APRICOTS AND PLANTS

Gosh I seemed to have been very busy lately - I don't really notice it until I stop. Lucky for me I did STOP this weekend which was great!  A bit of cooking-therapy was all I needed to re-charge my batteries. Mmmh apricot compote - can't get more summery then that!   

DING DONG THE BELLS

Two weekends ago I went to Laura and Richards wedding in summery Hertfordshire. The day couldn't have turned out better - the sun was out and the service was perfect. These are just a few of the snapshots that I was able to take. 

Thanks to Laura and Richard for such a lovely day.   

ALL ACTION POP UP BOOK

I don't know why but I have always loved pop-up books. They are the coolest books out there. This is one of my finds and it doesn't disappoint, after all it is an "All Action Pop Up Book".

SPRING CLEANING

Last weekend I had a visit from Crafty Magazine, which wanted to take some pictures of where I live. The house has never been this tidy. I'm not going to lie - it was an effort to make everything look nice and neat. Two minutes after they had left, everything was back to normal, with things everywhere. Oh well at least it looked nice for a brief moment. 

This is the start of one of the doilies, for my friend's wedding, based on this design. I don't know if I'm happy with the result yet. This weekend I'm going to Sweden so maybe I can find some cool inspiration from there.

SPRING TOILET MAT

I have worked on this project in stages. Rather than having a plan from the start I have just let it develop. If I'm honest I had no idea what it was going to become when I started but I'm pleased with the result. Goes to show that plans are not always important.  

LOOKING FOR SOME INSPIRATION

One of my friends is getting married in May and she has ordered 5 vintage-style doilies for the day from me. I must confess that I don't have much experience of crocheting doilies, so I thought I would get some inspiration from my countless vintage patterns. Looking at the different patterns I have realised that I have been quite gender-biased in my selection. Lots of cool patterns for guys but not that many doilies. I will have to browse some online resources for some inspiration instead.

I have been obsessed with hats lately. The photo above made me laugh. Either the man to the left is about to floor the man with the crazy-looking balaclava or he is about to kiss him. It could go either way. Life seemed more dramatic in the days before google maps.

TECHNO TRIVET

Coffee is wonderful! So I had to crochet a cool trivet to go with my hipster Coffee Drip Decanter from Hario. 

I'm not a fan of multicolored wool but I think this skein was awesome. My experience of working with multicolored wool have thought me that simplicity is the key. Don't make any fancy patterns as the details will be lost and outshone by all the colors. In this case less is definitely more and that is the reason why I have only used trebles for this trivet. 

To make an easy crochet trivet for yourself just crochet two circles, roughly the same size, and crochet them together with Double Crochet (UK) / Single Crochet (US). This way it will be thick enough for there to be no condensation under the coffee/tea-pot.