Lariath- Live a Little.

I've been really wanting a glass tank for Tim for ages, mainly so Tim has more space but also I think they look really nice and Tim can't chew on any bars etc. Don't get me wrong, the DIY Bin Cage  that I made is awesome, more so after  Adding a Door , especially for new hamsters for taming purposes. I will be keeping the bin cage for when I go away and Tim goes to a friends house to be looked after, let's face it moving a massive tank to a friends house for a week is never going to happen. I've seen a few people using an IKEA Detolf glass cabinet (put on its side/back) as a hamster cage and for a glass tank it's a really good price for an amazing size too. The only issues I have with the Detolf are space to put the cage and transporting the cage when we move....but we will deal with that when it happens. The only other issue is that Syrian hamsters, such as Tim, can escape the Detolf if there is no lid (the glass door that comes with the Detolf cannot be us...

My good friend Sarah, her son and I went away to Scotland recently. It was a nice time away, the cottage we stayed in was awesome, the view was amazing. There were young cows surrounding us...if you know me you know I love cows! Sarah brought a gift for me to try out whilst we were there; a spindle and some fibre. I have never even considered spinning before but I love to learn new things. Here is the spindle and a bit of the fibre that I was given: It is Fondant Fibre- White Faced Woodland (Rare Breed Collection) not sure how many grams I got but there was quite a lot in the bag. My first go at spinning wasn't so great the yarn was really thick and most of it was over spun. It is that thick that it will have to stay as a single: My second try was slightly better. This try I managed to get thinner bits, however it varies in thickness massively, this one will be kept as a single: My third go was a lot better, much thinner and less varied in thickness. I'm ...

I have never tried watercolour painting before, well I probably did when I was very young but I don't remember. I love to learn and try new things so I want to give it a try. For my birthday I asked my friend to get me some watercolour paints. She asked me to paint her a picture so that is what I concentrated on for my first try at watercolour. My friend loves Japan and her favourite flower is a cherry blossom so I searched for some watercolour tutorials to help me out, with this theme in mind. I found  This YouTube Video  (Keep in mind I completely new at this and my painting is nowhere near as good). I am a newbie and don't really know any techniques yet, but I thought my friend would appreciate my first attempt with the gift she gave me. Here it is: I made a little frame for it to make it looks little neater: I am hoping to try more watercolour painting in the future but it will be a long time before I am any good at it. There is so much to learn! Enjoy this p...

I wanted to make a good friend of mine a bracelet with a design of something that she loves. After searching for a long time to find something I decided on an anchor pattern. The pattern is quite simple, I decided on an alpha pattern as I find these a lot simpler than the 'normal' knotted patterns. I used 5 white background threads (or two white threads folded in half plus one more white thread), 2 blue background threads (or one blue thread folded in half) and blue as the main colour, which I kept on the skein as I didn't know how much I would need. Turns out I needed one and a bit blue skeins. I made the buckle loop out of square knots as I explained in my  DIY Spiderman Bracelet  post. The tails were made by doing a four strand plait/braid which I learned by following  This YouTube video . Click  Here  for the anchor pattern that I used. The bracelet didn't turn out as good as I would have liked but practice makes perfect. I have been asked to make ...

I enjoy growing plants that I can eat, there is just something about growing my own food from seed that I love. Especially basil, I adore basil. At the minute my house is rented so I can't trash the garden with food experiments so I'm stuck using the kitchen windowsill. My windowsill is full of herbs and 'speedy salad'. Anyway onto hamsters. I feed Tim bird seed just to add some variety to his diet, it's perfectly healthy as an occasional treat. While giving him his bird seed I had a random thought; I like to grow things from seed....these are seeds.... Oooooo. So I sprinkled a little bit of birdseed in a little pot of soil (my DIY Recycled Plant Pot  no less) watered the soil quite well and allowed it to drain then sprinkled a little extra soil on top. After a few days I had some green shoots coming up, then after a few more days I had this: Most of the shoots just look like grass, I cut a few pieces of the grass shoots about an inch above the soil and give ...

I have recently got into drinking green smoothies. Mostly due to the fact that I hardly used to eat any fruit and wanted to get some into my diet. If I'm getting fruit into my diet why not make the smoothie even more nutritional by adding some greens too? Adding greens to my smoothie was something I was very uncertain about because I thought that it would taste nasty, but surprisingly I actually like it. I like to drink my smoothies in a morning as my breakfast I guess (I don't generally eat breakfast). However I start work at 6am and using a blender at 5:30 in the morning would not be so pleasing to the neighbours, or my other half...To work around this I have recently started making my smoothie the day before, at a more reasonable time, and freeze it overnight. Then take the frozen smoothie to work, allow it to defrost and have a lovely cold smoothie a few hours later. (If you are going to freeze smoothies in glass jars do not fill the jar to the top, leave about a third sp...

