Birdie from the Attic

As I mentioned I'm away this week, so hopefully the schedule thingy will be posting this. I was looking for a little make that I could leave as thank you gift to the friends who are letting us stay at there cottage and I found just the one, at the wonderful Attic 24.  It's perfect as I do love all things birdie.

Easter is a big deal for my friends who own the cottage so I decided I would make one of Lucy's Birdie decorations to leave behind as part of a thank you gift, that they can add to there Easter decorations,

As always I found Lucy wonderful tutorials so easy to follow and used some Stylecraft Special DK from my stash in lovely spring colours.

First I made a round

Then the beak and wings

Then attached them, to my flat as a pancake looking bird adding some cute flower buttons for the eyes.

Then I folded my birdie in half, see he looks much more like a birdie now !!

Following Lucy's tutorial I made a chain to hang my birdie, a flower and

Some dangly leggies with flower button feet and after a little stuffing

 Ta- Dah my little birdie thank you gift was complete.

If you want to make a little Attic 24 birdie then you can find the tutorial 'here' . If not I recommend popping over to Attic24 anyway as it a wonderful world of colour to escape into. The birdie was lots of fun to make, it took me about four days going a little over my normal 10 minutes a day craft pacing time, but as I've been bed resting lots this week in preparation for my holiday, it's been the perfect little make to keep my occupied.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Three Thing :: 13/52

Here's this weeks year of happy post, I snuck in a extra one this week it's the above pic, I'm really loving seeing all the different wild flowers growing in the border. There is always something new to see.  Look how stunning this pink flower is, does anyone know what it's called?  Leave a comment if you do.

Number one :

Sunday evening my sister a friend and I piled into the car and went to a very pretty little village, here's a picture of the river that runs past the pub ,we went for a chilled night of musical fun. 

The pub was hosting a Americana Session, this was the first time I've be well enough to go, and play in public this year so it was quite a achievement for me although somewhat nerve wracking. A lovely night, listening to some great musicians.  I had to have a few days in bed recovering but it was well worth the payback.  If you want to hear a couple of my songs, you can have a listen 'here' and 'here' they are at the bottom of the 'Pick and Mix posts.

Number two :

Is this lovely little Birdie, yesterday at craft club, a friend surprised me with this cute little bird, that she had got for me on a recent visit to a nearby castle.  We spent a lovely hour or so at craft club chatting and doing a little crafting, with a bit of show and tell of everyone's completed projects and some royal baby name chat.  I was so pleased to discover when I got home that, I had got the name right, when I said I thought they would call the baby George .

Number three :

Is the fun of starting a new crochet project.  This is a little project that I'm going to be taking away with me next week, I won't say what it's going to be yet, as if I can get it finished on time it's going to be part of a thank you gift.  Yes next week I'm hopefully going away for a few days holiday,  so I won't be around for a week from Monday.  I'm really looking forward to having a little break, we are going to stay at a friends cottage. I'm taking some crochet, my colouring book, reading book and my ipod with me ,essentials to keep me occupied on rest days, when everyone's out and about. Oh to be able to have a holiday away from the ME/Lyme's but I'm looking forward to it all the same. 

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

For some reason the first music link isn't working at the moment, so if your interested I've put another one 'here'

Bye xx 

July :: Pick and Mix

It's pick and mix time again, so here are July's little bits and pieces of Summer house living and what a hot and sunny month July has been here in the UK. So why not help yourself to a sweetie from the bowl.

The view from the window

It's hard to believe this is the seventh view from the window for the year, the months seem to be flying by. I took this picture early in morning, we have been having such hot weather, so I thought I'd take a picture early in the day when everything is looking fresh and the sky is still blue before the sea haze creeps in. As you can see the windmill has been turned so the sails face north and they have stayed that way since this mini heatwave  began with no wind to make the sails go around.

Out in the garden:

As you can see this months out in the garden section is in snazzy mosaic form, There's been lots going on outside in the last month, so much colour everywhere the Roses have all been particularly stunning this year, so July was a month of Roses, very late flower Elderflower, and water Iris flowering in the pond.  

Over in the Summerhouse border everything has sprung to life with Scabious, Penstemons, Jasmine and Orange blossom flowering again, the scent from the Orange blossom is divine.  All the bedding plants are coming along to. 

 The Friday before last I gave the Sweet peas a ultimatum that I hoped they would be flowering by last Friday, as so many other people's have been blooming for a few weeks now.  Thankfully they were in bud by Friday and have started to flower over the weekend, to late to make the mosaic, but I might take some pics later for the end of this post.  We're just waiting on the geraniums in the window boxes now, although some of them are now have buds so hopefully it won't be long.

