Making Home Link Up #36: The Ultimate Caravanner’s Cook Book

Welcome to the #MakingHome weekly link up!

Be inspired by posts all about moving house, home decor, DIY, crafts, family activities, recipes, gardening and more. It’s all here under one roof at Mrs Crafty B’s.

Don't forget to join in and link up your own posts. The linky is open from Friday until Tuesday. Find out how to take part at the end of this post. 

Whilst we are enjoying making our homes beautiful, it's always nice to go on an adventure. The summer months are upon us (well, sort of) and we are seeing caravans appearing on the roads being towed by excited families ready for their summer jollies. 

Very recently, I was invited to contribute to an e-book with these families in mind. With hundreds of thousands of Brits every year taking their home away from home, 'The Ultimate Caravanner's Cook Book' is an essential guide to easy home cooking in the caravan.

The Ultimate Caravanner’s Cook Book

A Crafty Sparkly Christmas with Pink Pear Bear

Today for #CraftyChristmas we are joined by the lovely Louise of Pink Pear Bear who is giving us a lesson or two in making Christmas crafty and sparkly. What more could you want?! Louise is drawing inspiration from this fabulous looking Usborne book '100 Christmas things to make and do'.

I'm lucky enough to have several shelves jammed full of craft idea books, many of which are kiddy ones, as I can't resist when I see an offer on. In actual fact, all the ideas came from just one book. It was small and light enough to take out and I ended up finding so much in there I didn't even need to look at the others.

My craft bible for this post.

I Need moremags.com!

During my browsing time at the ICHF craft shows, I was drawn to a stand which had magazines laid out with crafty kits as a bonus. I got chatting with the lovely folks from Practical Publishing and I am now familiar with moremags.com (which you should check out). Not only were they selling copies of lovely magazines, there were lots of crafts kits up for grabs from past issues of various publications.

Although I do a lot of online browsing (obviously), I am a big fan of books and magazines. There's nothing like a good sit down with a cuppa and a mag and being able to pop an actual marker in for your next project! Fully armed with reading material for the train on the way home from the show, I started browsing and decided that I would tell you a bit about the publications I have now discovered; just in case you hadn't heard of them yet! It is worth noting here that it you still do prefer doing everything online, there are a lot of digital subscriptions via moremags.com 

The publications offered are essentials for crafters, covering things from knitting to paper craft, sewing and stitching. I'm going to kick of with a new sewing magazine…

Mollie Makes Boho Feather Necklace Kit from Immediate Media Co

During my browsing of all of the fab exhibitors at the ICHF Craft Shows, I discovered the Immediate Media Co stand. Hubby B has a huge collection of Gardeners World Magazine and I love Mollie Makes and Craftseller, so I was straight over to see what was going on!

As well as offering 'at show only' subscription deals they were handing out a free gift! I grabbed mine immediately (pun intended) to discover it was a Mollie Makes kit (designed by Charlotte Smith of Lotts and Lots.) I'm looking forward to having a play with this and showing you the results!

Not only do Immediate Media Co offer great subscriptions on these particular craft magazines above, they have a whole host of others that are also present on my book shelf; such as Love Knitting for Baby, Love Crochet (obviously), Good Food and even some non-craft related titles such as You & Your Wedding and Prima Baby and Pregnancy.

Upcycled Denim Bag

Remember back when I started Crafting a Daydream, I told you about a denim bag I made out of one of my mums old skirts when I was younger? Well here's Sam to tell you about a much better version made by her daughter this summer. 

Book Browse: 20 to Make Knitted Bears

Don't worry, I wont be reviewing a 20 to Make book every week although I must say, they are great little guides with inspiring ideas for any 'craft'. I do own a few.

It just so happens that along with my 20 to Make Mini Christmas crochet, I also received this book which you can find to purchase here. 'Hold on' I hear you say. You want to hear a bit more about it?

Firstly, I am not a knitting pro. I am very much a beginner and I know the basics. I found the patterns in this book particularly easy to follow. I did have to google a couple of the terms for a video on how to do it, just to make sure, but overall, I found it surprisingly easy to put this little guy together which was based on 'Toby Toddler Bear'.

