FO – Joyful world June

Hello lovely readers!

I have finished the month of June of my Joyful world calendar from the Snowflower Diaries last week and I only got around to take pictures today so I thought I would share with you.

Isn’t it so cute? I also though I would take a picture of the whole thing so far. As you can see I’ve already stitched some of the next months’ headings as I find it helps to know where to add the stitching (as I don’t have a border around each month and it can get confusing).

I’m now officially half way through and I’m really looking forward to stitching more of it! I’ll be back tomorrow with my 18 for 2018 post and I’m catching on my blog reading as I’m finally back home! yay! See you tomorrow!

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WIP Wednesday – Joyful world

Happy Wednesday!

I hope you’re all having a great week so far, I have been working hard and relaxing at the end of the day with some cross stitch. I’ve made some good progress on my Joyful world calendar from the Snowflower Diaries. I have been stitching June and I have to say I love this honey bear, isn’t he turning out so cute?

I am excited to get on the next month though because July has flamingos! I’ve also been doing more of the border, I think that next time I’ll try to show you the whole thing as I haven’t done so in a while. Maybe next week if I’ve finished June? We shall see!

18 for 2018 – February update

Happy Friday and welcome to February!

I can’t believe that January is already over, the first month of the year has just gone by so fast! This is my update for my 18 for 2018, and I’m quite excited with what I’ve accomplished this month!

18 letters sent to friends – 0/18
With the interstate move I would like to keep in contact with friends so I want to make the effort to send them handwritten letter throughout the year.

None this month, but this is because I’m actually visiting back next month. I think I might next month though, as I got my best friend into knitting and would like to send her some new knitting needles 🙂 

17 new recipes tried – 5/17
If you’ve been following me for a while you will know that I love cooking and baking so this should be pretty easy. Plus, the monthly bake-along will definitely help me with this one!

I’ve tried a few new recipes this month. The first one was the ginger snap recipe from the fantastic bake-along. I have also tried to make crackers, and they were so amazing I’ve made several batches already! I got the recipe here. I’ve also made a few recipes from one of Jamie Oliver’s cooking book I got for Christmas.

Gingersnaps

Crackers

Tapenade white fish

Puff pastry chicken

Peach pork

16 painted units of miniatures – 0/16
My husband and I play a miniature game and one of the fun parts is to build and paint our own miniatures. I haven’t done much last year so I hope to catch up this year by painting more models.

I have been working on two units but I haven’t finished any yet. Hopefully in February. 

15 books read – 0/15
I’ve decided to tune down this goal from last year, as I don’t have a lot of time to read. But I feel like 15 would be a good number to reach this year.

This month just has been so busy I didn’t get time to read books, lots of papers for my thesis, but unfortunately that doesn’t count! 

14 mitered squares added to my memory blanket – 0/14
I have started a knitted memory blanket using my scraps of yarn from previous projects (mostly socks) and I’d like to see it grow this year.

I haven’t added any square this month, but I have a few projects using 4ply yarn, so I will be able to add more soon hopefully!

13 batches of biscuits made and eaten – 2/13
Again, with the bake-along this should be quite easy to accomplish!

I have done two this month, one was the gingersnaps and I made montecaos again, as they are my husband’s absolute favourite!

Gingersnaps

12 pairs of socks – 1/12
We have real winters in Melbourne, so hubby and I will definitely need new socks, I thought one per month was a manageable goal.

I have finished my Candy Corn socks and I have made a start on a pair for hubby, so I’m doing pretty well with this goal.

11 new stitch markers made – 0/11
I have been playing with shrinking plastic lately and I’d like to make new stitch markers using some cute drawings.

I haven’t really thought about this goal yet, but I am thinking I’d like to use some scientific drawings or nerdy themes. 

10 new movies seen – 3/10
We go to the movies almost every week, so I think this goal will be easy to reach, but it will give me a change to blog about movies I see a bit more.

I feel like there weren’t that many good movies coming out in January but I still managed three, Pitch Perfect, The Greatest Showman and the last Maze Runner. My favourite was the Greatest Showman, it really had a great story and I loved the songs ❤ 

9 amigurumi made – 1/9
I obviously love amigurumi enough to design some! I want to precise that those 9 amigurumi will be from other designers, I might even participate in another ami-along.

I have finished an awesome whale amigurumi that I talked about on Wednesday. I’m in love with it and can’t wait to give it to my friend!

