Birthday Birdie

Hello......... Today I'm going to share with you a little bit more about the Birdie I made at my Birthday Crafternoon,  I found the pattern in my Mum's copy of the Woman's Weekly from the 14 April  and thought it would be a perfect little make for my Crafternoon.

So amongst much chatter and cake, I cut out the little felt pieces and stitched the wing in place with embroidery floss adding some leaf detail before popping on a cute little button,

I then added more buttons, felt flowers and beads.

 I then stitched on a little birdie eye, in black floss and blanket stitched my birdie together before adding a hanging string, the original instructions were for a little birdie brooch, but I decided I wanted to hang mine on my blossom tree lights, in fact I think I might make a few more of these cute little birdies, to hang on the tree.

Ta-Dah

But of course there will only be one Crafternoon birthday birdie amongst them, a lovely little reminder of the day.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Birthday Crafternoon

Hello......... Just a little post today to share with you a bit about my Birthday Crafternoon.

The day started with me attempting to make some chocolate covered Strawberries, a little tricky when the supermarket had removed the stalks but I got there in the end, dark chocolate with a white chocolate drizzle.

In the afternoon the lovely Lindy Laine kindly hosted my crafternoon, with lots of cakes, crafting, laughter and chat, with good friend, I probably should have taken a few more pictures, but I got a bit distracted with all the fun.

Over on Facebook, a very talented bunch of friends were joining in with the craftnoon virtually, here's a mosaic of what they all got up too.  Being mostly housebound the Internet is a bit a lifeline to me and I've made some wonderful friends (who love crafting too) so it was great some of them were able to join in with the celebrations.

As for me well I managed to make this little felt birdie, amongst all the festivities.

So now I'm in rest up mode, for my actual Birthday on Tuesday,  fingers crossed if I rest up the post exertional malaise from Friday's fun will have been and gone by then.

A big thank you too everyone who join in with the crafternoon, in blogland, I'm too tired to figure out how to add one of those link up thingies but I'd love for you to leave a comment sharing what you got up to.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

Invitation to a Crafternoon.

Hello...... Just a quick post today to invite you all to a Crafternoon

 

Yes I'm going to be turning the big 40 at the end of the month eek and the first of the celebrations is going to be happening this Friday afternoon.   I'd love it if you could all join in, I'm going to be having a crafternoon, with some friends who can be there in person and many other friends who are joining in virtually, so I thought I'd might do the same on the blog.

So if you are around this Friday afternoon I love you to join me for a spot of Crafting and Cake, that's all there is to it,  you can crochet

Knit

Do some paper crafts

Sew

Paint

Jewellery make, what ever you fancy any craft you want, just as long as you have some

cake on the side to help me celebrate.

 I'll be doing a follow up post next week, with what we got up to at the crafternoon with a either a link up (if I can figure that out) or if not I'd love you to leave a comment sharing what you made.

Many thanks.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Struggling

NB, I wrote this post on Saturday and never got around to sharing it with you, before we sadly lost our lovely Merlin on Sunday Morning, it was very sudden and we are all still in a bit of shock as he was doing so well.  He was my constant companion for almost 16 years, keeping me company through the darkest days of this illness, I read in a magazine once  'If you have ME get a cat it will keep you company, snuggle up with you while you rest.'

So I did, I got the wonderful Merlin, my lovely, bonkers, hyperactive, bass jumping, crazy boy who lived life to the max at high speed, not quite the kind of ME friendly sleepy cat companion they meant but I wouldn't have swapped him for the world.  

Merlin 1999-2015. 

 

********************

Hello............ It's fair to say I've been struggling a bit lately, there just seems to be no energy in the tank and this relapse of my illness has really taken a hold.

I find myself it a tricky situation, it used to be simpler at least before I had a diagnosis, for years I was told you have ME/CFS.  Then about eight years ago that changed to, well it might be Chronic Lyme disease, and now well, who knows, one things for sure no one seems to know.  Things are getting worse and with no real diagnosis, we don't even know where to start. 

Currently I find myself in Limbo, with phrases like, it's maybe endocrine based, or it's seems autoimmune, it's getting really complicated, for sure it's not like ME, it's a grey area of medicine, all being banded around.

So my GP, has given me two weeks of steroids as a experiment, to see if they help, there is a risk they will make things much worse, if I have Lyme Disease so it's a case of weighing it all up, I've decided I'm not doing anything until after my birthday, I really can't face the prospect that things might get even worse.

So what to do I'm trying to stay positive but the simplest tasks leave me exhausted, with all my symptoms in full on mode, even writing this post is a battle as my spelling and word finding skills  are in a right pickle.

So apologises if my posts lately have been few and full of spelling errors or have completely the wrong words, placed where they should not be, the random word things been happening a lot.  I also apologise for not getting around to visit all you're lovely blogs as often as I should and would like too.

At least someone has been bouncing back well though, lovely Merlin gave us all a bit of a scare the friday before last, we are still not really certain what happened to the old fellow (he's 15) but we found him sat in the middle of our pond in the reed baskets, with one pupil not reacting and on three legs.  

Three trips to the vets later and he's back on his game, after magic jab number one he was back on four legs again, although a bit wobbly, Jab number two the next days (Saturday), saw his walking improve and his eyes starting to recover.  The vet said it was something neurological going on maybe a stroke or something.

