Goodbye 2015

As I prepare to bid farewell to 2015 I can't help and look back at what a truly amazing year it has been. So many incredible things have happened, met some pretty awesome people, discovered so much about myself personally and professionally, knitted a lot, crocheted even more, designed a lot, taught a lot. Had my very first book published, of which I'm insanely proud and still have to pinch myself every time I see it in the shops and of course got engaged to the most wonderful man, who makes me laugh will all my heart and because of him I want to be a better person.

Even though there were few sad times along the way, overall I have so much to be grateful for.
I want to thank you all for your constant support and for cheering me on. I truly love with all my heart my knitting and crochet community I have build over the past 3 years, over the internet and face to face, life would be rather boring without you all.

Hope you have the most wonderful new year, may all your dreams and hopes come true.

                                                                   Here's to 2016

Anna x

TGBBO withdrawal symptoms...

At the beginning of the week I've been cooped up in the house for few days with a horrendous cold and feeling very sorry for myself, then I went to work and the cold got a bit worse and it has been joined by an ear infection, so back to bed for me. The worst thing is that I don't even have The Great British Bake Off to look forward to. So to cheer myself up I scoured the internet for knitted, crocheted and even felted cakes, pastries, biscuits and breads.

What I found is amazing! So much talent! Here are my favourite 10.

10. Tea party part 2 by Jean Greenhowe 

9. Tiny Rainbow Cake Slick by Trish Young

8. Cake with Slice Missing - and the Slice by Knitting Revolution 

7. Croissants with Butter by Sara Elizabeth Kellner

6. Mint Cheesecake with Biscuit Base and Fine Sugar Crumble by Grietje Karwietie

5. Jammy Dodger Biscuit by Matt Farci

4. Angel Food Cake by Nett Hulse

3. Cupcakes by Cakescakescakes

2. Coconut and Honey Pistachio Ice Cream by Normalynn Hood

1. Felt Artisan Breads by Milkfly

And completely unrelated to cakes or biscuits....... I saw this and it really tickled me 

It's by Sara Elizabeth Kellner and it's a knitted raccoon called Roosevelt! HA! You gotta love it!! 

Anna x

WI Centennial Fair

I finally got around to writing this blog about the WI Centennial Fair, few good weeks too late, but I promise I've got a good excuse which will be revealed soon.

WI Centennial Fair was an amazing celebration of one hundred years of achievements of Women’s Institute, who play a huge part in all lives whether we realise it or don’t. The Fair was a four day event at the Harrogate International Centre.

There were over 200 exhibitors sharing the best of hand-crafted goods and jewellery, ethical homeware and textiles, artisan food and drink, cookery and gardening equipment and travel lifestyle experiences, basically anything your heart might desire. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos, but the WI's Facebook page has huge amounts.

If that wasn’t enough, you were also able to get your hands stuck in a huge variety of workshops in The Create and Craft Theater where experts were teaching skills from embroidery, knitting and crochet through to upholstery, photography and paper crafts.

One of those workshops was taught by yours truly!! I have been invited to the fair by the lovely people at Love Crochet to teach crochet on 3^rd September. It wasn’t a beginner class so I have chosen to teach the crochet flower, which uses two types of yarn, Rowan Kidsilk Haze and Summerlite 4 ply, it a great, quick project that teaches you quite a large number of techniques. I’m happy to report the class was a great success and all participants have truly enjoyed themselves. 

 

 

 

It also gave me a chance to show off my Nettie shawl in blue :) 

It was such a pleasure to teach at the Fair and I’m truly thankful to the lovely Therese at Love Crochet for offering me the great opportunity. 

As Dave was off from work for few days during that time, we decided to take this opportunity to make a short trip away. We are both huge lovers of Yorkshire, but haven’t had the chance to visit Harrogate yet and oh my!! It’s absolutely stunning town, full of olde world charm, of course it was raining all this time, but we didn’t care and had a great time and after visiting Betty's Tea Room nothing could stop us. 

Anna x

Green fingers

When I was a little girl my grandparents owned a working farm. With lots of animals, few hectares of land, orchard, few bee hives and gorgeous vegetable garden with small green houses for tomatoes and cucumbers. I was living in the city with my parents but during every school holiday I would spend with my grandparents on their farm. As a little girl I would round around and play with other kids from the village but as I was growing up I started to help out a lot more around the farm, especially with the harvest and animals. I would also very often plant vegetable seeds with my grandma and monitored the grow progress of whatever greenery we planted so taking all this into account you would be forgiven to think that I have green fingers, but alas it is not so! 

To my frustration no matter how much I try and plant vegetables or any other plants they never seem to reach their full potential, mind you, I'm growing them in large plant post, I think they call this urban gardening Ha!
The best example is my recent adventure into baby carrot growing. It all started so well. The seeds started to shoot on time, the growth was perfect, however I can't help thinking  my cat, Brick, trying to keep them warm somehow stunted their growth and after three months the harvest was rather disappointing.

I’ll keep trying with vegetables, might try my hand at radishes next, I heard that they are a lot easier

However, I do seem to have rather good fingers when it comes to orchids! They seem to be flourishing beautifully. 

They are truly the perfect plants for me as they require such low maintenance.

They all seem to be growing unusually well this year, but my white one has outdone herself completely! This orchid was given to me by Dave when we first started dating few years back and every year it flowers more and more, but this year she has flowered beyond expectations.

 

 Can't wait to see the flowers on this one, as it hasn't flowered for good few years. 

Really can't remember what colour it is.

Anna x