WIP:

Above are some of the works in progress ongoing at the moment.

 Top left:  Is some seaside pastel shades Attic24 granny bunting pennants that I have been making for the summerhouse, I'm planning on edging them and adding a flower, but more on that another time.

Top right: is my Purple Leaf cushion that I first blogged about way back in February, yep it's still on the needles, I'm struggling a little with this make as I find knitting so much more physically demanding, I can only do a couple of rows before my joints and muscles start complaining, but I'm determined I'll get there eventually. I had a few afternoons last week where I sat out in the garden and managed a couple of rows.

Bottom left : I couldn't resist I had to make another Summer Granny Square just to see if I could remember how I made the last one, honest !!!! I'm not taking on another major project until I've finished one of these WIP's

Bottom right : Are my felt birdies for my birdie bunting over the month I've managed to finish sewing on the the little fabric wings and have started to sew on the button eyes. You can read more about them 'here'

 So that's where I am with my larger WIP's, I really suppose I shouldn't have so many things ongoing at once, but I find I get bored sticking to one thing, with my ten minutes of health related pacing time for crafting I tend to rotate what I do each day, knitting one day, sewing the next, and then crochet on the third day with a bit of card making thrown in if I need a card for someone.

Does anyone else have a lists of ongoing makes like me or do you tend to do one project at a time? I'd love to know what you are all making at the moment, why not leave a comment? I'd love to read about them.

Summer Living:

Over the last month, we've been getting into the swing of summer living here at the Summerhouse, doors and windows flung open, flowers blooming, it been quite lovely.

Dilly's been lounging about in the early morning sunshine, he loves a bit of sun, before he disappears off into the shade for a siesta. Then he and Merlin are back outside snoozing in the evening, soaking up the warmth from the stones or lounging about on the garden furniture. It's a tough life being a Summerhouse by the Sea cat.

I've been spending a lot of time resting in the shade in my floppy sun hat, it gets way to hot in the house, so I've been escaping the heat by sitting in the shade of the Horse Chestnut tree in the garden.

We've been eating lots of summer fruits Strawbugs Cherries and Nectarines and Melon, of all of them I think I love the cherries the most.  Nothing like local Cherries, well I do live in the 'garden of England'

Crafting has been relocated to the cool of the garden too.

Knitting, crochet and I've even done a little bit of colouring.  

It's taken me a while but I've finally finished my first garden scene from my lovely Secret Garden colouring book.  The pictures are so detailed it's a lovely little book to escape into.  I'm off away on holiday at the end of the month and this is one book that will be coming along with a some colours, a perfect low energy summer activity.

We've also been eating lots of salads outside on the patio, this one with a yummy hummus dressing, tomorrows offering I think it's going to avocado and walnut.  It strangely lit as I took the photo under our zesty green parasol.

Over in the wildlife strip:

Early in the year we scattered four packets of different mixed meadow and wild flowers seed onto the wildlife strip at the bottom of the garden and July has seen them all starting to flower, I loved this little part of the garden every time you go down there something else has started to flower and the bees are loving it too, which was the point of the exercise.

I think all these wildflower are so lovely, unlike 'P' who keeps referring to them as weeds, but I won't have a barr of it, just look how pretty they are.  We've had some fun trying to identify them with some help from some Facebook friends along the way. There are lots of cornflowers and daisy's scabious a iris that seeded itself, we also had a lot of the beautiful scorpion weeds, which the bee really loved.  If anyone can identify any of the others, please leave a comment as I dearly love to know there names.

I have a bit of confession to make, I love all thing stationary notebooks, pens, writing paper, don't get me started on post its !!  July saw a new additional of this years mid year diary,  I love to used these academic diaries  for my pacing as they tend to have lots of timetable space and also time slots for each day which is perfect for  my pacing program to manage my illness.  I basically balance activities with rest throughout each day.  I loved this diary when I saw it on amazon  the design is just my cup of tea with the lovely flowery tree.

Just before I go here's a quick shot as promised of the first of my sweet peas strangely the first group of blooms are all white with a hint of  inky purple on the edge, which are lovely but I'm secretly hoping for some more sweet pea hues a splash of colour as they continue to bloom pink, blues purples. Perfect.

Well that's all the pick and mix for this month. Sorry no music again in this months post, but I did do a separate post earlier in the month all about the Maverick Americana festival here if you fancy a read.

