January

Hi All! So how is 2013 shaping up so far for you all?

Well mine went something like this!


Last year I joined a great Etsy Team, Knit1Treble2... I know great name right! Lots of very talented peeps from the Great Britain, who either knit of crochet supporting each other and what they, we make.

Like with my blogging, I have been a bit rubbish with the old treasuries . but I have been kindly added to lots of beautiful treasuries, the most recent of which is this one... from the lovely Bebby who makes adorable hand knitted jumpers for Kiddies! http://www.etsy.com/shop/bebbyjumpers

Isn't this just an adorable collection of flowers!!

Flowers in the Rain - Etsy Treasury curator : bebbyjumpers

I also got added to these treasuries by these lovely Knit1Treble2 team members!

KittyBallistic - Curator of : A Pinkish sort of Red

RoseCottageCraftsUK - Curator of : 1,2,3,4 ...

CwtchBugs - Curator of : Hearts and Flowers for Spring
BabanCat - Curator of : Monochrome
Megshomeknitting - Curator of : Webs of the World
thefibretree - Curator of : Softly...
JensCrochetandCrafts - Curator of : All You Need is Love
crochetbypamela - Curator of : A crochet wedding

And a couple of other Treasuries I was lucky enough to be in are...

from the adorable Yvonne from MyHauntedAttic - Curator of : Above The Clouds
and the super Laura from paradisereal - Pick your Perfect Purse!
veganessa - Curator of : One Day I'll Fly Away

Thank you all for your Treasuries! :)

Earlier this month, I was also asked to be a Team Leader for Yvonnes new Team : Heart of Wales So although I am not technically from Wales, my Mum, Dad & Granddad live there, and home is where the Heart is right? :)

I been busy on Instagram lately.. are you come find me on there.. Elli aka HEARTSTITCHING shared one of my doilies on the lovely blog.. go check her out! :)

So I turned another year older!.. yuck.. but such is life eh.. but I did get some lovely pressies.. As well as some snow!! I can't remember it ever snowing on my Birthday.. but it did...

This was the view from our front door,.. we went to Wales to visit the family, and they hardly had any.. must have been the only bit of Wales that didn't get 10 foot! )

This is me and the Mr. wearing our wooly warmers.. that I made :)

New lens from the Mr.

A great new mug for work! ;)

and these addddorable pom pom makers from the family...

I was very lucky and got spoilt rotten.. :)

Hey!!! I have reached OVER 1,000 - yes that is ONE THOUSAND subscribers on YouTube!!!

*faints*

I can't actually believe it!!!!.. Think I will have to do a YT give away very VERY soon!!!

So if you haven't already why not subscribe to my channel.. hopefully I will be able to scape a few pennies together and get a nice little giveaway prize! :)

http://www.youtube.com/user/Girlybunches

Not much else has happened.. too much rain/snow and general weather.. so looking forward to spring and think I will start to make a few hearts for that looming V-Day... ! 

One parting gesture... 

A picture tells a thousand words... as they say... ;)

xxx

December ... Christmas of course!

So as you can see.. I am a little bit, in fact down right awful at keeping up to date with blogging!

So I thought I would try a new line of attack.. A monthly update??

So here is Decembers offerings..

I love December, not just because of Christmas, I just love the festive seasonal spirit it gets everyone in... yes.. going around the supermarkets it's not too easy to find the festive spirit, but I know it's there and it certainly makes a dark and dank month seem to go much quicker!

I didn't really get very creative for Christmas in the crochet department, but I did do a little fun video on making my Christmas Tree (pattern can be found in my Etsy shop)

Hope you like it.

I do need to make more videos, any requests??

Another exciting bit of news, the lovely people at Simply Knitting Magazine who made a few special editions of Simply Crochet Magazine earlier this year that they kindly featured me in has gone global and MONTHLY! YES!!!! 

This is going to be the first edition, and from what I've already seen of their publications last year this periodical is going to be jam packed with beautiful crochet goodness.. but then is made by the makers of the adorble Mollie Makes!... and HERE is a link to their subscriptions page! First edition is out on 6th January 2013.

The darling Mr. Girlybunches was kind enough to point out to me that I had rather a lot of 'left over yarn'... which I am sure you will all agree would be a MORTAL sin to dispose of...so I decided to try and use it up in an inventive way!.. Several cups of tea later I decided that I would make pot scrubs out of it. The yarn in question is an acrylic yarn, and so impervious to bleach, tough as nails, and wash up a right treat... so... this is what I came up with...

 

Mr. Girlybunches thinks I have lost it.. but had to admit they work rather well!... 

What else have I been getting up to.... oh yes!... I remember.