My parents bought me a tub of beads as a gift. They know me well, I have had a strange obsession of beads since I was very young. So this tub has been sitting there for a while now I figured I should probably use them instead of just admiring their tinyness. I very simply found some thin yarn that the beads would fit on, thread all the beads I wanted onto the yarn (starting with a larger bead). Then I started to chain stitch whilst randomly adding a bead to one of the stitches (there are many tutorials on how to add beads to chain stitch on the Internet). I did this until the length of chain was long enough to wrap round my wrist 3 times. I made a little loop at the end of the chain just the right size for the larger bead to fit through as a clasp. A darker yarn would have been more suitable than this, in my opinion, but out of all the yarn that I have this was the only one that these beads would fit on. It is, however, quite a strong yarn so I don't have to worry about it...

I haven't blogged in ages AGAIN. Life is busy. A friend of mine is obsessed with Minecraft, I made her a  Crochet Creeper  a while back so this year to keep with the theme (and because I know nothing else about Minecraft) I made a Creeper card. I got the idea for the inside of the card somewhere on the Internet but now I can't find it..... The front of the card is a cut out Creeper face with black paper behind, the picture doesn't show the effect very well but the basic idea is there. The back of the card looked boring just being plain green so I added some 'pixels' just for a bit of interest. The inside of the card took me an extremely long time to figure out as I didn't have a template. I haven't made a pop up card like this since I was in primary school! The challenge of figuring it out was fun for me, I like trying to figure things out especially if it's for someone else. However, now I have many odd looking Creepers lying around. ...

Three more squares for  Knit-a-square  charity. Single Rib Crochet  Square This was a nice surprise as I've done this stitch before in other projects so I picked this stitch up very quickly. I think the first time I came across this stitch it took me a while to get used to and I kept forgetting if I was stitching in the back or in the front. This stitch uses front and back post trebble crochet (UK) or front and back post double crochet (US). I think these stitches are very useful to know, they have appeared in a few patterns I've followed. The end square I was surprised with as the texture is very thick and soft, it's a nice texture to rub your hand along... Which may sound a little strange but it's an interesting texture. The stitch looks the same on both sides. Afghan Stitch  Square This was the first time I have ever tried Tunisian crochet, to be honest I had no idea what it was before I gave this ago. Turns out it's like knitting but with a crochet...

I was requested to make a coaster, the request was for a square or circle (whatever was easiest for me) but I wanted to make something a little bit more exciting. The recipient likes dinosaurs so here is a dinosaur coaster or appliqué that I made. It used more red yarn than I expected so I made half of it in red and half in grey. To blend the grey and red a bit more I surfaced crocheted some red stripes. I think it turned out OK to say I didn't have a pattern. Maybe the neck should have been a little thicker and the body a bit smaller... It is a big coaster. I did enjoy making it though as it's something I haven't tried before. I can write up the pattern if anyone wants it. Enjoy this post?

Just a quick post about a new DIY treat that I have given to Tim. It entertained him for ages! The treat is just made with birdseed, flour and water. It's very easy to make and doesn't take long. It took longer for Tim to destroy the treat than it did for me to make it, that's saying something! For Tim I put them on his Kabob: I made some for my friends little pets, these I put on some string: I do apologise for the quality of these next pictures my phone does not pick up Tim very well when he is moving around. What is this? (I only give Tim one at a time as they are quite big and knowing Tim he would eat them all in one go) Tasty! Can I reach it better from up here? Yep! The idea is not my own please see This Awesome YouTuber  (YouTuber....is that even a real word?). Her videos are very entertaining with some great pet ideas. Click  Here  for video instructions on how to make the Seedy Treat. Enjoy this post?

Lilies are one of my favourite flowers I just think they are gorgeous. My absolute favourite are tiger lillies, my favourite colour is orange so I guess this makes sense! Most of my crafts are for other people, I very rarely make anything for myself, so for the first time ever I've crocheted something just for me, how selfish. I came across This Lily Pattern  and thought it looked amazing, it took me a while to get round to making it but finally here it is: Obviously I made it in orange, it sort of looks like a tiger lily...sort of. I like it anyway, it has pride of place on the mantelpiece. I found the pattern easy to follow, the only small issue I had was fixing the petals to the trumpet, I had to read the instructions a few times to make sense of it. Other than that the pattern is great and the outcome looks so nice. For the stem I used a wooden skewer cut down to size and wrapped in yarn. Out of the Flowers That I've Crocheted  (which isn't many) th...