By Monday he was back to his normal self leaping (his favourite trick)  off the summerhouse roof and onto the garden wall, there is no keeping a good cat down, so instead of staying in at the vets for investigations, given his age and his level of recovery we decided along with vet not to risk a anaesthetic for such a elderly cat. Fingers crossed he stays on the up.

I don't know what was in those jabs, but I'm thinking of asking the vet for one.

*****************************

Merlin woke us at 2am on Sunday morning, having lost the use of his back legs, we passed the early hours of the morning trying to comfort him, keeping him calm, warm and as comfortable as could be, after his first stroke he bounced back to full on all action Merli mode for one last week, he was even still charging around the house at midnight on Sunday before going to sleep, but this time a clot had blocked his Femoral Artery and cut off the blood supply to his legs and there was nothing to be done.

Rest in peace my lovely boy.

Clare xx

Cute Boots

Hello.......... Today I thought I'd share with you my first ever attempt at booties

Yes, one baby has arrived and another is on the way very soon, so I thought it was time to make me some booties.  It all started out really well, I used a pattern from issue 24 of Simply Crochet magazine and managed to hook up the little shoe part with ease.

Then as is most often the way with me and crochet patterns I got a little confuggled, when it came to making the cuffs of the oh so cute little boots.  I never can get to grips with written patterns, so instead I just kind of made it up as I went, but yay I still ended up with what looks like a little boot.

  

I then added a little optional ribbon just in case the cuff was a little too loose.

Aww so cute I might make a up scaled version for me.

Ta-Dah

My first attempt at booties, as for yarn and hook I used Sirdar Snuggly and a 4 mm hook to make these cute little boots.

Happy Crafting

Clare x

Mindfulness Photography (Spring)

Hello.......... Over the past week I've taken part in a mindful photography project over on Facebook and just like the last time 'here' I thought I'd share the images on my blog.

The aim was to take take 5 photos in one week, of the things in life which make you feel Grateful, Happy, Loved, or Valued, so here's my five.

Photo one: Represents a family Easter. Here at the Summerhouse it just wouldn't be Easter without a retro style Jelly bunny, (from a vintage orange mould) this years bunny was Pineapple flavoured with Lime Jelly for grass.

Photo two: Is a quick pic of the Easter Yarny Chums, who helped to decorated our mantle,  both bunnies were gifts from crafty friends and I made the chicks. It's lovely to have a little yarny goodness mixed in amongst the eggs and flowers

Photo three: Is of a Camellia that my Dad planted, it means a lot to see it flower each year since he passed away, there is only one bloom on it this year but it sure is a stunner, with thanks to my lovely Dad xx

Photo Four: Is Another favourite from the garden, I love the flowering currant, in fact I could write a whole post on how stunning this plant is, it's just the perfect pink, looking amazing against the Spring greens but even more so against clear blue skies it has flaw however and that's it's fragrance, but hey ho no ones perfect.

Photo Five: Is about loving all the fresh news greens, it's wonderful to see the trees waking up from winter snoozes

Well that's my five mindful photo's, as it turned out all inspired by the season, thanks for taking the time to have a look Joining in with Amy's Five on Friday

Clare xx

 

Patchwork March

Hello.......... I'm really behind with the patchwork for March, I'm struggling so much with my energy levels at the moment but at long last here it is

Lots of crochet and spring makes went to make up March with the garden waking up I started working on a few additional flowers to add to my Springtime Wreath, plus Big Cosy my seaside pebble blanket is back in town, now that the Baby version is complete.

Out in the garden things are pretty gorgeous at the moment, I love this time of year, all the wonderful Spring colours.

March was also the month of our local Craft Club exhibition, with themes of Egypt, Fantasia, Masks and the Owl and the Pussycat. I had planned on writing a post about the exhibition, but I've just not been well enough, so here's a little Patchwork instead of some the wonderful makes made by some talented crafters

So April's upon us and there are lots of plans afoot here at the Summerhouse as come the end of the month I'm going to celebrating a birthday with a zero eek. I just need to find some energy from somewhere and hope I'm well enough. 

Having been ill since I was a teenager, I guess I will be mostly celebrating actually making it to the big 40.  

Wishing you all a wonderful April

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

 

Five on a Friday Easter

Hello and a Happy Hoppy Easter  to you, I love this time of year, it all about the Spring time, I think I like Easter even more than Christmas.

All those pretty Spring colours, we always do a bit of decorating for Easter here at the Summerhouse, from the Blossom lights, with it's pastel shades and Easter Llama.

Here's a closer look at my little Easter Llama, when I spotted them in Mollie Makes a few years ago I just knew I have to make one, you can read more about my little Easter Llama 'here'

One of my favourite decorations is a hand painted egg from Austria, it has a violets on it and reminds me of my lovely Nan, they were one of her favourite flowers and I managed to get this painted egg all the way back from Austria as a gift for her, without breaking it.

It's lovely to see it every Easter, her birthday used to fall on Easter quite often so it a great way to remember her.

The lounge also gets decorated, with chicks and eggs

There are some new chicks joining in this year

Plus I'm skippy happy that the Springtime wreath is back in town, with a few new additions, it was a wonderful to spend some time this morning repinning it and just in the nick of time for Easter.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx