Merry Chrristmas and Crafty NEW YEAR!!!

This has been a great year! And I know the next one is going to be even better ;)

I didn't do even a half from my crafty plan for this year but I am still satisfied with what I did do... and I promise that next year I will sit and write down a more realistic NY resolution... although it is good to dream big even if it means that I probably won't have the time to do all of the things that I have planned... so probably I will write even more unrealistic NY resolution .. :D 

I Love Christmas! It is the best time of the year .. the best part: there are soooo much time to spend with the family! Enjoy ;)

This is my baby boy Oliver wishing you all
 "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!"

Have a peaceful farewell from this year and see you next year! ;)

Baby booties for my niece*

The baby booties are ready for my daughter and niece :) They both are being expected in february one in the beginning the other one in the end of the month ... but you never know, they could easily come in this world in one day and even two months apart ...
* Can I call the baby my niece if it's my husbands sisters daughter not my sisters daughter? (I don't even have a sister, but I was just wondering)

I started them a while ago and then had some difficulties ... I wanted to make next pair for my niece even better than the ones for my own daughter, but it is what it is and I have to admit, that the first pair tops the second one .. I think because of the color change although the pure green looks quite cute too ... I hope that my sister in law will like them anyway :)

And here are 20 free crochet baby bootie patterns - none of them has the crocodile stitch boot top, but they still are adorable ;)

Happy crafting!

A or B ?

I am confused ...
I tried crocodile stitch once before and it worked out fine, but trying to make another baby booties (for another little princess that will soon join our family) repeating what I did before the boot top came out weird ...

A:

And looking at boot top A I thought that I should just attach the top of each crocodile scale to the dc of previous row and make it neat... but it still looks weird - neat, but weird :D

B:

Label for Big Bright Blanket!

As I am now obsessed with finishing the BigBrightBlanket and I have only one corner left, the need for label got kind of pressing ... A while ago I asked you for ideas for the label, unfortunately the only suggested possibility was to crochet letters and sew them on granny square. Idea itself is great and I love how the alphabet looks like, unfortunately it would probably come out as big as a baby blanket I made a while ago :D and I wanted something small..
But I finally got IT! I should try to do it like I made the rabbit decoration for easter !!! :)
Unfortunately the first time I tried it came out looking something between trapezium and parallelogram ...

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket ツ

Just one more corner!!! and about a gazillion ends ..

So finally! Here is the 3rd corner!
If you look careful enough there are three different ways for rectangle granny square used in this corner! Two of them can be found in links of inspiration, but the third one I hope to share with you soon ;)

Pants!!!

My baby boy had a perfect pair of pants that could be used in this weather as warm underpants unfortunately he worn them out crawling around the house almost a year ago (then they were a bit too big and now they barely fit) .. so I made him a new pair out of a stained T-shirt! It took me just 3 of his nap times to finish them..

Oliver in the new pants :)
and in background me and my baby bump ..

I made them a bit longer and wider than the original .. babies grow so fast!!!
and if you are interested here are some pictures of the progress ->

Budēļi - the Latvian Halloween

Today is 10th november a names day for Mārtiņš (closest equivalent I can think of in english is Martin) and otherwise known Mārtiņdiena (so this would be a Martinday and as it turns out we are not the only ones who celebrate it). This is a happy celebration of the end of quiet time called Veļu laiks and a beginning of joyful and derring-do time budēļi.

Veļu laiks is the time between Miķeļi (another names day on 29th september) till Mārtiņdiena (10th november) .. a quiet time .. a time to thank the ghosts of our ancestors leaving some food and drinks for them to feast on. Remembering those who have left our world and telling stories about old times. Our ancestors spent this time preparing for winter. Nowadays most of us just go to the store for almost everything .. but a lot of people still make their own jelly or pickled cucumbers and stuff like this.

Budēļi is kind of like halloween but lasts not just one night but from 10th of november till the end of february (precise time would be 7 weeks before Easter), although biggest activity is around Christmas and new year. The name itself has grown from a word meaning - to stimulate, to urge, to encourage.

