A hat just in time for the snow.

We had snow in October today ! A summer that hardly saw any sun after a couple of scorching weeks in the spring and now snow in October certainly a different year weather wise.

Anyway Treestump had managed to grow out of his hats so I made him another one starting with the pattern I used for the twins last Christmas. It rapidly changed from the pattern though. The pattern was for a new born and while he is only 7 months he is certainly not new born any more in fact he is in 9 - 12 month clothes.

The pattern is worked as a circle then changes stitch to make a brim, even on the small version I did the brim needed tweaking and with his bigger head not only did the brim not curl nicely but the whole thing was the wrong shape so instead of taking it apart I took two tucks in it towards the back, crocheted another row to fix it then added an ear flap round the back of the head. It really worked very well and next time I think I will work out an asymmetrical pattern so it fits better to a real none circular head !

I think it came out quite well really.

Marie-Therese Gown GIVEAWAY from Gosgrain

Gosgrain does a regular giveaway of kids clothes that are always sweet but this time she has out done herself.

She has made the most wonderful little 18th century court dress, I want one just bigger. Makes me very jealous that I don't have a little girl who can wear it. To have a chance to win it you have to post on your own blog and even though I don't have a girl I wanted others to know about it because it is so beautiful.

My first two page spread

On Digital Scrap Garden they have a challenge called Miracle Gro your LO where you get given the papers first then once you have started your layout with those and a photo or two you get some elements then when you have used those you get a third set. It is very interesting to how everyone's layouts build up.

I did a page with pictures from a visit to town recently where we spent some time in the priory ruins the photographs were partly taken for another challenge on the same forum which was to take photos with the theme down, as a result I stood on the bridge above the ruins and shot down onto himself and the boys who had great fun running round the courtyard.

I ended up doing two pages that go together. I used the kit given though I did adjust the colour of the ivy element to be closer to the greenery in the photograph and then cut it up to use it in a more organic way. I also played about with the frame to allow me to add ivy and tags to the ribbon and re-coloured the other frame but otherwise everything is pretty much as given.

Blogwear giveaway

Allie Brown the lovely lady who so generously puts up blog layouts for us all to use is having a completion to win an exclusive set of layouts.

It is done with a very pretty kit she has designed herself and I find myself like pink more as I get older. weird or what.

Anyway to get an extra chance at winning it I have to drop my odds by blogging about it and giving you lot a chance to win it too :)

Go look here.

great wooden chickens

My friend Nikki is celebrating her daughter's birthday with a sale and some give aways on her shop and blog.

Go and visit her at Ninny Noodle Noo, she sells a wonderful array of kids toys and everything we have ever got from her has been well worth the money. We have a bunch of the wooden toys like the chickens above, we she is giving away free, and they are fantastic. They are easy for kids to hold but sturdy and made to last from natural materials, they had a solidity that plastic toys just don't have. We have a castle, a bunch of animals and some people, trees even the billy goats gruff and they are all great.

She also has a whole range of other toys and some clothes and such like so if you have kids pop over and see if you can get a few things toput away for christmas.

a couple more layouts

Another one in the role-play portrait series.. This time a small lass with a very big wig and a gun. Don't mess with Millenese women that's all I'm saying.

The kit I used is a wonderful new one from by June aka Census called Forgotten Dreams. I had to get it if only for the quill and inkwell but the whole kit is lovely and shades of purple, raspberry to boot. The font is Euclid Fraktur which I do like as it's twiddly but still readable. This is using the selective colouring technique again that I learnt from Go digital scrapbooking. I do think it works well for these pictures.

The pleated ribbon you can see on the shoulder goes right round the dress and took her hours to do and there are those little roses scattered all over the skirt too !

The second one is made from a surprise grab bag from Digital Scrap Garden. The pictures were taken on a autumn walk a couple of years ago and is Small with one of his sets of grandparents. It was a fun kit to use and I like the result.

New Blog look

In my various wanderings through scrapbooking blogs I came to Allie Browns's site. She makes layouts for blogs. I haven't been happy with how this blog looked for ages and she had this background which I thought went with my photo of roses I have as a header so I have followed the nice easy instructions she has on her site and added it here.. She made the background from a kit by Abby from AJM's Creations in fact it is the background she uses too.

What do you think?