Gold Autumn findings

     We call Autumn "gold" (Zolotaya osen') in Russian, what already speaks for itself. Yellow, orange, brown and all the tints of these colors are around. May be I can't call Indian autumn golden, but I  can dream of it at least. I try to cheer up myself with all the bright colors as my D is leaving  for official trip today, I am going to miss him a lot! So why not to spend time crafting while he is away? Like Penelope did waiting for Odyssey... Remember? 

     I have collected few ideas and tutorials for autumn time which I hope to use in coming up days. This is easy to make and nevertheless gorgeous looking stuff by GingerBreadSnowFlakes, OdeToInspiration, MyMadeupStory and PetalstoPicots.

    First I'd like to show this awesome A Little Fall  Leaf Re-use Project by Pam. All you need is Mod Podge or Fevicol, autumn leaves and a jar. Thanks to Pam for such awesome idea to make autumn days cozy with this autumn leaf candle holder! :) 

    Another project I'd like you to have a look at is a Recycled Jar Lantern DIY from Julie P. I guess I could use those nice wrapping papers I showed you earlier.  I am amazed how simple it is to create something beautiful and useful (by the way)! You can keep this jars as vases.

   Now, from jars to pumpkins! The next two projects make me cheerful, I can't even say how much! Isn't it a nice idea by Ode To Inspiration to make a No Sew No Glue Pumpkin home decoration for Halloween or for creating gold Autumn mood? Looks stylish and cute :) You can check another idea using sweaters for the same pumpkin at Charlotte'sWeb.

    Just look at this crochet Little Pumpkin by PetalstoPicots! Such a temptation to start crocheting it right now... Hmmm... I had orange yarn stash somewhere... Hurrying home today! Let's see if I can find free time for this pattern. (By the way I have started a baby blanket, will post some pictures next week) :)

 Hope you liked my gold Autumn findings and I'd love to know what inspires you in the Autumn season.


                        ***Have a great day!***

Autumn Crochet Ideas

    Though days  are still quite sunny in India and it is +30 in the day time, I can feel that the Autumn is coming here too: the days have become shorter, the evenings are cooler, some trees have got yellow leaves... I am definitely inspired by the Indian autumn and have so many ideas (just need to implement them) on the crafty front. This year I want to celebrate Halloween too, and thinking what I can create for our room decoration. I haven't started yet any crochet project however my husband's cousin is going to have a baby soon, so I am planning to gift a nice cozy crochet baby blanket for the upcoming winter. My D agreed that this would be a good present. Now the deal is to do yarn shopping this weekend.

    Another project I'd like to try is this nice Mandalay tunic designed by Diane Moyer. Colors are very autumn and the pattern seems to be easy to follow. You just need to crochet two scarf-like halves and stitch them together in front and at the back. 

    My week's achievement would be this simple six petal crochet flower pattern. I liked how the flower worked for decoration of granny squares. I have some doubts regarding it, so please suggest if I made some mistakes in the drawing or instructions. I will improve it :) 

Otherwise the pattern is simple indeed. This is the corner of a doily with six petal flower decoration and with leaves:

  

                                                

***Have inspirational Autumn!***

Granny Doily featured on CraftGossip

  Blogging has made me more adventurous and decisive. A little bit more than one week back I submitted a tiny form on the site called CraftGossip. The site features crafty ideas, tutorials from around the world from different bloggers and designers. I decided to try it out and sent the idea of my granny square doily with red flower decoration. Was I happy to receive a positive response from the crochet editor of the site JD Wolfe that my project would be featured on the 12th of September! 

  I made the doily while being at my parents' dacha last month.  The doily stayed with parents, but who knew its adventure would continue! If you are interested you can go and check how it looks like following the link Granny Doily. The editor wrote a nice brief article about it. Well, it is not that grand project I think and the deal is not in being popular by showing  it to everyone. The joy comes more from participation and I hope that someone would find this idea of home decor useful. I was advised by my fellow blogger Bonitabonbons to make a whole granny square blanket out of such doilies ;) Let's see. I am ready for new projects!

Choosing a craft - sewing, stencil, knitting

   Crafts...hand made... - I have been planning to do more of all this stuff and just have to begin. Begin...but what? Internet is full of diverse crafty ideas. I have also discovered great sites for crafting people like Craftgossip. I really don't know when all of them have time to do all those beautiful things! Recently I happened upon beautiful hand made works of the lady from Cards, Crafts, Kids projects blog and who is a practising surgeon at the same time! She makes lovely paper cut projects: cards, boxes, decor pieces and so on. 

  Another blogger and a DIY sewer from Creating my way to Success has incredible sewing tutorials for a beginner as well as advance level sewers. I have noted few of them for myself.

  My dilemma as of now is what craft to start learning. I want to get to know other crafty worlds like sewing, stencil, and knitting. Any craft needs special supplies, so first I have to check out what to buy  or what is already in the storage. The site Simply Modern Mom  advises these to begin sewing: 

bobbins (with the threads for a sewing machine)
measuring tape
pins and pin cushion
safety pins
scissors
seam ripper
sewing machine needles
sewing machine (obviously!)

sewing needles                       

                                                     Also I think I will need marking tools like pencil, chalk, and obviously I will need fabrics or any material I am going to work with. Besides there are many such tools like see-through ruler and some other. I will also need space for all those tools to be arranged. Well, somehow sewing seems a little more supplies consuming than crocheting for example.

a stencil rose

  What about stencil? Stencil art was discovered by me today itself. I was using stencil before for some school projects of course, however never tried to think of it as an art. This hobby can become a great source of ideas, because you can use stencil for decoration of your house, for making pictures, for designing furniture etc. Stencil is also easy to start. All you need is a thin plastic sheet, paper cutter, marker, a stencil pattern you are going to trace and some paints. Today I am going to try it out. Patterns are ready to be printed out and plastic sheet will be found somewhere at home. 

 Knitting..hmmm.. not so much new to me, but I would like to go on upper level now as my knowledge so far is just how to make basic stitches. Knitting is just same as crochet - a great way to make beautiful things for yourself and close ones, also supplies are easily available and minimum tools are required.

  These days I don't take pictures at all, may be got bored of it or just want to change the format of my blog for a while. That's why mostly I share my inner world here, what I am up to now and what I think of it. Nevertheless I am going to post some pictures of my new crochet project soon.

***Have a nice day!***