For latvians the masked visitors went from home to home with good intentions. Scaring away all the bad and evil with loud behavior, singing songs, playing "drums" on pots with wooden spoons and so on .. and of course laughing a lot. These masked visitors were welcomed and usually gifted with something that the hostess had to give (pie, bacon, dried fruit... ).

In nowadays however a lot more children choose to celebrate the american Halloween unfortunately they do not know what it means .. and it's used just as excuse to go around asking for the candy ...

So today my little family will get a bit fancier dinner than usually in sundays to celebrate the beginning of this joyful time budēļi.

Let's get the party started!
so I am off to the kitchen to prepare the cake and everything else :)

misshaped granny square!

Anyone who has ever tried to make a blanket out of mismatched size squares will know my pain of weird spots where nothing seems to fit...
There's always a possibility to make about a million small squares or use a rectangle here and there .. eventually get a straight line for a bigger square and after a while start that same cycle again.
sometimes it can be fun but most of the times it just gets on my nerves..
- why I am telling you all of this?
- I have found another way to fill the gaps! ;)

Let's welcome the misshaped granny square in to the BigBrightBlanket family!

The trick for making a misshaped granny square is to figure out the length of a starting chain and thickness or the rounds necessary.

Morning star!

Every year around this time I spend much more time inside waiting for autumn to end end winter to start... and always I find myself wondering about all the different backgrounds we have not just as people but as nations. I am planning to tell you about our kind of halloween soon, but for now enjoy the simple jet powerful morning star!

In Latvian mythology morning star protects from evil. It symbolizes the victory of light over darkness. Jet another good versus evil stuff. And it looks great too!

The beginning of G-plaid!

I have started yet another project .. please do not judge me too hard ..

This one is gonna be very special!!!

1. It's a gift, that will probably not be ready for this Christmas... 
2. It's the little brother of BigBrightBlanket. 
3. Last row of every square will be in one color (dark brown) - so it will be easier to join them together :)

So far I have made just few squares... need soooooooo much more!!! I somehow thought I have quite a lot squares done so far and I could start arranging, but when I took them out in the daylight I had to admit, that this is not nearly enough to start the joining...

As I am a bit obsessed with ravelry lately (and not a fan of Instagram, because my iPhone apparently is too old and I can only sneak few photos through my hubbys phone) ... so I have links to square patterns in ravelry also if you want to add them to your queue ;)

Best pie ever!!!

I found this mock mincemeat pie recipe and was tiptoeing around it for a week.
So I finally got the courage to try it out today - it probably took me more time than it should and I didn't have a maple syrup and probably forgot some spices too, but it came out tasting AMAZING!
And I am sharing a link to this pie so I know where to find the recipe for the next time and the time after that and... well you get the picture - this one is here to stay!

And I found out that my kitchen is not complete - I still do NOT own a rolling pin - I can't believe I haven't bought it jet ..

Hopefully next time I'll try this I will have a rolling pin and will be able to make it look better to fit the amazingness of the taste :)

Bon appétit!

Chanterelle pie

A while ago I unexpectedly got a big basket of chanterelles from my hubby's aunt, so I thought I should  make something more interesting than chanterelle sauce and fill up a jar for winter (I did those too, but the pie was a challenge to make something different than usual)...
So I made a savory pie!

Recipe is nowhere near perfect, but to remind myself what I did when I get the next big basket of chanterelles and try to make this pie even better ... :)
This pie tastes better on the second day ... I think it's because when it's right from oven the shortcrust pastry makes it kind of dry ... next time I would add some tomatoes, cauliflower or something to make it juicier right from oven ... to enjoy it while it's still hot :)

2nd edition of my flower square :)

First scheme and tips. 
It works when background yarns are a bit thinner than the flower yarns.

Photo of a new and better square!

Now I have found that most of the times last two rows work better like this so I refreshed the scheme ->

As you can probably see that I have "painted over" the previous scheme .. I was too lazy to draw it from beginning just to change the last two rows so I put on a new piece of paper, cut a hole in it for the rows that won't change and then draw the last two rows...

BIG NEWS!!!

Guess what?

These are baby boots for a very special girl ...
I am half way through my pregnancy !!! and I am finally ready to share these great news with the world.

I am happy as a clam!

Around a square !

I am in the middle of a chair cover and wanted to show off ->

I am using yarn leftovers from my summer bag, but I will need more .. as it turns out the chair is pretty big :D

If you want to make something like this yourself then read further ;) I have made a pretty lame photos of the scheme as it advances ... I hope it will help :)

Summer bag ...

As it is the first of september I declare that the autumn is here! and my summer bag is finally finished!!!  :D I should stop calling it summer bag and maybe I will find the opportunity to show it off during the warm autumn days too :)

Here are some photos of my masterpiece :)

recipe: chicken n' cheese!

I will tell you how to make my family's favourite sauce! :)
It takes less than an hour to make and there will be enough for at least four people (depends on how hungry you are and how much you usually eat).
For me it tastes better with rice, but my husband prefers potatoes.. actually it is really good with buckwheat or pasta too.

Ingredients:
1 or 2 chicken fillets (depends on how much meet you'll want)
400g cream cheese ( in Latvia the clear choice is "Dzintars" for all of you who doesn't live here .. well I just hope you have something similar in your stores too)
200g champignions
1 paprica
2 tomatoes (I chose the yellow tomatoes just to make the sauce colorful)
a bit of salt, pepper and a teaspoon of cooking oil too

Cookware:
knife
cutting board
big frying pan
wooden spoon

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

More than half done!
I now have two corners and a vision where the other two should be :) I love this blanket already!!!

Few close-ups too :) for the love of details..

blanket of the stars

It began as a simple project of a star-shaped blanket... and then it grew a bit ..to the size that lenghth around the star just got too long to keep me interested in crocheting further
Well one star is just big enough to cover my babyboy during naptime, but as he is growing so should this blanket! unfortunately I get bored going round the star so now I have 4 stars the same size for one almoust rectangle blanket :) 
I made about a million different sized and colored circles and started to fill the gaps between stars - this is SO much fun!!! 
If you are interested I can show you how I add the circles with lots of step by step pictures, but for now enjoy the unfinished look of blanket of the stars! ;)

The only downside to this is that I need a lot of space and alone time to do this, otherwise Oliver tries to hide underneath the stars or to "help" me crochet .. so it's a project I can do during my babyboys naptimes .. and I can no longer read a book while crocheting :D
Happy crafting to you too!

part 1: the pieces of old jeans

I have been collecting all our jeans so I can someday make a quilt out of them. a quilt for picnics and some lazy moments in our garden :)
And thanks to my NewYears resolution I have finally started it! This is gonna be quite a simple one, but for the first one - simple is what I need! :)

This is part one - I am organizing my pile of old jeans into a tower of neatly cut squares.

I got 32 squares out of the first jeans but only 25 out of the second .. I am planning that I will need 400 so thats at least 15 more pants ... now, I am afraid to count the jeans in the pile .. what if there is not enough?

ten thousand clicks! :)

Today I am celebrating the first 10000 clicks on my blog!!! woohoo!
If you are not interested in numbers and a walk in memory lane then please do not read further and remember that I do this kind of blog posts rarely :)

progressreport - BigBrightBlanket :)

I have the first corner!
and the second one is not that far away... unbelievable! I can actually see myself finishing it at some point this year :)

I am thinking about a block with my name, the name of blanket and probably the year (years) I was making it. have you ever crocheted something like that? do you have any suggestions about this kind of block?

Here some close-ups from my Big Bright Blanket :)

Easter bunny is on his way!

Easter is coming!!!
Have you noticed the spring in the air?
I feel a bit like a cat .. well I am not planning to scream aloud in the yard at night - it would be too creepy, but I love the long walks in the middle of the day with my babyboy in the sling :) unfortunately the snow is gone here but temperature is somewhere around zero and sun is shining so inviting that even the plants and trees are beginning to wake up after the long sleep... that's definitely an upside for a spring :) I really love winter though .. So tomorrow we are going to the mountains! a week in Slovakia, mountains full of snow, snowboarding all day long ... it's gonna be legendary!!!

