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I decided I would update my tutorials page on the blog and I will add the links to the video tutorials I have done for Crochet Now Magazine as they are released.

Currently ‘how to chain stitch’ and ‘how to do a double crochet’ are available. I hope you find them helpful. Pop over to the Tutorial page and see what you think

I have been been blogging now for six years and it occurred to me that there were a few things I had learnt.

Writing a diary, a journal or a blog, is an excellent discipline. It forces you to notice things. I am more conscious of seasons. I see the patterns of passing years. Perhaps that is just age. I think I have always been attracted to beauty, be that in nature, painting, music, or dare I say it, food. The blog nudges me to make a mental note. Not all I see or notice ends up on these pages. But lots thoughts have and I believe the very discipline makes me a happier person.

My posts start with the words and the images are added later. You might think it would be the other way round. I try very hard not to blog if I don’t have something to say. The idea must be there and usually it takes a few days before the idea wheedles it’s way out onto the page.

Write for yourself – it is better not to be inhibited by the thought of lots of people reading…but edit, edit, edit for everyone. I am not an excellent proof reader of my own work. When I am done, I am done. However when I am being a good girl I will preview the words on the page. For a while I was paralysed by the thought of people mentally ticking off my grammatical errors. Then I realised that if we listen to our inner fear, we would never achieve anything – so I do the best that I can.

I use a Canon EOS 450DR camera, but more often I use my phone camera. In my head that is lazy. I really don’t like to admit it. But my phone is much lighter in my handbag.

I do mention my family, but rather obliquely. I feel very conscious of their right to privacy. Having said that most of my inspiration comes from what friends and family have said to me.

Being nice costs nothing, being nasty can cost you everything.

Not everything is always jolly in the Varnam household but this is a place of joy for me – you don’t need to hear about the other stuff.

Blogging has opened up a vast and wonderful world for me. I have connected with people from across the world. I have met and worked with my heroes. I have had opportunities to develop my design work beyond my wildest dreams. Most of the images at the right of the page are projects and dreams which have been fulfilled due to this blog. But keeping a blog is hard work and requires dedication – there I said it.

Be brave – if this girl can – you can.

Be generous – some people will take advantage, some will nick your ideas or work. But in general, whatever you give will be returned to you tenfold.

Compliment and thank those who have inspired you. Most people have no idea how much they have positively effected others. But everyone needs encouragement, even if they are at the top of their game. Saying ‘thank you’ will give that person a huge boost, and you never know, someone might do the same for you one day.

You can get quite hung up on how your blog looks, how many people view your blog, whether it gets comments, whether it is on-trend. The most important thing is to ‘Do it if you love it’. Don’t write a blog if it is a pain for you to do and you begin to dread it. But don’t let the look of your blog enable you to procrastinate.

Don’t make comparisons, don’t be jealous, be inspired….

It is nice when you find out that people read your blog. Getting comments or people contacting me via the Facebook page is always encouraging. I got a really nice comment yesterday to say that my blog had been included in the top 100 Knitting and Crochet blogs by Feedspot. This little space came in respectively at #54. Not a bad place to be when you consider all the American greats that were listed higher and indeed some professional yarn companies and commercial websites which were also rated. So to all those lovely people who have followed and continue to get involved in this space – thank you so much. x

When you have a serious hobby – you know like breathing, thinking, knitting – you need serious kit. I can’t say I am particularly faithful to one knitting project bag as opposed to another. As the ol’ cliché goes – ‘horses for courses’. If I want to be subtle I might wrap up small projects in a zip-lock bag and pop the whole caboodle into my grown-up handbag. A big holiday requires a cavernous bag of Mary Poppins proportions. It needs to fit yarn and notions of a huge quantity. Preferably it will have pockets to ensure that I can find things easily.

However being an ‘ambi-yarnist’ (made that up – but fluent in both knitting and crochet) I have not found a needle case which suits and accommodates both my craft needs at once. This is until now! Oh yes, my yarny friends, the very fabulous Debbie Bliss has developed the perfect needle roll, making space for needles, rulers, scissors, crochet hooks, tapestry needle and the indispensable Sharpie pen. As we would expect it has the gorgeous graphic knitting pattern and very ‘on-trend’ lining. I am thrilled.

Look it even matches my jacket. So going away at the weekend now is simple; yarn stored in an accessible and pretty pretty shopping basket and all the vital tools of the trade in the handy needle roll. Suits me Sir!

You can purchase this item via the Debbie Bliss Online shop along with many other beautiful products that will delight knitting/crochet and just utterly stylish people.

Disclaimer: I will make no excuse for promoting, exalting and purchasing items made or designed by Debbie Bliss and her family. She is a fabulous woman, an inspiration and a national treasure – Buy British – Buy Bliss

If you have been following the blog for a while, I hope you might have picked up that I generally like to have a positive attitude and bring you ideas, designs and recommendations which I like or find useful. That is not to say that life does not have it’s challenges and irritations, but this space is about the joys of the small things that bring a smile to my face.

