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Beautiful Knitted Gift Ideas

February 17, 2016 by Bel Leave a Comment

Do you remember when you were first inspired to take up knitting? Perhaps it was after your grandmother gave you a wooly knitted by her own hand. Wasn’t it remarkable to receive something that hadn’t been made in a giant factory but by the gentle hands of an elderly woman?

Or maybe your love affair with knitting began at school. Perhaps you have an older sibling and were captivated by their beautiful cross stitch designs and that’s what motivated you to try it for yourself.

If you’ve built up your knitting skills, here are few ideas for gifts you can make for your friends and family. If you don’t feel confident enough to make these yourself yet though, you could always ask somebody else to make them for you.

Baby Socks

These have got to be the cutest of all the knitwear I can think of. Imagine your little tot, or one of your nieces or nephews scurrying around in a pair of baby socks. Adorable. And you’re not just limited to plain old boring designs. Why not make them big and green, like Kermit the frog‘s feet? Or maybe fashion them into the shape of a duck’s flippers.

Be warned, they might not last a long time. But that doesn’t matter. Growing children will soon grow out of them anyway.

Make A Beanie

For beanies, the best material is extra fine merino wool. They’re a good opportunity for practising your stranded knitting skills. Make sure you choose a few different coloured yarns so that your pattern weaving really stands out.

Reversible Lace Scarf

You’ll want to choose lightweight yarn for this. If you’re a beginner, try to do a simple single row lace stitch scarf first. From there you can build up your scarf knitting skills. The finished article should be about one and a half metres long. Resources like Knitting Brain can guide you through the process. Don’t be afraid to mix up the colours a little bit, especially if you’re making it for somebody with a particular favourite colour or style.

Knit A Purse

I think a knitted purse is an amazing idea. It’s something that’s definitely a bit out of the ordinary. You’ll want to choose lace for the outer. And then the inner needs to be lined with something like rayon ribbon. Work the ribbon into the interior of the bag, just as you laid the exterior lace. Aim for something that’s about six by six by five inches.

This is a fun idea, so I’d go with bright multi colored yarn for that hippy effect. And don’t forget the strap.

Knit Something For Him

Men secretly love getting knitted tops for Christmas. There’s a certain pride in knowing that somebody went to all that effort just for you.

When it comes to menswear, choose a design that’s super stylish. I’d go with a light colour personally. You might want to use a material like Berroco Ultra Alpaca. It’s the ideal balance between luxurious, superfine Alpaca, and Peruvian Highland wool.

Filed Under: promo Tagged With: crafts, gifts, knitting, wool

What I’ve been up to!

September 4, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

It’s been a quiet week on my blog and that’s basically because I’ve been busy! The girls were back at school this week which took up a lot of my attention, but I’ve also been working hard on my new site, Closet Geek. I’ve been making and sewing, sourcing and thinking, browsing the web and just constantly thinking!!

Closet Geek labelIf you missed the memo, my new site is sort of One-Stop-Shop (or it will be, eventually), for geeky apparel. Right now it stocks jewellery, hair bows and pencil cases, along with Disney inspired dresses for children. In the near future I want to add adult clothes, but at the moment I just do them on a custom order basis. If you want to keep up with what I’m going, Instagram seems to be my main platform as its great for visuals.

So this week I’ve been finishing off a Wendy cosplay that I’ve been working on for a while. It’s almost finished but not quite so I won’t share it here yet. However I have completed a new Woody inspired dress for girls and started working on some other projects.

Woody Inspired Dress

I have two custom orders in process at the moment, the first one of which I’ve ordered fabric and have a pattern for, the second being quite a big project! The first one is the Prom Dress from Back to the Future. Know which one? Marty’s mum, Lorraine wears it.

Back to the Future, Prom Dress

The second is a Cinderella cosplay which I’m still looking at fabrics for at the moment. I’m pretty excited, but also a little terrified too! As well as that, I’m making a Briar Rose inspired dress and hopefully a Snow White rags inspired dress, fingers crossed they’ll be done over the weekend. I have loads more planned but I really need to get on with my custom orders.

Finally on top of all that, I spent almost one whole day making hair bows. I had some in my store but I’ll be adding more, again you can see those on my instagram. My favourite by far is Eeyore though. It was quite fiddly but such a good outcome.

Eeyore bow

In the future I’ll be adding a range of Villains bows. I’ll also be adding some Superheroes too!

So this is what I’ve been up to. How about you? I love working from home but I tell you, its hard to separate being at work and not being at work – switching off your brain and actually getting “me” time seems a thing of the past!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 50's prom dress, Back to the Future, Briar Rose, Cinderella, Closet Geek, cosplay, costumes, crafts, Disney, dresses, eeyore, hairbows, handmade, Prom Dress, sewing, snow white, snow white rags, toy story, Woody

34/52

August 23, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

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So many beautiful pictures to choose from this week as the girls had a mini photoshoot on Friday. It’s been such a lovely week and lovely summer holidays really. I’m so sad that it’s coming to an end! This picture is Lily, Megan and Amy’s daughter Olivia, when we went to visit them in Berwick this weekend. The girls are all wearing dresses that I made and are now in stock at my new online store – Closet Geek!

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 34/52, blog project, Buzz lightyear, Closet Geek, crafts, crafty, custom dresses, Disney, handmade, Jessie, Lily, Megan, Olivia, photos, sewing, toy story, Woody

29/52

July 19, 2015 by Bel Leave a Comment

wpid-20150719014631.jpg wpid-20150719014647.jpg

Sharing two this week as it was just too cute not to. The girls have taken to fimo/sculpting clay modeling this weekend. It was my suggestion for something for Megan to try but of course Lily wanted to get involved too. They spent Saturday late afternoon and evening making some bits, even roping Nat in when she arrived in the evening. The they spent a large amount of Sunday too. I snapped a picture of them both concentrating on it but when they realised I was taking a photo they were quick to pose too.

Filed Under: 52 project Tagged With: 29/52, blog project, clay, crafts, fimo, Lily, making, Megan, modeling, oven bake clay, photos, sculpting clay

Hobbycraft Christmas Crafts*

December 6, 2014 by Bel 1 Comment

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to be offered some Hobbycraft Christmas Crafts to kick off my Christmas festivities. The girls and I were so excited to get crafty – not only because we love to make things, but also its a great way to get into the Christmas spirit.

One of the main things we were sent, was a Hobbycraft Advent Calendar set*. It comprises of a Christmas truck, complete with 24 little doors. As well as that, there were paints, glue and numbers to decorate and stick onto the advent calendar. This is such an awesome idea – making your own advent calendar and filling each little door with a gift of your choosing. Having two girls its a great way to only need one calendar, as I can place 2 treats in each. Sadly we didn’t get ours finished before December 1st so we’ll have to save it for next year!

As well as the advent calendar, we were sent two decoration kits. There were some felt owls and some pom pom reindeers. Both kits come with everything you need and while they definitely required some adult supervision, the kids loved making them together.

I would definitely recommend a look at the Hobbycraft site – they have some lovely Christmas stuff. Unfortunately the light is too rubbish in the house tonight to take pictures of our decorations but I’ll post pictures soon!

Filed Under: product review Tagged With: advent calendar, christmas, Christmas decorations, crafts, Hobbycraft, review

Hi, my name is Bel!


I’m a forty something, mother of two, self-confessed geek!

Here on my blog you’ll find;
books I’ve read, clothes I’ve made, movies I’ve watched, cakes I’ve baked, products I’ve tried, places I’ve been, pictures I’ve taken… plus lots and lots of DISNEY!!

I’m a lifestyle blogger – covering a little of everything I love <3

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