Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

Saartje's bootees and a not cotton hat.

My cousin's baby arrived a little earlier than expected at the end of last week, so my knitting needles were full pelt at the weekend and these cuties are on the way to her now...The Saartje's bootees are a free pattern found here and the hat is based on the children's cotton hat pattern in the Last Minute Knitted gifts book.  I say based as I used some Manos silk blend left over from my pinwheel blanket and the last of my Wildfire fibre left from my hourglass sweater, so it isn't really cotton and I left off the i-cord tie and added the stem at the top instead as I thought it was a touch more masculine.

Before I go I must share something very, very exciting...The amazingly talented Jennie of "the distracted painter blog" in New Zealand has just finished this for me...do you recognise it?  If you have been reading for a while you might remember this trip...I am not sure who was more excited me or Sam.  I do love this whole world of blogs!

A windy walk on Anglesey.

We visited Anglesey yesterday and enjoyed an extremely windy walk along Newborough Beach.  The different shades of grey were beautiful and Snowdonia was visible in the distance.  We ate our picnic in the car and then braved the cold, returning with pink cheeks, fingers and toes and some treasure in the form of shells and pebbles. Hot chips on the way home warmed us up and comfy beds welcomed us home, tired and full of sea air.  It was our first beach trip of 2012, can't wait for the next one!

Another gift for my Mum (and Dad).

I hinted ,back here, that I was cooking something else up to send to my Mum for her birthday.  Well it arrived and was dispatched off to Spain as a gift for her and my Dad (they are both February babies) and now I can show you....

365 A view from my eyes by A photo a day starting 1 Feb 2011. | Make

Your Own Book

I am so pleased with how it turned out and have to say that using Blurb was a joy.  I simply imported my Flickr set into their book maker and within a couple of hours it was all ready to print.  The service was really quick and the book itself is beautiful quality.  I had another copy printed for us to keep as a  reminder of last year and am inspired now to create all kinds of other books as a way of getting some of our digital photos in solid form...can you believe we haven't printed anything for five years now?  That's quite a bit of catching up I need to do!

My new space...

... already feels like a good decision.  A little way to go yet but I think we are going to suit each other just fine.  After all who could resist all that lovely light?

Crafting catch-up.

Yesterday I made this bag based on a pattern in Linen Wool Cotton by Akiko Mano...I used a vintage embroidered tablecloth, from my stash, in place of the linen she suggested and love the effect of the blue and white cotton contrasting with the bright orange petals on the flowers.  While taking some photos to show you, I realised that I have quite a pile of homemades that I have been saving for better (brighter!) weather to capture and rather than holding on any longer I decided that slightly gloomy shots were better than no pictures at all...hope you agree!

The first project out of the bag is a pinwheel blanket knitted in Manos silk blend, started last September it was finally finished and given to Jack at the end of January.  I finished it of with a picot edging, inspired by my scroll lace scarf and was knitting nearly 700 stitches a row by the time I came to the end! It is ravelled here.

This next shawl/scarf (menten) was actually knitted over Christmas and finished in time to see the New Year start...it was a joy to knit, the wool was gorgeous (DROPS nepal) and it was simple enough to keep my fingers busy without me being incapable of talking but interesting enough to not get boring.  You can read more about the deatails here.

Finally you may have noticed a selection of fingerless gloves in various combinations of lovely yarns...inspired by Cheryl, I have been speeding through these great stash busters, finishing on average a glove a day.  I didn't manage two pairs in time for Valentines day but I did finish one of each and wrote promise notes for the pair...now complete apart from flaps.  Not on ravelry yet but I will get there eventually just keep looking!

Well that's me nearly up to date, just a couple of sewing projects and another gift for my Mother to show you but I'll save those for another day.  Back to a bit more simplifying now and then some knitting for a new baby cousin, I'll be back as soon as I can...

Sweet lemon waffles.

I spent a bit of my Christmas money on a waffle maker...I have wondered about it for a while but wasn't sure if it would get enough use.  The discovery of this delicious combination should ensure it pays it's way!

LEMON WAFFLES.

100g butter creamed with 100g of sugar.  Beat in 2 eggs and the zest from half a lemon.  Stir in 100g of plain flour and Bob's your uncle!  I can't see why it wouldn't work as small pancakes if you don't want the extra equipment...but the heart shapes were perfect for yesterday's breakfast!

Sewing for my Valentine...

I have been sewing for my Valentine...a bigger pair of the Christmas PJ's I make the boys, I hope they work in adult sizes!

I am also knitting like mad, trying to get two pairs of these finished for my boys for tomorrow, when I only started them yesterday.  It all sort of crept up on me.

Herman is doing well, bubbling away and smelling wonderful...I will be back with photo's when I bake him ( am not sure naming cakes is a good idea, that sounds so wrong!)

I will leave you with a valentine fungi I spotted on our walk yesterday, very nearly a heart I think?

Friendship cake.

I read this post by Cheryl back in October and lamented the fact that although I had heard of friendship cakes I had never seen or heard of one anywhere near here.  Then a couple of weeks ago, a friend asked if I would like to try a piece of cake and now I have Herman visiting me too!  Yes it really is called Herman too...he has travelled all the way to Wales, I wonder where else he has gone on his holidays this year?  Today is day 1 and at the moment my kitchen is filled with a gorgeous fruity, yeasty kind of smell and I am very excited to get started.  The weather is dreadful outside, cold, icy and grey so a half term full of baking (with some ideas from the new Alphabet Glue to fill any spare moments) is sounding just about perfect.  Do you have a break coming up?  Any good ideas for cold winter days?

Simplifying...

I decided to tidy up, move rooms, simplify.  I think I may have created a monster.  It will all be worth it when it's finished though....it will won't it???

First Friday in February.

Well I made it through the week, just. It had it's ups and downs.  Somethings were a lot easier than I expected and others a great deal harder.  I cried more than I wanted to and some of that was from laughing!  But when I looked back through my photos from the last five days it's all about light. Finally after months of dark, dull days the sun has returned and is filling our lives with its gorgeous glow...