Stormy Weekend

Hello.....  well we knew it was coming and that it was going to hit our corner of the world. So most of the weekend was spent preparing and waiting for the storm, they called St Jude to hit the UK.

Saturday was spent battening down the hatches, putting the garden furniture away.

Dismantling the mini green house.

Stowing away anything that could blow away, yes the Summerhouse at the moment looks like a refugee camp for garden essential, with chairs, tables, washing lines and anything else this might blow away all huddled in there together.

'P' spent most of the day out in the garden packing things away on Saturday, yes here at the Summerhouse we were as prepared as we could be. It can get very windy here at the best time. This you can tell by the fact the nearby woodland by the Windmill (yet aother hint) is called 'Cold Blow Woods'!!!

All the neighbours were out battening down, next door even lashed down there conservatory roof with mountain climbing snap lock things ( I'm sure that's not the technical term) to our concert wall, for fear it would blow away.

All that was left to do was wait, as the wind slowly increased over the weekend, here's a shot of the Windmill just before dark, turned to face the coming storm.

Nothing for it but to hunker down and get cosy, light some candles find the torches and fill some flasks with hot water in case we lost power

and of course do a spot of crafting.

 I spent some time playing around with layout ideas for my winter time wreath, seeing what more I need to make, I think more blues and whites for sure, still so much to be done, but it's slowly coming along. More on that another day.  Then it was time to watch some Sunday night TV 'The Paradise' and 'Downtown Abbey' with the very wonderful Dame Maggie Smith.

Here's a picture of our tree that I took pre storm. I went to bed hoping it would not fall in the night as I love it so.  I slept at the front of the house in the spare room as next doors tree had been declared not safe several years ago and seeing as they'd tied the roof on too, I thought it would be best. It was a bit of a disturbed night with the tiles on the roof lifting and banging but morning came.  To tell the truth I think we got off quite lightly, as just seven mile away winds of 105 miles per hour were recorded in the Straits of Dover. Eek.

Out in the garden, our lovely Horse chestnut tree had lost a lot of leaves but was still standing, strangely enough it seems to have lost a lot of the leave from lower branches.

Other than one of the neighbours fences blowing down onto ours everything appears to be OK

My sister who lives a few miles away did come across this tree fallen in the road, when she went out.

As for windmill  it to appears to have come through the strom OK, by 9am it was a sunny Autumn day, still really windy but the worst of it passed.

Just look at that sky, such a gorgeous blue.

Down at the beach in the afternoon there were still several ship anchored off shore waiting the storm out. Which had headed off to Europe, where sadly looking on the news today it has caused much more damage.   You can see the waves breaking on the horizon  in this picture the other side of the Goodwin sands. Which lie just off shore from the beach.

I hope all my UK and Northern European readers  came through the storm as unscathed as we did.  Mother nature sure can be powerful when she wants to be.  It's hard to believe the above picture was taken on the same day.

This week I've been continuing to read, The Lyme Diet by N Mcfadzean.

Yarning alone with 'Ginny'

Take care

Clare xx

Stitching Sundays 06

Hello.... I'm back again for stitching Sunday's. I've had to put my Summerhouse sampler on hold for a bit as the monitor on the desktop PC has blown, so I've been unable to print of the motif I'm planning on using.  

So instead earlier in the week I decided to have a go at this cute little cross stitch, that came free with 'Mollie Makes' magazine in August. When I got the magazine I thought this sweet little Rose looked kind of familiar,  it wasn't till I read the magazine that I realised it's because the design is by 'Eline Pellinkhof'

and I have a copy of  her  fab book 'Stitch and Sew home,' It a small world. 

I've never really done any cross stitch before, but I was keen to give this make a go as it's sooooo sweet. Roses Ribbons and Lace what's not to love.

I found the following a pattern quite a challenge, as concentration and counting are not two of my strong points living with a ME/Lyme brain, so I have the feeling my Rose might not look exactly like the one in the photo, but I'm having fun all the same, with the very pretty coloured flosses.

