Crocheting Useful and Beautiful

Hello dear friends! I guess that our Indian winter has come to an end... Sun is shining bright, temperature is around +24, birds are chirping. Hot Indian Summer is round the corner!
We celebrated my father-in-laws birthday last Monday, the cake my D brought was awesome - fruity delicious!

However last week had also stored unexpected health issues. First my little boy had fever for 4 days, then when he started recovering, another boy, D, fell ill... Both are fine now, but I was taken a little aback and stayed home for almost a week. Hopefully no one else in the house will experience this nasty viral.
Thank you all for encouraging comments on my last post, I must say they moved me, literally! I did start crocheting after little A goes to bed. And the feeling of being able to create again is awesome, even if I get a little less sleep. I am not yet ready for any big crochet adventures, hence I am warming up by going for the small ones.
I have been wanting to have a storage basket (-s), which I finally own, and this is not the last one. I have not used any particular pattern, but got inspired by many on Pinterest, especially by the one with handles. It looks awesome, works up in no time, and organizes little things in the house so well - what more would you wish for? I put two strands of yarn together and liked the marble like effect it created.

Another rather beautiful, but maybe not so useful project is a Mega mandala doily, consisting of 23 rows. I loved crocheting this one a lot because it uses various stitches, and each row is in a different color. It can be called a stash buster project.  I used Indian yarn brand Vardhman, Brilon as usual. The doily was emerging throughout few creative nights, here it is how:

It measures about 35 cm in diameter. I am going to place it on a crockery table in our drawing room.. and make one more for the sake of enjoying making it once again, lol :) Crocheter's madness.

In plans to crochet a set of coasters, maybe something like a set of mats for my little A's meal time, 2 pillow covers for my parents and start another blanket (shall start soon, because this project will stretch till next year for sure, lol). I particularly liked Linda's Greg blanket - the square patterns and colors, aww...! So perhaps I will steal the idea :P
That's all for now, enjoy your week, enjoy your days!