Crafty in the Med

I am here to enjoy meeting other bloggers and to share my love of craft ,mostly crochet, my thoughts and my daily happenings here in Alicante,Spain, my adopted country. I belong to a local choir because singing and music makes me happy. Flea markets and book shops are two of my favourite places to be. I read lots......sci´fi/fantasy,buried treasure, and off world adventures. I have a passion for history! I walk and walk and walk for about 10 months per year during the hot months I swim.

Sunday 28 April 2013

Door slamming!

and exactly that.... all due to the door slamming and poor Willie the cat couldn't get into our bedroom at night to be with his beloved friend Sr P.
We put a cushion there at first so the door was drawn to but there was still sufficient space for Willie to get in but that cushion had got old and squashed and wasn't allowing enough space for Willie to get in anymore. That meant we were back to the scratching and meowing again at 3ish in the morning tut!!!
That's when Sr P asked me to make a doorstop and I have, as you can see in the photo above but now my daughter has seen it and she wants it and Sr P has given it to her and asked me to make another one not so elaborate!!!
Which  I will do ...but....grr!!!!

I had no intention of doing all THIS!!! 
The whole turret house just sort of developed after having sewn the main body of the door stop together and filled it with a bag of rice and also placed a few pebbles in the bottom to keep it steady.
I sewed the bottom up and thought it looked rather plain and I thought I could crochet a something top to it to make it look a bit taller.


I merrily crocheted away in single crochet and it just sort of went cone like.  I thought of a turret and of course I had just seen the Hobbit film so perhaps that was what inspired me.

It looked better with the turret but then it needed a door and then a few windows and the turret needed a few little round windows too!

Then it came to me that no good turret house could be without a chimney so I made a chimney ,



but the back of the house looked so bare .....so......I added a curly crochet button tree. 
All country turret houses have ,as I am sure you know,some wildlife nearby and as this is a country turret house I decided to stick some felt rabbits near the tree and a felt butterfly hovering near the tree too and a flower near the front door.





and then I thought a couple of toadstools under a window but 
.....naaaa ....I thought it was getting a bit crowded and so I stopped......


to rest and  to contemplate it.


keep well!


Amanda :-)



Wednesday 24 April 2013

Relief from the mojo loss!!!


Stimulated,motivated anddddd ready to get those creative juices moving......... Tra la la la!!!....thats how I feel at present!

All thanks to my marvellous giveaway gift that arrived yesterday!!!!
A card from Helen


I won the fabulous giveaway on Helen Philipps' blog and I am very happy about this because I really wanted that book so bad!!!!
Oh! but its is everything I expected it to be and more!

Let me tell you just a little bit about it :

First of all my husband,Sr P,who is a master bookbinder, has looked at the book and commented  Bien (good) neat binding,nice size and good paper for this sort of book. Now you may feel that description is rather spartan but please allow me to assure you that is a compliment AND he even looked inside the book and not just the centre pages to see if it was stitched or glued but he tested the quality of the paper between thumb and forefinger.  His usual comments about the type of bookbinding to be found on today's books are rather much more explicit ; powerful and precise to be exact so much so that I would hesitant indeed to repeat those comments to you dear bloggers.
Now you know that extremely important information about Helen's book Pretty Patchwork Gifts, I'll continue on to give you my views on the contents:

I must start with the front cover first of course because it draws your attention straightaway as  Helen's gorgeous little stuffed houses fill your eyes and that's just the prelude for more, as those lovely houses entice you to get inside that book as quick as possible! In fact I was so eager to see all of the contents that I skimmed through stopping for a moment here and there to admire ,to sigh and to sip some tea,all the time I was already choosing what I was going to make and lots of thoughts of other projects flittered through my mind. I of course had to go back to the beginning and start over. This time pausing to read, to contemplate the lovely photographs in more detail






 and also reviewing the very easy to follow instructions. I found them so easy to understand I really think I could have a bash at making some of these projects even if I have never done patchwork before.

Unfortunately I do have one complaint ........   there wasn't enough ....... I got to the end far too quickly LOL!

BUT wait!...........  what light from yonder window breaks......
methinks not a light from the window ,she said, but the sparkle and shine of the multicoloured buttons,sweet ribbons and bobbles and the glitter from the minute golden scissors laid out on floral fabric ..... all received as well in this generous giveaway.






Can you see that adorable card Helen sent me? Even this tiny sticker on the bag denotes Helen's style.

Tiny sticker
I love it all.


Thank you Thank you Helen :-)
I feel so motivated now I really MUST try some of these projects. I have done some hunting on the web and found this blog "Sew many Yarns"  which gives you really easy instructions on how to do some hexies. You can even download templates for the hexies here too on this other blog,Snippets & Blabbery".
Excuse me! I meant English Paper piercing to call it by its proper name.
I've had to save these pages for the moment because I have a make underway that my husband requested and that holds priority. He never never asks me to make him anything in fact he often looks at my craftying with a sort of bemused look....you know a raising of eyebrows sort of thing!!!!


Keep well

Amanda :-)

Friday 19 April 2013

This is the Third one

Amaergé Lotus Flower
inspired by fabergé.



first it was Pear Blossom and then the Heart Apple  and now the Lotus Flower........


After the disaster of my previous make and having to frog it all out, I've immediately gone and completed the next make on my long long list of projects.

It's my sister's birthday at the end of this month so I've made her this for her birthday. I call it a Lotus flower ring tidy. Its for her new bedroom in her new house.



My sister has just brought a house which she will eventually live  in, when they decide to stop work. She has a motel in Gilgandra,NSW Australia which they keep saying they are going to sell but its doing so well they also keep saying ...... one more year! They are both pensioners now but they just keep going.



