And the Winners are........

I know you have been waiting with bated breath so I wrote down the names, put them in a bag and got my son to pull 3 out.

The Winners are - Jan, Julietk and Viola.

I will leave a message on your blog and you will need to contact me with your postal address and your preference. Use the "Ask me, I might" button in the left bar.

I will get them in the post Monday, provided I have your address.

Thank you to everybody who took part.

And don't forget, if you didn't win one, you can still buy the Egg Cosy Crochet Pattern from Rainbow Valley and make your own.

Nearly Easter

So I thought I would celebrate with a Give-away.

I have a carrier bag full of these characters. They don't all look like the ones in the photos, they are assorted colours and not all of the animals are there.

I have 3 to give away.

If you leave me a nice comment and a link on your blog, you can go in to a prize draw to win one.

If you don't win one, I am selling them at £1.50 each. If anybody wants any, email me.

Or you can buy the Egg Cosy Crochet Pattern from Rainbow Valley and make your own.

4 more sleeps!!!!!!!!!!

I haven't blogged lately because I haven't really had much to say. Normally my blog is full of projects I have been working on and lots of pics. But I can't craft and I can't use my camera.

All that is going to change in 4 more sleeps!

The cast comes off and I should be back to normal. Ok, so I am not naive enough to think that I am going to be able to do everything exactly the same as I was before I broke it. I do appreciate that I am going to have to build the strength up in the wrist again.

However, that is not going to stop me having a decent shower. The family have been warned that I will be hogging the bathroom for at least an hour on Tuesday night.

With Easter looming on the horizon, I thought I would remind you of these. They are all free patterns available on Rainbow Valley. The Easter Eggs shown in the picture are made with thread. I have used three strands at a time and "thread painted" them.

Thread painting is a technique where you use more than one strand of thread or yarn and change one strand at a time. This produces a shaded effect rather than an abrupt colour change.

The Easter Chicks and Easter Bunnies are made from ordinary machine washable acrylic. You can make them in anything you want to for different sizes.

There are also the Easter Baskets. This pattern is not a free one but it is available to buy as an instant download. It contains the instructions for all three baskets.

This delightful pattern contains instructions for twelve different Egg Cosies. Again it is available to buy as an instant download. Unfortunately, I can not take any orders for actual items this year as I do not know how long it is going to take me to get back to crocheting normally. If anybody wants any, email me.

And finally........

I have written an article about "Understanding Crochet Terms" which has been published on a new site, Dispense Info.

"Dispense info is an information resource for anyone who wants to research subjects and obtain valuable information from those who have expertise in their chosen fields whether that be arts, crafts, hobby or career." - Dispense Info

If you would like to contribute, pop along to the site to have a look.

Tree-mendous

I thought you would like to see our Easter Tree.

We have never made one of these before and I thought it would be fun.

Of course, ours is decorated with the inevitable crochet. I made the little eggs and the flowers to go on it. I bought Benjamin some bunny and chick kits from Tesco and he made those.

But, I have to say, the bit that really makes it for me is the fact that I put the twig in water when I cut it and all the leaves have come out on it.

Unfortunately, despite being out in water, the leaves didn't come out on the ones I made for work.

They are decorated totally differently, although I have used some crocheted eggs. I used plastic eggs which the residents decorated and were later filled with choccy, tissue flowers and lots of ribbon.

The photo isn't very good either, it was taken with a flash in the corner of the room so the shadows on the make it look odd.

Oh, and you really don't want to know how much I have just spent on new stamps!!!!!

Don't you just love eBay?

Easter Freebies

Just a quickie!

I don't know how many of you out there crochet but I have a few free Easter patterns on my site - Rainbow Valley.

There are these cute little bunnies.

These just as cute little Chicks.

And these really easy to make Eggs. Have Fun!

Its (nearly) Easter

Yes, I know, I have been a bad blogger.

But sometimes real life takes over and knocks you off your feet.

Just as I was trying to get myself back on track after Christmas, I get an email from Lycos that they are closing all their sites on February 15th. Mine would have to be with them, wouldn't it?

This isn't the major problem it would have been this time last year. Of course, all my work is on my puter so I don't need to save anything from them. And, due to other reasons, I set up a domain name last summer along with some graphics in Photobucket for the buttons. All this meant was I would have to find a new host for my site then forward the the domain name to it. Quite simple really.

Or so you would think!

My site used to be with Pipex, our ISP. I moved it all because their server was constantly being hacked and I was constantly getting people telling me my site was full of viruses. Luckily, Pipex seem to have got their act together and, with the time constraints I had, it seemed the simplest option to go back to them. Especially as there are no ads there because we pay for the webspace as part of our package.

Mind you, I didn't think of all the other things, like the loads of links to individual pages scattered around the net. And the blog roll. I made a bit of a mess moving that over so, if yours doesn't work, please go and try again.

Then Mark quits his job!!!!!

It was for medical reasons. Working with all the cement and plaster all the time has made his eczema flare. And this isn't like any eczema I have see before. It is quite ferocious.

And, again, the question of "Can we really afford the internet?" comes up.

There have been good things going on! I sold a Valentine choker at the Florists. And I had an order for a whole load of bits from Nicola at Truly Scrumptious. And I have been selling quite a few patterns recently.

But this is what I have been working on more recently. These are quite old patterns but, as I am making a pile to (hopefully) sell for Easter, I thought I would give it a little overhaul. The way I write them now has evolved a lot since I wrote this one.

The heads, wings and feet are all made in one piece - apart from the eyes which you sew on afterwards - which gives it all a softer look. The Easter Baskets pattern is available for sale on Rainbow Valley. The Eggs are made from all the ends of the balls so I don't waste a single little bit.

And they are a free pattern on Rainbow Valley. I am going to list the baskets on Etsy tomorrow, so I may even sell a few through there. And the Florist wants some for her Easter window. This might call for a shopping trip!