A couple of weeks ago I did a blog post on a couple of discoveries that had made a positive impact. This week, I want to share more about the lovely people at Stamptastic, because frankly their name labelling stamps are just so darn fantastic.

I was thrilled to see this week that they got an award from ‘Dragon’ Theo Paphitis and his Small Business Sunday campaign. I can see why. I now wouldn’t consider naming Little B’s clothes, pencils, water bottles, forehead in any other way. The permanent ink stamp lasts for such a long time and the effect is neat and really legible.

When I first ordered from Stamptastic I bought a name stamp for all the family. If I am honest, Big B hasn’t used his stamp much…however the inner curator in me is quite happy to stamp away and especially on things that tend to go walkabout….like office mugs – (now that has given you a brief and scary glimpse into my psyche).

 

Recently the lovely ladies at Stamptastic have branched out into bespoke and seasonal stamps. Sorry for the spoiler, but I am thrilled with this Easter Stamp which we will be using this year. It also means that Little B is happy to work with me on the production line creating our gift cards. Stamptastic even do a ‘Save-the-date’ stamp for weddings and parties. I love this idea and I know a number of couples who have used this tactic for advance warning of their nuptials.

When I get organised my next purchase will be an address label and ‘Emma Varnam’ logo for my design work.

I could have called this post: ‘my favourite things I bought this year’. Really this post came to me in the New Year when I was thinking about improvements I should try to make to our family routine. It occurred to me that there were a number of household tweaks that had made a big difference in 2014. Things I wished I had discovered before.

1. The Slow Cooker

I did blog about the momentous purchase of the slow cooker back in May but it has been so revolutionary in our eating habits that it is worth mentioning again. As a family we are all out of the house from very early in the morning and our usual return is never really before 5.30pm. This pushes homework, supper preparation and the bedtime routine quite late. Having the smell of a home-cooked meal waiting for us as we enter the door is such a delight. I can’t say that I feel very inspired to create a culinary masterpiece after a hard days work – that is not where I find relaxation. But I was getting fed up and frustrated by the quick fixes we were using as a family to eat at the end of the day. It did not make me happy and fast food in its various forms is comparatively expensive.  Since the introduction of the slow-cooker we do have a healthier diet. I feel less guilty about the diet we eat, and specifically the food Little B consumes.

We don’t really make it very complicated and usually accompany the slow cooked stews with rice or pasta. This year I want to extend our repertoire a bit, so all suggestions are welcome.

2. Frozen Onions – and not feeling guilty about them

Success with the slow cooker is reliant on having the right things in the cupboard and the freezer. We have more tins of tomatoes, chickpeas and packets of pulses in stock. One of the things that put me off slow-cooking was the idea of preparing raw meat and handling onions at 7am. But a couple of friends put my mind a rest. My friend Debs told me how she put everything in her crock-pot  the night before and then put the whole pot in the fridge over night. Another friend suggested that I bought packets of frozen veg to help with the process. There was something within me that avoided this extravagance, but in fact the faff of chopping onions in the early hours was making me avoid the whole process all together resulting in us eating a far less tasty, far more expensive and unhealthy alternative.

So now our freezer is stocked with all manner of frozen veg. The preference is to use fresh where we can but having a few things is stock means that the slow cooker is used more often.

3. Weighted Tape Dispenser

What a boon this little gadget was at Christmas. I whipped through the wrapping at double speed. It occurred to me just before the Christmas period that I had one of these at my desk at work, but fiddled about with tape at home, sticking cut pieces to the kitchen work top. This dispenser was a mere £2.50 – a bargain and a lot less faff.

4 Stamptastic Set

It was a tweet by the wonderful Joanna Gosling that alerted me to this company: Stamptastic. (Read Joanna’s books for loads of lovely hints and tricks). This is the second year I have used their wonderful stamps for all manner of things. We have one each! The most valuable task is school uniform naming. Obviously if you follow this blog you know I can hand sew. I sewed my own name tapes into my own school uniform from a very early age. But now it brings me no joy to sew endless tapes into uniform, fully aware that I will be unpicking them and resewing them into a larger item of clothing in six months time.

In this aspect, I am a ‘Slummy Mummy’, don’t put it past me to apply the Sharpie pen to the school uniform, and why not? My handwriting is not very regular or tidy, so these stamps are ideal. It also brings out my inner librarian. The stamps are not cheap but they are small, easy to apply and are bought with a permanent ink pad. This week I even used the stamps to name plastic water bottles and I know the ink will survive the dishwasher.

So there you go, my little round up of relatively cheap purchases which have made a difference to the Varnam household. If you have your own top-tips please do pass them on – or maybe comment on the Facebook page.