Giveaway WINNERS!!!

I am so happy to say that there were 4 brave crafty ladies who entered my Pay-It-Forwad-Giveaway (3 here and one using instagramm).
When I announced the giveaway I was a bit scared that none would want to join in (I can't exactly say that my blog is very well known), but with the first comment on the post I knew that it is gonna be a success! and now I have not only the needed three, but four participants! :)
I thought for a while how to choose, but it somehow felt very wrong to leave one out..

Pay-It-Forward-Giveaway

Almost year ago I was crazy enough to enter Kates giveaway and amazingly enough - I won!!! and got those delightful handmade gifts! According to rules, I had one year in witch to host my own giveaway and spread the love in form of handmade something..
So finally I think I have grown enough to host my own giveaway :)

As my time is running out, I have started the search for the three lucky ones!

And as I have way more followers on instagramm than here I am ready to bend the original rules a bit (you can find them in Kates post about this giveaway)... so I exchange bloggers for crafters and we get the NEW RULES of the giveaway:

The rules of this giveaway are that I now have 365 days in which to find three crafters who would like a handmade gift from me and are prepared to do the same.

You can enter the giveaway by leaving a comment to this post and revealing your favourite color till 10th of november.
Entries accepted from all corners of the globe :)

So the lucky ones will be known on 11th of november.. and if all goes well you'll probably get that special something from me as a Christmas present :) 

The scarf of string theory :)

I was recently introduced with the knitting doll and thought I wold make a scarf ... but as I was making it I figured that with my speed this scarf project would take as much time and energy than to crochet a baby blanket.. the scarf I had in my mind would have been a great one tho, but with all the other projects "in the loose" I wanted something that could be done fast :)
So my first attempt on the scarf of string theory evolved in a sort of bracelet slash hand-warmer :)

But I wasn't going to give up!
Next day I thought that if I just took a thicker yarn and found or made a bigger doll as well.. wasn't at all thrilled about prospect of making a knitting doll... I have to admit I was a bit winy for a while so a little birdie told me that it could be done without a knitting doll!!! probably faster too.. with 3 hoops and 2 knitting needles...
- wanna know how?
- keep reeding ;)

Blanket of the hearts

I found an inspiration for this blanket in photos of @stephanie_linden (fellow instagrammer).
I changed the heart motif and a layout a bit but kept the main idea :)
This is going to be a summer blanket for my adorable baby boy Oliver. I chose a very thin cotton yarn because I thought that with all the other projects I'm currently working on I'll be lucky if this one will get finished till next summer.
This is the teaser photo that I made before I started to think about possibility of picture tutorial.. right about now I have two more rows of delightful hearts :)

And here comes the scheme if you would like to make one yourself ->

and as addition for the scheme here is a picture tutorial as well.. :)

1st step 
Take a background yarn and make a chain that is as long as you want your blanket of hearts to be wide.
The trick in this is that the amount of chains must divide with 8 without balance (I am not sure it's the right term... hopefully this explains it better -> amount of chains necessary = 8x )
And crochet 1st line of double crochets as well :)

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

So as you probably know - I am in a process of making a BigBrightBlanket - a huge crocheted blanket with a variation of different blocks (not always different patterns but at least colours :)

Inspiration or patterns for some of the squares used in my BigBrightBlanket can be found there ->

• big squared circle 
• little squared circle
• the spiral
• The amazing flower block 
• 4 hearts 
• a different approach...
• rectangle 
• amazing X granny square 
• my own flower block
• and of course a simple grannysquare :)

These are the links that started it, but there are many more I browsed through for inspiration .. and some of them can be found on instagramm (I follow the users I'have found most inspiring, but I sometimes just check whats new under the tag #crochet too).

As you can see, the blanket is not nearly finished so there probably will be more blocks and more links of inspiration!

Happy crafting to you too! ;) 

I love math ! =]

I was inspired by the blairs grannysquaresampler. I had newer thought of rectangle granny square before and it made me think ... what is the amount of chains necessary to make a rectangle that fits the gap in a blanket?
I was obsessed for a while, I drew some rectangles starting from the outer edge and counted the chains in the beginning. And the more I drew the clearer it got. And that is when the formula was born!

