To plan or not to plan.. that is not today's question- diary fun!

When I began writing my last post about the new year, I had intended to write quite a different post. I had intended to write about diaries.

If you are like me, a diary is an essential aspect of your life. Without it your all over the place and you can't confirm any times to catch up with friends, hold meetings, or do much of anything else. 

So, as a diary lover, I wanted to share a few of my diary finding essentials.

1. Weekly spread. I like to view my life by the week or the month. I can't just live a day at a time, which means that a day-to-a-page diary simply does not work work for me. 

2. Yearly calendar. Most diaries have an overall view of the current and following year at the front. I use these to plan out big deadlines, such as assignments or important events. 

3. Prettiness. Yep, I require prettiness in my everyday items. Usually I purchase a $5 diary from the cheap store and then I slip it into one of my diary covers. This year was a bit different because my sister gave me a diary for Christmas. It is a beautiful diary from Forever New. I can't afford to buy their things for myself, but I have no trouble accepting them as gifts. :)

Stirrup Bow Leg Warmers Pattern

WOW; it has been a while since I last blogged. You have my sincerest apologies. I don't really have an excuse. I could talk about how busy I've been (except I haven't been overly busy), I could tell you that I haven't had much to say (but that's not strictly true either). So I won't bother listing my excuses; I will, instead, give you a very cute leg warmers pattern. ...


 Not just any leg warmers; adorable STIRRUP BOW LEG WARMERS!!! :D

CUTE!!!

What do you think?

Okay, so my ballet classes are at night time, and needless to say I never want to get started because it's SO cold. So I decided to knit myself some leg warmers (pink of course ;) ).

As you can see, one leg warmer is longer than, and not as well done as, the other. This is because I was originally working from a pattern that I couldn't quite master, so I decided to just do my own thing. Naturally I forgot how many rows I did when it came time to do the second... oops. If you use my pattern, you shouldn't have any problem with this though. :)

The shorter one (on the right of the screen) was the second, and best, one I did. 

Originally I was using this pattern http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/90667AD.html, but after my failed purl attempt, I decided to just use it as a guide. It is a decent and relatively simply pattern, though, so by all means use it. (I don't know if you need to register to use it or not, but if you do, it is free anyway!)

Here is an up-close view of the bow. Naturally you'll need to shape it a bit before you sew it in. If you don't feel confident that the bow will be on the correct side, you can always stitch it all separately and then assemble it and stitch it on; that would be no problem at all.

How cute are they?

Okay so I know that you can't wait to get started. Here is the PDF file:

Stirrup Bow Leg Warmers PDF :D

Why not have a go?  Also feel free to share the pattern, let me know if anything is incorrect or confusing, and/or show me how you go with it.

Enjoy,

Memma xxx

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Producing Playful Patterns

Last week I promised to provide you with information on how to make your own cross stitching patterns, so I suppose you can deduct what this weeks post is about. :)

First off I would like to acknowledge the fact that I used the free resources provided by other websites in order to create my patterns and I will provide those links for you to use also.

So, in order to make my pattern I needed graph paper. When you cross stitch you start in the center of the pattern and work your way out. The graph paper therefore needs to be marked in the center of the grid. 

The following website provides much information on cross stitching in general as well as (you guessed it) graph paper.

http://www.better-cross-stitch-patterns.com/cross-stitch-graph-paper.html

I used the graph for the 14-count graph paper but the size you use will depend entirely on the Aida cloth you will be using.

Note also that this website has some cool designs and alphabet patterns for free so check it out if you want to feel inspired. 

Sweet as can Pea

I apologise for the long delay, I suddenly became rather busy and lazy simultaneously. Anyway I finally present to you the final pattern in my cross stitching set; the Sweet Pea.

This is such a cute design, and whilst it was the hardest of the three, it is still a basic pattern and not too hard to follow.

Here is the pattern:

A Blossomy Day

Moving along with my cross stitching posts, today I will show you my Blossom cross stitching. 

This pattern was slightly more difficult than the Daisy pattern but very pretty. The blossoms are cherry blossoms and naturally you could change the text if you so desired, or even the colour.

Daisy Cross Stitching

I seriously love cross stitching! It is such a great way to relax and to focus yourself on one thing so that your mind can be quite at ease to think freely on another. 

Anyway at the end of last year I had this great desire to do some cross stitching so when I finally convinced myself to actually buy the Aida cloth I began designing three very cute floral designs.

I have three sisters so naturally I decided to make one for each of their birthdays to incorporate the flower that Mum referred to each of them as before their birth. 

I will post them successively over the next week or so.

The first one I made was based on Daisies. Below is the pattern I made/used so feel free to use it as well. 

NB- you can use any colour you want for your flower, I only used blue on the pattern so it stands out.

Diary, Books and Pencil Case

I just wrote and deleted this post so here I go trying to remember everything I said.. :/

In my Uni bag I plan on having two notebooks, both are shown below. A while ago I decided that I needed a pocket-sized diary. I didn't feel like going to the shops, nor did I have the money to buy one so I decided to make my own. I therefore took a blank, unruled pocket-size notebook that I had had for years and ruled three evenly spaced horizontal lines across each page, thus dividing the page into four. After this I wrote each date in the calendar month (including February 29) in each consecutive space. My plan is to write in pencil so that I can reuse the 'diary' next year and save some money(!) even though I know pocket diaries are only ever a few dollars. Anyway I covered it in brown paper and some stickers and the result is below :)

Laptop Case

The laptop bag I made was perhaps the hardest thing for me to make. It is a quilted, patchwork case!

I apologise for the poor quality photos etc. but I am so proud of this one I just had to share it. So the entire case is pretty much made from patchwork squares (with a strip down either side to hide the fact that I didn't cut off enough material... oops)  The back looks pretty much like the front except with different squares of material. Each square is approximately 10x10 cm if I recall correctly.

My Uni Bag

As promised here is the first in my series of 'back to school' posts. 

The first thing I made to prepare myself for Uni was a bag. This bag can be worn over the shoulder or across the body and was made from a pair of jeans I had that were too big.
This is the front:

To make this bag the first thing I did was cut off the legs of the jeans and up the crotch. I then cut off half of the back of the jeans (in other words one back pocket and it's surrounding area). It is also notable that in order to sew on another section of fabric it is important to leave some of this section of the pants as a seem allowance. A piece of the leg was then sewn into the blank area to create what you see below.