Saturday 31 December 2011

A year in photos...12 photos, 12 amazing months...



I celebrated my Dad's fiftieth with my amazing family...nautical style!
I turned 21 and spent the day in dismal Frome with my best friend - what a day!
We moved into our new MASSIVE home and the cats grew SO BIG.
I started dating the most incredibly kind man on earth.
May was all about the heat wave and living with these amazing guys.  Such happy memories! xxx
The opening of a new museum meant a great day out with my bestie!
July is the Boat Festival and this year I was so blessed to spend it with the people I love!
I spent August going on scavenger hunts with Ed and finding real treasure on the way...

An amazing family get together with three of my brothers and my Daddy!  Insane love there.
I got to spend a morning trying on bridal gowns for an article. So much fun.
My incredible little brother become a daddy himself, to Milla Rose Chapman,
I had a beautiful Christmas meal with my niece, my besties, my brother and his lovely partner.

For me 2011 has been a champion year.  I wrote a weekly feature for a national paper, entered and left a relationship (one that really made my summer truly magical and I have a real friend forever there), have spent a lot of time with family and building on friendships.
I feel so blessed in so many ways and it is all because of the people I am surrounded by so thank you all.

Much love,
Hannah xxx

P.S I've heard that 2012 is the year of SUCESS...is it for you too?

Tuesday 27 December 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I know, I know.  I promised not to blog until after I moved.  But I wanted to show you this pretty lace necklace I am wearing at New Years.  The lace is vintage and was gifted to me by Iz, an illustrator pal.  I simply threaded some festive red wool through the lace and tie it in a bow at the back.  Super sweet and so simple.


What are y'all wearing?
Hannah xxx

Saturday 24 December 2011

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Happy Christmas Eve everybody - I hope you are all sipping delicious mulled wine, eating home made mince pies and getting deliciously fat.


A little festive photo for you all. Me, my niece and my best buddy.


As I am sure most of the people reading this are aware, I am moving to Chicago in January. I fly out on the 11th to be precise and it is an event that has been sucking my life away.  I have been so focused on that that other projects and aspirations have fallen to the wayside a little.  


And so I must apologise that between Christmas and me arriving in my new home there may be a break in blogging.


I wanted to make my own clothes, become a better cook, make a handbag, build furniture and decorate the little boat I have been living on.  Sadly these things have not happened yet but it's my sincere hope that they do.  As of 2012 this little blog will be coming straight from the U.S.A and I hope we can all learn a little something about crafting while I am out there!


Here are some pics from last year, hopefully Christmas will be just as AMAZING.



I made Christmas jumpers last year, including: reindeer, christmas trees, snowmen and a robin.


I love this picture of TIm and Elly, she looks like a celebrity chef and so poised!




Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


Hannah xxx


P.S Think there's nothing to look forward to? Think again. Handmade gifts have been exchanged all over the place and I will be sharing the ones I have given and received this festive season.

Thursday 22 December 2011

A little Christmas project

I love to make Christmas cards.  I think it is a super sweet way to share Christmas cheer with the people you love and if they are handmade then even better.







This year I made them with the help of my best galpal Wai Wai who just happens to be a very talented illustrator.  We were watching the film Elf and decided it would be really cute (and funny) to send Elf qoutes to all my family.  They haven't seen the film so they probably won't get the references. Anchor Man cards next year maybe?








One thing we learnt was that I cannot draw quotation marks.  I kept having to say "66 and 99" to get it right and even then I occasionally had to look at what I had drawn and say"Oh...66 and backwards 66..." Weak.







I bought two packets of pre-folded cards and envelopes.  We used a variety of pens to write the quotes and add the confetti to the pages.  Some of them are flush with the card while some dried raised, this makes them really nice to touch.






I hope you like the cards - I do!  Maybe there's one heading your way.


Hannah xxxx 

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Coffee date with a new father!

I took Gigantor for a coffee date with my little brother.  Not only did he become a dad this month it was also my first mince pie of the season.  I think that calls for a share with you, yes?












Here is my beautiful but MASSIVE neice.  She weighed over 11 pounds and looks just like her mother, Elly.






Have you had a mince pie date?
Hannah x

Tuesday 13 December 2011

Handmade necklace by moi!

Isn't this necklace festive?  I certainly think so.  It took me an afternoon to make using felt, embroidery thread and a length of wool. I was inspired by this tutorial but as you can see, hers is much nicer.  What I am learning is that I need to think and plan things through before I dive into them.  Even if I am happy with the end result!




I folded over a piece of red felt and cut out a rectangle and a smaller circle.

I embroidered one piece of each and then stitched the plain felt onto the back to cover untidy stitches.

I made little loops with the embroidery thread and threaded the wool through.






Waddya think?

Hannah x


Tuesday 6 December 2011

Handmade necklace from Elly!

The lovely Elly, mother to my niece and long suffering girlfriend of my younger brother, made me this pretty necklace as a thank you gift.  