• x - longest edge (I am counting the holes or typical joining points of the typical granny square)
• y - shortest edge
• z - edge length difference z=x-y 
• B - the chains needed for the beginning or middle

B=|4z-1|

btw, the rounds needed to make the rectangular granny square (R) can be caunted too ->
R=y-1

for example:
I need a square that is 4*9
so the x=9, y=4
that means z=9-4=5
B = 4*5-1 = 19
R = 4-1 = 3

this is the scheme for the middle of rectangle and the first round.

The dots are chains, but the small circle is loose chain (it will be needed to form the corners so it will have to hold 9 double crochet stitches!).

To understand the formula better I will show you step by step how I make one of the needed squares for BigBrightBlanket.

light star-shaped blanket

As I was making my first star-shaped blanket for my moms birthday I was astonished by how much yarn it absorbs ... it took me loads of yarn and time to finish it.. and it is still smaller than I imagined it would be, but as I ran out of time it will have to do and instead of full size blanket this one will be just a leg wormer during winter TV watching evenings... 
I was quite disappointed and then it hit me! I should have made it lighter, and it would have been bigger! so I started a new star-shaped blanket to test my theory of the holes...

not your typical granny square*

I am happy to tell you all that I have finally started to join the blocks from my tinytower!!!
I wanted to make the beginning of the joining even more special so I created a special squre - my own flower block!!!

and I came up with a name for the blanket too - BigBrightBlanket :)

So here comes the scheme and few tips along the way :)

star-shaped blanket

As fellow instagrammers now, my newest addiction is crocheted stars .. the blue one is going to become a star-shaped blanket for my moms 55th birthday.. so for the first time I actually have a deadline for crocheting!

and If you want to make your own you might need the scheme ->

It was the first time I actually drew a scheme myself (I had no idea it was so hard!!!) It is far from perfect, but I think as long as it works it's good :)
and practice makes perfection, so I will practice the art of scheme drawing as well :)

Funky brother :)

When I finished the first hedgehog it felt great but looking at him it seemed that he is lonely so I decided to make him a friend. And so the funky brother was born! :)

Pearled curtain

A while ago, cleaning the house I found a long forgotten project, a few years ago I started to make a pearled curtain. In the bag there were 15 different strings of pearls and a loads of free unused pearls, so I took the ones that spoke to me and made some more...

Gadgets and widgets ...

As you probably noticed i have been writing even less than before ... It's not that I have stopped all my crafty projects... It's just that I have loads of huge (time consuming) projects and less time for them and I haven't finished any jet ... and that is why I figured that I need a separate Instagram account just for my crafty stuff - to keep you posted ;)
It took me almost forever to figure out how to share my crafty Instagram pictures here, but I did IT! :)
I actually used two widgets: followgram (for the cute button to follow me) and snapwidget (for showing the last picture I have on Instagram).


My latest obsession is pearls (can you guess what's it gonna be?) ...

So follow me and happy crafting! ;)

Breakfast treat :)

This is one special morning - our BabyBoy Oliver is already one week old!
For this special day I have made something special for our breakfast ... lets call it a waffled egg :)

It took me less than 10min to whip it up.
Well I have to admit it, I just threw things together... I bought the waffles, warmed up white chocolate, poured it onto the waffle (It takes up loads of chocolate, because of the big waffle holes) and put an apricot half in the middle :)

Hedgehog

While I am still in the progress of waiting i found this amazing tutorial for making a dodecahedron (I wouldn't be able to pronounce this so I took the liberty of changing the name to hedgehog). So I took the left over yarn from baby blanket and woala a matching toy has been created! :)

this photo I made using instagram - lovely, isn't it :)

and this one is simply by Iphone. 

Polished casual!

Thanks to Jessica Jones from How About Orange I filled a Better Homes and Gardens quiz about my decorating style. I was disappointed about the name Polished Casual, but when I saw what they mean by it I knew it fits me perfectly!!! I absolutely adore old stuff from different times when it fits my imagined version of perfection :)

But the name polished casual doesn't mean a squat for anyone, well it means a lot, but more for nails than design (at least when I searched it up in google) .. I hope that the newsletter I subscribed for will be something really good in providing an inspiration.
So good luck filling the quiz ;)

spring has come!

