Reflecting on 2011

Kicked off the year in Burnham on Crouch with good friends and little Flo.

Me and Brooke got to the final on Pointless

Started going to the NCT Redbridge knitters and made some lovely knitting mum mates

Flo turned 1

Flo broke her arm

Got kicked out of our flat and moved in with my parents for 5 months

We had a couple of sunny seaside trips to Southend and Leigh on sea

Flo learned to walk during the Royal wedding

Went Crafternooning at the Creative Biscuit with local mates

Went back to work after maternity leave to one of the most pointless jobs I’ve ever done

Flo started nursery

Karaoke, fish pedicure (eww) and Michelin starred dinner for my Birthday

Day out in Greenwich

Rex Manning day

Bought our first house

Got broken into 2 weeks after moving in

Decorated Flo’s bedroom

Started a new job which was MUCH better than the previous one

Brett passed his driving test

Visited Kew

10 year anniversary of being together with Brett

Brett turned 30 and had a ‘surprise’ party, which he tired to sabotage

Shan and Marc’s wedding

Centre Parcs

Digs continued to record our lives in photography

Filmed Brett and Flo for a Dad documentary at work

I dressed as a Smurf, and then Mick Hucknall

Held a kids Halloween party and kids Christmas party

Made a lot of cake

Knitted the following:

Hap Blanket

Stripey cardi for Inez

Blue lacey top

Flo crochet dress

Isla’s camo pants

Nola Jane

Free Rapunzel

Custard pants

Leaf scarf

Cardi for Milan

Christmas Bolero

And I made 2 quilts


Excellent 2011. Bring on 2012.

Quilt and cake

So the Christmas quilt got finished just as the tree was put up last weekend and now the flat now feels very festive indeed. I am really happy with how the quilt came out and in the end I'm glad that I hand quilted it instead of doing it by machine. It really gives it a bit more of a home made feel and spending so much time on it actually makes it feel like more of an heirloom than if I'd done it all on the machine. 

Back of the quilt - made of scraps

This and the quilt I made for Shan's wedding have to be my biggest crafting achievement this year. Most of all I am glad that I managed to get it finished before the season was over. The Mr and I have been happily snuggled under it for the last week and I have been constantly bundling Flo up in it as she has a horrible cold at the moment.

She won't thank me for this photo

The finished quilt and tree going up called for some mini mince pie making and so I bought out the trusty Nigella recipe from her Christmas cookbook. Although it takes a bit of extra time to make these following her recipe I loved the outcome of flaky pasty. But the 36 I made really didn't last that long as they're so small you can just pop them in the mouth and they're gone!

I also made a batch of cupcakes for the local NCT group party. My piping skills weren't that great but I got to use my Christmas cupcake cases and edible snowflakes again.

Festive YUM

To top it all off they are repeating the episodes of Pointless that I was on earlier this year with my sister in law. We're on again tonight 5.15pm BBC1. Catch up on iPlayer if you fancy seeing me embarrass myself on TV.

It's here!

I haven't got the tree up yet, I think it's a tad early for that but I did receive my first Christmas card and make some Christmas cup cakes; two batches, ahem!
Got the cute edible snow flakes from Lakeland and Christmassy cases too, so I had to test them out.

Now, back to all the crafting I have to do!