The Crafting Days of Christmas Blog-Hop

So today is the 1st of December and that means it's time for The Crafting Days of Christmas blog-hop!
Please visit the link for buttons to add to your blog or see the right hand sidebar of my blog for the code.

There aren't any strict rule to this blog-hop other than add your link to your Christmas blog or craft posts and have a browse at the other links and meet some new bloggy friends and hopefully find some interesting Christmas crafts along the way. You're not limited to one link either, if you write multiple posts about Christmas crafts please feel free to add them to the blog-hop.

Don't forget to comment on any new blogs you follow so that the owners can follow you back!

The first few links are from the following bloggers: Myself, of course! Ros @ Ros Made Me and Kara @ Happy Go Lucky. Click their links below to see their crafty Christmas posts. (Please note the Christmas Pomander link is a scheduled link and won't be live until the 2nd!)

Happy crafting!

(I've also scheduled a few crafty posts of my own for the next few days as I'm going to London over the weekend and will be shaking my boots at the Alexisonfire gig on Monday, oh I cannot wait!)

Crafting Days of Christmas Blog-Hop

For my very first blog-hop I'm going to be running a 'Crafting Days of Christmas' beginning on Dec 1st. I'd love to feature any posts that are christmas craft related. If you've written a post featuring anything Christmas Crafty, this can be a recipe, tutorial or how to make anything Christmas related, please leave a comment and I'll be sure to add you to the link-up.

I'm currently sorting out a button for it, so please check back next week when the link-up page is up and running.

Please tell your friends too! I hope it will be successful and if it is, I'll do a blog-hop on a monthly basis and ensure that some of my readers get regular spots.

A Patchwork Baby gift

Two weeks ago my beautiful friend Amy gave birth to a gorgeous little boy. Since I found out she was pregnant I had the full intention to crochet her a really colourful baby blanket. I started on it back in November and made about 5/6 squares. As soon as I found out I was pregnant I became the slackest crocheter on the planet and before I knew it, he'd been born and I still didn't have a completed blanket...

So I improvised. I bought myself a really basic quilting book and went to the charity shop by my work and found a fitted sheet and three pillow cases - all differing shades of blue to make my baby quilt / play mat out of. I've never quilted before so I chose a very basic 'log cabin' quit design. Normally I'm a 'cut it and see' kind of pattern maker, but as this was a gift for someone very special I took my time and was very meticulous about what I was doing. I surprised myself in the process. I spent an evening making the pattern, another evening cutting the pattern out of stiff cardboard to use as templates, another evening cutting the pattern pieces and a week or so of evening sewing to make it all up. Boy am I pleased with the result! Apart from the wadding, the whole thing is made from thrifted material and I am also proud of this fact! *big grin*

I just need to find time to go back home and visit that lovely little family and give it to him, but when that will be is anyone's guess. Life has been hectic here. I'm not enjoying pregnancy as much as I thought I would and am feeling guilty about it. That's another post in itself that I'll hopefully have the mental capacity to write soon.

I have 9 weeks left of my pregnancy (woah!) and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they go smoothly. *crosses fingers and toes*