That Granny Square Blanket and other unblogged projects

So yeah I never really posted the finished Granny Square blanket from ummm two years ago did I?

OK well what can I say? I have nothing. I'll just show you the blanket, and whatever else I've forgotten and haven't posted. Then we can move on and be friends again.



So in no order of completion, I give you the unblogged..............

So this was before I put it together 

This is the finished product 

Next we have the too short bobble stitch blanket.

I made a Bobble/Popcorn/Berry Stitch blanket for my friend Leonora, which unfortunately turned out too small.

Very pretty but too small

That's with knees bent 

Next up we have the Starghan for my nieces birth-day gift. 

She's about to turn 1 in a few days so yeah this one was some time ago

So keeping with the niece theme, I will show you the Christmas present I then made for the little lady. It wasn't even that long ago so not too bad of me, though I did have them ready in October.

Technically this isn't the actual gift. I made this one boot and ran out of yarn. I then bought a totally different yarn and made a new pair for her.

Which would be these little fellas. I was rather annoyed that after I finished the first foot, I made sure to start the second foot at the same colour point at the first. Only to find the yarn didn't veriegate in the same way anyway. So I ended up with odd booties. As the recipient was only 9 months I don't suppose she cared.  

Please excuse the hazy picture 

Lets see, lets keep the baby gift theme going. I made a Star burst blanket which looks like this. 

So I think that's all I've really done, in the last year or so. Now we are all up to date and all friends again. 

Patterns:

The Granny square was not really from a pattern as such, I looked at other people blankets and just kind of made one.

The bobble stitch blanket again was not from a pattern, I googled how to do the stitch and again just did it. Which is probably why its too small!

The Star blanket pattern can be found here Starghan

The Starburst pattern can be found here Starburst

The Crocodile Stitch Booties here crocodile stitch booties

Happy Crafting see you next year.....................

Just kidding! 

Upcycling, Ikea Hacking, space saving money spending and stress making!

Oh looks who's back......... Yes its me oops haven't blogged in forever sorry.

In the last few weeks months (I started this post a while ago and didn't finish it) Mark and I have been working on making the best use of the space we have which is not a lot! (watching "George Clerks amazing spaces" has nothing to do with this cough cough). 
So, new wardrobe for storage and getting rid of old stuff and clothes and what not.

We now have two shelving units in the living room and we have bought storage boxes from Ikea to go on them. However they didn't fit, so now we have storage boxes waiting for a use. We then went and got a different style of box which do fit. Although its not very attractive to look at, so we started coming up with ideas to cover the fronts of the units.

The Shelving Unit

Lots of ideas came and went, we could maybe put doors on but that will end up costing the same as a new unit so decided against that idea. So in the end we thought fabric would be good.
So may be just curtain style, or perhaps stuck on with velcro but after doing some research and thinking, I didn't like any of those ideas.

I decided on making small frame doors wrapped in fabric for each section so thats 6 doors per unit. Simple right? I made a projector screen a few weeks ago, same principle just smaller and add some hinges piece of cake.......................


WRONG!!!


So I go back to what I said a few posts ago don't get ahead of yourself.
Plan!!! Then plan again!! 
Measure 350 times cut once!!
learn how different types of hinges work for your project.
Don't staple your fabric on (multiple times) unless you are sure the frame is right first!!!! 

So we made an early start on Saturday morning bought our supplies (which worked out the same price as new units) 

Fabric and Hinges 

Hinges and wooden battens from B&Q (we were 4 short so had to go back on Sunday) 

Fabric- Wow has the price of fabric gone up since I last bought some. Although I've never tried to buy fabric in a St Albans fabric shop before, so I don't know if those were just St Albans prices.  Then went on to Dunelm I would of course prefer to support the independent business over the massive chain shop but I was on budget and they just weren't fitting in.
Well Dunelm isn't much of a money saver either. After what felt like years of our lives we settled on a fabric we both liked and bought what we needed. 

We measured and got to work, first frame cut and constructed in a few short minutes. Wow this look good and that was quick and easy this will be a breeze. We should use a staple gun for everything!   

                 

  I then began stapling the fabric onto the frame it looked great. Now to attach the "flush" hinges. Again no problem there attach to the shelves ahhh here's the problem the door won't close all the way, it seems to be being stopped, perhaps the fabric has bunched up too much in the corners so its obstructing the door? I'll unpick that bit, and cut off any excess fabric and we'll try again nope that wasn't it.
Here we come to a problem, as we made these units back in September and I didn't write this all up straight away, I've forgotten what else happened. Now  I know it was a nightmare and the doors wouldn't close and then they wouldn't meet and it was horribly long winded. We wished we had just bought new cabinets and eventually it all came together but unfortunately I can't tell you how. I never was any good and doing my homework on time. 

So I will just Show you the finished-ish product we haven't got round to putting handle on and probably never will.