Happy Halloween!!!

Happy Monday lovely readers!

I probably don’t need to remind you, but tomorrow is Halloween! You might have noticed but I absolutely adore Halloween 😊

I am all ready for trick and treaters tomorrow, I have set up my Halloween decorations and have lollies handy, including eye balls and vampire lollypops .

Here are my Halloween makes, they took me only around a week and they were super fun and cute to make. The good thing is that I will still have them next year! Aren’t they great?

To celebrate, I thought I would share a few Halloween posts that I’ve come across, with the patterns I’ve used and also a couple of Halloween recipes!

• Little spider pattern
• Raven pattern
• Pumpkin pattern
• Applique spider
• Applique ghost and pumpkin
• Halloween treats
• Pumpkin pie ice-cream

I hope the you all have an awesome Halloween tomorrow, that you eat too much lolly and that you get a good fright if that’s your thing!

Advertisement

FO Friday – Crochet Dolls

Happy Friday lovely readers!

I have had a busy week, started another WIP (seems like I can’t help myself!) which I’m super excited about, but today I want to show you my second crochet doll! They have been sent away on Monday to their new house and they should arrive next week, I’m super excited for my friend to receive them 😊

Here is my second doll, along with Candice, please meet Alizée!

And because they are girlfriends in real life, I though I would do a little photoshop magic and show their love

Aren’t they cute together? I had lots of fun making them and making their clothes, and now I’m really looking forward making a mini-me using Edward’s Doll Emporium! But first, I have a few WIPs to finish 😂

Have a great weekend!

My first go at NaNoWriMo

Happy Wednesday readers!

Today I though that instead of showing you a work in progress, I would share the beginning of my adventure into Nano land! For those of you who don’t know, November is the National Writing Month (hence NaNoWriMo) and each year, a lot of people gather on the NaNo website to write 50,000 words.

I have had this story playing in my head for a very long time, well before I even moved to Australia, so it must have been at least 7 or 8 years now! It is based in a fantasy world with quite a few complicated aspects, so it was important for me to leave time to mature the story in my head. Last year, I started thinking more and more about it and I wrote an outline, did some character sheets and developed the backstory and how the magical system works.

I was too late to join last year, but I though that this year was the year, so I’m just going with it! I have in mind that I will be happy if I manage to get 20,000 words down, so I’m not putting too much pressure on myself to write the whole 50,000.

The title of my story is ‘The Dragon Power – Awakening’ and here is what I’ve written for the synopsis:

Ewen has been dreaming about her Power awakening since she was a little kid. Now that her initiation travel is reaching its end, she will finally Awaken and start studying at the best university in the country. What she doesn’t know is that her Power has only been partly activated, and that she will have to take full possession of it if she does not want to lose it completely. In the midst of political intrigues, betrayals and shifts of power, will Ewen manage to Awaken fully before her time is up?

That’s it! I’m super excited for NaNo to start, and I’d love to know if you’re thinking of joining as well!

Wiley the Wisp

Hello lovely readers!

This year I have decided to participate more in events. I have been to two conferences for work, I am going to one of the biggest pop culture conventions next weekend, I’ve decided to join NaNoWriMo (more on that on Wednesday) and then I have also decided to join an amigurumi contest! Pfiou!

Some of you who love amigurumi will probably know that every year, amigurumipatterns.net organises a contest for amigurumi design, and this year I have decided to take the plunge. This year’s theme is Fantasy Creatures, here is what the sites says about the contest

Whip out your wands (I mean, hooks): this year’s design contest will conjure up the most amazing Fantasy Creatures! Fascinating fairies, unique unicorns, dramatic dragons, mesmerizing mermaids and many more from all corners of your imagination can compete to see who’s the most magical of them all, and gets to spirit away the amazing prize basket!

Doesn’t this sound super exciting? There are a lot of mermaids and unicorns in the designs already (which you can check out here), so I though I would do something different. I though about what kind of creature I could make and came up with a Will’O’Wisp. You may have noticed but I absolutely adore Halloween, and one of my favourite stories is the one of Jack’O’Lantern, or Will’O’Wisp. This is how mine turned out.

I named my wisp Wiley and he has been entered into the contest! He will also be part of my Halloween decorations this year.

I am planning on making at least another amigurumi to enter, as the submissions end on November 30th. The voting will take place from December 1st to December 8th, and I’m pretty excited and nervous at the same time, I hope that people will like Wiley as much as I do!

Have a wonderful week!

Fantastic Bake-Along – Chilli/Chocolate Bread

Happy Saturday!