Happy Crafting
Clare xx

Bunting for Yarndale

Just a quick post today, to share with you my finished Yarndale granny bunting, which was posted off to Yorkshire a few days ago. I made four in the end, which I know is not a huge amount but seeing as my crafting time is limited to ten minutes a day on my pacing program I quite happy with just the four. Here they are together hanging on the Summer house beams.

I think I love this one with it's seaside sherbet colours the best, it was the first pennant I made.

I then made this one which reminds me of a berry smoothie, follow by

this slightly crazy one made from rainbow wool. I wanted to send this one off to Yarndale as the yarn came from a friend of mine who sadly past away earlier in the year.  She loved bright colours and crafting so I thought it was kind of appropriate to make a pennant to fly at Yarndale from some of her bright coloured yarn.

Finally we have this seaside brights one, crocheted by the sea to the music of The Royal Marines band.  I know it very bright but I kinda liked the colours together.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx

Three things :: 12/52

It's year of happy time again at the Summerhouse and what a baking hot heatwave of week it's been, so here's this weeks three things.

Number one :

On Sunday when my nephew and the rest of the family came over for a visit, he presented me with this lovely little flower arrangement.  That he had made for me, yes you heard me right he actually made this lovely little floral offering himself he's such a sweetie.  The town where they live was having a street extravaganza  on Saturday with all the shops involved. So as well as swapping some of his Lego figures that are doubles for new ones in the toy shop, he also choose to go into the florist and create this for me, he said "I picked all your favourite colours Aunty Clare" and he got it spot he really did purple, pinks and magenta, and such a lovely arrangement too, he such a star.  It's still going strong this little pot of happy he made for me, I love it so.

Number two

Is all about are cat Dylan, (please ignore the old bench that needs a lick of paint) he's not been very well for the last few weeks, but he's finally feeling better.  It makes me so happy to see him on the mend all blissed out lying on the bench enjoying the warm summer's evenings.  He managed to injure his throat eating papyrus grass, (don't ask he's not the brightest ) and developed a very bad cough and sore throat, yes we had a cat with laryngitis, but he's much better for a weeks worth of anti imflammatories from the vet.  It's so horrible when pets are poorly. Aww he's  such a cutie, he's lost his winter coat so all his undercoat is visible at the moment or as we say at the Summerhouse, Dilly we can see you pants and vest.

Number three :

I'm sorry but I'm going to wax lyrical about another rose.  They seems to be doing so well this year.  This one is right outside our front door, it has such huge blooms and is such a gorgeous colour plus the scent is divine too.  It makes me so happy to see it every time I open the door. It's not planted in the best location really as it get so huge over the summer and has a tendency to grab unsuspecting visitors who come to the front door with it's large thorns, but I love it all the same, every year we cut it right down low and sure enough it springs right back.  Come Halloween we have to cut it right back as it loves nothing more than grabbing unsuspecting trick or treaters.

Well that's all the happy for this week.

Clare xx

Paper Wings

Today I thought I'd share with you this butterfly card that I made last week, it's a  thank you to a lady who sent me some craft supplies in the post.  As it's summer I thought I'd make a butterfly card. I made a couple of these 3D butterfly cards last year, which I've shared at the bottom of this post.

The first thing I did was cut a butterfly template, I found the butterfly I used on the front of my lyric notebook,  I photocopied it then cut out the template. I altered the shape a little to make centre part a little bigger so I could make the butterflies easier.

I then cut out a small piece of butterfly paper and attached it to the bottom of a cream card blank.

Then it was time to cut out the butterflies I cut out two butterfly shapes per butterfly, so to make this card you would need to cut out six butterfly shapes.

Meanwhile I stuck a sticky ribbon that complimented my butterflies  along where the paper joined on the card.

Then it was time to assemble the 3d butterflies. The first thing you have to do is fold the butterflies in half so they have a crease up the middle

As you can see I then used a couple of glue dots and stretched them with tweezers to run along the crease.

I used glitter glue to pipe a head and body onto the centre of the butterflies, you then have to leave them to dry for quite a while so that the glitter sets.

Some time later, or for me the next day, (pacing my craft time) it was time to fix the three butterflies on to the card. As you can see I stuck them onto the card with glues dots ( I do love a glue dot)

I put the centre butterfly on first and measured with a ruler to find the centre of the card and then stuck the matching butterflies on either side.

and Ta-Dah my Butterfly card was complete.  

The theory is that they will fold flat enough to fit in the envelope and then the wings can be folded back up on arrival to give the 3D effect,

As I said earlier I made a couple of these card last year for birthdays.

You can see from this shot how 3D they look.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx