Reasons to be Cheerful

Wednesdays morning seems to have become my 'Myf makes me tea' morning! :-D  I start work at 10am on Wednesday so we're up at 6am so I can jump in the shower and when I come down, there's a lovely cuppa waiting for me.  And yes, I know I have used this as a reason to be cheerful last week but I'll keep using it as it makes me smile-isn't that the point?

My friend J called me yesterday morning wanting me to come meet her in town-she'd had some great news and a stroke of luck and she took me out for breakfast.  We spent a few hours together, went up to Aldi's and I stocked up the cupboards.  Little things, like knowing there's plenty of food for the week and being able to spend some time with a friend rather than just talking on the phone, really help to lift my mood.

The two baby blankets I made recently  have sparked a couple of ideas that I'm looking forward to trying out-any pointers for setting up an ebay/etsy shop to sell little blankets and other cute things?

Myf has been playing with the lovely stash of wool I received last week-I'm strongly leaning towards making a ripple blanket in the style of the amazing Attic24.  I have no idea how much wool I would need but I love the thought of having the colours flow into each other plus it would be a new method for me to try :-)

Yet more squares waiting to be photographed and spoken about-reaching halfway is like running downhill!  The number of squares left to make is dwindling quickly now and soon I'll be running around the living room, laying all the squares out, changing them around and putting them together.

Last, but not least, another very cute photo of my girl ;-)

What are your reasons to be cheerful today?

Baby Boy Criss Cross Blanket

At Christmas, I got to see some of my cousins who I haven't seen in many years.  The eldest has actually had three children since I saw him last which is disgraceful on my part (I would like to point out that the youngest was only a few weeks old)!  We spent the day before I came back to Wales with my Aunt and Uncle, my three cousins (who have grown into wonderful young men), two girlfriends of theirs and the three little boys who are so gorgeous!

My Aunt actually sequestered me in the kitchen to teach her how to crochet-she had a hook and some yarn so I managed to show her how to do a chain stitch and do rows of single crochet while we chatted.  It was great fun as everyone pottered back and forth to see how she was doing and to get in on the chatter!

The eldest cousin (Dad of 3 oh my goodness) has been learning to play backgammon as well so Dad and I had fun there ;-)

Anyway, I told my Aunt I would lend her the book that helped me get started (The Happy Hooker) and when I came home, I thought I'd make a little blanket for the baby as well.

I used the same basic square as the Baby Boy Blue Blanket (I actually made these at the same time) but went a different way with the improvising and I really like how it turned out.  I started doing one of the borders from the new book but either I wasn't following the pattern properly (which is highly likely btw) or it wasn't working for the blanket so while it is very similar to the pattern, I've simplified it a great deal.

I parcelled them up on Saturday and posted them to my Aunt-hopefully they'll have it soon!