8 months cross-stitched on the Snowflower diaries Joyful world calendar – 1/8
This did not get worked on at all last year, so I’d like to finish it this year.

I’ve actually finished the May instalment of the Joyful world. Very excited to have started on this again, it’s just so cute!

7 games of 40k played with hubby 1/7
The good thing with painting miniatures is that I will definitely want to play more (I’m hoping anyway) and this will definitely be a fun activity to do with my husband.

We’ve had one game so far, and I’ve smashed hubby mwahaha! I forgot to take a picture of the massacre though but I will next time for sure!

6 new designs published – 2/6
As you know I already have two new designs that I need to write up and publish. I have also started on a knitted shawl design using the beautiful yarn I got in NZ. Very excited about this one!

I’m stoked with this goal, I can’t believe I managed to publish both Wiley and Sandy‘s patterns this month, yay! 

5 km ran without stopping – in progress
This doesn’t seem like much but currently I can’t run more than a few minutes without having to slow down to a walk, so I’d like to be able to actually run without dying for 5 km!

I’ve been actively training for this, I’ve gone for several 30 min runs, with intervals to increase my cardio and I’m feeling really good about it. I haven’t done much last week though as it’s been consistently above 35°C during the day and well above 25°C at night. Hopefully it cools down in the next few weeks and I can train some more.

4 LOTR squares finished – 1/4
Yes I know I’ve been making this for ages but 2018 is the year I get it finished!

I’ve gotten back into this as well, yay! I’ve finished Gimli and I think he is pretty awesome 🙂 

3 jumpers knitted – 0/3
Similarly to the need for socks, I will need more jumpers this year! I already have the yarn and a pattern for my first jumper so I’m hoping this goes smoothly.

I haven’t cast this on yet but I do have the yarn ready so maybe I’ll cast on in February 🙂 although I have a lot of WIPs as usual!

2 getaway trips – 0/2
We are trying to save money for a house deposit this year, but I’d still like to get a couple weekends away with hubby. We already have one planned, we will be going to the Bendigo sheep and wool show in July.

We have planned to go back to Brisbane for a wedding in March, does that count as a getaway? If yes that will be the first one of the year 🙂 

1 thesis submitted – 0/1
I’m so keen to finish my PhD, so this is definitely my n°1 goal this year!

I have my thesis review next week, so this is definitely getting closer, wish me luck!

I hope you have all been getting on great with your goals too

Secret Santa goodies and some cross stitch

Happy Friday everyone!

I just realised that I haven’t showed you what I received for my secret santa yet, so I though now would be a perfect time to do so.

My secret santa was the lovely Kimberley from New-Zealand, and how spoilt I got! I received a beautiful skein of lamb wool from NZ, a project bag, a mug cosy and a pair of socks that Kimberley made, very cute stitch markers and a very nice Christmas card.

Totally spoilt! The socks were slightly too big for me, but they fit my husband perfectly so he is now the very lucky owner of those beautiful socks! I’m a but jealous to be honest!

Before Christmas as well, I finally got back into a little bit of cross stitch and made a bookmark for Claire, as I know she collects them. I couldn’t show you because I was waiting for her to receive my letter, and she has way before christmas but I guess I forgot to post about it until now!

I changed the colours from a parrot pattern I found on deviant art to make it a lorikeet. If you are interested, here is the chart for it.

I wish you all a great weekend!

Cardinal bird finish

Happy Monday!

I have a finish today, yay! This is from the kit that the lovely Claire sent me for my unbirthday in July. It’s a little cardinal bird and it’s on my project bag that I am going to (eventually, in a very long time) cover in cross stitch.

Isn’t he cute? I had a lot of fun stitching him, and because I’ve only been using one strand to stitch on this tiny canvas, I still have plenty of thread left!

Thanks again Claire, is was such a thoughtful and lovely gift ❤️

I hope you guys all have a great week!

June SAL with Helene

Happy Friday readers!

I know, I know, I’m really late and not catching up, but oh well those will get done eventually! I’ve just finished the June design, from Helene et Mahelia’s website. In case you’ve missed it, this year in Helene’s mystery SAL, we are stitching forest animals! And they are all so cute 😊

From all the steps, it was really difficult to figure our what this month’s animal would be.

But it really came alive with the backstitching! It was really amazing. So here is my little June squirrel! 🐿

Have a great weekend!

