Crochet Slippers

I have been very busy this past weekend catching up with friends visiting that I haven't seen for a while and enjoying a bit of a social life. I haven't been able to go the crochet class for 2 weeks so my crochet crafts have been a little lacking!

I'm still slowly plodding along with my knitted shrug, picking it up and adding a few rows here and there when I can, it's growing slowly and I just cant WAIT for it to be finished. On the crochet front I started a really cute pattern this week for some crochet slippers!

I found this super cute pattern on Ravelry and its by Oh My Good Knits! They're called Mary Jane Slippers but I modified the pattern slightly so they don't have the signature strap across the bridge of the foot to make them look like Mary Janes. As you can see I made a slight boo boo and there is a small hole gap near the button, I figure it doesn't look too bad so I'm not too phased!

Besides this, I love how they turned out! (So far I've only made the one, I got so excited about how cute they look I wanted to share them with you. I will take a piccie when I've finished the pair!!)

I used some beautiful Heirloom Colour works 8 ply fine Merino wool. It is sooo lovely to work with and just slides off the hook nicely. Its super soft and I LOVE the colour. I have a thing for this coral colour and every time I see a yarn in this colour I have to have it!! I also have a gorgeous blue in this yarn that I may make another pair of slippers out of, not too sure just yet! One of the best things about this yarn is that it is machine washable!

I think the cute little wooden button on the side sets the basic slipper off!

Once I make the matching pair to this little pretty I will move onto my next crochet project. My goal this weekend is to start (and possibly finish) a thick knitted headband for Roger. I have been promising to make him a headband to hold his dreads back for as long as I've been learning to crochet so its about time that I stuck to my promise and made him something!!

More news to come on that soon.

Happy crafting!

Ellie x

Harvesting...

Today I harvested some baby carrots from our veggie patch!! I was so excited to pluck the little orange veggies from the garden, some of them turned out better than others and some were really funny looking all curly at the ends!

These carrots were grown from seeds, they're some of the first veggies that I've ever grown and I've definitely learnt a few things since growing these babies.

Next time around I'm definitely going to space my carrot seeds out more so they have space to grow larger and over-crowding wont happen. But for now I'm happy with this first batch of baby carrots and are hoping they'll taste very yummy steamed maybe with some honey as honey baby carrots!!

Also this week I'm hoping to get some pretty crocheted bed socks started. I found this pattern on Ravelry and I love how they look.

Hopefully I can get them started when I find some more spare time!

Ellie x

Swap Goodies!!!

I was so happy to get back from my lunch break at work today to find a little package from the post sitting on my desk! It was a beautiful package, all wrapped up in pretty purple paper from the very talented Julie from Little Woollie for the Jellywares spring washer swap.

Well wasn't I spoilt?!! Julie made me 2 gorgeous crochet washers that I LOVE! I plan to use these pretties quite a bit in my house! I also got an amazing smelling block of soap and several envelopes filled with veggie seeds saved from Julie's garden!

(Look at all of the lovely seeds I got!!)


You were very generous Julie and I feel very spoilt and lucky! You made my day!! Thank you!

Also, big thanks to the lovely Jodie for hosting the swap! This one was my second blog craft swap and I'm really loving them! I hope to join up to another one soon to keep the creative-ness flowing!

Until my next post, I hope your Monday has treated you well! Enjoy the rest of the week!

Ellie x

Oh Mudgee!!

This afternoon Roger and I got back from our quick roadie weekend away in Mudgee! We had such an amazing time, every time we visit Mudgee I love it even more and more!

Today is also Rogers birthday (Happy birthday Rog! Love ya!), so we had an awesome weekend with this in mind. We gorged ourselves with some close friends on Lebanese and Indian food, bought (and drunk!) LOADS of wine on our wine tour on Saturday arvo and spent the morning on Saturday tasting all of the yummy produce and home-made food/preserves from local farmers at the Farmers Markets!!

I'm such a sucker for yummy "boutique-y" food stuffs so I couldn't help myself when we got to the farmers markets. Oh, the food and the produce was to die for!! I bought macaroons and hand-made chocolate as well as wine infused cooking jellies and delicious basil pesto! I'm salivating just thinking about all of the glorious stuff we bought home!

Not only did we stock up on the beautiful wines of Mudgee, we stopped by the Mudgee Brewery on the last leg of our wine tour and tried and tested a few Mudgee beers!

(Roger at the Brewery)

I can't rave about Mudgee enough and can't wait for our next trip! There's just so many beautiful places to eat and drink, lots of touristy stuff to see and do and its not a hectic city, its still country and casual enough to cruise around in! Its perfect for a weekend away with a partner or with a bunch of girlfriends or even with family!

Crafty news to come in my next post.

Until then,

Ellie x

Spring Washer Swap...

I have FINALLY finished getting my act together and putting the finishing touches on my secret partners washer pressie for the Jellywares spring washer swap!

After my last post (working on the other washer pattern) I decided to unravel my work and start again, and again and again and again! For some reason I just couldn't get this pattern working for me and it wasn't looking how I wanted it to! So after many many attempts, I unravelled it and started on a new pattern.

The new pattern is called the "Tulip stitch washcloth" and I love the way it looks. After working on it for a while I realised mine wasn't looking the same as some of the other washers made with this pattern were looking! So unintentionally I have modified this pattern! lol I still LOVE it! I was sooo tempted to keep it for my own but I knew it would look super pretty all wrapped up and sent off in the post for the swap.

I was getting worried because I only had a very small amount of yarn to use and this pattern was chewing up the yarn pretty quickly! I managed to make the washer into a decent size, its bigger than a 5 inch washer, but is still a "small-ish" washer (smaller than other washers that I've made before.)

I think it'll still do the job! I hope my swap partner loves it as much as I do! Its soooo soft, I love the cotton. It's made of some hand spun cotton from Jodie's shop and she has completely sold out of it all!! (Damn!) It's so beautiful!

Also on the list of credentials to be sent with the washer was some handmade soap and a packet of seeds for the garden! I couldn't resist and sent 2 blocks of handmade soap! I love handmade soap, I sent my swap partner some herbal lemongrass and ginseng soap (smells de-lish! I couldn't help myself and had to buy it!) and a yummy block of Tasmanian olive oil soap (Lemon myrtle, manuka honey and tea tree)! Mmmm!

I also chose to send some tomato seeds! I planted some tomato seedlings on the weekend, they're perfect for spring!

In other news...

Roger and I are off to Mudgee this weekend! I am sooo excited! I love Mudgee! It's Roger's birthday on Sunday and we're meeting up with some friends for a weekend of wine "tour-ing" and eating scrumptious food and enjoying being out of town for a while!

Ah, I just can't wait! I'll be taking my trusted camera with me to take some snaps of the gorgeous Mudgee region. I'll definitely post some when we get home!!

Until then,

Ellie x