I don't usually advertise anything on my blog but you will excuse me when I say this is the best motel in Australia,the most fantastic,nicest and wonderful motel you can visit and the cleanest!  




It being family and all a little bit of extra publicity always helps.
Pop in here and have a look around. 



Have a wonderful weekend


Amanda :-)









Saturday 13 April 2013

Temptation and beyond from Mallorca



This is an ensaimada ........




Now...... you see my taste buds ,after all these years living in Spain, are still not up to the Spanish preferences for extra sweet icky cakes. I'm afraid they make me cringe but I won't say no to an ensaimada.
An ensaimada  can be either filled with whipped cream or without,just sprinkled with icing sugar. I go for the filled with cream type.  One ensaimada is sufficiently large to make two out of one. I usually cut it up and add some fresh strawberries which makes two tasty delicious sweets out of one ensaimada.
The ensaimadas originated from Mallorca.


They are yeast-based cakes fashioned into round, coiled shapes.I haven't ever made any myself as they are time-consuming to prepare, because the dough must be allowed to rise several times.
Some people like to eat them for breakfast,served with hot chocolate or coffee.
I have tried this and although I do not usually like to eat anything sweet for breakfast an ensaimada makes a delicious exception,especially if it is with hot drinking chocolate from the town of Villajoyosa (just down the road more or less,before you get to Benidorm).
Villajoyosa ,Alicante

*********************************


I had hoped to post about my most recent make this weekend which was a bolero shrug I was making for my grand-daughter. Unfortunately that is out of the question now as I have undone the lot. I just totally did not like it.!   Nothing wrong with the pattern which was from Lion Bernat but rather my choice of the yarn which has made it very bulky. There's nothing spring like about the end product that I produced and it was to be for spring,so one whacking big failure ............pooh!

Hello and Welcome to my new follower Betsy at The Simple Life of a Queen,thank you so much for visiting and for your kind comments on my posts.

I also want to give a big shout out to all those bloggers who have not as yet popped in to visit Shari's beautiful blog called Kashmere Kisses,such an enticing name and its an exquisite blog indeed .
At the moment Shari is holding a fabulous giveaway which you really really should not miss!

Wishing you all a very relaxing weekend  


Amanda :-)







Sunday 7 April 2013

If you use ipad....I do,I do I do have......



Tram,Alicante
Like a train passing through ,this is going to be a super quick post today as I really feel I have been neglecting my followers so I wish to spend more time reading blogs and answering comments over the next few days rather than writing up about myself or my makes.

There is just one other thing I feel impelled to mention....some of my new followers who use ipad have indicated that they cannot find or see the Google friend connect gadget on my blog, to be able to become followers. I can only presume this is a glitch when using ipad or you need to reduce the size of the page so you can see the full blog or shuffle to the right of the page because I certainly do use it and it is displayed at the top of the right hand side bar of the blog. Personally I can see it on my ipad I just shuffle it around a bit or reduce the size.

 Hope you are all having a lovely,restful Sunday :-)


Amanda :-)

Monday 1 April 2013

Where is my mojo?



First things must come first.

Last week I received my swap parcel from my partner in the Daisy Row's Springtime/Easter swap  Debi at Busy Little Chicken ....oh! but these swaps just brighten my days and Debi's parcel was no exception because just look at the colours of this lovely tote bag she has made for me and this notebook cover with my name on too.





Debi has also sent me a selection of English tea's which I so very appreciate because I am a Tea drinker!  I don't like coffee,or cappuccinos or hot milk,or cocoa,TEA is the only hot drink for me....lets just say I'm addicted for you to understand.There were several there that I've never tried before so I'm looking forward to sitting down relaxing and enjoying some new flavours.

 Can you see the bar of chocolate peeking out from under the tea sachets,well that is evidence that I received it because its gone now!  Debi also made a little key ring for me which was filled with lavender..... its making my bag smell so lovely.

 I think I've said this before but its worth it saying it again. I'm so lucky as I have met some lovely swap partners and received some wonderful swap gifts since I participated in swaps and I plan to participate in many more.
Thank you so much Debi for all these lovely goodies :-)



IMAGINATION IS THE BEGINNING OF CREATION 
 George Bernard Shaw

One of the vague reasons why I started blogging ,as explained in my very first post here,was to obtain constructive criticism about my crochet and pick up new ideas. I was feeling terribly brain dead where crochet ideas were concerned. The latter has been more than accomplished as I am amazed at the great ideas and creativity out there in blogland. It really is wonderful!

Some months ago and having paid particular attention if not rather enviously to fellow bloggers who in my opinion have found their craft niches to name but a few,Millefeuilles with her gorgeous hares,Lorraine and her cute toadstools and sweet bunnies,Susan and her fabulous knitting patterns which even makes me consider learning to knit.. As I also feel more comfortable and happy with the whole blogging set up I've been trying out for awhile now this make and that make to see if I can find my own niche within crochet or multicraft (crochet & other).   What am I getting at with all this chitchat, well just that it 'aint' happening I just can't find something I am happy with. There is nothing as yet that fills me or in other words makes me feel that this is it and inspires me sufficiently to make a couple more of without losing interest.
I am creative I know that I have imagination enough to fill umpteen fairy story books (if I could write) create unfathomable dimensions and other imaginary worlds but it just stays in my mind and does not transfer to my hands!!! )-:  sigh.....!
My plan is I have no plan just continue to try out new things sometimes mixing crochet with other crafts in the hope that one day I will find my mojo and what fills me craft wise.

Does anyone out there feel the same?

Amanda :-)