lots and lots of "ici" links taking me to lots of other wonderful french Blogettes who had all given this pattern a go. Take a look at this one.....

The above picture is the same pattern, but this time made by a super-talented French lady called Marie. You can see more on her blog L'atelier de Marie. Beautiful isn't it?? If you've got a spare moment, do go take a look at Marie's other crochet projects, she's made some very inspirational granny-square garments which I love.

Well as you can imagine, I was in quite a giddy lather by this point, I was soooo excited by what I'd found and couldn't wait to start. I used the diagram pattern found here and gave it a whirl with Stylecraft yarn to try it out.

I was so so so so happy with the way it turned out! And I figured that if the flower looked this good in the Stylecraft, then it would be simply amAzing in the Andes.

Now as I said, the pattern is out there in French Blogland and I guess you and I are at liberty to use it if we wish. However, I felt that I would rather have a copy of the actual real pattern, plus I knew as soon as I saw the front cover of the book that it would be a good'n to have. I went to my favourite Etsy seller Pomadour24 and of course the book was there....it's called "Motif Book Vol 4". And truly, it's gorgeous. Scrummy. Yummy-scrummy.

There's the Flower Scarf/Stole/Wrap thingy look....

....it seems odd seeing it in neutrals! I'm not sure if I would've been so tempted by it had I not seen it transformed with the use of colour {French Crochet Ladies, I will be forever grateful for your colour inspiration}

The Debbie Bliss Andes is a DK weight yarn which would normally be worked on a 4mm hook. However, it's quite a fine yarn and after a few little experiments with it I decided to switch down to  a 3mm hook for this project. The resulting flowers are still a satisfying size mind you, and they are surprisingly easy and speedy to work up. They are really great to make.

They are also joined-as-you-go (yiippppeeeeeee!!!) so no fiddlesome joining procedures to endure. This really is turning out to be the perfect project you know. Blissful yarn, stunning pattern, easy making process, and (hopefully) an amazing end product. What's not to love?!

So this is where I'm up to with it at the moment...the scarf/stole/wrap thingy is a trapezium shape (well J tells me that's the word, blame him if it's wrong), four flowers deep. I'll be working out to the sides on the above picture until I get to the length I want  :: the original design doesn't seem very long so I'll just keep going until it looks right or I run out of yarn. Hopefully not the latter.

Right-o, I need to go drink tea and smoosh my scarf/stole/wrap thingy before I go to bed, so I shall love you and leave you for now.

Well done for getting to the end of such a long-winded load of blurb, gawd, I do go on a bit don't I? Hope I didn't bore you too much. Thank you. Mwah. xxxxxxxxxxx

Edited to add :: After a great deal of discussion and debate re the tricksy issues of Copyright, I'm really sorry to say that I can't share this flower pattern with you or make a turorial for it either. I have to respect the law, the book publishers and the talented Japanese designer. Catherine, who published the pattern and French translation on her blog has also arrived at the same conclusion and felt it necessary to remove her post which I linked to above. I'm sure you all understand. Of course, it is still available in the beautiful book! I'm also working on a tutorial to aid the deciphering of the Japanese style charts/diagrams with the hope of helping those that feel phased by them. More coming soon xx

 

 

Comfort and Creativity

I'm enjoying this middle part of our summer holiday. This is our homey bit in the middle which is kind of sandwiched between holidaying away (we go away again on Saturday), and I've deliberately tried to leave it free from any arrangements. No outings, no dates, no plans. Deciding what to do day by day according to the weather and the mood, and it's suiting me down to the ground. Well to be honest I think we're all benefiting from the freedom, it feels very relaxed and chilled out around here at the moment. Rather a lot of time spent loafing around in pj's, which as you know makes me very happy indeedy. Love-love-LoVE my extended pyjama-wearing time!

The Little Peeps are following my example and seem to be enjoying time spent idling at home. But should they choose to actually get dressed and venture outside, they are certainly not short of other Little People to play with where we live. There are often eight or more kids out on our street doing kid things together either on wheels or with balls. And when my Little People spend time hanging out on the street, it leaves me to enjoy Me-things indoors. Of course I have to work hard to squeeeeeeeze  these things in between the demands of my seven month old Little B, but I am becoming quite good at snatching up any available little itsy-bits of time and making them Mine. This morning, around 11am, I managed to sit and enjoy coffee and a bun, quietly, all by myself. Little People outside riding their bikes, Little B asleep in his pushchair outside in the back yard. Oh how very special this little moment of quiet comfort was!

Today we also began on a little Creative Project, inspired by a lovely, lovely blog that I only recently discovered. The above picture shows Stage One {the Prepping Of The Tubes}. And hopefully tomorrow we'll begin on Stage Two {The Decorating Of The Tubes}. To see what I am on about, do pop over and visit the wonderful Teawagon Tales, more specifically this post. You'll love it I'm sure. My very own tubular self will be adorned with a little granny square something (naturally), and ohmygoodness, I can't tell you how idiotically excited I am at the prospect of constructing little teensyweensy granny squares to decorate a toilet roll tube with. Maybe I've lost the plot somewhat?

And talking of granny squares, I have to confess that progress is veeeeery slow with the Sweet Flower granny blanket at the moment. I do little bits as and when I can, but as Little B is in the process of cutting more teeth, our nights have become very disturbed again and I'm not getting an awful lot of sleep at the moment. So when the evenings roll around I'm finding that rather than reaching for my yarn basket, I'm tramping my weary self upstairs and lolling into bed instead.

 

Mind you, Bed is rather a lovely, deliciously Comforting place to be and my self imposed early bedtime is actually rather blissful. I treated myself to some new Cath Kidston pillowcases when I was in York, and I really love them. I'm also really loving this book too, and I browse through a few pages each night before drifting off to sleep. It's called "The Comforts of Home" by Caroline Clifton-Mogg (isn't that a heck of a name?!) and is all about how we can use "clever decorating ideas to rejuvenate rooms that rely on style and creativity rather than a deep purse". It's beautifully written, and quite dreamily inspiring, although does make me slightly despair at the current state of my own home, which is, well lets just not talk about that eh.

Right-oh, it's been lovely chatting with you all....it's 8.20pm now in Attic land and almost time for me to go and flollop into my rosy pillows. I'm going to make myself a mug of hot chocolate and sit in bed for a weeny while with my book. A Lovely Comforting end to a not-half-bad day.

Sweet dreams to you all...

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Crochet :: Japanese Style

Ahhh this book, do you remember me telling you it arrived on Saturday? It came aaaaaalllllll the way from Japan you know, and for some inexplicable reason this makes me feel incredibly excited. First time I've ever had anything arrive All The Way From Japan before. I keep thinking how bloomin marvelous it is that I can see something on my computer screen, make a few clickety-clicks on my keyboard, then hey-presto less than a week later a plop through my letter box brings it right into my excited hands.  Can you tell I'm a newbie at International Internet Shopping?

Anyhow :: this book....let me tell you now, I've fallen truly, madly, deeply in L:O:V:E with it. 

It is quite simply GORgeous. Stunning. Inspirational. Beautiful. Desirable.

Oh yes it is all those things and many more besides and I am seriously in love.

This is what greets you when you first tiptoe into the pages..............

Oh oh OH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mm mm MMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

Isn't that just the stuff of anyones Hooky Yarny Dreams???????

I fell in love right there and then, at the sight of that first Double Spread.

BAM!!!

Just like that.

Want to see some more??

Want to see some of the projects within these delicious Japanese pages?

A perfectly perfect Attic24-stylie bag.

Scrummy.

The most beautiful, beautiful crocheted clothes hangers.....

....just look at that amazingly pretty edging!!

And this, one of my absolute favourite pages in the whole book. Love everything about this image, isn't the styling to die for?? That shelf with those teapots!!! OH how I Love that!! Not to mention the beautiful hexie blanket there....

Isn't that design just amazing?

Love it.

Now as you know, this book came All The Way From Japan, meaning it is a Japanese book.

Meaning it is written in Japanese.

Of course.

But fear-ye-not, because the patterns for all these desirable projects are written in Universal Diagram format, as show above. Lots of gobbledegooky Japanese writing as well, but we can ignore that and concentrate on the diagram....

....which is actually pretty straight forward to follow.

Now if anyones interested, I would gladly write a post about these diagrams, explaining the symbols etc and how to read them, cos thats Very Useful Knowledge to have if you're into crochet.

This afternoon, I had a little go at reading the above diagram and making a hexagon, well five rounds of one anyhow....

....and it didn't turn out too bad, although I think I would need to practice my joining techniques as it's a little messy where each round begins and ends.

Now before I toddle off to go drool some more over the pages, let me give you a few details....

I first saw this book mentioned by Jane. And then by Hen. And it was indeed the lovely Hen who kindly told me where I could go to find this book and purchase it All The Way From Japan.

It came to me via an amazing Etsy Seller called Pomadour24. Super fast delivery, and beautifully packaged too. I think it cost me about £19 including delivery.

The book itself is called "Pretty Colour Crochet and Knit Goods"

Do go take a look at this amazing Etsy shop, there are some lovely looking books to be had All The Way From Japan. (just spotted this one oooo-ooooo!!)

Hmmm....I can feel an addiction coming on. Dear oh dear.

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Monday :: edited to add :: Wonderful to read all your excitable comments on this post, oh me too, me too, the excitement over this book has not yet diminished!!

Just to let you know that Pomadour24 does restock/update her etsy shop very frequently, so if the book is out of stock when you first go look, do check back again in a day or two as it will come back in again.

Also to add I've gone and bought Book 2. Dear-oh-dear. I'll show you it when it arrives All The Way From Japan.

And finally, due to popular demand, I will be writing a How-to-decipher post for the crochet diagrams, sometime this week I hope.

xx

 

Saturday Morning Bliss

Took this photo today at 10:57am, it perfectly captures a little patch of Saturday Morning Bliss.

Me still in my pyjamas.

Pink lolloppy-flopsy tulips on the table.

Mug of frothy coffee in favourite morning mug.

A spot of relaxed flower-making (a new project on the go, more of that very soon)

And the most deeee-lish new book just delivered and unwrapped but not-yet-opened.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bliss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tripping to Town

One of the things that I really appreciate about living where I do is the fact that it's less than a ten minute walk from the Attic to the centre of town. I can be sitting at home, dreaming of cream cakes and strawberries, or having run out of toothpaste, and within ten minutes I can be right there in the middle of Main Street fulfilling my dreams and needs. Ok, so it takes a little longer than ten minutes in the school holidays cos the Little People still require a considerable amount of work to get them ready and out the front door, plus they seem to make detours for themselves en route. You know, walls that need to be balanced along, cats that need to be stroked, bits of broken metal that need to be picked up off the pavement and examined, that sort of thing. But it's still a relatively quick walk and quite a pleasant activity to do with the LP in the holidays.

So yesterday, in the late morning, when the rain had stopped raining, I decided on a little Trip to Town.

First stop the chemist, for toothpaste and Miffy tissues.

Second stop the library, to finally take back The Overdue Book. Dear oh dear, has it really been sssoooooo long? Do I really owe That Much??? Crikey.

Third stop the fruit and veg stall on the market. And I have to say it was really interesting visiting the fruit and veg stall with the Little People.

I needed to buy some sort of green vegetable to have with dinner, and a small selection of fruit. So into my bag goes a head of fresh broccoli, 4 big juicy morrocan oranges (J's favourite), and a punet of sweet strawberries. If I had been on my own, then that probably would have been the extent of my purchases, but the Little People have other ideas...

....they are really eyeing up all the fruit, and it does look very tempting and delicious.

Little Lady begs for plums, that she says are her "absolute favourite-ist fruits". Oh, Ok then. So we buy a bag of deep purpley black plums just for Her.

Little Man pleads for fresh apricots. Are you sure? Are you sure you like them? I seem to have memories of him trying a fresh apricot before and spitting it straight back out again. But he insists, and so we buy a bag of plump, soft apricots just for Him.

I start to get a taste for this more spontaneous method of selecting produce, so I too begin to eye up what's on offer, begin to consider various other fruity possibilities. Melon? Too heavy to carry. Dragon fruit? hmm perhaps a little too exotic. Red currants? My eye suddenly catches Little Ladies fingers poking into a punet of red currants and squishing them one by one. Arrggghhh!!!! Quickly whisk her had away and decided against red currants.

oooohh I can't decide, I am parralised by all the choice. My eyes move across the fruit and into the salady bit. Huge pinky red bunches of radishes, ripe tomatoes, and then.....

 

....Peas. Ahhh how about some peas? Seasonal and fresh and possibly local? Yes, why not, I suddenly have a real need for fresh, sweet peas popped out of their green pods and straight into my mouth. So we buy a bag of fresh green peas just for Me.

 

We are done at the fruit and veg stall now as my bag is suddenly very heavy. And the Little People are suddenly declaring themselves to be staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarving hungry. So we make a fourth stop and call in to a local baker to buy some freshly baked hot sausage rolls for an early lunch. I suggest we take them home to eat, but no no no, they are staaaaaaarving and cannot possibly wait, need to eat Right There and Then.

So we cross over the road to the Town Hall where there is a little cobbled square with wooden benches and big tubs planted with bright flowers. All the benches are full so we end up sitting on the Town Hall Steps and enjoying a quick picnic lunch of sausage roll, fresh peas, apricots, plums and strawberries. Quite delicious.

We do happen to have made other purchases from the bakers, eh-hem, it's not all healthy fruit and veg with us you know, where's the fun in that???! But I do manage to persuade the LP to bring the Naughty's home to eat, cos I am quite desperate for a cup of tea with my purchase.....

 

There are gingerbread men for the Little People (essential to pick out their smartie eyes first don't you know)....

 

....and a Sicillian Lemon muffin for Mummy.

 

mmmmmmmmmmmmm, the muffin is delicious. As is the book I borrowed from the library.

 

The book is "Creating Vintage Style" by Lucinda Ganderton. High Grade eye candy indeed. I personally don't really do whole-hearted Vintage Style in my own home, but I know a great many of you in Blogland do love this style. I like small elements of it. For example, I do love old enamelware.

 

And you can never go far wrong with a pretty jug stuffed full of beautiful fresh flowers.

 

Oh and blankety things, yes yes, I do really love the blankety things.

I mean, whats not to love? A Granny Square blanket draped over a bed, why it's the stuff of my dreams!!

Talking of which, what has happened to the Story of BB I hear you ask? When is the Ta-dah post gonna be happening? Did I get more yarn? Is BB finished?

Well no, I have not yet been able to get more yarn :: trips to buy yarn seem altogether more complicated with Little People in tow. But I shall try very hard to go today. BB is currently sitting in a neatly folded pile on the arm of the sofa, waiting patiently for the End-of-The-Edge-of-The-Edge to happen.

Soon my friends, it'll be soon.

And thats a promise.

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