Since Tuesday ...





 Since Tuesday I've been pretty busy but I've also been busy crafting wise as well. :)

I got the granny squares completed for my project idea and was pleased with how they turned out.

Apologies for the dark picture but as you know photography isn't something I'm too good at.

Anyhow, I made 9 as that was the perfect amount for the project idea. I also used 9 colours of wool.
The next job was to trawl youtube looking for an easy to understand tutorial on how to sew them together.  I did make a little mistake on that, but once I realised and did it correctly, it was soooo much easier to do!

Now, I have these really boring cushions in our living room. Just plain and boring. Steve was brought up with his mum liking everything very plain and colourless and that's how he likes it too.  I was sooo fed up with these though, so my idea was to make crochet cushion covers.

We have a group of friends coming for the day on the 30th though and I thought it would be great to have things finished by then.  I want a few others things finished by then as well though, my stitching being one of them plus I would like to make a couple of gifts if I have time.  So time is scarce.

So anyhow I had the idea of just making the cushion fronts and sewing them to the existing covers. Do you think they'll look ok?

This is the one I've completed so far. It's only pinned to the cover at the moment to see how it looks, I plan to sew it on over the weekend. 

This shows it pinned along the seam of the existing cover, ready to be sewn.  I just wanted opinions before I actually do it incase any of you can think of reasons this is a bad idea.  I know I could crochet a back for each and make a proper cover, but I'm trying to save time at the moment I guess.

I think as well, that I want to do each cushion so it's different, although sort of ties in colourwise maybe. So the next one I've started is all 9 squares one block colour, using the same colours as this one.

This is a view of how it looks and you can see the two plain covers next to it. I just think it will give a real splash of colour and hopefully a cosy feeling to the room.  Please do leave comments and opinions for me. I really want your thoughts on this.

Oh a quick change of subject ...  we got this 3 piece leather suite quite a few years back.  It was in the second hand goods part of a posh shop and Steve just happened to be going past as they had put it in so he was first to see it.
It was like new, only months old, but had a red mark on one of the seats, looks like dye from a cushion or some thing? So anyhow, the owners had come for a brand new suite! They apparently change their suites regular anyhow, but would keep them at least a year usually.
This one, although not very old was now displayed at a VERY cheap price (we couldn't believe it) and we had just got some money from overtime Steve had worked.  So we bought it!  We had been looking for a new but reasonably priced suite for months, but never saw one we liked. Anyhow, Steve bought some stain remover and leather cleaner and a few hours later we had a mark free NEW suite!
We've had it years now but just keep it polished up and it's still in great condition. 

I love a bargain.  :)

Back to this week, Joe and I have been baking.  This is all that was left in the evening though when I thought to take a picture.

He did well, but I'm having problems getting the oven right.  This new electric cooker has a fan oven which is energy efficient, and so none of the temps and times work out to normal. You have to convert it and I'm finding out the conversions they give aren't too good.
I'm pretty much ok with most things in it now, but it's proving tricky trying to work it out right for things like cakes.  The first batch kind of sunk and was a bit pudding like, the next ones were ok but I left them in too long really, the 3rd try worked better but still not the light texture I'm used to.  So we still need to get it perfected.  It was a new recipe we tried as well, so that might even be a factor in the failure as well.

So if any of you have any FAIL safe fairy cake/cupcake recipes that always turn out fine for you, please could you send me it and then I can play around with the oven and try and get it right!
Thank you! :)

Sticky2 has gone to his new home. We took him last night. Joe decided to give him to his friend as he wasn't really paying him much attention and his friend loves stick insects, so that was better really.

We've decided we'll use the habitat to do butterflies again as we really enjoyed it last year. We got them as caterpillars and watched them change, then we let them go but they actually stayed around our garden and we were able to go out have them on our hands, it was brilliant!

Anyhow, if anyone is still reading this far and hasn't got bored by my rambling on, have a great day and keep smiling!

:)