Where does the time go?

Its the middle of Feb already and not only have I not finished the end of year round up from last year but I haven't had a spare few minuets to write a new blog post. The reason for this is very simple. I'm busy, very busy, the amount of crochet work I have at the mo leaves little time for anything else. I'm not complaining I'm having great fun but it means I have loads on stuff to catch up on.

I'm just gonna rattle through the past months magazine.

 

The first of the year was this lovely cover of Craftseller magazine. This chihuahua was a really fun project to work on and it was lovely to see he made it onto the cover.

 Here he is before he when of to be a star. I loved making all the little accessorizes that went with him. He's got a heart cushion, a big bone and a traditional granny square blanket. This project didn't help my current craving to have add a real dog to my pet family and i really got stuck on the idea of how cute it would be to have a dog that's smaller than my cats :)

Next is this little sheep. she when to join the pages of #Crochet magazines third issue. This project was to celebrate the Chinese new year of the sheep so I added a red flower as it a very traditionally lucky colour. I was born in the year for this sheep, i'm not sure i truly believe in any horoscopes but I'm happy to be a sheep :)

next...

This fluffy bear was published in last months lets knit magazine. This was my first attempt at using boucle yarn in crochet. Its a bit of a tricky yarn to use but the results are so great I've been using it lots more recently.

Here he is in the magazine shoot. They called him Franklin. Isn't that a great name :)

 Next up is a brand new magazine called happy crafting. Its a big one and comes with yarn, crochet hook and knitting needles and all the projects you can make with the sample yarn. I was tasked to design a baby bonnet, a rattle and a monster plush.

 This is the bonnet. Now I planned for this to have the green edge framing the face but that's not how they have chosen to photo it. I think it shows the great thing about this simple baby bonnet is that it works either way and is very cute.

Here are the rattle and the monster. The rabbits head is made from the inside of a kinda egg so it has a really good rattle to it and it meant I had to eat chocolate for my job (its a hard life).

This little monster is one of my favorite makes ever. I love him. Hes inspired a whole sketchbook full of mini monsters and there will be lots of patterns coming soon.

Next up it this little traditional teddy for Love crochet magazine.

He made it onto the cover but only just...

He got lost in the post. The horror. I had to remake him and had bear mark 2 finished just in time but then the original one turned up. So now I have a spare bear but I've an idea I'm going to turn him into a her and make a lovely red dress and hat for her and there will be another new pattern to share.

I do love this little bear. I designed a whole new face shape for him and its worked out nicely so I'll be using that to bring some more creations to life.

Right I think I'm getting up to date. I may have missed a few things but I'll post about them another time if I remember.

The last one this month is my lovely giraffe Georgina made for Craftseller magazine.

 I was very excited when this commission came in. Its one of those animals I've been waiting ages to get a good excuse to make. I knew just how I wanted her to look. I knew I wanted to do lidded eyes. I haven't had a chance to do lidded eyes for a while. A lot of the projects I've done just didn't suit them but they were perfect for this project.

  I had a crazy idea to use fake eyelashes. I didn't know if it would work and I really had to persuade my editor to trust me to give it a go.

Oh my what a result.

There comes a point when I'm about to complete a project when the designing stage ends and the creatures come to life and get their own personality. Georgina decided she wanted to be adorable and who was I to stop her.
 

She is also filled with rice so she feels lovely and stands up with her head held high all by herself.

Ok one last thing.

Last year I did a project for Craftseller that was for amigurumi food.

When the worked models came home I saved them to gift to my nephews for |Christmas. Well the boys love them and play with them a lot. I thought it might be a nice idea to add to the set as their birthdays are coming up so I'd make some more foods.

Now I couldn't pick what food to do so I started with fruit and whenever I got a bit of spare time I'd make something new.

I started out well and got all the basics in there.

But me being me I couldn't stop there though and had to create all the fruit.

So here it is, my cornucopia of fruit. Patterns for these will be in my etsy shop very soon.

I'll leave you there for now. I'll try and write more often but I have a grocers shop of vegetables to create and many magazine deadlines looming :)