Mummy Girlybunches AKA Sweethearts and Roses has been making for a long time embroidered cottages... and some of my lovely Instagram ladies have been as of late showing their adorable little fabric houses.. I thank all of the above for the idea to make my own!... over the Christmas holidays while at the ranch, I made two.  Admittedly I've never done embroidery, but Mummy Girlybunches was all to happy to show me the ropes, as she did with knitting and crochet! 

I think I will work on another cottage using elements of the first two. 

The second one is now in my Etsy shop.

I hope Father Christmas was a good to you all as he was to me.. I got some amazing goodies...and here are a couple of the crafty highlights...

I love books.. and crochet books are always a winner with me.. and Yoga for your Brain looks stunning!

HOW adorable are these vintage Yarn Holders!!! swoon! I love them.. and are going to be so handy!

Well lovelies.. this is the end of my December round up.  Only a couple of days left of the year, and I am glad that the world didn't come to an end, how boring would that have been...!

Till the end of Jan, where I will be another YEAR older (sigh),.. I wish you all a very Happy New Year!... Happy Hooking! xxx

Simply Crochet Magazine - Winter Edition!

Wellllllll..... I can barely describe how painful it has been to contain my excitement.... but Girlybunches has only gone and been featured in Simply Crochet magazine again!!!
I was so lucky earlier this year (June) to be in their Summer Edition when they featured my Granny Lampshade....
But I don't mind admitting to you guys that I was every so slightly overwhelmed when I was contacted a few weeks ago to say that I they would be interested in featuring my crochet tree pattern but then they have gone and not only featured my tree pattern, but also my finished jewellery items!! *faints*!
And then to top it off they wrote a really really lovely review of my website www.girlybunches.com!!
I truly am speechless (yippeee my Husband shouts!)... but I truly am a very lucky lucky Girlybunches to be in that magazine with so many other wonderful crocheters who I admire and inspire me also.
sooo... go go go.. grab yourself a copy... and check out all of the crochet goodness in the Winter edition of Simply Crochet magazine.
Here are a few snap shots of my bits and bobs in there....

Right... before I get a really bad case of head swell... I just would like to thank Simply Crochet Magazine for including my little crochet bits and bobs, and to all you lovely peeps out there for your support and kind words that keep me going.  You're all very kind :)

Have a super day! 

xx

Trying out a new blog app...

To see if I can be more pro-active in my blogging...


And to prove I'm not at home... :)

How long should ones knickers be?

Been a funny week.... as Arkwright liked to say.. or did he say 'It's been a funny day?' either way it has been a funny week. Had a lovely weekend with my Folks last weekend as the ol'man was working.  And amongst other things I crocheted and made chutney with Mummy Girlybunches.   More on that in my next blog.. but just had to share this lovely book that Mum found for me... she purchased it from the lovely Yvonne from her Etsy store My Haunted Attic

This book is stupendous!.. Crammed with sage advice and according to Mummy Girlybunches was the book or a book almost identical that Mum used to help her with her school studies!

I adore there useful advice offered when one is measuring for ones knicker length!  (note how adorably long ones knicker length should be!)

I just love this book.. ♥

Girlybunches Hearts Simply Crochet

Today... as some of you who follow my Facebook / twitter ramblings will know is the day that I spilling the beans on some exciting news for Girlybunches!
In April I was contacted by a lovely lady who works for Simply Knitting magazine.. Simply Knitting you say.. ? That's a knitting magazine you say, well yes you would be right but they are doing one off crochet special!!!!

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As part of the one off special they are doing a Granny Square special...

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They asked me... Girlybunches (EK)  if I would mind them using my Granny Lampshade as part of their Granny Square special!!...?? Do I mind?  Heck No!! :D  Girlybunches's Lampshade is rocking the charts at number 11!!! Get'in!!!

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So today peeps.. Girlybunches is a published Crochet-er... WAHoo... (can I get a Heck Yeah) I'm rather chuffed to say the least, rest assured I will be raiding the shelves of every newsagents until I find me a copy!!! So happy to be included in such a magazine with lots of other lovely talented works.   I am not sure if you can get this on the iPad / other great tablets.. but I think most newsagents will be stocking it.. so buy buy buy guys and gals.. who knows if it's popular then they might do more than a one off special.. I for one would like to see another crochet magazine to choose from.

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Thanks peeps for reading my blog and sharing my happy day!... To help share the happiness, I will be giving a 10% discount to all orders from my on line shop www.girlybunches.com the rest of the day.

Using the following discount code : simplycrochetmag10

(discount doesn't include postage costs, discount ends at midnight 14th June 2012)

xxx

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What has Girlybunches been up to...?