While I'm still coloring the easter eggs (traditional style, with onionskins) a bright orange butterfly (made after this scheme) has decided to visit my bowl of already colored yummies :)

Happy easter everybody!!! ;)

eat loads of eggs (don't forget about the salt! It's said that whoever eats eggs without salt during easter will be telling lies all year long), and swing and sway all day long (to keep those mosquitos away), but most important - have fun! ;)

It broke - I fixed it :)

I was upgrading my Tiny tower and broke a crocheting hook!
have you ever seen something like that? :D

I was so surprised that this is possible! I'm quite sure that this is part of their sales technique - you get used to the hook and you enjoy it until it brakes .. but as you loved it you go to the store and buy a new one just like the one you had before...
I am not in a mood for a shop today so - Let's fix it! :)

1st step
I found paper, scissors and glue...

Teeny tiny baby boots

I can't wait to meet my baby boy.. and as the do date is pretty close now I'm just enjoying the last moments of my pregnancy by crocheting, crocheting, crocheting ...

I have been told that after the baby comes I won't have as much free time as now. I don't believe them, but I'll probably change my mind quite soon ,,,

My latest "masterpiece" is these teeny tiny baby boots :) 

I am not quite sure, that they will fit ... I know that newborn baby is small, but I'm not quite sure how small ... but I like them so much (partly because they are SO small) and they were quite easy to make so I am sure that even if they won't fit I'll be able to make an actually fitting pair in no-time. 

the New Old: Lamp

I think "the New Old" is going to be in a series, because in our new apartment is a hidden room with all kind of old stuff ... It' s like my own museum, the room is full of all kind of things, some are just rubbish but some are pure gold that I would like to use in various ways! :)
the first one is lamp, because it' s the most needed at a time.. otherwise we would have to sit in the dark :D

this is the old look ->

and this is the new ->

it makes such a lovely pattern on the ceiling and walls ... :)

Baby blanket finally ready!!! :))

It's ready and I love It!
I still can't believe it is ready!

For a moment there I thought that baby will be out in the wild before the blanket because I was too busy with other projects, including the flower cushion (and many more you haven't seen jet.. ). And of course we are still living "on the boxes" and in the apartment under repair (because of the epic move to another city) - it's chaos here ... and sometimes I feel so helpless :/ ... I hope we will manage to make it actually livable till baby comes ...
But enough whining - the blanket is amazing and as it turns out it wasn't as hard to finish it as I thought.

flower coushin

I saw this amazing cushion on attic24 (with tutorial) and had to have one of my own, so I started to crochet. the first 2 rounds seemed almost impossible (15 stitches in one hole? :o and next row make them double ...), but when you get past that you understand that you had to have 6 flower petals (30 stitches) to nicely and easy add flowerpetels in the future (next rows).
In my stubbornness I tried to start with 5 flowerpetels (25 stitches), but then the mathematics will drive you crazy!!! If you ever attempt the flower cushion challenge be smart and listen to advices in previously mentioned tutorial ;)

this is my flower with 5 petels (as you can see I didn't get wery far...)

and this one is with 6 petels :)

Tiny tower

The game of Tiny tower was my obsession for quite a while ... but [un]fortunately I finally have all I could get from It (bitizens are as happy as they get and I have built all floors of the upgraded version too)... so this is my way of saying goodbye to almost half year of the hard work building the tower pixel by pixel (or floor by floor) and the tower itself ...

a bit of statistics ->

without update: there are 146 floors, well actually 145, because the last one I built was just to be sure I can't add more floors (there are 54 residential floors and 90 business floors (18 of a kind: food, service, recreation, retail, creative)). And population of 270 bitizens :)

with update: there are 3 more residential floors and 5 business floors (1 of each kind) so 153 or 154 if you count the empty floor. And now the population has grown to 285 happy bitizens (the last ones were really hard to get, but good things come to those who wait and work hard to get what they want). O, and in this version you have missions too (I finished all of them, few even twice) =)

and this tiny tower is my next obsession ->

I LOVE CROCHETING!

magic box

I knew this is a special day as soon as I opened my eyes!
because I knew - a package has arrived!!! (remember, I was one of three lucky winners of Kates organized pay-it-forward-giveavay)

when I finally got to the post office I could't believe my eyes - the box was SO huge!
this is what I saw when I unpacked the first level

it looked so nice and thoughtful I had to order myself to keep unwrapping ...
inside was the universal calendar, a candleholder, mug rug and letter with kind words that made all of this even more special :)

 
unfortunately my pictures doesn't show full awesomeness of these gifts, but as we are in the middle of moving I had some difficulties to find a nice (clean and not too crammed) place to take a picture (I already know where they will fit in my soon to be new home)
thankyouthankyouthankyou so much Kate!!! :)

p.s. I promise to make my own pay-it-forward-giveaway somewhere in ->

I adore this calendar!!! :)

keep the butterflies floating!

