Now, Thats a Wrap!!

Yvonne, a member of my stitch group is celebrating her 50th tonight - so I got her a bottle of Blossom Hill white wine and decided to wrap it up in a ball of red heart yarn, finishing off with ribbon, flowers and a crochet hook! I hope she will love it - as it makes me smile whenever I see it :)

I had such fun doing this, that I have decided that this is how I will wrap all gifts for my crafty friends from now on :)

A very Happy Birthday Yvonne :)

Sister in Law gets Crocheted!!

A few weeks ago it was my sister in laws 23rd Birthday - I wanted to make her something funky but yet elegant at the same time - I decided to go with my Twisted Shawl pattern and was very happy with the outcome, The shawl really suits Genny and she was kind enough to let us hold a photo shoot yesterday

Designer and Model ;)

It didn't take long for Genny to become comfy with the camera

Doesn't the shawl suit her! I really enjoyed doing a mini fashion shoot and have decided that with the help of both my sister in laws to do one with every crochet item that I have made 

Best-friends, Crochet, Spinning and Grandmothers!

So the holiday is over, and we are now back in Ireland, the time spent with Melanie and John will never be forgotten - we had such a wonderful time and I was so sad to say Goodbye -
While there Melanie and I both worked on a Crochet Along, Jumpers to keep us warm, we call them the BFF Jumpers ;)

Here is mine

and here is the front and back of Mel's.

When we got back into Ireland we decided to spend the night in Dublin, so that we could go shopping the next day - Morgan had arranged a yarn shop tour for me and we visited the store "I KNIT", and look what I got!

A Drop Spindle!!

Granted I am not the best at it, but it is early days and I am happy at my progress thus far, in fact yesterday at my father in laws 52nd birthday party I was teaching my sister in laws and my Grandmother' in law how to use it!

Nanna really enjoyed using the spindle!

teaching Gen

and teaching Milo

Nanna is Morgans grandmother on his fathers side, and I have to say I Love this woman, she is so very kind and traditional, and yet has a wonderful sense of humour not to mention one heck of a sweet tooth! I love sitting with her and chatting as she is always very interesting and I find we have the same views on alot of things - everyday life, religion etc ... Nanna is the kind of woman that I hope to be some day...

My Award

A big thanks to Andrea from Lush Stuff, who gave me The Versatile Blogger Award,  The award comes with a few easy rules:

• Thank the person who gave you the award.
• Tell 7 things about yourself.
• Award 15 other bloggers that you enjoy reading. (I only have time to write  11 :P)

7 Things About Me:

1. My real name is not Nina/Neen that has been my nickname for as long as I can remember
2. I have been with my husband for ten years (married for one year)
3. I want to learn to stick weave
4. I want a bigger house.
5. I bruise very easily 
6. I really would love to NOT work, I have been working for so long and feel that taking a year out would be a dream come true
7. I would love to open a yarn shop some day

Here's my list of 11 Blogs I am awarding with The Versatile Blogger award.( in no partiular order)

Morgan

Melanie

John

Antony

Libby

Thomas

Annika

Barbara 

Pippa Blue

Aga

Michelle

Ester

Our Holiday, Day... so far

Hi everyone, so after months of waiting the day finally came to travel to Dublin to reach the airport where we would catch the plane to Newcastle! Dublin is about a three hour drive from Galway and we were traveling with "Go Bus" which was a wonderful experience. We reached the airport in record timing and checked in even quicker - Once in the air, Morgan took some pictures for me, the reason behind this will be revealed in a future crochet project ;)

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Once in Newcastle we hopped right onto the metro and took the 45 minute trip to Sunderland - everything went off without a hitch and to be honest I slept for the whole journey!
At the metro station who was there to meet us? yes that's right Melanie and John! so as me and Melanie just hugged and hugged the husbands were forced to introduce them self ;) but thankfully they were not strangers as they had sent a few emails back and forth,

From the moment we stepped into Melanie and John's beautiful and cosy home we were made to feel at ease! we met the pets Foxy, Scrappy, Jack and Whiskey and all these animals were so friendly and so loved!
After a cuppa it was gift time look at the wonderful things I was given!!

Can you believe that Melanie hand crocheted all of these!! I also got vintage hand cream, wool, a book, beautiful key rings with photos of me and Morgan in and also some lovely Betty Boop pyjamas, Melanie and I both got eachother matching nightwear, here we are wearing my set

On the second night we went to see Mel's dad play a gig with his new band The Bizz, and to be honest he was the star of the show on lead guitar - beyond amazing!!

We also were able to meet another Ravelry friend Rosella and her husband Brian, such a lovely couple!

On Saturday Mel and John took us into the town were we stocked up on sweets before heading to the Museum, it was very interesting and even had a place were you could dress up!

It was on this day that the messing began between us all, playing jokes, trying to scare eachother and basically  slagging eachother off - a true sign of how comfy we were! We then took the bus to the beach were we watched the sea while the husbands took photos of it ;)

Cant you just imagine us sat here like this in 70 years! 

On Sunday we went to watch a re-enactment battle at Hylton Castle also there were lots of tents with people dressed up and showing all the old trades such as Spinning and stick weaving 

There are so many pictures of me and Melanie, She is really my best friend and after being over here and meeting her, I know I will be really upset to leave, I also get on so well with her husband John, in fact you could say he is like the brother I never ... wanted ;) only joking, he has been super, and has looked after us so well with cooking us lovely meals and doing a wonderful BBQ and the fact that Morgan and John are good friends now too, adds to the bonus, they both got each other fantastic photography books and both really enjoy looking through them!

