My first commissioned piece!

crochet, DIY

Hello creatives,

So recently I was asked if I could help out with a birthday present. They said they looked everywhere for a nice toy camel but couldn’t find anything nice or cheap enough to give as a birthday present, so they approached me! ME! 

Now as you may have seen, I have only ever made a teddy bear (and a rabbit, which was pretty much a bear with long ears) soft toy, so a camel was something completely new! Oh – and they requested a 2 humped camel!

I dove straight in, googled photos of camels and wondered how on earth I was going to start. I began with single crochet (US Terms) and realised it would take too long and was turning out a lot smaller than I’d hoped, so started over with double crochet. 

Here he is in all his glory after 3 evenings of creating:

What do you think? I managed to write the pattern out for his legs but failed to get the body or head, oops! 

I’m quite impressed with myself and the girl who received it was pretty chuffed also! Bit of pocket money for something I enjoy makes me so happy!

Love, Lana xx

Picking myself up again

Reflections, Student Life, Travelling

Hello creatives,

If you read my last post you’ll know that the past few weeks haven’t been easy. However, the way I have coped is by keeping my mind busy (or else everything hits me like a truck and I’m a sobbing mess). It may not work for everyone, but I thought I’d let you in on a few things I have been doing to keep my mind active (apart from crochet, because that’s just obvious)…

1) Reading 

I was at the airport waiting for my flight and decided to check out what books WHSmith were selling for their typical extortionate price. I looked at pretty much every book and then came across ‘The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving A F**k’ by Sarah Knight, and it definitely struck me as a book I should be reading. 


I managed to finish it within a day of arriving back here in Nottingham and it has really made me think, however I don’t want to give too much away! 

Since then I’ve also purchased these two books: 

And after asking my no.1 girl gang group chat, the majority voted that I read ‘Spark Joy’ by Marie Konda next (the girls always have my back on these tough TOUGH decisions! Haha). I will let you know how they go!

2) Keeping Fit

I have signed up to the gym! Whaaaaaat?! I know. Crazy. But the classes that they offer are just a brilliant way to start or end my day. 

So far I have attended:

  • Pure stretch
  • Fat loss induction
  • Pure fat burn
  • Pure cycle 

(If you hadn’t caught on, I signed up to PureGym…)

These classes have sorted out my sleeping, made me more productive through the day, and actually made me feel good about myself – WIN! 

3) Outings!

So although I left home on Saturday and it’s now only Thursday… Mummy has come to visit! And here’s a list of things we plan on doing to keep ourselves busy and make the most of the few days we have together:

  1. Go see Cirque Du Soleil’s Varekai! – we actually did that this evening and it was incredible! Cirque Du Soleil has never let us down. 
  2. Visit Wollaton Park – this is where Wayne Manor from Batman was filmed (I don’t remember which film specifically, but i guess you could google it if you’re interested haha!) 
  3. Go to a shopping outlet! Who doesn’t love a bit of retail therapy?
  4. And if we have time on top of that, we plan on going on a Nottingham/Nottinghamshire adventure! Who knows what that entails! 

Keeping my mind busy is definitely helping me cope. 

How do you cope?

Love, Lana xxx 

It can’t just be me..?

crochet, DIY, Reflections, Student Life

Hello Creatives!

So I just neeeeed to vent on my situation with my crochet projects! 

First of all, I am a completely impatient person with ADHD.. 

So, when it comes to crocheted items that come in a pair, I am so excited to get one done (I’m currently half way through mittens!) and will complete it within the shortest time possible, but when it comes to the second one, I have ZERO motivation to start it, but REALLY want to complete the set! 

Here’s a few photos of my mitten process (just the one, because I can’t motivate myself to start the second):


My partners mum is coming to stay with us on Saturday so I am using that as motivation to complete them to give to her as a present! 

I’m that person that is constantly thinking of ways to improve the project I’m currently working on, or thinking of new projects to start, so as soon as I’ve woven in the ends and completed a project (or in this case, one mitten) I’m ready to start something new (aka not another mitten…) 😂. 

So although it has passed 9pm, I am going to try my best to continue watching The Killing on Netflix and start the second mitten! 

On another note, im definitely going to need a larger wool basket, or at least a separate basket for completed/semi-completed (ADHD got the better of me) projects! 

Please tell me this happens to you too? Whether it be crochet or something else?

Lana xxx 

P.s. If you read my previous post, George is well again and this set of norovirus didn’t stick around for long, thank goodness! That also meant that we were able to go keep our Valentine’s Day dinner booking and it was delicious! 

