Tutorial Sites

I have looked around the internet for tutorials of how to make this and that plus recipes for ages now, which is how I stumbled upon the world of blogging in the first place. I used to bookmark any tutorials which I liked the look of and if I found myself keep getting drawn back to the blog I'd follow it. Lately I've been looking more at tutorial sites, I could just click my way through all the categories for hours,oohing and ahhing at other peoples creations.

Craftgossip is the first one which took my fancy. Not only does it have absolutely tons of tutorials, they also do book/product reviews plus lots of giveaways. You can also submit your tutorial to be featured on Craftgossip.

Cut Out and Keep is a place for sharing tutorials which are put on the site and not through links. I like that anything which catches your eye can be favourited so you can use it at a later date.

I only stumbled across Freubelweb recently as I was curious as to where some of my blog traffic was coming from. After investigating, I found a lovely tutorial site and through the site found

diy:LIVLIG. As well as tutorials on here, there as lots of links for tutorials on other blogs. I only happened to find this one today so I know that I'll be doing alot of clicking yet to look at everything.

What are your favourite kind of sites or what keeps you looking through the wonderful world of blogs far longer than you intended to ?

A Nice Surprise

Yesterday while reading through some of my favourite blogs I discovered that I'd won my first ever give away. I was so excited I couldn't wait to pounce on my husband the minute he walked through the door from work to tell him my news. My prize was this fabulous collection of patterns designed by Julia of handknittedthings.

I love them all and don't know which to start first. What I do know is I'll be off to do a spot of wool shopping this week. If you like the look of these patterns they are available to purchase from the handknittedthings shop as well as some ready knitted items.

Thank you again Julia. It made my day, it was like being given an early Christmas pressie.

Christmas Bunny

This is what I have made this week, a Christmas bunny decoration. I know that rabbits aren't a creature traditionally associated with Christmas but I love them. The pieces that I used for the rabbit are at the bottom of the post.

MATERIALS

Felt

Thread

Stuffing

Ribbon

A bell, pom pom or button to add to the hat - (The bell I used on mine was originally on a chocolate bunny)

 

I placed my rabbit pieces in position on to the felt I choice as my background colour. I used a dab of craft glue to keep them in place.

The pieces were stitched in place using tiny straight stitches.

Next embroider on the rabbit's face.

I then cut around the rabbit leaving a small edge of the background felt. With the same felt which was used as a background, cut out a matching shape and sew the two pieces together, inserting a small length of ribbon at the top for hanging. Slightly stuff before closing up.

Bobble Crochet Pillowcase Edge

I love bobble edge trim and wanted to try and replicate a bobble edge using crochet. I'm sure there must be another way of making a crochet bobble but this is the only way I know.

Foundation Row  Edge the pillowcase using blanket stitch, 1cm down from the edge and the stitches 1cm apart

Join the wool in to a blanket stitch using sl st

Make bobble - Ch4, 3tr (leaving the last loop from each tr on the hook), pull wool through all 4sts, ch4, sl st in to htr.

Row 1  - 3dc in to each blanket stitch, join the row end with sl st

Row 2 - 4ch, skip 2dc, htr in next dc, * 2ch, skip 2dc, htr in next dc. Repeat from * to end, sl st in ch2 of beg 4ch.

Row 3 - Ch4, 3tr (leaving the last hoop of each tr on the hook), pull wool through all 4sts, ch4, sl st into beg of 4ch, * 2 sl st across 2ch, sl st in to htr, 2 sl st across 2ch, sl st in to htr and make bobble. Repeat from * to end. Fasten off with sl st.

Noel Hearts

I've finished these hearts off just in time for when my Mum nips here for a brew and natter after work. My Mum loves Christmas and I made these with her in mind. The free tutorial can be found here. There are more tutorials and recipes plus lots of lovely photos on Cherry's blog so it might be worth a visit if you have not popped over there before.

Fourteen Years Ago Today

I can't believe it was 14 years ago today on a very foggy evening, that my first born made his appearance into the world .

Where has this cheeky little chap disappeared to? The years have gone far too quick.

Unfortunately his Birthday has fell on a school day so he has tried to swindle a day off ... nice try . Instead he has put in a request for a chocolate cake so that is what me and Little L will be up to later.

Winter House

This week I have been making more of these Christmas trees which I made last year and this little winter house decoration.

All the pieces are cut from felt and sewn together using tiny straight stitches. Seed beads were sewn on to look like snow. A small length of ribbon was inserted at the top for hanging and it was slightly stuffed before closing. The pieces I made for the house are below.

Chocolate Pizza

Last Friday evening the children made a chocolate pizza. I had seen one being make on a food programme so bought some ingredients and let the children have a go.

 This is what they used for their pizza -

Ready made pizza base

Chocolate, white, plain and milk

Marshmallows

Toffee sauce

Digestive biscuits, crushed.

I part cooked the pizza base before I let the children loose on it as I knew the chocolate wouldn't take too long to melt.The children broke all the chocolate up and sprinkled it on the base along with some marshmallows. The base was then popped in the oven for a couple of minutes for the chocolate and marshmallows to melt. When the pizza was ready it was topped with toffee sauce and sprinkled with the digestive biscuits.

As much as I love chocolate, the pizza didn't appeal to me. I think it was a bit too chocolately looking. Everybody else said it was nice, though youngest lad said that it gave him a dry throat.

Crochet Kitties And Fighting Bugs

This last week I have mainly been fighting bugs off. A lot of lounging and soup eating was done as every one in the house fell victim to coughs, colds and sore throats but we are all slowly getting back to our usual selves.

Over the past couple of days I made these crochet kitties. The pattern was a free one found on Ravelry by Stina Berggren. The pattern name is Kitty Coin Purse. The size is ideal for a mobile phone so I made 3 for my youngest son and his friends and 2 which I filled with a bit of stuffing and sewed the end up to make a little square cat.

To cheer myself up because I was bug ridden I bought this book, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. I was Christmas shopping on a book site at the time and I can't help popping myself one in the basket. I love watching Triple D and seeing the restaurant owners cook. I think its because we don't have anything like it round here. All we have is the usual big name fast food chains and I would have to be paid to eat the muck they sell. It may be a bit difficult to find some of the ingredients in the book in one of our supermarkets as they are American but there are afew online sites which ship American food in the UK and looking through them, the ingredients won't be too hard to find. I can't wait now to get my taste buds back so I can try some of the recipes out.

I hope everyone has a great weekend.

( Still having comments problems so thank you to Val, Tracy and Linda for the comments on my last post )