Bower Bird

Hello.......... On Sunday afternoon the rain was lashing down and the wind was starting to blow a hoolie as storm Angus barrelled through our little corner of the world.

So it was the perfect time to settle down under a blanket with yarn, hook and a cuppa and get my Hygge on

and what could be more perfect than this little Bower bird kit for that, it came with a issue of Simply Crochet magazine, probably around this time last year.  The kit contained everything you needed to make the birdie, other than a hook.

 The pattern is one of Lucy's from over at Attic24 and you can find the tutorial for this make here if you'd like to make one too.

In no time at all I was making my birdie

Which is another make to go on the craft clubs handmade tree in the local library.

Now the kit came with a written pattern and at first I was following along well, but for the trickier bits of making the bird I hopped over to Attic 24 and used the photo tutorial which is great, for pattern phobics like me.  

Then it was birdie assembly time, I got a bit carried away at this point and forgot to take any pics. Opps  any road.......... (just imagine lots of sewing and stuffing going on.)

I did add a little decoration to my bird using you guessed it some sparkle yarn.

I added some to the wings too instead of the buttons that came in the kit.

Ta-Dah

One Scandi style Christmas birdie

Who is spending some time hanging out with the twinkle lights until it's time to go to the library and nest in the Christmas tree.

This week I've also hooked up this red sparkly bauble for the tree, with hopefully more to come energy permitting.

Ta-dah

Happy Crafting

Clare xxx

A huge thank you to Lucy for sharing her wonderful patterns she really is a crochet star.

This and That

Hello........... I thought I'd pop my head out and give you all a little wave from the summerhouse, I'm still struggling with my energy levels so not a whole lot has been going on around here.  

Little bits and bobs of crafting, nothing really worthy of it's own post so I thought I'd do a crafty this and that post instead

Life has been filled lately with rainbow pompoms, I was thinking about decorations for the local libraries handmade tree and I wondered what a pompom made from rainbow wool would be like so I just had to find out and the answer is super cute.  I'm a little bit in love with there rainbow goodness ........

I think they make the perfect handmade alternative to baubles, what do you think?

Some not so good news with my hand warmers I've had to frog the second one again, silly brain fog is really effecting my concentration so annoying as I made the first without a problem hey ho I'll get there.

In other pompom news I've also made this mini snowball garland threading mini pompoms onto twine, another make for the handmade tree, I'm hoping this garland will work as a alternative to tinsel.

In fact I may well make one for my blossom tree, I think it will look like a lovely wintry flurry of snow around my little tree.

I also had fun making this fellow, each member of the craft club has been given one to decorate for a gingerbread bunting, bless him look how boss eyed he is in this pic.

I've been doing a bit of beading too.....

Oh and last but not least I managed to take a pic of one of the summerhouse's garden visitors, I was so pleased to discover that we have two visiting squirrels this year and so far they are behaving themselves by eating the nuts from the little dish and not the feeders.

Well that's about it

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork October

Hello.............. October was a month of slowly moving forwards here at the Summerhouse.

Thankfully my energy levels have slowly been improving, after a year of full on relapse, there is just the tiny hint of a little more energy.  Restarting my herbal medicine with the addition of some Ginseng and going back on the antibitoics seem to have really helped, it's slow going though and this last relapse has left me so much weaker.  I'm still mostly resting as the slightest thing finds me exhausted. 

Sorry I've not been about too much in blogland these past months, I've really missed catching up on you're lives and crafty antics.

October did see a couple of Ta-dahs and some new crafts I even managed to write a song, new songs have been few and far between this year.

Out in the Summerhouse garden there was still lots of lovely colour to be found.

October saw my complete one of these long term projects, as for November I hoping to get my hand warmers finished asap as it's getting really cold now and my hands are freezing.  I'm also hoping to get on with some blanket making.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Lately

Hello......... It's been quite some time since I joined in with Amy's Five on a Friday link up, so today I thought I'd do a bit of a catch up post of Summerhouse happening.

Here at the Summerhouse lately we have had some wonderful sun rises and sunsets, but which is which? this one was amazing a beautiful pink sky with a double rainbow, just wow.

This time of years seems to produce the most beautiful skies, maybe it's a pay off to balance out the shorter darker days.

As crafters we seem to have to start thinking about Christmas earlier than most people, in fact our craft club library group is in a bit of a panic at the moment after being asked with very short notice to make enough handmade decorations for the Library's eight foot tree which is going up at the end of the month eek.

The decorations have to be handmade and not too expensive in case any of them should go walkies off the tree, so I just couldn't resist making some cupcake case angels to hang on the tree.

Aren't they cute I've made a whole host.

I've also had a bit of a epic craft fail, for some reason I know not why I decided to pick up my long forgot knitting last week and well it all went horribly wrong.  You see there was a reason I stopped knitting when I discovered crochet, I'm just no good at it.

Just a couple of rows in I'd mess it up and I just can't get my head around picking up stitches, so that was that I had to frog the lot, I ripped it all out but not to worry, I have plans already for the yarn instead of this lovely leaf cushion, I'm going to crochet one, as I just love the concept and the yarn colours but lets face it I just can't knit.......

So back to happier yarniness it was time to put the decorations back up for Halloween, you see I can't do basic knitting but I can crochet a sparkly skull!!

I was also pleased to see that the salt dough decorations we made last year, had also survive, you can read a bit more about these makes here and here.

So one more thing to go until we have five. So I thought I'd share some pictures of my crystals, each week I select some Crystal to work with, mostly because they are lovely to have around, they make me happy, they are just so beautiful, mother nature never fails to amaze and  I love to learn about them.

Well that my five, wishing you a wonderful weekend

Happy Crafting

 Clare xx