First the Red, then onto the pinks.

  I'm not normally a fan of red and pink together but I think it works perfectly on this darling little Rose.  It's taken me quite a while, doing a little at a time but this is where I'm up to.

 Eek here's a closer look at the stitching, 

which is a bit gappy but it's my first attempt so hey hoo.

Well that's all for today, just before I go I wanted to wish my UK readers safe passage through the storm that is supposed to be hitting overnight Sunday/Monday  Here's hoping it's not as bad as is being predicted. 'P' has spent the day putting away the garden furniture and mini greenhouse, making sure everything is put away or lashed down in the garden. Although to tell the truth it's already been blowing a gale here for the last few days.  Take care all.

Linking up with Nicoles KCCO and Stitching Sundays with Chrissie so why not check out what everyone be making.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Three Things 26/52

Hello...... well I can't believe it but this post marks the half mark for my year of happy, it's sure seems to be flying by.  I've had another tough week here, with another symptoms flare, that's the trouble with Lyme disease while taking antibiotics you have these horrendous flare ups ( herxheimer reactions) every four weeks, not great when my health levels are already so poor. They are supposed to lessen with time, but I'm five years into treatment now and they don't seem to be lessening at all, so the last couple of days I've been feeling pretty poorly.  At times like these I guess it's all the more important to try and find the happy.

Number one:

It's been a stormy old week here at the Summerhouse, so we decided it was time to pick the pears on Tuesday,  before the winds got them.  There is nothing better than fruit from the garden, it makes me happy just to see them, here are a few of them in the bowl looking so yummy. It looks like we're in for another big storm come Monday, so I guess 'P' will be spending the weekend out in the garden battening down the hatches, lets hope it's not too bad.

Number two:

Said health flare with added fever kicked it while I was finishing off this postcard, for the 'Alice in wonderland' theme for my local Craft Clubs exhibition.  I've really enjoyed getting my paints out, painting these little watercolour and inks, representing different aspects of the book. This is another project that has taken a while painting a little bit at a time when I've been able, I seem to have been working on this for months now.  You can read a bit more about my other Alice watercolours 'here'

Originally I wasn't going to bother, with painting a card to represent the queen of hearts. As to tell you truth, my painting skills are really not up to people, but I decided, I really should as it would complete the set and of course she is a major character in the book. Hopefully she'll be able to hide away amongst the others, which I'm going to mount as playing cards, so the look like a pack of cards that have been dropped.  I had to do a bit of research for this one as I didn't have a clue what colour a flamingo's legs were? It really is the strangest of books.

Number three:

This one make me skippy happy,  do you remember 'here' me telling you about my happy little shoot, well eleven weeks later we have not one but two flowers out yes I managed it I finally got one of my Moth Orchids to re flower, it been teasingly in bud for weeks now so I'm so happy to see it in bloom.  It really is the most gorgeous colour purple.  Yippee.

All my orchids went on a little holiday to the cool of the Summerhouse in the Spring, as I heard on a radio show that they needed to go to a cool environment for a few weeks to get them to re flower,  and lookie lookie it worked, only one out of three but yay we have flowers, so they are all off on a Spring break to the summerhouse next year.

Well that's all the happy for today.

Clare x

Hanging Birdie Decoration

Hello......... Today I'm going to tell you all about my hanging birdie decoration, yes that's what I was making all along.  So I've already told you about my 'little flowers and hearts' and the 'crocheted butterfly'  that I made for this make.  Today's post is about how I put the whole thing together. 

When I made my little gingham birdie way back in August, I was inspired with so many ideas of projects that could use a little bird. This one popped into my head straight away and I knew it would be just the perfect thing when I wanted to make a house warming gift.

This time I decided to machine stitch my little birdie, I used my Mum's old Singer Sewing Machine that  I think is just such a beautiful object.  I used some Tilda fabric from my stash to make my little birdie.