Project and life update… 12/02/17

crochet, Eat Clean, Student Life

Hello creatives,

So I’ve been really slow with progressing on any projects recently! With having my masters research project proposal due, and being between cars whilst mine was in the garage, I’ve been slacking!

Throughout the night last night my other half was up every hour after being hit with his third lot of norovirus! The poor thing is so unwell and the doctors will definitely be called first thing in the morning. It is not normal to have norovirus three times in 3 months! We think he could be picking it up from the hospital/medical school that he’s currently studying in. 

We have recently started trying to be healthy again after being seriously lazy with our eating habits. Healthy smoothies for breakfast and more home cooked meals! Yesterday’s was a homemade chicken and spinach masala and booooy was it gooood! (I was very impressed with myself) and I even made enough for leftovers today! 

As george was up sick all of last night, he has been in bed all day today, therefore leaving me with the day (and the telly) to myself! 

With all this time, what I should have been doing is starting my home workout routine, however I picked up the crochet hooks instead! Whoops! 

Between cleaning the flat after a week of visitors, and checking up on george I’ve managed to come up with this single crochet soft toy (not complete as you can see…). Don’t ask me what it’s going to be, because I couldn’t tell you haha, and the arms look a bit like chicken wings hahahaha! I’m just playing around with it at the moment, but I really like the idea of the limbs and body all being one piece!


More progress has been made on my chunky double crochet blanket, and I’ll definitely need another 200g ball of wool to get anywhere near done! I’ll have to find somewhere to take a full photo of what has been completed so far!

Fingers crossed that george recovers as it looks like we may have to scrap plans about his mum coming to stay with us next weekend as we can’t afford to spread the illness! It also looks like our Valentine’s Day dinner booking will have to be cancelled on Tuesday unfortunately (I’m gutted because it’s the yummiest fancy steak house, but obviously health comes first). 

Hope you have had a weekend full of rest!

I’ll keep you updated,

Love, Lana xoxo 

Solid Granny Square Tutorial

DIY, Student Life, Tutorial

Hello!

So i’ve recently restarted my youtube channel, not that there was much of it before, and will be dedicating it to crochet videos and possibly some lifestyle videos!

Today, i uploaded a video where i speak through a tutorial for crocheting a solid granny square and thought that i would type the pattern up to go along with it here to make things easier for you! I recently started crochet, and i’d love to share my new found passion with others, and give them an easy way to start off!

Heres a photo of the final squares (ignore the time and date in the bottom right hand corner, still figuring out the new camera!):

Granny Square Cover Photo.png

And here we go:

Hook and Yarn:
5mm Crochet Hook
WI Premium Acrylic Yarn from HobbyCraftUK

Terminology

This pattern is written in US terminology. And the conversion chart below, taken from Simply Crochet, should help you out with abbreviations.

These are the abreviations i will be using throughout:

ss (slip stich):  insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch, then through the loop on your hook. Multple of these create a chain.

dc (double crochet): yarn over, insert hook, yarn over, pull the loop back through the stitch (three loops on hook), yarn over and pull through two loops on hook (two loops left on hook), yarn over and pull through remaining two loops

sl knot (slip knot)
ch (chain)
st (stitch)

Pattern:
Please click here for a clearer video tutorial -> YOUTUBE VIDEO TUTORIAL <-

Round 1: sl knot, ss 4 to create a ch, ss into the first loop ss of chain to crate a circle.
ch 5 (first 3 act as first dc, 2 act as corner). Into center of circle; dc 3, ss 2, dc 3, ss 2, dc 3, ss 2, dc 2, ss into top of ch. Total 3 dc along 1 side.

Round 2: ss 3, dc 2 into corner, ss 2, dc 2 into same corner, dc into following 3 st’s, dc 2 into corner, ss 2, dc 2 into same corner, dc into following 3 st’s, dc 2 into corner, ss 2, dc 2 into same corner, dc into following 2 st’s, ss into top of ss ch. Total 7 dc along 1 side.

Round 3: ss 3, dc into each st until corner, dc 2 into corner, ss 2, dc 2 into same corner, ss into all st’s until corner. Total 11 dc along 1 side. When you have reached the end, ss into top of ss ch.

Round 4 (final round): ss 3, dc into each st until corner, dc 2 into corner, ss 2, dc 2 into same corner, ss into all st’s until corner. Total 15 dc along 1 side. When you reach the end ss into the top of ss ch, ss 1 and pull tight. Cut yarn and pull last ss through. Use darning needle to sew tail into the square.

Hopefully your final product will look like the image above, please watch the video for clearer and easier instructions to follow!

See you soon!

Lana xxxxx

When a hobby turns into an ADDICTION!

DIY, Student Life

Hello again!

