Friendly Nettle
Friendly Nettle is a community site for crafters of all sorts offering free project ideas, patterns for knitting, sewing and crocheting.
I know I know it took me a while to get the hang of this as for I long time I could not quite understand how Instagram works. Thanks for Catherene for explaining me the ins and outs! To follow us click here ;-). 
Happy Instagraming!
Rasa
Wow! It’s 2015 already! I hope you had great New Year celebrations! Every year I love making New Year resolutions (some are more effective then others). Last year I set simple goals, mainly because I knew it was going to be a very exciting and busy year personally (planning a wedding takes up a lot of time and energy). This year my goals are more ambitious as I am eager to learn more and improve the Friendly Nettle business as a whole.
Here are my New Year resolutions for this year:
1. Upgrade Friendly Nettle website so it’s easer to use. This means that I also need to learn to code (at least the basics). I started training myself in this once before, but dropped out as when I became too busy. I am hoping to establish a training schedule where I spend 30min every second day. That can’t be that hard!
2. Create amazing new products and bakes for a new website. I relaunched the bakery website last month, but it still needs quite a lot of updates to make the website shopper friendly. Oh, and I already have sooo many ideas on other exciting products which I am working on at this moment.
3. Update budgets. And by budgets I mean our personal budgets. For the past few years I had a system that really worked for me and I updated that for us both once me and Joni got married. We have since realised that we need to add extra budgets since we now have more things to save for. I am hoping to share very soon my years of experience with personal budgeting.
4. Read more books, because I am hoping this will improve my writing. As you may know I am not a native english speaker, so I often experience writers block because of that. I am sure you sometimes even come across some grammar mistakes. I really hope this will be less of an issue in the future. 15 min of book reading before bed is quite realistic don’t you think?
5. Learning to take better pics is one of my bigger goals! I already learned so much about photography from writing my own blog and taking pics of my projects at the same time. Getting a DSLR a few months ago transformed my photography completely, but I still feel there is room for improvement. I feel I don’t use the DSLR camera to it’s full potential, but I will start reading the manual and that hopefully should change :-D.
6. Eat healthier! This is probably the most common New Year resolution. I don’t quite know how I am going to achieve this yet, but is very important I do ;-).
7. Get active. Eating healthier and exercise goes hand in hand. At least I have a plan for this goal. I will just pick a fun sport activity! Hopefully this is as simple as it sounds!
Through this week I am hoping to fill my 2015 planner with the actions that will help to achieve this year’s goals. Do you have any New Year goals? If not, then I encourage you to write some down. It really really helps to see the bigger picture. Click here to get your free printable 2015 planner!
I printed out my calendar and crocheted it together so I could hang it on my wall. 
Enjoy New Year planning!
Rasa xoxo
Hey dear crafters! Today is the last day of 2014! Are you ready for new beginnings? I love a fresh start, but also loved 2014. The year that is about to end was exciting and fun. This year is the year is when one of my biggest dreams came through as I got married to Joni!
2014 started with a trip to Eden Project. I like going somewhere warm while it’s cold outside! While the Eden Project isn’t in a hot country it’s easy to imagine it is when you are surrounded by tropical plants. I feel super lucky to be able to travel to Florida this January (so looking forward! my bags are already packed with many summer dresses!).
If I had to pick my favourite knitting project of 2014, I would definitely choose my knitted cable sweater. It’s the first sweater I have ever knitted and I love it so much up to this day and wear it quite frequently.
2014 is when Joni visited Lithuania for the first time to meet my parents. It was a very misty weekend!
Visiting Aunt Olivia in Beaulieu was also quite memorable (especially all those wild ponies!).
I love spring and 2014 spring has been the bestiest so far! See what I have created while enjoying the meadow!
A huge thanks to Suzanne for organising the most amazing Hen-do ever!
My Wedding preparations has been stressful on some occasions, but I am thankful for the moments I had with Vicki. She was the only one who was able to fit me into my wedding dress! 
Our Wedding was perfect if not better how we expected. The only thing I would do differently is choose the photographer carefully, especially when they are your friends. 
We spend our honeymoon in Tuscany where we enjoyed plenty of wine. You would never guess where we wanted to go for our honeymoon originally! It was Iceland, but we thought it would be nice to visit it in different season. Next autumn perhaps, to see the Northern Lights?
Here I am wearing one of the bridesmaid dresses that I made. I loved it so much that I wear it so often (thankful to Nicola for giving it back to me). 
After a honeymoon we had another Wedding celebrations in Lithuania. This was Joni’s second time in my home countly!
In September for my birthday we welcomed Princess Leia into our team. She is so fun to play with (a bit distracting when I am trying to get some work done!).
Visited Granny Elizabeth twice in lovely Cley-next-the-Sea!
Visiting Lithuania for Christmas is a nice way to end the year! I just wish there were snow on the seaside…
I hope you have great New Year celebrations and may 2015 bring you fresh new beginnings ;-)
Rasa x
Hey dear friends! I have a very good news. The Friendly Nettle shop is re-opened and updated as it should be! There is always room for improvement, but I am really happy with the progress!
