Made It! Winner

As several of you may know, I’ve been entering some of my makes into the Made It! Monthly Challenge hosted by Maryanne of Woolhogs. Absolutely anything can be entered – knitting, crochet, sewing, paper craft – you name it, it’s probably appeared at some point. At the end of the month there is the chance to vote for the items you most like/admire. When voting closes a winner is selected at random to receive that month’s prize and a voter’s choice award is given to the person with the most votes.

Well, last month I entered my Cosy Cowls and was lucky enough to be picked to win the prize!

I’ve been meaning to blog about it ever since, but school/life/Christmas meant that I just didn’t get round to it sooner. I’m now proudly displaying my ‘winner’ badge (on the bar to the right). There is still a very little time to enter for this month, or you could just wait until next month if you prefer. It’s a good bit of motivation to get something finished (although WIPs may also be entered) and it’s great seeing what other people are up to!

Versatile Blogger Award

A few days ago I had a message from Sue over at The Crafty Pioneer saying that she’d nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award – thanks Sue! Her blog is well worth having a look at, and I especially loved her recent post about yarn bombing – so many lovely pictures!

As with all these awards, I now need to pass it on. This is the part that, at times, has filled me with dread. Not that I want to be stingy, but I only follow a relatively small number of blogs (although I admire many others and dip into them every so often) and how many times can I keep nominating the same people?! However, a few other blogs have recently caught my eye. I haven’t quite come up with the 15 blogs that I’m supposed to nominate (15 seems like a lot!) but these are blogs that I just love reading. There will be some I’ve nominated before and some new ones, but all are worth taking a look at.

To these nominated bloggers I say this – I completely understand if you can’t accept this award or pass it on for whatever reason. But please just take it as a compliment (I love hearing what you have to say and looking at your lovely pictures) and a thank you for the effort you put into it!

So, in no particular order, here they are:

Woolhogs
Noelle O Designs
Pillows A-La-Mode
Mrs M Makes
Tiny Inc
Rainbow Junkie
Hannah Ackroyd
Crochet With Tamara
The Little Room of Rachell
Made By Patch

Thanks very much to all you wonderful people, keep up the good work!

And now for the other part the award requires – 7 facts you may not know about me:

1. I only properly learnt to crochet at the beginning of 2012. I’d dabbled with it before (and Granny taught me as a child) but the addiction only really kicked in a year ago.
2. I love crafting with other people. It’s great to pick up ideas from other people, and generally just have a good old natter whilst being creative. Bliss!
3. I love drinking Chai tea.
4. The wreath that I made for Christmas 2011 is still on the door. I might possibly take it down this year…
5. I would love to go to Italy.
6. I have more than 100 unread books on my kindle.
7. I’ve been staring into space for the last 5 minutes trying to think of one last thing to say!

Catching up

Things have been quiet on the crafting front the last week or so. Mostly because I’ve been either too busy or too tired to bother. But at the back of my mind is the niggling, nagging voice reminding me that I’ll be selling my wares in just a couple of weeks. I really need to listen to that voice, as I don’t have enough stock just yet. But my motivation is really lacking at the moment! Anyone got any tips on where to find some?!

I did have the bright idea of doing a few little cross stitch keyrings. I started with my own design for a Union Jack in pastel colours. Nice and simple and quick to make, right? Wrong.

It was simple enough, but I’d forgotten just how long cross stitch takes! (Or maybe it’s just me? Or maybe it was just because I chose really small aida ?) Anyway, it took a really long time to finish, and as a result I haven’t even started any others. Anyway, here’s the front…

…and the back.

I’m going to to stuff it slightly, but haven’t even got round to that bit yet, that’s how lazy I’ve been!

Anyway, I’m hoping for a good dose of inspiration/motivation to kick in really soon – any ideas on where to find either would be much appreciated!

On Monday I posted off the buttons that Maryanne won in my giveaway.

I included a little note with a button in the corner 🙂

Then I finished off the package with tissue paper and ribbon.

And today I had a lovely surprise from Maryanne herself – she’s nominated me for the One Lovely Blog award!

Thank you so much for thinking of me Maryanne (and please visit her lovely blog if you haven’t already – it’s just lovely, and very deserving of the Lovely Blog award!!) If I get time at the weekend I may even pass this one on, as I’ve discovered so many lovely blogs since the last time I dished out the awards and I’d love to share some of my favourites. Watch this space!

Awards

Over the last couple of weeks I have been honoured with some awards from some lovely people! It’s taken me some time trawling through my comments to find them (although I’ve appreciated each and every one of them, I’ve not had the mental capacity to deal with them all until now, and some go back a couple of weeks – but I think I’ve found them all in the end!) I can’t quite believe how many there have been – there are some super generous people out there 🙂

The first was an award I’ve not heard of – the Liebster Award. It turns out that Sara (from Sincerely, Sara who nominated me) didn’t know either! So it’s all a bit of a mystery, but fairly similar to others which are around in that you share a few things about yourself and then nominate others for the award. Thank you for nominating me Sara – I got round to mentioning it eventually!

This week I’ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger Award – on Monday I was nominated by Sam at The Giraffe’s Hat (what a great name for a blog!) and this morning I was nominated by Jill at Nice Piece of Work. Thank you ladies!

On Tuesday I received an email from the lovely Susan over at Crochet Addicts telling me she’d nominated me for the Sunshine Award – how exciting! This is another one I’d not come across before but I think it’s great, as we’re not getting much real sunshine at the moment 🙂 And later that same day I got a message from Melissa at Lazy Daisy Crochet, saying there was a surprise for me over at her blog. It turns out that Susan had also nominated her for the Sunshine Award, and she in turn had passed it on to me! So thank you very

All these awards say that you should share some facts about your life (the number varies) and then nominate a number of other blogs for the same award. However, that feels like it will take all day, so instead how about you have a look at the blogs of all these lovely ladies who passed these awards to me – they’re all well worth it 🙂 And once more, thanks so much ladies for these nominations – I’m glad you enjoy my blog!

(I’m slowly figuring out how to add things to my sidebar, so these may (or may not!) turn up on there soon…)