I picked up crochet on the 28th of December 2016, therefore it has taken me less than two weeks to realise i love it (well this was established day one…) and develop this collection along with a woven basket! I have had so much work to do for my Masters Degree, and still do, but somehow i find myself crocheting over my work and distracted for a lot longer than i should be!

I AM OBSESSED/ADDICTED.

img_6854

My winderful woven basket £4 from HobbyCraft filled with WI Acrylic Yarn.

Unfortunately it doesn’t show off all of my colours, but you can see my collection of granny squares im currently working on to patch together my very first blanket!

I managed to pick these yarns up for £2.20 each, with a 3 for the price of two deal on top, so i bought 6…

I really haven’t stopped, however since my first crochet post, all i have really completed are a bunch of granny squares and a fancy mandala inspired coaster. Have a look:

Something i would love to eventually do is put up some tutorials and patterns of my own, however i am far from being expert enough to do this. My experience is all of less than two weeks haha! And a lot of the things i am able to do or would be comfortable filming are conmpletely covered on the internet. When i begin designing my own projects, i will be sure to share them with you all.

Im forever looking for new ideas and projects to start, so please please tag CROCHET in your posts as i am currently folloing the tag!

Lana xxx

 

New Hobby!

DIY, Student Life

As busy as I have been, with approximately 12,000-13,000 words and an exam to be completed by the end of this month, and the christmas period being hectic and expensive as ever…

I HAVE A NEW HOBBY, I HAVE STARTED CROCHET!

One evening around 6pm when I was back home, i turned to mum and asked her if she owned a crochet hook and some wool, which ended up in me climbing into the loft and coming back filled with excitement.

The the aid of YouTube and other bloggers on this wonderful platform, I have become hooked.

Things I have discovered within the world of crochet:

  1.  Crochet language is a thing
  2. Crochet language comes in UK terminology and US terminology and it’s not two different words for different things/methods, it’s the same word meaning two different things – i know, confusing.
    1. e.g. US Double crochet and UK treble crochet are the same thing and US treble crochet and UK double treble crochet are the same thing… and it goes on.
  3. Crochet language is usually abbreviated and even more confusing
  4. I have given up on following other people’s patterns and make up my own.

It is a whole other addictive world but if you do plan on starting, I suggest you begin the way that i did, with wool from poundland and a cheapy hook! You will find out whether you enjoy it or not pretty quickly and at least that way you won’t have spent much money on it!

Heres a few projects I have completed. I started off with a straight panel where i tested different stitch types out, then a hat… or two, followed by one slipper sock, just one, and a mug cosy!!

Can’t wait to share my ongoing creations with you, it’s so rewarding!

Lana xxx

Do a Masters Degree they said, it will be fun they said!

Beauty

Wow, okay, so i had myself so excited for all the blog posts i’d be able to write because i would only be in lectures 3 days a week, and now im so dissappointed with the lack of them!

One thing i now know very well about a Masters Degree is that although you arent in university as many days of the week as you are during an undergraduate degree, you have 10x the amount of reading and work to do. It’s killeeeeeerrrrrr. It’s very much a case of, here’s a taster of a topic, now go and read on the subject, we wont spoon feed you!

This for me has been a massive challenge as i struggle with reading, or at least understanding what i read, so having to read multiple scientific papers a week (and understanding them) is pretty tough!

After this Friday i will luckily have some time to relax and breath before assignments start to pile up again, and what a perfect time it would be to work on a blog post about a wonderful box of treats i was lucky enough to win recently! (time is escaping me… recently means just under two months ago – oopsie)

This box  was filled with goodies from Nutri2Go, LianMask & KohlKreatives! Please please please go check out their social media!

Instagram & Facebook: nutri2gouk
Website: http://www.nutri2go.co.uk

Instagram & Facebook: kohlkreatives
Website: http://www.kohlkreatives.co.uk

Instagram & Facebook: lianmask
Website: http://www.lianmask.co.uk

I can’t wait to share all the health and beauty bits and bobs with you, but until then, here’s a preview of what i was lucky enough to open up!

file_000

Now let’s keep out fingers crossed that i dont get bogged down with work for this long again!

p.s. i really want the mug in the header photo/feature image

Lana xoxo

Plantastic IKEA Haul

DIY, Home Furnishing

Aloe there!

After recently moving into our furnished apartment, George and I felt like there were a few things missing that we didn’t have, such as side plates, a bookcase, and wine glasses among others, so we decided to take a trip to IKEA! You’re probably expecting me to go on about these items, however the majority of what we came home with were PLANTS!