With this store relaunch we are happy to add craft kits to our range. These include everything you need to make a thoughtful gift for a friend or a loved ones as well as some biscuits to enjoy while you do.
If you are not a maker type then you can gift this to someone who like crafting themselves. The kits come nicely packaged, so you don’t need to do a thing! Maybe just add a gift tag or a simple wrap and that’s done!
Enjoy Christmas shopping!
Rasa xoxo
Well, could I be even more obvious? Of course I am waiting and anticipating for Christmas most! It’s day 6 and 18 more to go!
1. CHRISTMAS DECORATION. I had a branch set up with these bird decorations (soon you could be making them yourself!). Right now I am loving my advent calendar (see the previous post)!
2. ONLINE SHOP RE-OPENING. We had our market last saturday where we were selling sewing and crocheting kits together with biscuits! If you missed it, not to worry! They are coming on to our online shop ;-). 
3. TIME AWAY WITH FAMILY. We are going to Lithuania and back to UK. So lot’s of upcoming traveling. We are currently deciding if we should take Leia with us so we are testing her on a short trip (Yesterday she took her first car ride!).
4. VISITING SEASIDE IN WINTER. I wrote last year about one of my favourite seasides in the world. This year we are visiting it in winter while snowing (hopefully, fingers crossed). Can you imagine this in snow? I bet it will look magical!
Happy December!
Rasa xoxo
It’s getting really busy here running up to Christmas (you know, crafting gifts and stuff), but there are plenty of stuff I look forward to. Here are few…
1. VISITING CLEY-ON-SEA. We visited this lovely village briefly in September, but now we will be visiting Grandma Elizabeth for the whole weekend. Really looking forward to that!
2. BONFIRE NIGHT. I have made these pasta tortilla bites with leek and bacon last year. Really hoping to go and see fireworks in Bedford this year! Do you know any good places?
3. CHRISTMAS MARKET! This is something that has made me even more busy! I’m prepping for it now as I will be selling Friendly Nettle goodies there. It’s a perfect place if you want to get a unique gift for someone. Save the date and come along (I will be sharing my tips on crochet, embroidery and more).
Happy November!
Rasa xoxo
October may be uneventful, but there are plenty of things to look forward to… such as autumn itself! :)
1. AUTUMN is a beautiful season. Look at all the colours! And it’s not only orange, brown and yellow…. I love the combinations of pink, forest green, orange and cream. And lets not forget purple! I have been so inspired by it all that I have been painting last night like mad (and that does not happen very often). I love creating new patterns. New autumn pattern bellow is here for you to nick, use it to wrap a gift or put in on the wall ;-). 
2. KNITTING JUMPERS is almost my part time job. I took on three (yes, three) jumper knitting projects so far. But that’s quite enjoyable as I can do it while watching a movie or chatting with a friend! Here is my first cardigan in progress, can you guess what part it is? Yes, it’s a sleeve! Many more parts to go :-).
3. DRINKING HOT DRINKS kind of goes with knitting. It’s important to keep yourself warm and all snuggled up while doing some crafty work! My favourite hot drink at the moment is spiced coffee (although I haven’t had any this year yet, but will make some soon!). It’s one of those drinks that is satisfying and not too fattening (minding my figure right now!). Click here for the recipe ;-).
Happy October!!!
Rasa xoxo
Leia is my early birthday gift from Joni that we are finally introducing to you. She settled in just fine in our Bedford flat and now ready to be part of the quality assurance process of future projects. Hopefully you will like her as much as we do :-)… And no, she never has been a part of Star Wars… NEVER!
Happy kitten Thursday!
Rasa xoxo
Love the pic above taken by my friend Jacolien from Stuff to Love! It reminds me of what a great multicultural city I used to live. This is where I lived most of my time while in UK!
Yesterday I passed my life in UK test!!!!! I just thought that I might as well become a british citizen after living here for 14 years and after getting married to my most wonderful english husband. Here are few fundamentals I learned while living in UK.
1. BEEING PART OF COMMUNITY, and this what we are trying to create at Friendly Nettle, a craft community that inspires you to craft :).
2. COOKING. Now, I know Britain is not famous for it’s cuisine, but you would be surprised there are many english dishes you can enjoy! Here are few I have tried: Steak and Ale Pies
English Breakfast
and Plum Steam Pudding
3. GARDENING. I know that not many of us can enjoy this, but there are plenty of allotments available to rent! Here is how I grew tomatoes this year…
Enjoy your weekend!
Rasa xoxo
September is my favourite (after April and May of course)! And that’s not because it’s my birthday month (pic above is me – thirty years ago)! I love September, because it represent new beginnings and I can start work from new perspective. The wether change indicates that I can finally start counting down till Christmas! Anyways, here are many things I look forward to in September.
