Crocus Love

Hello........... This year the Crocuses have been just fabulous here at the Summerhouse, they may have come up a little later than usual, but boy have they been beautiful.

It all started with just one or two, the cream and white kind always seem to come up first.

Then we had the clumping together kind

of some many lovely colours.

The dainty kind

that seem almost ethereal

just look at the colours when they open up to the sun, so magical.

We've also had the growing up through the grass under the tree kind, 

Lovely to see them popping they're heads up through the grass

and just look at those stripes.

Don't you just love the stripy kind? ............

Me well, I love them all

Clare xx

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 August

Hello....... Here's a quick look back at August...........

A month of holidays, sunshine and star gazing here at the Summerhouse, some crafting too and as always lots of yarn.

Out in the garden the lazy days of summer were just perfect for enjoying the flowers, a mix of summer favourites and a few signs of autumn on the way with the viola's and cyclamen starting to flower again.

Well that's about it, each month I plan to post these patchworks at the beginning of the month but some how it never seems to happen, oh well better late than never.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Crocheted Coasters

Hello.......... A couple of weeks ago it was my lovely sister birthday and as part of her present I got her this pretty solar lamp for her garden table and well it got me thinking......

 you see, I had the perfect colour matched cotton in my stash, so I decided I just had to make her some pretty coasters to go with the lamp.

So I had a little look about online for the perfect pattern and I found it here over at Bella Coco

I made my coasters on a 3mm hook using some left over Rowan Cotton 

glace, it lovely stuff to work with

and the coasters came together quickly in just a few rounds.

So after the first alfresco crochet of the year it was time to sew the ends in.

Ta-Dah

Do you like them? 

It was so nice to be out in the garden crocheting again, plus I discovered a perk of the top I was wearing, can you see ?  it has a handy little yarn pocket, just big enough for a ball of cotton.

Happy Days

Clare xx

Patchwork May

Hello.......... It's patchwork time again, so here's a little look back at May.

Which was all crochet, ceramics and pants (making !!) 

May is also ME/CFS and Lyme disease awareness month, so I bravely decided to share a post each day about how my illness effects me to help raise awareness over on my Facebook and the blogs instagram page, I did quite well with it but ran out of steam on day 25.

As you know my healths really not been very good this year and I've been in a severe relapse since last October.  I find myself in the difficult position of not having a diagnosis that fully explains all my symptoms and therefore it hard to find a effective treatment, we are just treating symptoms as they occur, fighting fires if you like.  As my GP puts it' my official diagnosis is ME it's probably Lyme disease and my back diagnosis is MS.

It's so hard as I'm developing the symptoms of lots of different autoimmune conditions from Arthritis to Lupus, MS to Diabetes and thyroid disease and Dyautonomia, to name a few, my GP has said she thinks I have some sort of, yet to be discovered multi system autoimmune disease, which lets face it, is just no fun.

If you want to read more about the individual photo's you can find them here on my IG feed.

Onto happier and more lovely things to end with, out in the summerhouse garden.....

Well that's about it for May's round up

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Rosie Glow

Hello................ Today I'm joining in with Amy's five on a Friday, to share these lovely roses with you.

They are a Floribunda Roses called Masquerade and I sure you can guess why they have that name, so over five days I took a picture of the same rose, awe struck at how amazing nature is.

Day one

Day two (this is my absolute favourite of all the colour changes)

Day three

Day four, so vibrant

Day five, still beautiful but a little worse for wear after a night of storms. 

Have a good weekend 

Clare x

Patchwork March

Hello............. Here's my March round up.

Lots of Yarny goodness and some new crafts too, eating clean and some music, I've been trying to learn a old time fiddle tune each week on the mandolin, with my brain fog and playing just a few minutes a day it's hard to get them to stick, so one a weeks about my limit at the moment.

Spring time out in the garden is so very pretty I love this time a year, the Easter bunny very kindly left me some lovely Viola's I just love how they look like they are painted with watercolour, lots else going on too with Polyanthus and lots of spring bulbs.

Here are  a couple of patchworks I shared to sum up the month of March over on Instagram

Well that's about it for March, sorry I've not been about too much lately I've been struggling a lot with dizziness I'm like a human weeble, (except sometimes I do fall down).  Thanks for all the lovely comments on my last few posts, I read them all, sorry I'm just not well enough to respond to them at the moment.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

This week

Hello..........

This week I enjoyed joining in with the World Wildlife Funds 'Earth hour' on Saturday evening it was lovely to turn off the lights and electrical appliances and spend a hour without, great to step away from the screens, this year I played my mandolin for a bit,

Then spent the rest of the hour relaxing, in the soothing darkness, with just a few candles burning.

It was lovely to watch the patterns cast by my butterfly candle.

For the last few weeks I have been trying to follow Dr Walhs diet, of eating 9 cups of fruit and veg a day, it's surprisingly hard to fit it all in, three cups of greens, three cups of colourful and three cups sulphurous veg.

In the hope it might improve some of my symptoms, my blood sugar levels seem to be happier for it, although so far I'm not feeling any better with my energy levels and pain.

This week I was skippy happy to discover this beauty in the summerhouse border, super frilly double daffodils

I also spent time earlier in the week re pinning my Springtime wreath ready for the Equinox last Sunday.  I love how ever year I add something new to the wreath so it's always slightly different.

It's been up all week waiting for the Easter decorations to join in.

Talking of which I finished putting them up today, a bit of a dizzy making job for me as standing with my arms above my head tends to make my POTS so much worse, so it took a while to hang up the eggs.

Here's a closer look at some of the decorations, the tiny crocheted pieces were a Easter gift from a friend, who got them from a very talented crafter me thinks. It was also good to see my Attic24 chicks again.

Happy Hoppy Easter

Clare xx