How long has it been?  Nearly a year!!! Disgraceful!!! Sorry peeps...  However, I hope you will agree it's an interesting blog to come back with and of course you will see that I've been busy!!!

Firstly, Since my last blog I have now created my own Website! .. http://www.girlybunches.com/ Check it out!! It took a while to create and I am always tweaking it.. as is the way, but I think it's not to shabby!

I have also been working hard on my Youtube Channel! ttp://www.youtube.com/user/Girlybunches I started making little crochet videos, some for fun, but mainly tutorials in basic crochet in August last year and I am amazed and so thrilled to have over 380 subscribers already!  One of my videos has has over 110,000 views!!! *Happy Dancing*

So as you can see I have been busy.  I have also been attending regularly the lovely fayres organised by the lovely Yvonne in Bury Port South Wales.  All the fayres are to raise money for charity and great fun.  Check out Yvonne's blog for details of the next fayres.. http://my-hauntedattic.blogspot.co.uk/ There is always a wonderful selection of handmade and vintage items for sale.. to name a couple... Wonderland Boutique & Athenas Vintage... Also, with the Parental Units, Sweethearts and Roses & Meadowcraft Work Shop.

Also.. I've given the ol'blog a bit of a face lift.. thought the spots were more my style... 'Dotty' my husband would call it.. read into that what you will! ;) (at least he didn't say spotty!)

Not sure if you've every noticed, but I do like a cup of tea or two.. and have had to suffer a NAKED teapot for many years now!  I know its a shocker! Well... I've been wondering about making a tea cosy for a while, and after a few false starts I finally cracked it... the tea cosy that is... I would have cried a lot if I cracked my beloved teapot!  Have a look at what I came up with. 

This is the first one I made, and so this is all MINE! mwahahah!

 

Then I made this pink one,... 

and the blue and yellow one.

And of course.. I had to make a patriotic one for the Jubilee, which is now living in Denver USA! :)

The Mothership has already requested a tea cosy.. so will be obliging, and have already posted one to Denver, Colorado. After making a sale on Etsy!... Very pleased with that, as I was beginning to think that my Etsy sales would never pick up. So very excited about that. 

Another thing I have been dabbling with is writing out my own patterns for sale.  This isn't as easy as it sounds as most of the time I just make things.. and in my head it makes perfect sense!! However, I have been asked by a few people for patterns for things and I thought why not give it a go.

Only have two patterns for sale at the moment, and one of the patterns is a back up to a tutorial I have on Youtube.   But I will definitely be writing more.

In my year off from Blogging I experimented with a few different things, and one of them is this a crochet lampshade.  I loved making this, it reminds me so much of urban knitting, or graffiti knitting as it it known.. here is my version...

Well that is all.. for now.. I have some more EXCITING news to follow (tomorrow Thursday 14th June)...

Toodles! xx

(If you're still reading my blog.. you're very lovely.. I've neglected you for too long.. sorry darlings)

A creative couple of days...

Have really been bitten by the creative bug now.

Have got some time off work and have decided to cram in as much crafty stuff as possible.. this will either make going back to the day job easier or unbearable.. yet to work that one out..

So instead of a sleep in on Saturday I woke up bright and ridiculously early... much to the OH's horror.. and started making a mess in his eyes.. but was glad it was keeping me distracted from the washing up he hadn't done from the night before....

So the first thing I made was a fabric flower.  I got the idea from Leanne from Luvleescrappin . She shared a lovely vid blog on how to make flowers, but I wanted to incorporate a bit of Girlybunches crochet in there somewhere.

Using some old fabric I had (cotton drill) I hand dyed it using glimmer mist (for those of you who are interested I used Starfish (pink), Meadows Green (green), Purple Pansy (purple) and a hint of Tattered Rose (clear pink glittery glimmery sheen), cut six wiggly circles and attached to a felt backing.  I also hand dyed a crocher flower I made and affixed this as well.  Finished off with a jewel brad!

Not bad for a first attempt at such things... I think anyway...

The next thing I wanted to do was to make another vid for my YouTube channel - www.youtube.com - Girlybunches I've made a few vids on how to get started with crochet, but wanted to do a start to finish vid of myself crocheting a doily.  So with the help of iMovie and Garage Band I made a quirky bit of film and also with the help of The Husband we made some music to go with the vid.  You have to be careful of music on YouTube, as its all copyrighted etc... and I didn't want to loop the music for 8 mins!!! That would drive even the most patient of souls nuts!...

So here is what we came up with.. please subscribe to my channel for other vids that I have in the pipe line....

After all that.. I decided that I would have a cup of tea and a sit down for the rest of the day.

Today, however, I woke up with further creative crafty gusto!

