Sewing, Knitting, Crochet, Studying, Holidays...

I didn't know what to call this post, so it's a little bit of everything I've been doing in the past few weeks.

I finished this little bird shaped lavender bag for Emilie's teacher which she gave her on the last day of school:

I got the lavender in TK-Maxx (yes, I know, it's not the first place I would have thought of either, but I grabbed it all the same when I saw it) and I have some left so I'll make some more for the car and the house when I get a minute... Or a few days;)

I also made my teenage daughter this laptop bag which I'm very proud of. I couldn't find a sewing pattern for a padded bag with handles and velcro fastening and I wouldn't settle for a pattern that didn't do everything I wanted it to, so I mixed the instructions for a tablet cover from a sewing book I have at home and watched a Craftsy video tutorial to learn how to attach strong handles. I also added a little inside pocket that's really handy for storing earphones (also learnt through the Craftsy tutorial).

I haven't listed anything new on my Etsy shop, but summer is usually quiet enough for knitted and crochet accessories, so I'm happy enough renewing items as they expire for now.

I spent the last 2 weeks doing quite a bit of studying - as much as I could anyway, not easy with my daughters now on holidays and at home most of the time - so not doing a lot of knitting during the day but I managed to finish my summer top while watching "Who's That Girl" on Netflix in the evenings.

I even managed to finish crocheting my youngest daughter's top that was left unfinished since last month (oops!)

I've just applied for my mock exams so that I can sit the first set of exams before going on holidays next month - I'm not the stressed-out-about-exams kind of person, but I'd rather have them out of the way when I'm visiting my family for 2 weeks in August - then I'll be ready for more studying as my next modules should be available by the time I'm back from holidays (if I do pass my exams, that is;).

In the meantime, I have to finish my eldest daughter's knitted crop top and I have a few little sewing projects in mind to use up some of my fabric scraps. I hope to make a few more Fimo buttons for using on new crochet or knit mug and phone cosies (the last buttons I bought on Ebay are very cheap looking so I don't want to use these on my accessories, maybe my daughters can find some craft projects to use them for).

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Taking It Easy

As the title suggests, there's not much happening at the moment, apart from a few small things I made, as I'm still doing my accounting course.

I've made a few crochet mug cozies for which I made my own buttons out of Fimo clay but I haven't listed these in my shop yet (they do look a bit out of season, the ones with an applique heart looks too much like a Valentine's day item to list yet).

Last week I bought some cute fabric that my daughter picked herself as I promised her a padded laptop sleeve - I need to find a nice pattern with a handle on it to make it easy to carry, maybe also an inside pocket for her earphones or a little matching purse she can use to tidy them inside.

My evenings at the moment are taken up by the box top I'm knitting for myself. The pattern is for a crop box top but at my (advanced!) age I won't get away with a crop top so I'm making it a little bit longer; since the pattern is just 2 rectangles it's easy to adapt the length:)

When my eldest daughter saw me starting my top she immediately requested one for herself too, but she's young and get get away with wearing anything so of course for her it's going to be a crop top! The yarn has already been bought and between her yarn and the materials for her laptop sleeve I've already spent over €30 (I think she's paying me back with the crochet cushion she's crocheting for me as a late birthday present...Using some of my own stash!)

And the last project I want to share here for today is a cross-stitch bookmark I made as a gift for a member of the knitting group that has been coming to my youngest daughter's class once a week and teaching them how to knit: it took me 3.5 hours and I had to do it in one single session as I was given very short notice. I can tell you cross-stitching isn't easy on the eyes: I'm just starting to recover 3 days later (well maybe also a little less time on my Facebook feed might help;)

That's all for now folks!

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