Angels Wings and Sparkles

Hello............  I make no apologies for today's post it's going to be photo heavy and all about colour and sparkle, with a tiny public service announcement. I am now five weeks into a horrible lurgy here at the summerhouse and I'm feeling terrible, so it's colour therapy all the way today.

That's the trouble with chronic illnessis a healthy person gets ill with a cold or virus and they bounce back in a week or so, not so much people like me with a complex chronic illness, yes five weeks on my cold has now finally broken but for the first few weeks my immune system just didn't have a clue what to do, it had immune response's just not the right ones it attacked my joints it made by ME/Lyme disease flare to the point I couldn't get out of bed and has probably put me in a relapse that will take months to recover from, it also decided to attack some of the nerves in my face leaving me in awful pain and it disturbed by autonomic nervous system, so much my heart spent 11 and half hour in tachycardia one day last week.

So this is a very polite ask on behalf of all the people you may know with a chronic illness, please if you have a virus or a cold or any other bug, please please think before seeing them and stay away as it could make them very ill for a long long time.

OK sorry rant over.. back to the colour

Awww

Isn't it lovely

I think I mentioned in my first post I'm using Rico Creative Reflection for my shawl

and I'm loving how it's turning out.

It's a fine yarn so it's taking me a while but it's a real pleasure

to work with these sparkly colours

they make my heart sing, one very happy Clare

Still a long way to go, but here's where I'm up to so far...........

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Wrist Warmers Ta-Dah

Hello......... It's time for a long awaited Ta-dah today, I started making these wrist warmers here 
way back in the summer and I guess I was right to start early as it has taken me a quite while to get them finished.

They are made with this gorgeous yarn by Louisa Harding which is so soft and has slightest glimmer of golden sparkle to it, ( you know me and sparkle I just can't resist) the pattern is from 'here' 

you can find more details in my original post.

So I made up the first glove with ease following along with the pattern, I did have to make a bit of a adaption towards the end of the pattern as I have tiny hands but other than that things were going great...........

Until glove number two that is, I'm not sure what when wrong, but I got myself in a bit of a pickle and had to frog the entire glove.  I think part of the problem was I was following a written pattern and with the cognitive symptoms that I suffer with from the ME/Lyme disease it's never easy. 

So this happened............

Then this...........

Until I had to start yet again from scratch, you have no idea how frustrating it can be when you have one completed glove mocking you, saying ' you can do it, as you made me' grrr

Any road not being one to quit, I started again, counting and checking constantly.

and it all started to come together, as I mentioned earlier I stopped following the pattern at thumb row 5 otherwise they would have been way to big for me, so instead I finished off with two rows of double crochet before stitching the thumb hole in place

Ta-Dah

and in the nick of time as it's been so cold here at the Summerhouse and my POTS (Postural Tachycardia Syndrome) medication means that my hands are always freezing cold.

So they were ready just in time, next came me trying to take a pic of the finished gloves, not easy too manage a hands free selfie.

So instead here's a pic my nephew took for me. 

They really are super soft snuggily and warm.

I think I may enter them in out craft club exhibition under the 'fairy theme' as I'm sure no self respecting fairy would ever consider attending the frosty snow ball without a pair of fine woollen gloves with added sparkle.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Linking up with Frontier dreams KCCO

2016 : A Year of Crafting

Hello......... I wasn't planning on doing a year in review post, this year as well I didn't think there would be a awful lot to share, 2016 was not so great here at the Summerhouse I spent most of the year trying to recover from a relapse of my ME/Lyme disease that hit in the Autumn 2015.

So instead of a general review I thought it might be good to just focus on the fun stuff and look back on all the crafts, so this is going to be a happy little post. 

  Over the past week I've been putting together 12 colourful crafty mosaics, enjoying seeing the colours change throughout the year with the different makes but all in a way still linked by the same colour palette I always seem drawn to here at the Summerhouse. 

You see she maybe a bit old and shabby but magical crafty things happen inside this grand old lady, who is known affectionately around these parts as 'the shed'

I hope you enjoy them.

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

So there you have it, a whole year of Summerhouse crafting fun, although I have to admit a great deal of it has take place and been created from my comfy bed.

Here's to 2017.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Thank you for all the kind comments left on my last post, I'm going to try my very best to stick around in blogland, I might not be able to post as often as I'd like to and I'm sorry I probably won't be able to make it round to visit all you're lovely blogs but as always I'm going to keep trying.

January Cards

Hello and a very Happy New Year to everyone out in blogland.  It's not been the best start to the year here at the Summerhouse as I've had the dreaded lurgy since Christmas and so far I don't seem to be feeling any better, I think it's a sinus type thing as I've had the most awful head pain, which has really wiped me out and kicked off a flare up of my ME/Lyme disease.

But hey ho life goes on and January just seems to have so many birthdays in it?  As I've not been well enough to go out, there was no option but to make some cards.

Energy levels low I decided to make up some card kits I had.

layering up with foam pads to make a 3D effect

and of course I couldn't resist adding some sparkle.

Ta-dah

 Card number one, some happy post for a friend.

I also did some foam pad layering to make up this card.

Ta-Dah

Ta-Dah

and finally I made this card, using papers from the same kit.

Now as for the blog I've been wondering recently whether to keep going with it or not,  as last year my posting was not very regular and as my health declines it's becoming harder to keep it up and it so much easier and quicker to use instagram !!

I've thought about having a break for a while but I do like to share my makes with you, so I think what I'm going to do is post as and when I have something to share and see how that goes, not putting any pressure on myself to post regularly. I was Hopeful that I was coming out of the relapse that lasted all of last year but now with this lurgy who knows.  

I will hopefully have another post for you soon as I've recently finished off the Wrist warmers I started making last summer. 

Until then......

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx