Hey Macrame`

Hello Pretties!!!

I hope you have all been well and not on the verge of melting like we have been!! We had a crazy hot weekend with Saturday getting to 43c, Phew not good!
I feel super sorry for Loki on days like that, the poor boy was practically a puddle of dog goo on the tiles the whole weekend. A hairy puddle of dog goo, less than ideal.
It is our plan to move house in February and on the top of our search list is a house with a pool and air-con. Please housing gods help up find a place with those special much appreciated perks ;)

To try and distract myself from the heat I decided to dive face first into some creative antics. I sewed up a storm (I will touch base with you on that next time). Baked some seriously good cookies which I will link the recipe in a jiffy, and I tied knots to make pretty lanterns until I went cross eyed.

I have been in love with macrame` since the dawn of time, and I always get excited when I see pretty pot hangers in second hand stores but am always so sad at how much they charge for something so simple! Don't get me wrong I am no macrame` wizard, in fact this has been my first attempt but it was such a fun and simple project EVERYBODY is capable! Even little Loki bared witness to ensure I was doing it right ;)

I did lots of googling (is that a word? If not it should be), Plenty of YouTube searches and general hunting and a little birdy provided me with the simplest option over on "A little birdy blog" (see what I did there ha hah!) Seriously go check out her blog though! Its quite simply adorable I have blog envy but hey I will get there!


This is what I ended up making- am boy am I in love with it!

Eeeeek! So cute!

So if you would like to learn how to make one of these jump aboard the craft train and here we go!


Things you will need are:

• String (I used crochet cotton for this one but also made another out of cotton twine which also turned out a treat!)
• A 30cm ruler
• Scissors
• A jar (mine was just a old simmer sauce jar cleaned with labels removed)
• Patience

To start you will need to wrap your cotton around your ruler 30 times like so:

Cut the string once you have wrapped it 30 times and slide off and set aside, do this three more times so you have 4 lots of string like this:

Now what you will need to do is get both of the ends together (this is where the patience comes in as the string is VERY easily tangled so go slowly).  Once you have the two ends together you will fold it in half again and then once more so you have folded it three times, the string should now be about a meter long. Do this for each of the lengths of string, you will now have 4 lots of meter long string bunches, gather the string at the fold like so:

 And make a large knot, this will become your "hook"

Now you will divide the string into four:

We moved into the lounge to be under the fans :P (please excuse the state of my floor! argh you can't win with a inside/outside dog)

Loki keeping a watchful eye to make sure its done right.

Now you will begin the "braiding" like so:

Bring the right hand section of string over the middle two and bring the left had section over the right hand section.

 Tuck the left hand section underneath the middle sections and in through the "loop" on the right hand side.

 You will have a twist like such, and pull the two ends up to form a knot like so:

Repeat this process all the way down until you have made a pretty "rope". Now you will group the sections together again and about 10cm down form another big knot:

 Again you will divide the string into 4 sections:

 And tie knots about 5cm down on each sections:

 Now divide the four sections into 8 like so:

 Now you will tie two of the sections to each other until they have been connect like this:

 You should have a "fishnet" looking pattern going on, now connect the last two sections together  so it is all connected. Put your jar in to ensure it is going to fit, if it looks nice and snug you can now add another row of "fishnet"

Tie a big knot at the end and trim off any access string and you are done! And now have a beautiful lantern!

I am planning to make several of these and stringing them all the way along the curtain rail for Christmas, they would look pretty outside strung up either in trees or around your patio for a gorgeous alternative of outdoor lighting!

These are the yummy cookies I baked. They are ginger cookies that are perfectly soft and chewy. They smell like Christmas and general happiness! I got the recipe here the only change I made was swapping out the molasses for brown sugar! Honestly try them you won't be disappointed!

I have one more thing to add before I go and that is how talented my Mum is! I had my 21st just recently and Mum sent me over my present. I promise you she has more talent in her thumbnail than what I have in my entire body.
Mum quilts for a living and she is bloody good at it too!
Here is the quilt she made me for for my birthday and I am utterly in love with it! I had found a picture of a quilt that I really like on Pinterest and sent it off to Mum and so she decided to give it a go and put her own spin on it. Here is the quilt I found on Pinterest:

And here is Mums version which I personally think it turned out much prettier!:

Such a special gift I will savor for years to come, thank you so much Mum!
If you want to see more of what my darling Mumma bear is capable of please don't hesitate to go and check out her blog: http://quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com.au/

Well that's all I have for you today folks!
Thank you for taking the time to swing by, Until next time you stay classy ;)

Serena
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