Ma belle-sœur

Todays a very exciting day in the CraftLee house as we are all thinking about my sister in law, (ma belle-sœur in french) - I love that because she is indeed very belle & lovely! She goes into hospital to have her third child today.
Whilst she's in there, keeping herself busy and out of harms way, (with any luck painting her toenails & reading 'Grazia' though I doubt it somehow!!)

I thought I'd share with you one of the little presents I've made for the new arrival.....

We don't know if its a little baby boy or girl yet so I had to go with something 'gender neutral'....

A wavy blanket of baby zig-zags in shades of primrose, mocca, cream & aqua.
Its taken me about 3 weeks to get it made but I'm pretty delighted with the results !

I followed the pattern in Niki Trench's great book 'Cute and Easy Crochet'. I think I've made almost every project in this book by now. if your looking for a first book of crochet projects its really hard to beat!

Tempted to start another one straight away as theres something really relaxing about seeing all those waves growing into a lovely snuggly blanket.

If its a girl, I may add a few little flowers just to pretty it up a bit more...

 I know, I know its only one blanket HOW many pictures ?!?! I'm just delighted to have it finished in time before the little prince or princess arrives !

You get the picture! now, just for fun, heres Cooper napping at my feel in a lovely warm ray of sunshine !

Have a lovely Sunday & thank you for visiting !

 

Siubhán x x x

A Visit to Kinsale Pottery - part two (The results show!)

Well ...
Sitting here watching the 'Britians got talent' results show and I just remebered I forgot to share with you the results of our day workshop in Kinsale pottery (you can see the details of that day out here!)

The beloved very kindly drove me to Kinsale and we collected our work.
I'm pretty chuffed with the results ....

I've a feeling your going to see a bit more of this one !

The Lighthouse

Lornas Wizard looks fantastic now its been glazed.



Will have to get some ribbon & a very secure hook organised for these !

The one thing I couldn't get over was how much everything had shrunk ! The clay dries out and shrinks in the kiln but I hadn't realised exactly how much. So thats pretty much it \i really enjoyed working with clay and I fully intend to do it again someday soon.

What about the fantabulous mugs I hear you cry ?!?
They came out really well .....just perfect for a reward cuppa of lovely coffee for my driver !



The beloved asked that I let you all know the sun was reflecting on the lens and hes not really sporting a mop of grey/green hair a la the incredible hulk !!



Thanks for visiting & come back soon !

Siubhan x x x

A busy week so far !

Well....
I have been busy this week, may not have all the pictures to show for it but promise you I have !!

This week in my day job I had a very big event on Tuesday,
the launch of the 2012 Ocean to City Maritime Festival.
Its kinda been my baby for the past eight years
(but not for too much longer! - more about that another day!)

Here's me, looking like a bit of a twit between two very dashing men in uniform !

Anyway yesterday we launched

in the beautiful penthouse suite in the Clarion hotel (yayyy!!) 

in the rain (uugghh!!!)

it involved lots of photos (yayyy!)

with me in them (uuugghh!!)

and lots of people turned up (yayyy!!!)

and I had to speak in public (uuugghh!!!).

Anyway we did get some publicity out of it & I even got my mugshot in the paper ! here and here !

So heres the latest bags I've been working on ....

I AM getting fond of hanging bags from trees!!

I love the dotty lining in this one !

I DO love these bows .... think I might try make a bag with 3 big bows down the front.

I like the colours in this bag but maybe, like me,
your getting a little fed up of the same old style of bag, so.....
I've had some shoe patterned fabric burning a hole in my stash for ages now so last weekend I made a casual summer clutch for a good friend of mine Mary from "Love your shoes"

I like the shape but think it needs a bow or a flower to jazz it up ... don't you ?

Only had a fat quarter of patterned material so I very sneakily split it between a pocket & one half of the lining !

Look out for some different bags soon as i took delivery of two fantastic bag making books today.
More about them soon !
Whilst I was in the garden I took two more pictures for you ...

We've got tonnes of bluebells pushing through everywhere at the moment.

And theres some goosberries growing on the gooseberry bush !!! (even more than the harvest of 4 whole berries I had last year!!!)

I'm looking forward to the jam-making days ahead!

Thank you for visiting !

Siubhan x x x



A visit to Kinsale Pottery - part one

Last weekend I was lucky enough chance to do something I've ALWAYS wanted to do
I finally got to use a potters wheel.

Myself & Lorna (my daughter) took a trip to the beautiful town of Kinsale and  took part in a one day pottery taster workshop at Kinsale Pottery and Arts Centre. I wish I'd taken more photographs especially of the gallery and the views.....
We did get SOME photos though (thanks to Lorna) and I'd like to share a few of them with you.

The workshop and gallery are located in a lovely spot just outside the village, its owned and run by the very charming Adrian.
When we walked into the toasty warm pottery studio on Sunday morning we were confronted by a pottery wheel that had been 'decorated' by a hen party the previous week...

My 16 year old daughter has never seen 'Ghost' and come to think of it its been YEARS since I have,

Hmmmmmm!!! I think maybe its time to rent that movie again!

Ok, so we had a little tour and a chat about what some ceramics terms, we oooohed and ahhhhed over some of the pieces left behind by more 'serious' students and then

We got stuck in !

Firstly we made a little wall plaque each ....

After the colour was added

Lorna made a lovely 'welcome' sign .

Whilst everyone was working away on our individual plaques we all got a chance to take a break and throw a small bowl or mug on the wheel .

Our two mugs are the upturned ones !

Lorna was super fast a finishing her plaque so she made a little Harry potter inspired ball.

After lunch we were free to make a larger piece.
Lorna made a fantastic wizard ...

And I made a (not quite so fantastic) Lighthouse for the garden...

Here's Adrian our tutor tidying it up !!!

They will be glazed and fired and we can collect them all next week,
I can't wait to see what they'll look like glazed.
I will be sure and post some pictures when we get them back !

Siubhan x x x

Wash-Day Blues

The title of this post may be a bit of a misnomer, considering no one single day is 'wash-day' in the CraftLee House .... every day is washday !
The last few days have been a busy time in the laundry after a trip to my family in Donegal this weekend.

Heres a really beautiful shot of Errigal, Co Donegal (the second highest mountain in Ireland) taken by my old friend (the super tallented) John Rafferty, marine photographer.

oh!!! & I can't resist posting another one John's photos of the fantastically named 'Poisioned Glen'

Isn't that beautiful?

Back to the Wash-Day Blues....I seem to have spent a lot of time washing, drying, ironing folding and putting away since I've come home.
I even sorted through the odd-sock pile yesterday... Where oh! WHERE do they all come from ?!
Somehow I always imagine that all the mates to my ever increasing collection of odd socks are off somewhere sunny having waaayyyy more fun than the poor socks that are left behind !
Does anyone out there have a crafty idea to use up a waist high pile of odd socks?

Anyway I've been dying to call a post 'Wash-day Blues' just for an excuse to share with you  some cotton facecloths I made.....Taa Daa!!

Not quite as impressive as the Poisioned Glen I grant you, but much handier for washing your face with !

Two simple crochet squares made from two 'odd' balls of cotton I picked up in France last summer.
I followed the pattern from 'Cute and easy crochet' by Niki Trench

Out of my yarn stash & into the batroom....

A very quick project I made two in one night !



I'm off now to soak one of these puppies in cool water

(or maybe some ice-cold Sauvingon Blanc) 

& drape it over my tired eyes after a long day in front of the computer!

Thanks for visiting !

Siubhan x x x