1. MY BIRTHDAY! That’s pretty obvious, but who likes getting old? Oh, no… birthdays to me just = more cake! Last year I baked honey mascarpone cake with figs, but this year it’s a surprise. Joni is quite eager to bake it this time… Looking forward!
2. CLAIRE & JASON WEDDING! We just finished our wedding celebration. All thank you’s have been send and our wedding fund account is about to be finalised and closed! It’s wonderful to go and celebrate a wedding of someone else!
3. HOUSE WARMING PARTY, who doesn’t like a party? We have finally moved and settled, so we thought we should celebrate! Will work on blog next ;-)
4. COMPLETING A KNITTED PROJECT! Winter is coming up, so I started new sweater project. Looking forward to the end result!
Happy September!
Rasa xoxo
August came somehow unexpectedly, hence my late update about this last summer month. Since we came back from our honeymoon I have rushed into updating you guys about the time we have been away and organising our new home in Bedford. So much so, I have few things that I look forward to in this busy month.
1. FINISH ORGANISING OUR NEW HOME! Not so long ago we lived between the boxes of everything, so lots of progress has been done already. There are still a lot of things to organise such wardrobes, our little home office, three toilet/bathrooms (yes three and I am very confused with that) and most importantly our garage. We got lots of furniture from Freecycle including sofas and armchairs that I am looking forward to refurbishing. So essentially I am looking forward to the stage when I can start new home projects to make this space prettier! 
2. KNITTING AGAIN! Although this is not a priority at this moment as I have to get so many other things done, I really can’t wait until I have more time to enjoy just knitting. Vicki’s mum recently suggested that we should all knit together over Skype (me, Vicki and her mum and we all live so far away from each other at this moment). Yey! What a great idea!
Just last year while in San Francisco I came across this book called “Pop Knitting” by Britt Christofferson. These knitting techniques are definitely on my list to try ;). 
4. GETTING MY BLOG UP TO SCRATCH. After having a break I have definitely blogged more, however there are so many things still to improve. Any suggestions? Would love to hear from you ;-).
Enjoy the rest of the week!
Rasa xoxo
While preparing for our wedding I have been often told (well… ok, just couple of times) that there are so many things that can go wrong on the actual wedding day. They were concerned that I did not look stressed enough! In the matter of fact, I have been a little stressed, but not about things going wrong on the day, but more about the the logistics as it all seemed like a huge puzzle to me. This was my first ever wedding that I organised (with the help of friends and family of course)! Anyway, our day turned out just fine! Despite few teeny-weeny errors that worked out for the best, everything went swimmingly. One of the things I especially enjoyed is getting ready on the day with the bunch of girls including my mum. Here is how it went (as much as I remember)…
Rasa xoxo
It has been almost a week since we are back, but it feels like we are still on the honeymoon (this is probably to do with the hot weather here in Bedford). We have really enjoyed our time in Tuscany while eating (lots of delicious food including gelato everyday!!!), wine tasting, swimming in the hot springs (more about this later), sightseeing, participating in cooking classes and playing cards (Joni got me addicted to that) and many more. This is just a preview of our special time in Italy. 
I think the only think I could not quite capture with the camera is the fireflies at night. We saw them one night and it was quite magical! It was our first time seeing flying little lights so hoping to see them again in the future :-).
Wishing you a warm weekend ;-)
Rasa xoxo
P.S really big thanks for my new sister, Nicola, for lending us a DSLR camera (so much better than my iPhone!!!)
I am back and I cannot wait until I share everything with you!!! So much to tell, but I will have to post one thing at the time. I will start with our wedding day if you don’t mind (there will be more details to follow). 
So if you have not guessed it already, our wedding was marigold themed (plus other random but well matched colours). I am not too sure how this came round and at what stage I started loving marigolds, but it worked out so well. In fact Joni’s dad have thought that I am having marigold fever at some point :-D.
Oh, and I did not mentioned that Joni has an identical twin Tim!
So this is my current family line up (manly side): my husband Joni and my brothers Rimas, Raimondas, Vilius and Kristupas. 
Our wedding have been hosted at Gate Street Barn, such a pretty rural location! 
The caterers have been really amazing! Kalm kitchen managed to make our day really stress free :-). 
Another of Kalm Kitchen cool ideas! They have made us pick 8 guests to be the carvers at our tables.
Joni have been so excited about the idea that he wrote a poem for our carvers. This one is for Joni’s Dad…
Huge thanks to my new mum and our friend Kathryn for making such an amazing cake! Kathryn admitted that this was her first ‘naked’ cake ever.
Thanks for everyone involved, this turned out an amazing day for us!! Pictures here are taken by Ovo Gharoro.
See ya!
Rasa xoxo
As you got to know from previous posts, me and Joni are getting MARRIED in two days! Super excited!
I will take this opportunity to say a short goodbye for now, but not for too long! I will be coming back in few weeks after a honeymoon with more project ideas and delish recipes ;-).
Bye for now!
Rasa xoxo
