FPC Friday - Agapanthus

Remember what I said last Friday about liking flowers that come several to a stem? Well, this is the epitome of that notion. It took me a very long time to make these, as I had to water-colour the outsides of each petal and curl each stamen by hand, not to mention make the calyx and nest it all together!! It is gorgeous, but not practical to use on a card the way I did it. I may have to research a better way, as I love the look of it when it's done.

A bean too far?

Welcome to my kitchen, home of coffee overkill. How may I help you?

We can now serve all manner of hot beverages. Not that we couldn't before, but if you prefer your latte to come to you in seconds rather than minutes, we now have a Tassimo machine.

I was in two minds about getting one. I bought one from eBay for half the retail price and it's good as new.

My husband wants espresso-based coffee drinks even if I'm not around to make them. He hasn't got my mad barista skills, so the Tassimo bridges the gap.

I don't intend to use it regularly, but it will be good if I'm in a hurry or we've run out of milk. Tassimo lattes are made with UHT milk pods. If our lovely fresh doorstep milk runs out, these will do. It's a nice kitchen gadget, I must admit.

The only thing that remains is how to recycle the pods. I hope the council take them!

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Art of Crochet Square 49

Hey, a new and different square!!

It's been a while since I haven't had a repeated square. Since I've already done a whole quarter of the throw, I thought it would be just more of the same from now on, but then this turns up.

It's a lot like the pink lacy one, but the pattern on this one is jogged so that the shells nest together rather than sit on top of each other. I enjoyed making this pattern very much. I do hope this one gets repeated!

FPC Friday - Hyacinths

Happy Friday everyone!

This is Flower 3 from Book 2 of Floral Punch Craft by Leone Em, the Hyacinth. I had a brilliant time making this one. I seem to be drawn to flowers that are many to a stem, in some sort of cluster. I don't know why. I've had my beady eye on the Hyacinth since I started. I made this one back in November but I've just recently assembled it into a card. I kept it simple to focus all attention on this lovely purple number. I adore it, so forgive me for not being very humble about it. :)

Art of Crochet Square 48

Another month, another new shipment. This one's an obvious repeat too. I have finally cracked it though-- to make it look more even, I took one row of aubergine trebles out of the pattern. Now it's fine, and looks more like the right size.

This square requires use of scraps of yarn saved from leftover issues. Recently, I went through my scraps and combined them all together by colour into a single ball per colour-- 8 in total-- and I am finding it much easier to have scraps to hand. Because I have been using my scraps, I find I have many unused skeins sitting in a bag. If they are complete skeins, I keep them in their original form. They may come in useful when the throw is completely finished and I want to make something to go with it.

In other crochet news, the cushions I made for my mother-in-law went over very well indeed. She has requested some more next year!! I would be happy to do so as I have many cushion patterns on file, thanks to the partwork.

FPC Friday... Live!

Usually my FPC Friday posts are pre-scheduled, but not at the moment. I have now started on Book 2 of Floral Punchcraft. Flower 1 is the Daffodil. I've made this one before but the card went to a recipient before I could photograph it. So here it is again.

I've just realised that the stamens are missing...

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Art of crochet Square 47

This one is a repeat from way back, and the difference is astounding. The last time I made this one, the square was bigger and a lot more loose. This one turned out to be the right size, if not a bit on the small side.

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FPC Friday: Flowers 12 and 16

This card is made with similar ingredients to the last one. The only difference is the flowers. These are flower 12 and 16 from book 1 of Floral Punch Craft by Leone Em.

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Art of Crochet Square 46

Another repeat, which doesn't surprise me. The finished throw will be fantastic.

The repeated squares monitor my progress in learning to crochet. Getting the chance to complete squares months after doing an identical one, I can compare the two and see the difference. For example, square 1 and 45 differ, but not in an expected way.

When I made square 1, I was fairly new to crochet and to combining different stitches into a pattern. As I progressed, I have become a bit lazy and inattentive, and square 45, which should be identical to square 1, appears less even.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to see this for myself. Oops!

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Card using Flower 6

A simple, no-frills layout is in order to showcase Floral Punch Craft if it's the main focus of your card. This one is made with wood-textured cardstock from Payperbox, a white and copper-flecked oval, cut from card also from payperbox, and an Anita's peel-off sticker greeting.

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Happy New Year!!!

Happy 2011, everyone!

This year on the blog, you can expect:

Crochet Wednesdays,

Floral Punchcraft Fridays,

And scrapbook pages, cards, and challenges in between!!

This year, I would like to:

Participate in a few more challenges

Link up with other blogs in more blog hops

Invite other bloggers to join in my Crochet Wednesdays and FPC Fridays!

Oh.... and Happy Birthday Mamaminky!!!! Woo woo!! You old mare...