Butterfly hair slides

Just finished working up a couple of pairs of butterfly hair clips as a1st birthday present for a friend's daughter.

I really love how well they turned out and now have grand plans about making heaps more to add to my Etsy store. I've even gone as far as buying another 100 hair clips...

(if you are wondering why my hands are a similar colour to the butterflies it's because it is very cold here in Tea Towers today - only 15 degrees - brrrrr)

Squares for SIBOL

Though you might not think it from my recent lack of posting I have been doing quite a lot of crochet recently.

These two squares are for the SIBOL group - a lovely group of ladies organised by the fantastic Mrs Twins (Sue) who takes in all our squares and then with a little magic and a huge amount of work turns them into lap blankets for the elderly in care.

She was also asking for some extra butterflies so using my recent butterfly pattern I've made her up a small stack in some of my favourite blues - I hope she likes them, and I can't wait to see what she does with my two squares :-)

A 'rabble' of butterflies

This pretty little rabble* are the reason why I've not been keeping up with my blog posts recently... butterflies seem to be taking over here in Tea Towers and they are pretty much all I can think of.

These butterfly motifs are my latest crochet design and I love how they have turned out. This batch of butterflies have been made up using Debbie Bliss cotton DK yarn in 8 of their gorgeous colours.

Once I've finished up a few garlands I'll be making some extra butterflies to send to the wonderful SIBOL project - I've been terrible about sending in squares so I really need to make it up to them :-)

* - according to wikianswers a rabble is the most common way of describing a group of butterflies.

Busy butterfly

Life here has been incredibly hectic over the past month which is why I've not managed to do any of my regular craft posts or do my monthly new craft/new decoration.

My new business focused blog Pretty Crochet Things is doing really well with a new group of followers who came round because of my recent giveaway. I've also been busy showing my new bootie range off to friends and local mums so hopefully I'll start making a few sales soon :-)

I'm also working on getting a few new items designed for my shop, and because I love butterflies so much I'm thinking about doing some butterfly hairslides and some pretty butterfly garlands (like this quick prototype garland). Have you got any suggestions for crochet items that you would like to see me sell? At the moment I'm focusing on small items like baby bits & accessories and any ideas I get now may well become finished items stocked in my Etsy shop.

This garland was made for my recent Butterfly Tea Party - an event that I've been planning for well over a month. The party involved having a good few friends round to my home yesterday and provided them with tea & plenty of cake as well as selling my selection of Phoenix cards to them - all in the aid of the wonderful charity 'Together for short lives'.

There were butterflies everywhere, I punched a load of paper butterflies to decorate the cake table, I made butterfly cakes & butterfly shortbread, there was a butterfly hunt set up in the garden & butterfly outlines for the kids to colour in and have laminated as placemats. People even came with butterfly clothes on and those who didn't I made sure went away with a butterfly sticker!

Butterfly crazy

Butterflies are beautiful - they flutter and flitter and as far as I can tell are only there to be admired. 

It's partly because of my love of butterflies that I've not been able to do much blogging this month. I'm in the middle of organising a 'Butterfly tea party' in aid of 'Together for short lives' a wonderful charity that supports children and their families who aren't expected to reach adulthood.

These little butterfly hair clips are going to be included in the prize raffle I'm putting together  - aren't they lovely? The 'Butterfly grace' pattern is available as a free Ravelry download and is well worth having a go at.  

So things may well be quiet for the next couple of weeks here while I madly dash about trying to organise my first proper charity function - don't worry too much though as I fully intend to do some more butterfly related crochet which I'll share with you properly once the craziness is over.