June wrap up

Happy Monday!

Can you believe how fast this month has gone by? This was a super busy month for me, I’ve actually been knitting like a madwoman! Can you believe I’ve finished 2 and half pairs of socks? Yes! I have finished my beautiful Aquagirl socks (actually not mine, they are Tracy’s!) From left to right, the patterns I used are Sock it to me! by Patons, Mercury socks by Kim Drotar and Glynis by Cookie A.

I’ve also been crocheting fingerless gloves (Charmed gauntlets by Nerdish Delights) and a shawl (Blurre by Addydae Designs) to keep me warm.

And of course I’ve been doing some cross stitching as well, albeit not as much as I would have wanted (it’s actually quite hard to stitch with cold fingers). I’ve only just finished the May SAL from Helene et Mahelia, in June, shame on me!

One of my main goals for July will be to catch up on my SAL and to decorate my project bag, and because I like multitasking, I’m actually going to stitch the SAL on my bag! Talk about genius! I also have plans to finish a beautiful crochet top from Oceans Originals, I have been delayed slightly as I ran out of yarn (I’m sorry Kelley I’m getting on to that asap!) And of course, I can see more socks in my future, now that I’ve started there is no stopping me!!

I wish you all a super productive month! I hope it’s productive for me too 😊

May SAL with Helene

Happy Wednesday!

I know, it’s the end of June, but I’ve only just finished my May mystery stitch along from Hélène et Mahélia. I think that I’ve been so cold when I was down in Melbourne that I haven’t been motivated to cross stitch much but I really want to get back to it, because I just really love this year’s designs 😊

May was birds again, and just look at them, they are adorable!

I still need to finish off the April one and obviously do this one as well, I might get them done over the weekend.

In other random news, today was Dobby the house elf’s birthday apparently, and so I wore two different socks (mostly cause I couldn’t find my second grey sock from the washing 😂). I thought some of you who are as obsessed with Harry Potter as me might enjoy the gesture 😁

New project bag

Happy Monday lovely readers!

This weekend I had some prime craft time while watching the Harry Potter movies 😊 I have been having yarn everywhere though lately and so I decided to make myself a new project bag to keep all my yarn in. I made it using calico and it’s actually pretty huge! I even put in a zipper and I was very please with how it turned out (excuse the wrinkledness, I still haven’t found my iron!)

You have probably noticed as well the red patch on the bag? Because the fabric is calico, I thought it would be cool to have a long term project to decorate the bag with cross stitch, and so I’ve made a start on this cute little star fish! I just love how tiny the stitches are and I’m sure it will look great once I’ve done more around it too.

And lastly, I just wanted to show you what’s currently in the bag! My Blurre shawl from Addydae Designs 😍 I love everything about this shawl and I can’t wait to finish it, hopefully before the 30th of June so that I can enter it in the CAL!

What have you guys been working on lately? Do you have project bags to keep your crafting area tidy(er)?

May wrap up

TGIF! And I am on mini holidays too for a week 😊

My hubby and I are going to spend a week in Melbourne (in Australia, not the US!) where he will start working towards the end of the year. I’ve never been there but I’m really excited as I got told that the food and coffee down there is amazing! I’m also pretty excited because they have real winters and I will be able to crochet and knit heaps of wearable things once we move there. If you have been to Melbourne or live there, do you guys have any suggestions for good yarn shops? I might as well go and visit a few!

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick recap for May. I actually did not finish many things in May but the ones I finished were pretty big (except for Yoda, he is tiny)!

I think that starting and finishing a blanket in a month (actually more like 3 weeks) is a record for me, I’ve never done a blanket that fast! The cross stitch was also the longest of the year, look at all this beigy/brown! And I even got some sewing done, talk about multi crafting 😂 I also tested a great bikini top pattern from Oceans Originals but I can’t show you anything yet, patience!

I also dug out a few projects and I am working hard to get those finished in June!

I’m actually not sure why I’m doing so much needlework considering it’s winter! What I am thinking, I wonder?

I also did some baking in May, and I participated in my first Fantastic Bake Along! It was great and I can’t wait for the June one.

So, my plan for June is to finish knitting my socks, hopefully find some time to read more  (maybe on the plane) and get back on track for my LOTR blanket.

What have you been up to during May? Do you also have a huge list of projects you’d like to start/continue/finish in June?

Have a great weekend!