I got from Ebay the other day a CD that contains 2800 vintage labels... and indeed it did.. and for £1.00 it was silly not to really. I really really love, and always have done old crate labels.. I just adore them.  Such great artwork in them... and this CD was packed with them...  if you're interested the seller is.. CD/DVD IMAGE'S they are currently doing 4 CD's for the price of 3.. hurry!

Using the images I am going to decorate things around the home.. and my first project was a Mingles tin left over from crimbo....I'm rather pleased with it.

From this...

 To this...

Thats if for now.. off to go and plan what to make tomorrow.. aside from a mess that is!.. ttfn xxx

More than just a doily!

Lately I have been feeling more and more 'restricted' in my crafting work.. I LOVE to make things. I can't tell you how much I do, apart from most of the time I feel like I could burst with ideas that I never get a chance to even get down on paper let alone make!

Work is very busy and I'm very grateful to have a job.. but sometimes I just want to make make MAKE!...

So, I took a couple of days off and now I'm waiting for the Gas 'person' to arrive to fix the boiler so I have no choice but to have a play!.. such a shame!!

I've been having a look at lots of lovely blogs lately and of course YouTube.. what a mine field of lovely info people are happy to share with everyone.. just so fascinating. I love seeing people making lots of lovely things.. so wonderful.  One lady has caught my eye in particular a Super Lovely LADY!! Leanne from Canada.  She has the most wonderful channel on YouTube and I highly recommend you check out her channel. She shares so much good stuff.. and often shows the fabulous way she makes things in mesmerising start to finish speeded up films. Also love her Haul videos showing the great things you can get over the pond at sickeningly low prices compared to Blighty!... (reminds me of holidays in the US when I was a kid)... Please please plesae go and check out Leanne's channel YouTube - Luvleescrappin - make sure you have a cup of tea and a biscuit to hand before you do as you will be there a while! :)

(I have however found since, that Dunelm Mill do stock quiet a lot of nice bits and bobs at reasonable prices.. check out their website.. Dunelm Mill - Arts and Crafts)

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So... This long weekend I have been making! YES!! feels so good to just make things....

I've wanted for a while to apply my crochet to a 3D item... and just love the paper mache boxes you can get.. I found these boxes in Hobby Craft.. 89p for the box.. I think is a rather good price.

This box is one of the smallest they do.. I also got a heart shaped one which I am yet to do anything with.. so watch this space.  The box above measures 7.5cm x 7.5cm x 4cm (old skool - 3"x3"x1.5") Just the right size for special little trinkets.. lovely. I painted the box using some acrylic paint and to be honest I wasn't very happy with the finish, it felt sticky.. even after leaving it to dry for a week...!!! I sanded it back and added another layer.. but still felt sticky! umm not what I want! so.. I decided to try some emulsion paint.. I went to Homebase and got some sample pots, much cheaper and you can get a Matt finish paint. This is what I went for .. and at £1.50.. not bad.. have painted three boxes so far with this.. so happy with that..

I was much happier with the finish, however this time it did leave a 'chalky' feel to the box!!! So I decided to give it a coat of Mod Podge... bingo!! perfect.. a slight sheen to make it feel durable... but not tacky!! 

and this is the finished (painted) result...

I love the colour and now to make some lacy crochet to go on it..... I played around a lot with different styles, and this is what I made to go on my trinket box.

 

Now for the tricky part of sticking it on the box!

and here is the finished box..

Purple Trinket / Keepsake Box with Crochet Lace

Now available to purchase in my Folksy shop.

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Oh Hey Wow

So I've been too quiet for too long! I know.. I'm terrible at this blogging malarky! However I do love reading all the other lovely blogs out there.. so keep putting me to shame.. and thanks for your support guys.

I thought that I would tell you about what I have been getting up to of late.. one.. making a shawl for a lovely lady at work, its being made out of mohair.

Mohair! I hear you cry... yes. Mohair! It is (if I had ever done this) similar to crochet with cobwebs! However, hopefully, looks stunning.. I'm about half way through making that, so will post pics when it is finished.  Never made a shawl before either so two birds one stone and all that!

... and in between making the shawl and other pretties to keep my shop on Folksy ticking over... I have been making a special 'order' for a couple of lovely ladies who have just opened up a lovely new little shop!!! (squeeeeelll)

The shop is in Worcester.. and has the best name ever! OH HEY WOW!!! Bethany from Oh Hey Wow approached me and asked me if I would like to supply items for their little shop.. and how could I say no?

So I said YES!

So if your in the Worcester area... and want to get your hands on some of mine and other lovely crafters work.. then check out their website for details and BUY BUY BUY!!! :)

Here are some pics of what I will be sending them!

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