Each night Mel and I have been sitting on the sofa with goodies crocheting and chatting while watching DVD's with the boys, I cannot write enough with how welcoming they have been and how at ease we feel - Melanie and John have opened their home to us and shared their life, pets and food with us! I will miss them so so much - but we have a few more days left and I look forward to seeing what trouble we get up to then ;)
So guys, fill me in on what you have been up to this week??

Airline Rant!, Crochet hat, Swinging fifties and my Brother!!

Hello guys and gals ;),
 I hope your week is going well - My week so far has been very busy - we go on our holiday on Thursday! So work has been all go with trying to train in my replacement (that is a rant in its self!) and get all our stuff ready for packing, I finish work tomorrow so I didn't give myself much time to get ready, Thankfully Morgan looks after the passports / tickets / bookings etc ... so now all I have to do is worry about making sure everything fits in the case, we are flying with Ryan Air and I have to say NEVER AGAIN, I am so mad at the fact that their baggage prices cost more then our tickets alone! so we opted for the one case between us and the fact that we are not allowed to go over the weight of 15KG adds insult to injury! Morgan got a second Email from the airline today telling him to make sure our carry on baggage is not over 10KG or we will have to pay a fine! Ryan Air gets alot of bad reviews and with our experience so far, I can see why! but apart from that I am excited to go and see Melanie and John, I will take lots of photos and videos and share my visit with you when we get back :)
So here is a hat I finished for the group Free Pattern Testers on Ravelry, it is called Twisted Beanie

I have to say I am not a fan of this pattern, maybe it is because I am use to creating my own or maybe because of the way it was wrote, anyway I am glad it is finished - it is a quick project to make only took an hour!

Something I have really wanted to do lately is take Swing Dance lessons - I love the music and moves! I received a lovely letter a few days ago asking me if I would do a swap - Some crochet of mine, in return for this wonderful headpiece, what do you think?

I love it and it really inspired me to look into going to the lessons and gatherings, but I thought "I need a dress to wear!!" so for my birthday next month this will be on my wish list!

Isn't this dress wonderful!! I really want it, and cannot wait to wear it and dance in it!, but what do you guys think??
I also wanted to tell you about my brother Antony - Antony is 15 and already has such talent when it comes to filming and editing! he has a YouTube channel but he also has started a Blog - he writes up film reviews and posts funny pictures and jokes, if you have time could you check him out and maybe say hello? Thanks everyone in advance :) 13ANGRYANTS
Also I am feeling much better now thank God, I am just very tired after the busy week - just think soon I wont have to go to work for 7 whole days!! Yayness!!

Ok, I admit it - I feel sick!

Last night after getting home from a day in town, I was not feeling to well - but when asked if I was ok by my husband my answer was "yes, Im going to clean up in a moment", this is always something I do when I feel a little  under the weather I have to clean! I cannot relax unless everything is neat and the floor hovered and shelves dusted and then I can lie down and feel better, but last night I could not even get up - I fell fast asleep and after an hour when Morgan woke me I had a fat lip! a coldsore had broke out and my gums were so sore - I had no energy and felt like I couldnt lift my head, so I lay there in the dark watching the film "Gone in 60 seconds" on the telly, now I am not sure why but I really enjoyed that film!

Later on Morgan went to bed as he was feeling unwell too and he conked out, his jaw and face was aching so you could say the two of us really were in the wars!! I went on the internet looking up blogs and checking out peoples projects on Ravelry while watching Love Actually, I crawled into bed just before 3AM.

Today I was up and dressed early as we were going to my parents for dinner - I am still unwell and cant swallow proper but thankfully I have alot more energy. Crochet wise, I am working on Mens Christmas Socks for my hubby - 

How has your weekend been? would love to hear what you have been up to - anything to make me feel better :)

xx

My crazy skirt and Crochet books

I started making a shrug a while ago and it suddenly hit me, I will never wear it! so I sat and looked at it and thought about it while having a cup of tea (no offense guys, but Irish tea is better then any tea in the world!if you would like a couple of teabags to prove it, let me know in the comments or email me your address!) anyway after my tea and slice of farmhouse cake was finished I decided to turn the shrug into a skirt!! so that I could wear it over leggings/ jeans or other skirts, I am really interested to read what you think, it is my own pattern and I am delighted how it turned out :) I called it Crazy 80 skirt, because it was my 80th project finished on Ravelry.

CRAZY 80 SKIRT

I was sat having a wonderful morning yesterday watching telly and looking through all my crochet books, I dont have that many as I am quite fussy when it comes to pattern books but I thought I would share with you some of my favorite

The happy hooker - I have learnt so much from this book, it was here that I followed my first pattern "Cold Shoulders" and I have made 12 since then!

Basic crochet stitches - This book covers every crochet stitch you can imagine!        

Vintage Crochet - I first got this book because I fell in love with the "Minnie cardigan"  and the pattern was in there, but since looking through the book I have found the most gorgeous vintage patterns ever!

SPOTLIGHT ON:

Mary Jane Hall

I am bringing to your attention a wonderful crochet designer, Mary Jane - I recently was introduced to her two crochet books and have read all the reviews on them and even saw some sneak peeks of the patterns and have fallen in love with them! Not only has she designed wonderful, wearable projects but Mary herself is a credit to the world of crochet, I look forward to getting both her books as soon as I can and I cannot wait to start crocheting that little black dress! (cover of Crochet That Fits)

So, what kind of books do you like?