I've made three more squares for  Knit-a-Square . For each one I have tried a new stitch. Grit Stitch  Square  I found this stitch very easy to do, all that's needed is single crochets, skip stitches and increases. It is a very repetitive stitch and once I got in a rhythm it didn't really take much thought to complete. It was quite relaxing to make this square, one that's easy to sit and watch TV whilst making. The end product is quite thick and warm with no gaps and it looks very neat and similar on both sides. I used two scrap pieces of yarn held together (both pieces were both quite thin) to make this square, not really my favourite colour choice but it does the job. Linen Stitch  Square This stitch looks amazing... in my opinion anyway. The way different colours fit together using this stitch looks so good, there are many projects that would look great with this stitch. I found the stitch easy when I got used to it, at the beginning I wasn't sure...

I absolutely love sushi, it has to be one of my favourite foods, however it isn't cheap to buy and I like to eat a lot! I never wanted to try to make it as it looks like a long and fiddly process and I don't particularly like to cook for myself. I never endeavoured to make sushi until we decided to have a Japanese night at mine. Sushi was the starter. The longest part of making sushi is getting the rice right. It needs to be washed plenty of times and soaked for about an hour before even cooking it. The actual hands on making of sushi doesn't take that long, it's the preparation of the rice. I followed two recipes to make this sushi. I followed  This Recipe  to prepare the rice, it's very detailed and if followed correctly makes amazing rice. It takes a while but is definitely worth it. I followed the same recipe to make the Chu Maki (medium sized rolls, nori on the outside) however with different ingredients. I used carrot, cucumber, bell pepper and crab mea...

If I didn't need to take a bag anywhere with me I wouldn't. All I need is a wallet/purse/thing that holds money, ID, my keys and my phone. All of which used to fit into my pockets until the massive phone phase began. Now my phone has no chance of fitting in my jeans, therefore a bag is needed. Being a not so girly girl I cannot find a small bag that I like, they are all full of "bling" or frills and things that just aren't me. I also hate these bags or purses that you have to carry everywhere, they have no strap. A bag without a strap makes no sense to me! Who wants to hold something all day when you can just throw it on your shoulder and forget about it? I think it's harder to loose a bag that is attached to you than one that's not. Ranting aside I gave up looking to buy a bag and made myself one instead. I used  This Pattern  and edited it slightly to suit me. It is a very simple and easy to follow pattern, I recommend it to anyone new to croche...

I hold yarn 'incorrectly'. Is there a correct way to hold yarn whilst crocheting? Whatever way is comfortable or easiest is the correct way in my opinion. However I hold the yarn with my little finger, no idea if that is normal or not, it works great for me unless I crochet for a very long time. After a while my little finger starts to ache, when this happens a crochet finger saver is the way forward. Crocheting something to help with crocheting... It only took me 10-15 minutes to make, a little longer to get used too. I think it's great, it's easy to keep the tension consistent and it saves my little finger (Update: Click here  for more information about how to change the Yarn tension with this finger saver). I don't think it matters what yarn is used to make these. I used DK in purple with a 4.5mm hook. Here's what I did: -I made a chain that fit around my finger comfortably and joined it to the first chain with a slip stitch.  -Chain three the...

I like notebooks, I like them that much that I don't use them because I totally ruin them...perfectionism is annoying. So to get over this I tried making my own cheap cheap cheap notebook that I won't mind wrecking. Whilst surfing the web on how to make notebooks I came across This Tutorial  which suggests making a notebook using paper bags. I loved this idea but I wanted a notebook with a different binding. Looking at Japanese binding techniques I found This  (which is one of the easier ones...gotta start somewhere!). So combining the two tutorials I made a paper bag notebook with Japanese binding.  The notebook turned out OK it's not that nice that I feel bad using/ruining it, which was the whole point. DIY notebooks can be made any size, used for anything and decorated in any way or not at all.  When I've used this one I will try a different binding technique.  Enjoy this post?

After making  Crochet Minion Mug Cosies  (find the pattern  Here ) I had a request to make a   Dalek  mug cosy. The pattern for this cosy took me a while to figure out and it uses puff stitch which I detest. I think it turned out ok though, to say it's the second mug cosy pattern I've made, so I made another as a gift to a good friend of mine. If anyone wants the pattern let me know. Enjoy this post?

Recipe  Here I've made these a few times now, they are not the easiest cookies to make and they took me a long time. The first ones I made the cookies were massive! The end burger was too big to eat in one go. For these I used sesame seeds on top I quite like the look of using seeds rather than royal Iicing dots. The next time I made them a little smaller, these were a lot better. I eventually figured out how to make fondant cheese by hand. It took me ages but the burgers look so much better with the cheese than without. I did cheat and buy royal icing for the 'sauce' as I didn't have anything thin enough to apply the royal icing with. In the end everyone who received my burger cookies loved them so the effort was worth it. Enjoy this post?