Back in September I threw her a baby shower full of hand crafted prettiness and she made me this little beauty and some earrings.  I love wearing it with a plain black top and red lipstick, the green and the red make it a festive necessity   

Hope you're all having a wonderful December
Hannah x

Tuesday 29 November 2011

Something you may or may not know...

...is that I like to draw. Recently I have been drawing a lot more and as I like (love) to talk about me I will be sharing a lot more of that side of me in the coming months.  First I thought I would share this sketch I did for the blog Covered


An artist takes an original comic cover and re-works it in their own style.  The two are posted side by side for everyone to see and some of the work on their is amazing.  Ed has appeared on there because he is a clever so and so.  


Here is mine - I loved the cover of this comic and knew I just had to use it as my original.





And here is my re-working.  Badgers.  Who'd have thunk.  


Check out the other work and enjoy.


Hannah xx

Tuesday 22 November 2011

Look look look!

If you've ever wondered what it is I lug around to and from work/uni/mag HQ then look no further. For our most recent anniversary Ed gave me this cute bag filled with treats.  I grabbed it the other day in a desperate attempt to carry my knitting to uni neatly and it turned out perfectly.  So say hello to my official knitting bag. 



I like to carry my Zelda mints, loose change and my knitting of course.  What do you carry in yours?


Hannah x

Thursday 17 November 2011

Project Thursday

As promised: Gigantor.  Modelled by my lovely friend Kate.



Gigantor is over 100 stitches wide and I cannot even tell you how many long.





I have a friend called Ellie, Gigantor is wider and taller than her.  It's a terrifying thing. But so satisfying now that he is finished.  And warm too.  The stitches, small because of the 4mm needles and single thickness wool, are so neat and tiny.


I LOVE IT.
Hannah x

Tuesday 15 November 2011

Knitting is cool

I was just walking to work (though I admit it is a VERY pretty walk) when I stumbled across this gem.  
Although it was a few weeks ago now I still want to share it with you.
I seriously love this, the surprise of it, the craftsmanship and how much fun they clearly had making it.



I really hope this made you smile as much as I did.
Have a good week.
xxx


Saturday 12 November 2011

This needed to be adult sized

During my last stay at Ed's he showed me this amazing costume his mum made him when he was younger and some photos of his wearing other, shop bought, costumes. The photos I have taken do the costume very little justice.  The quality of the stitches, the fabric and the overall look of the costume was very high.  It's also still in excellent condition despite getting a lot of use during Ed's childhood. I was planning on making him a Star Trek costume for Christmas this year so I am really happy to be carrying on what looks like an old tradition.  

Apparently sometimes his mum still calls him her White Power Ranger on the phone...though I'm sure he'd rather I didn't tell you that...


Doesn't he look super cute as a Thunderbird?  Or as Captain Scarlet? 

xxx

P.S And for those of you wondering...yes I did try it on and no it didn't fit.  Was fun though! 

Thursday 10 November 2011

Project Thursday

There will be no pictures today.  Why?  Because the scarf is not finished.  I think I have managed to knit about ten rows since last week - things have been so hectic.  
I really hope I finish it soon.  It's cold.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

A present for the best friend

I have this friend. She's one of the funniest, most talented, people I know and I screwed up once by sending her a book in the post.  I figured she'd see the funny side of receiving the Twilight Graphic novel through her letterbox.  But she didn't - she got pretty mad.  Haha.  So I think a big part of me is desperate to make up for that mistake by constantly being on the look out for pretty things.  When I saw this tutorial I knew I just had to have a go.




I made the four of them a little smaller than Elsie did because I wanted them to be coaster for cups.  Ed and I made this cute wrapping paper by drawing oak leaves and acorns on some pink sugar paper.  I think the gift was pretty well received   Wai Wai doesn't really need/use coasters so she strung them together and hung them on her wall which looked lovely.  I might play with the idea of using them as a wall hanging for future projects.


xxx

Saturday 5 November 2011

Sewing with my mother

I have decided that sewing is hard.  Knitting is the way forward.  Knitting is just knit knit knit knit bang and there's a scarf.  Obviously it can be complicated, but only if you need it to be. Sewing (clothes anyway) seems to be all pins and tucking, and patterns and cutting.  I cannot deal with it.


I went to Mum's house to sew three skirts with a really simply pattern from Ed's mum.  Problem was the I hadn't bought anywhere near enough fabric.  So what did we do?  We dug around my mums and found beautiful fabrics there instead.




 We found silk, cotton and corduroy and had the best time doing it.  








We decided to cut up an old skirt of my Ouma's (South African Grandma) and make that into a skirt.  I am really excited for this project because the skirt was part of a dress that Ouma had when she was younger.  The bodice was cut up years ago and I remember wearing it as a little bolero jacket when I was still in single digits.  


Watch this space.  It's going to be a lovely skirt.


xxx

My lovely doggy Salty - well, Mum and Colins dog.