Having previously lived in shared student housing, purchasing decorative items for any room other than my bedroom, nice kitchen appliances or plants were just a massive no no! Everything would get lost, broken whilst drunk or die. So for the FIRST time, I was able to enjoy shopping for home items, for my own home.

Currently (and im honestly not sure how long they’ve had these or how long they will still have these) IKEA has been offering a set of three different potted baby cacti. They come in green, lime green, baby pink and white. I personally didnt select them on the pot colour but the specific cacti within the set. Some gave me goosebumps and were all hairy, others looked cobwebby, and the ones i seleced were perfect.

CACTACEAE £4.50 for 3 different cacti. Pot colours can beseen in the image above.

aloe-vera-and-cacti

My colllection!

They just seem to make such a difference to the room, and i think they’re to blame for the the rest of the haul. It’s an addiction.

After walking around IKEA and collecting all the other items we needed we continued to the tills. Right before the store room was the plant section… 3 steps in and I had my sights set onto a shelf of baby aloe vera plants! You may or may not know that aloe vera plants are relatively expensive and have many usages, from beauty to lifestyle.

 

ALOE VERA £2.50, SOCKER 12cm £1.25. I placed my ALOE VERA into the SOCKER  tin to give it a nicer finish for the house. The SOCKER tin is also galvanised to protect against erosion.

Aloe Vera has many benefits, i know it has soothed me through a few burns!
Ive done a little bit of research so you don’t have to and have listed some of these benefits below.

So, according to Marie Claire, aloe vera juice is:

  1. Detoxifying
  2. Supportive of the immune system
  3. Able to lower cholesterol & blood sugar levels
  4. Excellent for digestion (and constipation)
  5. And easy way to boost your vitamin and mineral intake
  6. Good for burns, acne and hydrating your skin!

Read the article HERE

According to Prevention.com it can be used as:

  1. A make up remover when used in the form of pure aloe vera gel
  2. A shaving cream
  3. A soothing ice cube
  4. A face wash
  5. and many more!

Read more from Prevention.com HERE

And finally, according to Healthline.com, aloe vera can be useful for:

  1. Heartburn – Consume 1-3 ounces of pure aloe gel. As aloe vera has a very low toxicity level, it is very safe.
  2. Keeping ruit nd vegetables for longer – by cating them in aloe gel, it keeps bacteria away making your fruit and veg freshers for longer!
  3. Use as an alternative mouthwash – I will block plaque and also provide pain relief for sore gums. It also contains vitamin C.

And to read more interesting facts about aloe vera, just click HERE

There are so many websites that will advise you on the uses of aloe vera, as well as suppliers of aloe vera houseplants and gels, so go have a look and make use of its wonderful properties! I know i will!

Lana xxx

Snack On Life!

Reflections, Student Life

In order to be able to open up on this blog, i realise the more you know about me and this blog itself, the eaiser it is to relate. So lets start with this blog. I previously posted about my struggles with finding my feet with this blog (and i guess the fact that im still figuring it all out).  You can have a read here if you fancy!

The name of this blog was originally (and still in the URL) BlueHillSpace. You’re probably wondering whyyyyyy?  Well, honestly, picking a name for a blog is super duper difficult as youre stuck with it FOREVER (kind of..). I wanted something with meaning, something that would catch on, and something that i wouldn’t regret. It originated from the street that myself and my other half lived on in Wales when we started this blog up. It was called Brynglas Road, “bryn” meaning blue, and “glas” meaning hill. Pretty straight forward right? I guess it had meaning, and will always tie this blog to its birth location, and “space” highlighting the blog as a space for creativity.

Honestly, i guess i grew out of it in a way, especially when the clothing line ‘Zero Space’ came to an end. And i changed (the header name, as the URL is unchangeable) to Snack On Life, Freshie. I thought “freshie” sounded ‘cool’ and connected the blog to university life more, urgh such a bad idea, and as you can see i got rid of that preeeeeeetty quick. I also added the tag line of ‘what do you do when everything’s new?’ quite simply because it rhymed, nothing was new, i was in a very familiar place doing the same old familiar things…

“Snack On Life!”

Snacking is probably one of my favourite things, and although the message behind the slogan “Binge on life” would have been a lot more meaningful, i like snacking, it means you can take a break and when you feel like it, snack again.

“What do you do when everything’s new?”

Only recently coming back to this blog have i found my tag line VERY fitting. I will be moving to a new city, a new university, and a new living situation (although having lived with George for the past two years, we are now in our own apartment rather than shared accommodation!). Everything will be new, even down to having my first new car!

So what DO you do when everything’s new? Well, what im going to do is blog about it! Take it all in and blog about the experience.

Are you starting something new? Let me know! I really want to engage more!

Here’s to NEW,

Love Lana xxx