Here she is all finished with a fabric wings and button eyes.

I started to think about what other items I could add to my hanging. I created a design for a multi petalled flower, I made four flowers and then two cute little Attic24 hearts.

Using Stylecraft Special DK from my stash in Fondant and Cream

I also made this cute little butterfly which you can read more about 'here'

Then it was time to play around with layout ideas

The trickiest part was attaching the items onto the thread, I used some thick cotton, and started off by measuring a length and attaching the bird, by tying a knot in the thread and with a needle pulling it through the bird from bottom to top, so the bird is held in place underneath by the knot. Simple so far.......

I then pinned  and stitched the crocheted flowers in place, a flower each side of the thread, (so two sides to each flower)

Adding the hearts and the butterfly the same way. Before attaching I threaded a few beads above the heart and then some at the very bottom for decoration and to help weight the hanging.

and Ta-dah

one cut birdie decoration

Here's a bit of a closer look

All it all with a health flare up this make took quite a lot longer than anticipated but I got there in the end, I do hope the recipient is pleased with it.

Sorry the pictures are not the brightest, but it's been so gloomy and I found this a tricky make to photograph when it was completed.

Just before I go, I'd just like to say a huge thank you to my crafting assistant Merlin, who really helped !!!  with this make as you can see.

This week I've been re reading 'The Lyme Diet' by N McFadzean, trying to find away out of this current relapse.

Joining in Ginny's 'Yarn Along'
Christina's Made by hand

 and Crocheting along  with Mairanne and Chrisse.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

October : Pick and Mix

Hello it's pick and mix time again, so here's this months little bits and bobs of Summerhouse living.

The view from the window:

October sure has been a month of  mists and mellow fruitfulness, as Keats once said. It not the clearest of photo's but it kinda sums up this misty month well. I just love the crow perched on telegraph pole.

Stash busting:

Last week I told you about my new yarn purchase, well these colours were ordered to add to the colour palette, for a new major stash busting project.

Here are the other colours, I'm going to be using.  I ordered them a few years ago when I first learnt to crochet.  At the time the plan was to make the 'The Spring time throw from 'Nicki Tench's' Cute and Easy crochet book, but to tell the truth I never did get very far with it.

As you can see there is a lot of stash to be busted, that has sat in a box for far too long. So what's the plan. well for a while now I have been admiring all the stunning ripple blankets you see around blogland. Jennifer over at thistlebear posted about  a beautiful blanket she had made the other week.It really is gorgeous.

So I thought why not, lets go for it, so the plan is to make the blanket over the cold winter months, with the blanket hopefully growing as the winter weather sets in.  My energy levels and crafting time is limited, so I'm hoping to manage 10 minutes of lovely rippleness each day.  So I know it's going to take me a while but it feel great to be starting this huge project.  I'll keep you posted as to how it's going.

Out in the garden:

There is still plenty of colour out in the garden with Cyclamen and Chrysanthemum taking over from the summer planting, which is still hanging in there too, with the mild weather.  The wild Flower border has just about finished now, but I can already see next years Forget Me Nots coming up and  hopefully lots of the other wild flowers will have reseeded too.

New Project:

Today I started a new seasidie stitching project, 'The seaside' is another of my local craft clubs exhibition themes. I've decided I'm going to make some bunting. I found this fab Maritime fabric in Dunelm Mill, isn't it cute?

 I've been cutting out the little seaside images today and I'm going to attached them to colourful bunting pennants and decorate them with a bit of hand stitching, well that's the plan anyway.  I have all these great plans in my head, but not much energy at the moment to accomplish them. 

I'm really tempted to try and make a cushion if there is any spare fabric, but I've very new to sewing so we'll see how it goes.

Autumnal Bliss

It really has been the most beautiful Autumn this year, here's just a few shots from the Summerhouse garden. Need I say more......

Well I guess that's all the pick and Mix for this month, Happy Autumn everyone.

Linking up with Nicole's KCCO

Clare xx