THE CHRISTMAS PIE FRIDAY GUEST BLOGGER

Hello everyone

I am very pleased to introduce my Friday Guest Blog Spot, Karen of Casalana -The Woolhouse:

Hello and thanks for inviting me to be a guest on your blog.  My name is Karen and I am a mother to 4 children and a proud grandmother to 3 boys and 2 girls, the youngest born just 8 weeks ago and this is where it really all began.

My mum taught me to knit when I was very young and that was when my love affair with all things woolly began.  I used to knit for my children and more recently my grandchildren and friends and family have been telling me for years that I ought to sell my makes.  So, in January of this year I finally bit the bullet and launched my Facebook page: Casalana-thewoolhouse.

The name Casalana comes from the Spanish words for house (case) and wool (lana) and I chose this because I am fortunate enough to own a lovely country property in Southern Spain and my time is divided between there and the UK.  I am here in Spain at the time of writing this blog and it seems crazy as we are in the height of summer here and I am sat knitting my range of winter wear and Christmas items.

I try to make my items interesting and unique and I always use the best quality wools I can find.  I love to buy from small independent crafters who spin and dye their own wools and I have a couple of favourites that produce some beautiful yarns.  I also like to use recycled materials and have made some lovely crochet baskets from recycled sari silk which is collected by a group of ladies in India from sari factories and then spun into yarn.  These have proved very popular.

I love to make baby items and like to design my own range of cot and pram blankets like this cot blanket which I call the Jester because of its bright colours and pom-poms.

I have recently expanded my baby makes range to include gifts for Baby Shower parties and the new baby, the most popular of which is the Hickory Dickery Dock Nursery Basket.  This is a crochet basket with a clock face and pendulums and even has a cute little mouse running up the clock like in the nursery rhyme.  It is filled with all the lovely goodies that a new mummy will need and even a little pamper gift for her too.

When I am not knitting and I am here in Spain I love to make jams and chutneys from the many beautiful fruits and vegetables available here and from my own fruit trees and veg patch.  I go to my local street market every Friday to stock up on all the lovely fruit and veggies as well as olives, meats and cheeses all produced or grown locally.

I hope you have enjoyed reading a little about me and my life and if you would like to see more of my work please visit my Facebook page and you can follow me on my Blog. 

Karen

THE BEST LAID PLANS OF MICE............ AND A CRAFTER

Hello everyone

Do you find that no matter how much you plan to do you never ever achieve half or even any of it?  I am pretty bad at not writing down what I should do (sometimes I do and the rest of the time I forget to!) - would it make things more achievable if I was confronted (or frightened) with a list of urgent, must-do's?

I had planned to attend the RSPCA Car Boot Sale at Chobham today (as a seller) and managed to come up with all manner of excuses not to do so!  Too cold, too windy, ground too wet, not enough 'stuff' to sell, too many other things to do - so almost needless to say, I still have the boxes of books, plates, other bits and pieces of china sitting in my hallway!  Do I feel guilty?  A little, but in the immortal words of Scarlett, tomorrow is another day - or another car boot sale if I can find one.  I think in future I am not going to say 'I plan to do...........', think I will change it to 'I hope to do...........' - perhaps that way I won't feel so disappointed when things I want to do don't get done.

I was very pleased to have been awarded the Versatile Blogger Award this week - not once, but twice.  How complimentary is that.  The first time by Rachel of the House of Pinheiro - thank you Rachel.  I went on to nominate 15 other lovely bloggers - so please do check out my Wednesday Post as I am sure some of you Handmade Monday peeps do not yet realise you are one of my nominated Versatile Blogger's too.  I did post a note on all of the blogs involved, but think some of them may have been missed.  My second Award came from Dawn Hart who writes some really great posts and I recommend reading them - thank you for my award Dawn.  In the tradition of the Versatile Blogger Award, I will be nominating another 15 bloggers in my Wednesday post.

Still on the past week, I hope you have all read about Chester and Taffy's cake-making event in my Friday Guest post by Alison of Fiddly Fingers.  On Handmade Monday posts, we have met Chester but can now see what a very versatile cat he is - I can see Alison will have to hire him out as a chef.  Thank you for joining in with the Guest Blog spot, Alison, your tale (or is that tail?) and pics are great.  Alison will be guest-blogging again for me, so keep an eye out for another great post.  As always, if you have a story, topic, new range that you would like to write about/promote, do join in the Friday Guest Blog Spot - contact me on christmaspiecrafts@virginmedia.com.

The dreaded lurgy has struck in Christmas Pie - you know the one that men get soooo much worse than women?  Richard has a cold and a really grim cough - not sure who gets woken up at night with it the most, him or me, or the neighbourhood!  As you can imagine, his ailment is verging on double (perhaps triple) pneumonia.  How lucky we are not to suffer as much as men do!  However, having sounded very unsympathetic, he is quite poorly - or so he keeps telling me.

I haven't completed all of my card orders yet, will post pics as soon as I have.  However, another order placed this week is making me wonder whether Surrey is becoming the English home of Whiskey drinkers!  A second order for a card for someone who likes their Whiskey.  Oh well, as long as these Whiskey-lovers like my cards, I don't mind what their tipple is.

Before I forget - a cat update: Shadow is doing very well and adapting to life without his left leg.  He has had all of his stitches out and has settled into his new home very well - he will be kept in for a very long time though.  Jazz is doing well and still keeps holding up his paw!  Boy, what an attention seeker!

It is Handmade Monday time and in addition to my card orders, I have also begun to add to my other 'new' ranges - still working on what and how and where and why, but I am pleased with this particular one and feel that it would look good in other colours.  I have already bought some gold, pink and lime green material in preparation for my next makes.  I have bound the heart-shape with gorgeous dark red chiffon material strips, then with thin dark red ribbon and finally I added two roses.

Despite the cold and the wind, I am back out to do some gardening - everything grows faster at this time of year than I can keep up with.  The weeds that I looked at last week and thought 'oh I will deal with them next week' now resemble trees!  OK, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I am sure the gardeners among you know what I mean.

I will be back on Wednesday with my mid-week post to which I will add my list of 15 gorgeous bloggers that I am passing on the Versatile Blogger Award (VBA) too.

Have fun everyone - don't forget to visit the other bloggers taking part in Handmade Monday this week and also the blogs of those  nominated for the VBA this week.

Jill