Do You Like 'Cute'?

Well here I am again after a busy weekend celebrating family birthdays and a visit from our daughter and son-in-law from the 'big smoke' to contribute to the fun and frolics - or should we say the highjinks! A good time was had by all and the now-eighteen-year-old was in his element, (as was the thirteen-year-old, whose special day had been earlier in the week). This is a pic of one of his gifts, which we all thought was so cute!

And on the subject of cuteness - would you like to have a look at a few more Amigurumi characters that have kept me busy over the past months?

All of these cuties are from the 'Crochet Bakemo' (monsters) book, with the exception of the little rabbit which is from 'Amigurumi',  both titles by Lan-Anh Bui and Josephine Wan, and if you would like to chase up either, or both of these then www.gmcbooks.com is where you can place an order. I have so enjoyed bringing these little critters to life and they are now happily housed with family members and friends near and far; they do make such lovely gifts!

The three-eyed monster (Kitsu is his name) is from the title already mentioned, and the little dumpy rabbit is my own creation - he is being well-looked after and loved by a cute little three-year-old missie.

This kittykat came about after much deliberation, as a result of me being attracted to a lovely porcelain ornament. He/she has become so popular that several colours have appeared off the end of my crochet hook!

The postie delivered me a new supply of yarn yesterday - I keep telling him how kind he is, and now he's wondering when I'm going to produce a handknit sweater for him with all this yarn that he keeps bringing me! 

Anyway, the latest supply is for a cardigan which I have been planning to knit for myself and, although I have made a start on it, there isn't enough of it yet to show to it's best advantage, but I will tell you that the colour is absolutely gorgeous and the yarn top quality wool from here in Australia.

 www.bendigowoollenmills.com.au  I have never been disappointed with BWM yarns, and their colour ranges are fantastic! So, watch this space and I'll show you the work in progress soon!

Well I think that's about it for this time except to mention (and it's a very important mention) that, while my daughter was here at the weekend she did a bit of tweaking of this here blog site for me because I couldn't quite get things to my liking - and she's continued her wonderful magic from home - so now I am very happy with the new look. Thank you so much dear Tracy xxx

I hope the week works out well for you and that you manage to have 'me' time for your favourite crafts.  I trust you enjoyed your visit with me and that you'll call in again soon - you are welcome to leave a message but, while I would love to hear from you, there is no obligation to do so! 

❤Joy

Beatrix Potter's Little Corner

I have always loved Beatrix Potter and so whilst dusting this morning I thought it might be nice to take a quick picture of the little area that I have sort of 'dedicated' to her just to let you have a look. There are a couple of 'stray' ornaments in there but they do kind of fit into the overall scene, I think!

I haven't really settled into any hooky this week - but I'm planning a couple of things to get started on, maybe even later today now that the house cleaning is all done and I can relax without 'guilt'; oh that terrible word/thing that I do still tend to take on, (at times!), when enjoying my crafty work instead of tending to the jobs around the place that need to be done. Anyone else do this?

I did manage to take a couple more pics whilst walking in the park near the hospital, (we have a few lovely parks around our little town), which is where we, more times than not, walk out little Pika, and she loves it!

The river runs around the perimeter of the park and is a lovely cooling influence in Summer time when the temperature can be quite high - we are in Australia after all! But then, on the other hand, during Autumn/Winter the breeze wafting up from it can be very cold! Still, it's always an enjoyable walk regardless, and we count ourselves very fortunate to be blessed with such as this.

Recently our Town Shire has been very busy in the Park, constructing an Adventure Playground for the kiddies in all natural products - no plastic! I noticed the other day that someone has made a contribution in crochet; now I realise that you, like me, have probably seen some of the photos 'doing the rounds' recently of this type of thing, albeit much more intricate work, but nevertheless I do think this looks quite pretty and so nice that someone has taken the time and effort to create it for the kiddies. 