I have missed last month’s bake along, but I’m back to participate in the Fantastic Bake Along hosted by Tracy @itsatsweetday. This time, Tina from Kristabella’s Hodgepodge chose the recipe, and it is chilli/chocolate bread! 😊 You can find the recipe here on Tracy’s blog. I was very excited about this month’s bake along, as my hubby doesn’t like chilli but I love it, so it meant a slightly more selfish bake with all the resulting bread for myself!

Tina’s recipe uses a bread maker, but I just used my trusty Thermomix to make the dough by combining all the elements, then kneaded it and let it rise a first time. I hit a small snag at that point, because the chocolate chips had started to melt into the bread! But that didn’t discourage me, I knead my dough again and I then put it into a pan and waited again for it to rise some more. After approximately 40 minutes of baking, here it was!

I loved the spiciness of the chilli with the chocolate, it’s just a great combination! 😍 It was actually so good that half the loaf is gone already 😅

If you are interested in participating, contact Tracy and you can also follow my Pinterest board where I will be adding all the recipes for the Bake Along.

Please also check out the other amazing bakers/cooks usually participating in the Fantastic BAL

• Tami @ TangleWoodKnots
• Tracy @ ItsaTSweetDay
• Kathy @ SewingEtc
• Brenna @ Crochet539
• Kate @ LifeTeaAndEverything
• Tina @ KristabellasHodgepodge
• Lucia @ CrochetKnitAndMore
• Connie @ Connie’s Creations
• This Miss Cooks

The Autumn (Fall) Tag

Happy Wednesday beautiful readers!

I have been tagged by the lovely Maddie from A Little Mad Smith for the Fall Tag (or Autumn Tag as we’ve decided to name it!). The Autumn Tag is a way to share some personal things about the season, and even if it’s not autumn in Australia, I really really love that season 🍂

Rules:

1. Put the tag badge and rules in your post.
2. Answer the 10 fall-related questions.
3. Tag at least 5 other bloggers to join the fun!

What’s your favorite fall outfit? I love wearing my tight jeans with ankle boots and a cute scarf or shawl. I love shawls, and that gives me an excuse to crochet or knit some more!
Your favourite drink to have in the fall? I love chai tea 😍 the slight spiciness, some cannel on top and some froth milk, yum!
Does your family have any fall traditions? If so, what are they? When I was little, we used to go for long walks with my parents, especially during autumn because it was cooler, and we used to pick up fallen leaves. Then with mum, we would dry them and make some pictures with the leaves 😊
What are some activities and events you enjoy going to in the fall months? Again, when I was growing up there used to be a fair late October – early November. I loved going there! Also, my birthday is on the first day of autumn (in the northern hemisphere), so that was always something to look forward to!
What’s your favorite fall-scented candle? I love cinnamon or pumpkin spice (which also has cinnamon!)
Tell us about one of your favorite fall memories. One of my birthday’s parties, when I was quite little. My parents went above and beyond for this one! I must have been turning 10 or something like that, and I’ve always likes puzzles and brain tease. So, they decided to throw me a pirate treasure hunt party! It was super awesome, we went to my grand parents house and had a massive run all over the garden to find clues and we finally got to the chest (an actually big chest) full or presents for everyone and lollies 😊 It was the best!
What are some fall movies you enjoy watching? I can’t really think about any autumn movie. Maybe Scary Movie 1, because it’s kind of about Halloween?
What’s your favorite fall treat? Chestnuts for sure! I love getting them from street merchants in Europe but they don’t do that in Australia, so I just buy them and roast them myself! Still yum 😄
If you celebrate Halloween, what is the best costume you’ve worn? Anyone said costume? Here are a few of my favourites!

I’ve decided to nominate the following people, as they are people I’ve only started following recently and I would love to know more about them!

Knitting In France

A Petite Slice of Life

MicaPie

Country Cross Stitchers Musings

Julia’s Creative Year

I hope you’ve enjoyed my answers, I’m looking forward to reading yours! And of course you are all more than welcome to answer a few of the answers in the comments!

Hermione’s everyday socks – FO

Happy Monday lovely readers!

This weekend, the hubby and I have driven all the way from Brisbane in Queensland to Melbourne in Victoria to our new house! I’m very excited to be here finally, but I am also very excited that I got knitting and crochet time in the car!

Crochet-wise, I got some progress on my Swaye shawl (more on Wednesday) but I did manage to get a FO in knitting: my Hermione’s everyday socks!

I’m so excited about those socks, they are ultra soft, I adore the colours and the pattern. Really they are just a total winner! The pattern I used is a free pattern on Ravelry from Dreams in Fiber (Erica Lueder) and I am planning on trying out another of her patterns soon! I just love that a lot of them are inspired by Harry Potter!

