handicraftcrazy: and the heat is on....

Yep Summer has arrived with a capital S! Too hot to do anything in the afternoons and I need a fan on in the evening to be able to knit. Thank goodness for air-con or sleep would be impossible In June we had July weather early, wished we could have done a swap with the UK, I would have loved some rain and cold winds (then and now!) and they would love some sun! Oh well, there are some benefits, freshly made lemonade from home grown lemons, swimming in the pool, eating every meal outside, gorgeous produce in the market.... no I won't make my UK friends any more jealous...but I think you have had some Summer now?
Did you see all the fuss about a lady knitting at Andy Murray's tennis match at Wimbledon? I was totally with her, I was knitting furiously all through it to help the nerves! Such a shame her lost the final, but this afternoon he has just got a gold medal to make up for it.

On to the flowers around the house right now, hibiscus

Gorgeous rose called ' Parade'

Pink verbena I think and white petunia

Yep, lots of pink, but there are other colours coming along too.
I started this entry in June would you believe, life has just been too busy and I haven't been able to gather my thoughts into any sort of order for weeks! The heat has been really knocking me out, I had a tummy bug two weeks ago and I have now developed shingles, so I'm hiding in the aircon and being very lazy until the pain and itching subsides.
I haven't been totally idle though, here are some of the projects I've completed recently

Crocodile stitch bag

close up

I am absolutely delighted at how this has turned out, it was from a free pattern from the Bernat website called Mermaid tears purse. I used 4ply 100% wool from Kauni in rainbow colourway and used a 3mm hook, so the bag is smaller than the original pattern, but the colours are gorgeous! I wasn't sure about the flower, but it has grown on me!

Next up cards..

A wedding card using Chloe's heart stamp on vellum and glittered and embellished with pearls.

another from Chloe's stamps, the dandylion stamp, again on vellum, its very glittery but you can't see that in this pic

Playing with my peg stamps from Cardi-o this time and a Clarity stamp greeting, love doing these, will be doing more samples for Craft club ideas for next term,

Pretty poppy stamp from Hobby Art this time, coloured with Promarkers, lovely to do.

and finally my little pickle was 2 in July so this was what I did for him. He loves London buses so it was a very patriotic theme this time!

I finally finished my rug hooked cushion, the delay was finding the right backing fabric and i hate doing piping, but I got down to it eventually.

On the knitting front I have been making a denim jacket for Noah and a matching outfit for his teddy Barney

Cute eh? Just love doing tiny things, such fun and he really loves his teddy so its not a waste of time and effort. There are more scapbooking pages on the way, but will not be revealed until I've taken them over in September.

I'll leave you a picture of my Datura in full bloom, spectacular, I promise I won't leave it so long next time!