The Interior DIYer
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Winner – hydrangea painting by Hilda Oomen

I am excited to announce the winner of my first giveaway. Without causing any more unnecessary suspense, the winner of Hilda Oomen’s to-die-for hydrangea painting is …  

Massive congratulations Barb!!! Mad jealous of your new piece of artwork. I know you’re just as crazy for hydrangeas as I am. Send an e-mail over to moi at alex@hydrangeagirl.com with your address details so I can pack this baby up and sent ‘er off in the post 🙂 
I’d like to thank Hilda for her breathtaking artwork and I would encourage you to creep her incredible Etsy shop. Her work is a constant source of inspiration and has induced many daydreams on my end of the screen. I’d also like to thank all of you who entered the giveaway. I can assure you there will be more drool-worthy giveaways to come that you’ll want to get your filthy mitts on!

xx A

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Man blanket

I was in the thralls of doubt when I set myself the task to crochet a blanket for my broseph’s birthday, which when I started, gave me less than 4 weeks to complete. But yesterday afternoon, 30 minutes before we left for his birthday events, I finished it. Massive sigh of relief …

As I wrote in my first post, broseph and I worked together on the blanket design – I wanted to make sure I was making a blanket that he actually was going to like. After many e-mails and Excel magic, here is what we came up with … 
Mucho manly. Mostly gunmetal grey with stripes of red and grey and a final black border. When I first started crocheting it I wasn’t convinced of the pattern and colour choice. It took until the very end when I added the black border, which was the certain je ne sais quois it needed, and I was convinced. I became a bit jealous as I secured it in a gentleman’s belt to hand over to broseph.

Oh, and something I failed to mention, broseph is 6’3″, so I had my work cut out for me. I was determined to crochet him a suitably sized man blanket. Here are the deets –

– size 7 / 4.50mm crochet hook
– 160 stitches wide, double crochet throughout
– 16 rows of gunmetal grey in between stripe patterns
– one row of single crochet border in black followed by a second row of double crochet also in black
– the final piece was taller than broseph, so close to 7 feet {zomg my crippled hands}
– {additional note} I used roughly 3 or 4 400g skeins of Aran wool in gunmetal grey for the main colour

It wasn’t completed without some war wounds – I developed a twitch in my left eye due to strain which is still to this moment thumping away {going 5 days strong}, and I also mangled my wrist since I had to pull some long hours to meet my deadline, but wrist is fine now. Having said that, it was thoroughly approved by broseph which is all I could ask for. And luckily, it matches his bedroom as well. Misson complete. 
xx A
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I want it now – old school typewriter

I’ve had a fascination with typewriters for a long time. It all started years ago when I worked in a dentists office* where I would occasionally use theirs when the receptionist was away and someones details needed to be updated. Since then my fascination has been on a steady increase, but unfortunately here in Dublin I haven’t had any luck in the second hand stores – I prefer the thought of one with character. Also, I would actually use it. It would be a bit crap for blogging purposes though. 
Happy Friday, homies! I hope you have something exciting planned this weekend. I myself will be doing some DIY’s and spring cleaning. xx A
* I thought I wanted to be a dental hygienist when I ‘grew up’, so I worked in a dentists office via my high school as a work placement. In the end, I didn’t want to be one. Although, it was a really interesting experience. Thanks to it I have no fears about going to the dentist.