And the yarn is from Fibre Revolution on Etsy, I just fell in love with all the colours they have, and you’ll be seeing a lot more of their yarn soon as I’ve got 6 skeins from my sock yarn club!

I hope you still had a great weekend and I wish you an amazing week

FO Friday – Candice Doll (and free pattern for shorts)

Happy Friday my lovely readers!

Today I want to show you the newest addition to my amigurumi family: a cute little dolly!

This doll is quite special though as it represents one of my good friends. She asked me for that doll as well as another one of her girlfriend (who is also one of my close friends). The goal is to finish them by next week and send them to their new owners in France.

I was very excited by that project as I think they will make very special gifts. I absolutely love how Candice turned out too! The pattern is from the very talented MaryJ Handmade/Le Arti Di Minerva on Ravelry. It’s a free pattern and there are no instruction for the assembly but if you are familiar with amigurumi it’s not too bad! I actually sew the head close and then added the body (worked continuously from the legs) and I didn’t stuff the arms.

For the hair, I used a hair cap, following the same pattern as for the head but with a hook size above (from a 3.5 to a 4) and stopping after row 14.

I also had to make up the clothes as I went and I wrote the pattern for the shorts. I thought I would share it here with you guys if you want to make your own doll 😊

Abbreviations

• ch – chain
• sc – single crochet
• sl st – slip stitch

Round 1 – Ch26, sl st in first ch

Rounds 2-6 – 26 sc around

Start on the first leg, you will work only with the next 13 stitches

Round 7-9 (leg 1) – 13 sc around

Fasten off and join yarn to the remaining 13 stitches

Round 7-9 (leg 2) – 13 sc around

Fasten off. Sew the tails in and you’re finished!

I hope you guys enjoyed the pattern, please tag me on instagram if you end up sharing your pictures @emmacraftsdesign

Have a great weekend!

Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair

Happy Monday lovely readers!

Yesterday I had a great day at the Brisbane Craft and Quilt Fair. I was there all day, from 9:30 to 3:30! The show had lots of beautiful quilts on display, some were truly amazing! My favourite ones were the ones with all the Australian animals, they were so beautiful 😍

I also had the immense honour to meet the crochet designer Kerry Lord. She just released her newest crochet book last Friday, Edward’s Crochet Doll Emporium and I was able to buy it and get it signed!! I was fan-girling like crazy and I hope she didn’t think I was too weird 🙈 I did also manage to get a selfie with her 😎

I just can’t wait to be reunited with my stash to make a mini me and a mini Dylan (my husband).

I also started to buy some Christmas presents, one for my nana and one for my aunty and I also got a little something for myself! I bought myself a kit to learn Sashiko, a Japanese embroidery technique. I also got to take a class on the day and it was super awesome!

How cute is this dragonfly?

I hope you guys had a great weekend too, and I wish you an amazing week!

FO Friday – Colour block chunky jumper

Happy Friday!

I hope you guys all had a great week, I sure have! I have finally finished my colour block jumper, and what an adventure it was!

It all started when my nana sent me some chunky yarn from France (Cheval Blanc Kinna in case you’re wondering). The yarn was super squishy and lovely, but the only issue is that she sent only 2 balls of each colour (although she did send 6 different colours). What could I do with that? I really wanted to make a jumper so I searched Ravelry for a pattern and fell in love with the textured jumper with stripes from Isabell Kraemer. The only issue was that I did not have enough of the main colour, and I was afraid that the colour change and the texture together would look weird. Because I had set to use the yarn I had, I though I would make a colour pattern and give up the texture effect. I’m super glad I took that decision as that section of the jumper would have been way too busy otherwise.

I was actually knitting at a pretty good pace until… I ran out of yarn! 😱 I was missing about 15 rows of the dark blue on the second sleeve! (can you spot it?) So the jumper sat 95% finished for almost a month as I was away. I knew that I wouldn’t have time to reorder the same yarn online before the move, so instead I went to my local yarn store and found a similar weight yarn in a colour that was pretty close. Then I had fun taking selfies to show you the jumper, as my photographer (also known as my husband 😂) has already moved in our new house and so wasn’t available to take the pictures.

I’m super happy with it, the fit is super comfortable and I really like the colour blocks. I actually had a lot of fun knitting this and I’m looking forward knitting more jumpers!

In other news, I think I’m going to attend a craft fair this weekend, and I’m pretty excited about that! I’ll keep you guys posted 😊

Have a great weekend!