But before we leave I wanted to introduce you all with our Easter bunny! ;)
At first I wanted to make a nice basket for the colored eggs .. but with this yarn that would take up more time than it should so I made something like a bottle warmer for an Easter wine :)

In the background of this picture you can see our vintage wallpaper ..
It's a bit depressing because it's blue and ripped in some parts..
I hope we will get it changed soon :)
BUT THE BUNNY BOTTLE IS SO CUTE! :))

The scheme for bunny ->

The only problem with this is that the crochet stitches is not right on top of each other and after a while you might think that the bunny is kind of falling ... This happens because I am crocheting around the bottle not forward/backward..

and a short picture tutorial for color changing ;)
1st step 
you crochet with both yarns at te same time.. well not exactly but you crochet over the yarn you do not use at the moment so when the time comes to change the color it's right there!

ZigZag infinity scarf

As you may have heard I love math!, but making this scarf I realized that I was having hard times with the basics .. such as counting! I blame the government!
This was the first time I ever knitted by reading the pattern in english .. but the problem for me was to count to 10 ... isn't this kind of funny?
As I see now I just need more knitting experience! because I have some places where there instead of ten stitches are nine or eleven .. and there are some problems with the row count as well, but nevertheless the infinity scarf looks wonderful and if I wouldn't have said anything about that counting no one would have noticed.. I hope :)

Pattern is called ten stich ZigZag and can be found on ravelry as free download. 

Have fun!

As I wanted an infinity scarf rather than another blanket, then I knitted long zigzag and instead of turning and going back I kept knitting forward using the other end of scarf as first "row"..

note to self: next time crocheting infinity scarf this way keep in mind that the first "row" should be way longer than intended scarf - after attaching the second "row" the scarf will shrink a bit ..

a month of love!

Happy Valentines day!!!
A very short post before I go back to champagne and chocolate cake ...

This heart is variation if very talanted Kates Geometric heart block
although I used my own way of diagonal color changing
and instead of sewing I joined it as I go :)

For those of you that do not know I got married in this years Groundhog's day (can't believe it's almost two weeks ago already!) so for me and my family february is the true month of love :)

Love to you all and happy crafting!

Diagonal color change

Usually granny square consists of loads of colorful yarns that are changed after each row. But I propose a different approach!
Lets change the color in the corner ... so you would get a granny square that looks like this, or that, or ... ;)

Lacy granny square

I present to you the newest block in the town!
Lets welcome the Lacy granny square ;)

It is fun, simple and supercute if I may say so myself :)
And it will be a great addition to my BigBrightBlanket.

The gifts of pay-it-forward-giveaway

Jesus himself said "It is more blessed to give than to receive" and I have tested his hypothesis through my PayItForwardGiveaway (if you are interested -> announcement and winners) :) 

I found it very rewarding to make the presents and it was so exciting to wait for reaction on the other end!

Dare to dream!

It's almost midnight here in my home town .. and I am finally getting to my new years resolution. This is the first year I am setting up goals for crafting! how exciting!!!

so here comes the list ->
1st and most important - make a quilt! I have been admiring the quilts whole my life I think it's finally time to make my own! :)
2nd on the same note - make a patchwork bag to finally mach the name of my blog ;)
3rd cook more (and better)! my attempt of roast for new years dinner was quite pathetic...
4th blog more!!! I have so many ideas I wish to share, but somehow something always gets in the way ... because usually I want to make tutorial or at least something useful with scheme, but that takes time and my little man (as well as the big one) always comes first ... writing this I can already smell the pretext, I hate pretext I should just stop whining already and do the things I want to! (this will count as 5th and will be written on my personal goals list as well!)
6th finish the Big Bright Blanket (I love working on It so I won't be much disappointed if it'll grow to fill the new years resolution for 2014 as well)
7th finish the blanket of hearts till summer (first goal with deadline .. o my, o my ..)
and last but not the least - be creative in all aspects of my life! this will include all the small projects that will just happen as the year unfolds :)

and on this note I say CRAFTY NEW YEAR TO ALL!!! and may your dreams come true ;)