I’ve wanted to make a granny square style crochet rug for a long time, and these last couple of weeks of putting my feet up have been the perfect opportunity.

I started by sorting through my yarn chest and decided to go with a cream/pink/mauve/green/teal/grey palette. I already had about a third as much as I needed in those colours, and bought another dozen or so balls to top up. (It’s pleasing to use up yarn I already had, especially as a lot of it was partial balls not suitable for starting whole projects with, but it’s also fun to shop for new yarn!)

I’m using the Circle of Friends pattern, which I found it by browsing through the flickr “granny square” tag until I found a design I liked the look of. It looks very plain on the pattern page but I like the effect when made with a variety of yarn colours.

So far I’ve made about a quarter of the squares I need for a generously sized lap rug. I won’t get it finished before the baby arrives (which could be any day now!) but that’s OK, I’m enjoying the process and not in any hurry.

P.S. If you’re a Ravelry member my project page has more information on the yarn, pattern, etc. This is the first time I’ve used Ravelry and I must admit it’s quite addictive!

01) Instructions for making Chocolate Space Invaders using a silicon ice cube tray, which we just happen to already own! I particularly like the part where you clean your chocolate-y squeeze bottle by adding hot milk to make hot chocolate :D (via Craft)

02) The U900 Japanese amigurumi ukelele band (!) videos have been all over the blogosphere, but I just want to make sure none of you miss out… watch Diamond Head, Walk Don’t Run, and check the related videos for even more!

03) I was very grumpy a few days ago and these baby anteater photos cheered me right up.

04) Gorgeous cupcakes from bellacupcakes on flickr, love the rich colours! (via Epicute)

05) And more amazing Brain Slug cupcakes from thesmallcatclub on flickr. Do you think anyone has ever used the phrase “cherry buttercream brains” before?

06) Color Me Katie’s beautiful sidewalk chalk footprints are immensely cheering.

07) The San-X website offers a huge selection of colouring in pages, desktop wallpaper, icon sets and printables. It is in Japanese but not difficult to work out!

08) I’m starting to pay attention to nifty stuff for children, like the play kitchens made from old entertainment centres by Giggleberry Creations and Sutton Grace. I won’t need to do this particular project myself as I think (hope!) my parents still have the awesome play kitchen my Dad made for me when I was tiny, but there’s definitely the possibility of other play furniture in a similar vein… (via Buzzfeed)

09) Embroidered Tim Gunn by Totally Severe, need I say more? (via Mr X Stitch)

10) One more food link: Giga Pudding! It’s a HUGE creme caramel, with a great promotional video. It’s my birthday on Thursday, if only I could have a Giga Pudding Party!

Closing up shop this evening was bittersweet. I’ve taken a few holidays here and there, but this is the first time in four years of N&B that I haven’t been accepting orders!

It feels very strange, but these last couple of weeks have been rather busy with all of the last-minute work to take care of, and I’ve been looking after JSR who was in a motorcycle accident a few days ago as well (he will be alright *phew* but needs some help), so I’m glad I didn’t try and keep going any longer.

Now I should have a little while to rest my puffy feet and take a lot of naps, and then there will be a baby!

P.S. Thank you to everyone who commented and emailed on my recent ideas post! All of the suggestions had some supporters, and I’m not writing any of them off at this stage, but it seems that notebooks and larger format lettersets are the most popular ideas so I’ll be looking at those first when I get back to work :)

Nut and Bee will be closing on Wednesday February 10th at 5pm (New Zealand time, check the equivalent in your local time zone here) which is just under 48 hours away.

At that time the shopping cart will be disabled, though I will still be available by email for customer service or general enquiries, and posting miscellaneous things here on the blog! Re-opening is scheduled for early April :)

I’ve been tossing around a few ideas for new products I could introduce this year, and figured it would be a good idea to ask for your feedback. Everything is just ideas at this stage, and I haven’t done detailed investigation of raw materials or costings, so please don’t be upset if something doesn’t happen or ends up a bit different!

Possibilities include:

* Adding a mini-sheet of 4 or 6 coordinating stickers to the lettersets.

* Lettersets with larger paper, approximately 6×8″. This would fit nicely in the current size envelopes when folded in half, and I’d combine 8 papers with 4 envelopes (and perhaps stickers, as above).

* Or the opposite, teeny-tiny lettersets! About business card size – little things are super cute. I wouldn’t be able to print on the envelopes, as my printer freaks out about feeding very small sheets, but I could use nice coloured ones that coordinate with the design.

* Postcards. I’d offer them individually, with a discount for buying several like with the buttons and magnets. (The main problem with these will probably be choosing which designs to print, I have to do them in bulk which limits the number of designs it’s practical to have in stock…)

* Gift tags. I intended the write-on labels to substitute for gift tags, but given how many requests I still get for them it seems there’s a demand for a more traditional kind as well! Would a flat shape or a folded mini-card be preferable?

* Post-it notes. I haven’t got quotes for printing these yet so they might be totally unreasonably priced, but it’s an idea!

* Blank notebooks with illustrated covers, again I’m not sure how realistic pricing will be on these but I’m keen on the concept!

Please leave a comment if any of those ideas sound particularly interesting to you, if you have any feedback or suggestions about them, or if there’s anything else you think might fit into the N&B range well!

(I’m already planning to re-introduce recipe cards in the coming months, as I think I’ve figured out a way to produce them satisfactorily, and t-shirts/tote bags are also underway subject to logistics…)

Ghost Forest

I’ve been working on some larger drawings lately – they take a bit longer than my usual size, of course, but it’s fun to do something a little different!

These new illustrations are designed to eventually be 8×10″ prints, but since that will require sourcing new paper and packaging materials they won’t be available until the relaunch :)