I will have to admit I can't follow through a written tutorial ... I get mixed up and have to invent the bicycle myself ... nevertheless I have created a wonderful butterfly trying to follow this tutorial.

- why on earth I needed/wanted to crochet a butterfly?
- because tomorrow we will have to sign a guestbook for newlyweds and this seemed like the best way how to make the entry special :)

I think I have chosen words too:
There is just one rule in marriage - keep the butterflies floating!!! 

p.s. today I saw my little boy in USG picture, he was sitting in lotus pose, getting ready to come out.. now I know how he can manage to kick me in both sides of my belly at the same time. and I saw him in a dream so now I know he will have green eyes just like his daddy. This is what made today a very very special day :)

Flower power!

When I saw this block I think I fell in love instantly but unfortunately this was too hard to figure out on my own so when I saw this one (with instructions) I knew that this is THE moment! I am gonna make my own!!! :)

tryout #1
I couldn't exactly understand steps after 9 but then I looked closely to the picture of Kates finished block and thought to myself - this is the easy part - you can do it on your own!
and this is how far I got until I realized ->

can you see what's wrong with my flower?

Baby blanket still in progress

This is a progress report from last time ...
I have bought one more dark brow clew (just in case) and one orange (I just couldn't resist)..

To speed up process and I thought I should start adding those granny squares together.
I chose to do that "on the go" so I chose 4 granny squares I already had and crocheted the one in middle. as you remember I didn't have the chains you would usually use to connect granny squares so I figured that the middle one of double crochets on the last row should be a nice connector too... then chose next two granny squares and crocheted the middle one to connect all of them and the blanket keeps growing! :)

connecting of the granny squares:
1st step 
pick the granny squares you want to add to blanket and figure out how the middle granny square will look like.

Jipijeiii!!!

I am one of three winners in Kates from Signed With an Owl organized pay it forward giveaway :)) It's three days later and I still can't properly express how great it feels to be the chosen one :)
I will take it as a sign that at some point this year I will have enough followers and readers to organize my own giveaway :)
good luck to me and to all af you! ;)

O and this is one of squares for ongoing blanket challenge :) 

slippers

Today I managed to destroy my slippers on a nail (actually they were cute short socks, because I tend to loose "normal" slippers all around the house)... Then I remembered that as a kid I had wonderful crocheted slippers so I started to crochet myself a new pair of slippers :)
It took me a bit more than 4 hours. 4 hours - OMG! I am so slow...
and this is how they turned out ->

Well ... I ran out of the yarn in the middle of the second slipper so I I found matching colors a and kept on going. The first one looks a bit gloomy but the second one brightens the scene. I am still thinking weather I should redo the first one or not ... right now they feel so cosy on my feet, that I just might leave them as they are .. :)
Next time I will be smarter and crochet with more colors from the beginning :)

I think that for my new home (I am moving to another city pretty soon) I want to have a slipper-box for guests. So when I'll start to fill my slipper-box I will tell you in details how to make this kind of slippers ;)

amazing X granny square

I found inspiration in one of my favorite blogs -> Signed With an Owl. But there where no schemes and I didn't have that book but I loved that square so much that I thought - I will make it anyway! it took me all night but at last I figured out how to make it look almost the same .. the ending is a bit different, but i like it better this way :) (because it's my way and I know how to make it and it will be easier to crochet them together later in the process)

I think these looks fabulous, and you probably won't believe me, but it is just as easy as making a simple granny square, because basically it IS granny square! well a bit modified version of a granny square :)

so this is how I made it ->
1st step
crochet granny square (scheme can be found in one of my previous blogposts) with little but VERY important alteration - in each corner of each row crochet 13 chains not just 2