And who knows, something like this may even encourage the little ones to try their hand at hooking!

Before I go it might be nice to send you a happy little flower to cheer you on your way - as well as a pic of this sweet little frog who favoured us with his presence in our back garden for a while but sadly then disappeared! Maybe he grew up and went off to find a mate - can't blame him for that can we! I called him George!

I do hope you all have a lovely weekend with happy experiences wherever you go, whatever you do!

Thank you so much for looking in and do please leave a little message - I'd love to hear from you!

❤Joy 

It's All To Do With Practice!

This setting up of blogs is not all that easy for the absolute amateur, and I'm like a little terrier puppy ..... can't let go until it's right! So, I must keep trying and hopefully will iron out a couple of details that don't satisfy me yet - please bear with me!

So after a dull and damp weekend we have a brighter morning here, but still not really good enough to show photo to their best advantage - however - I do have a couple of items to share so will plod on and hope you get the general idea from these views!

We still managed to have a (short only) walk through the local park on Sunday - our little dog Pika still needs to have exercise regardless of the weather, as do J and I. 

J, having eyes like a hawk, spotted these little fungi things which look very interesting - and unseen before by us: the wood chips seem to be responsible for their appearance?

I also had some hooky time over the weekend and so managed to finish my latest cushion - inspired by Sharron at Annie's Place - and although I don't have the correct size insert as yet, I thought I'd show and tell anyway! 

Such a shame the light is not doing justice to the beautiful colours, but we'll let your imagination do the rest eh?
Now, would you like to take a look at our little 'Pika'? She's a Maltese/Shih-tzu cross, and very loved and spoiled, especially by her Dad! Look at those eyes! Could you resist her?

So that's my little say for today. Thank you for taking the time to have a look and please feel free to leave a comment if you'd like to, for I'd love to have some response.

Blessings to all,

Joy xxx

Follow-Up

Hello - I hope you are having a good day and finding some sunshine, wherever you are. Perhaps you are having to shine brightly yourself because, if your weather is anything like ours has been today, there's not much brightness around. Still, better than the heat the folks are still having to endure in our nearest  big city, which is  nearly five-hundred kilometres away - please don't ask me what that amounts to in miles!

It's been a bit of a learning curve getting this blog started, but now it's on it's way I thought I might just post a few more of the crochet items that have kept me busy over the past few months.

Everyone loves a teddy bear!

And a quiet little puppy-dog!

But not everyone  loves little mice! How sad!


So that's just another sampling of the Amigurumis
for you to peruse.

Then I got into a few useful pieces  - I hope you like them!

Bag pattern from Attic24

Ripple blanket inspiration from Attic24

So that's it for this time folks and now I wish you a great weekend filled with the things you love to do.

Joy

Beginnings:

Hello and welcome to my little spot! Please be patient with me as I learn to find my way around, as this  is my first experience of blogging (apart from a very quiet FB page)! I have even had trouble leaving messages on other bloggers' sites! Never mind, upwards and onwards!

My very favourite yarn craft for the past fourteen months or so has been crochet, and I am well and truly hooked! Quite strange really, for in my younger days I just couldn't handle crochet at all and so always had the knitting needles busy; I do still love to knit of course but have been quite busy with the hook and thought it might be nice to let you see what I've produced so far.

My grandsons and daughters encouraged me to crochet  Amigurumi   and I also had help from various websites and the wonderful book, 'Amigurumi' by Lan-Anh Bui & Josephine Wan, and so quite a few little personalities came into being which are now much loved by family and friends. I have since branched out into other subjects and now we have crocheted blankets, cushions, Christmas decos, baby beanies, little plant pot jackets, etc., etc.. I must make mention that Lucy's blog at Attic 24 has been a great help, as well as Sharron at Annie's Place, amongst many others. Thanks to you all for your wonderful inspiration!

Thank you for dropping by and I hope you will call again. I wish you a happy peaceful day full of creative fun.

Joy