I substituted the black bead eyes for goggly ones and I did miss some of the embellishments but I never was one to do things exactly by the book. Heres how he should of looked. Pretty close I think.

The layout of the book is very simple. There is a pattern to make up a bear (choose the colour from your pattern first) and then you pick one of the lovely bear designs to make up the costume for the bear. I purchased the book for my Nan who had been nosing at mine. She stated upon receiving the book "Thanks but I wanted you to make one for me." So Emily Knitting Bear is next on the list!

One very frustrating thing was the lack of clear instruction on how to sew up the pieces of the bear. I had to find a video on how to this but the term used in the book would not return adequate  results when searching on the internet and it took me a while to figure out how to sew up the bear with the right stitching. Having said that, this book is not an instructional book and as with the Mini Christmas Crochet, a pictorial knitting instruction book for those lacking experience in the terminology and techniques, or access to google, would be a great help. For what it is, a lovely collection of costumed bears to knit up beautiful little bears for yourself, friends and family, this book is well varied and you will find a bear for everyone from a sports enthusiastic to a beach babe, from graduates to gardeners. Well worth adding to collection if you like to knit such figures or would like to get started with some inspiration.

Happy knitting all.

Mrs Crafty B

Craft Projects Galore

Due to a bit of ill health, I have been ever so slightly absent from my virtual world recently. As I snuggle up under the blankets I say to myself 'check in on the twitter world, read some blogs' but it all goes to pot :(

Ok so quickly, whilst I'm here and before I have to pour the last of my energy into Baby B waking up from his nap, I'm going to start a project which will be a featured as a 'book browse'. I'm going to crochet the cushion in Cath Kidston's 'Crochet Book'. I think I am also going to to pick something to make from 'Stitch', because lets face it, you aren't a true crafter without more than one project on the go.

In other news, I still have a cross stitch sampler on my list of projects to do, unfinished knitting and crochet as well as other unfinished bits in the drawer and I have been turning my hand to a bit of 'designing' but these are projects to be shared in good time.

How are your 2013 projects coming along so far?

Mrs Crafty B

Book Browse: 20 to Make Mini Christmas Crochet

For Christmas 2011 Hubby B bought me '20 to Make Mini Christmas Crochet'. At the time, I started a couple of the projects but lost momentum as Christmas had been and gone. I picked up the book again for Christmas 2012 to make a few lovely things. Admittedly it did come out shortly after Baby B's birthday in August.

The general design of these 20 makes are beautiful and allow you to make them your own, with equally good results. I didn't follow the instructions to the letter but I was still happy with the results.

The patterns in this book are easy to read if you are familiar with crochet and the terminology. If you are a beginner you should not be put off. As long of you have a reference book to guide you with the basics of crochet, you will be able to cross reference and use one of the more simple patterns as a starter project.

Most of the makes are great for hanging on the tree with the addition of some ribbon or simply placed on the mantle for everyone to enjoy. Others would make ideal Christmas gifts, stocking fillers or for me, some cute additions for Baby B's advent calendar. You could perhaps add a small keying to some of them to make a key pendant as a gift for a loved one so they can use it all year round.

In conclusion, I would recommended this book for anyone wanting to add a bit of cute crochet to their festive decoration or wishing to craft Christmas gifts regardless of their level of crochet ability. Beginners will benefit from a second book with pictorial instruction of the basics in crochet.

This book can be found here and a few of my 'makes' are pictured below.

Happy Christmas Crocheting!

Mrs Crafty B

Book Browse: Maisie Parrish's Fun and Original Children's Cakes

Maisie Parrish is one of my inspirations. In 2010, I did a sugarcraft course and we used one of Maisie’s designs from her book, Fun and Original Children’s Cakes.

My finished work does not do Maisie’s justice and it isn't exactly the same but I had a good go and was very proud of my first attempt.

How to Knit a Chunky Knit Scarf

In Autumn 2010, I started to knit a chunky scarf. On Boxing Day 2011, I finally finished it!

This scarf can officially go in my 'Completed Projects' list. For this oversized scarf I used big chunky wool and very big needles. It really is a monster but I'm very pleased with the result. The tension difference in my casting off to my casting on, shows the difference in my knitting ability in the start compared to the end. Knitting on the huge needles was a lesson in itself!