28 Drawings Later (week three)

Hello........... I'm running a bit behind as usual as I've just realised I'm yet to post weeks three pictures from the 28 Drawings Later project, let alone weeks four which ends today.

Day 15: I attempted to draw, chief crafting assistant Merlin, I tried to capture him doing that kneading thing cat do with there paws.

Day 16: Was a quick water colour and ink of some daffodils, I'm loving that Spring is on the way at last.

Day 17: Is a water colour and ink I did of some Anemones a while ago, so it's a bit of a cheat, but there was just no energy for art today.

Day 18: I shared a mask design I've been working on, for the local Craft Club Exhibition, we have all been given a blank cardboard mask to decorate any way we choose as one of the exhibition themes. I'll share a post about the mask when it's finished, I'm nearly there which is good as the exhibition opens next week.

Day 19: I managed a quick watercolour and ink of some Crocus to add to my Snowdrops.

Day 20: Was a very quick water colour pencil drawing, I'm really struggling to keep up with everything at the moment.

Day 21: Is another old drawing from last year inspired by my favourite view from the house.

With my low energy levels I've really struggled to keep up with this project, producing a drawing each day has been impossible with my current levels of illness, so I've had to include some older pieces hopefully that's OK as it's the best I can manage at the moment.

21 down 7 more drawing to go.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Five on Friday (2)

Hello.......... Today I'm going to be joining in with Amy's Five on Friday. Life with a Chronic illness is pretty tough and you try to do anything that might improve symptoms.  For many years now I've been trying to eat a healthy diet in the hope, it might help me recover.

In a way it is helping, as last Summer I had a very bad brush with Diabetes, that was very rare and very odd effectively my pancreas just stopped working for about 3 months, which was a bit of a shock, but by the time all the tests came back and I was give a glucose monitor and about to start on insulin, my levels were back to normal, spontaneous recovery in Diabetes is rare (mostly unheard of)

Since then I've been baffling doctors, who say even though my levels are back to normal ' I must be a diabetic', as when I had a glucose challenge test, the result were really bad and I was brought in to the hospital again to start insulin, only for my home monitor readings to be checked and be fine.   So eating clean appears to be keeping me off insulin and long may that continue. Fingers crossed at some point they will figure out what's going on as at the moment it's not even clear what type of Diabetes I have.

So today for my five things I thought I'd post about eating clean, I mostly eat a organic diet with lots of fresh vegetables, I eat fish and chicken, no red meat, I don't eat any yeast (bread how I miss you) and I eat very limited wheat and dairy, I could do better, but life's for living so I'm the first person to admit to the occasional slip, so my first picture is a quick shot of the pantry. Lots of nuts and seeds, quinoa, almond flour and lovely raw cacao powder and some sneaky brown rice pasta on the upper shelf.

Picture two, is a soup from last Saturday, Roasted Red Pepper, Tomato and Red Onion with Cannellini beans, which was really yummy we always make a big batch and put some in the freezer for days when I don't have the energy to get out of bed let alone think about food.

As I said I don't eat much dairy, but I do occasionally have a organic natural yogurt, along with lots of probiotics as I've been taking antibiotics since 2008 for suspected Lyme disease. It's a tricky one as I have not recovered on them, but I am better while taking them and relapse further without. I think they are keeping it at bay rather than killing it. If that's even what I have, I still don't have a definitive diagnosis, It could be Lyme disease, my official diagnosis was ME/CFS (but now that doesn't fit) or it could be a yet to be discovered autoimmune condition, the doctors just don't know, any road I've got a bit off track, this was breakfast one morning in the week yogurt, cherries almonds and mixed seeds.

Another thing that is recommended for Lyme Disease is bone broth, so when we have a roast on Sundays we always make stock and soup the next day, this was chicken noodle, I've shared the recipe 'here'

I eat lots of soups and salads as they are easy and good for you this was yesterdays lunch, Salmon Salad with green beans.  I've been struggling a lot this week with this continuing relapse plus a six hour round trip for a hospital appointment, so there has been lots of soups as they are easy to eat in fact when I looked back at the photo's of the week I could have done a entire post just on soup as I've eaten it most days.

So that's my five things for this week, wishing you a wonderful week ahead.

Clare xx

Granny Flower Bunting

Hello.......... Todays the day this make gets a Ta-Dah moment at last!!

It's something that's been sitting around for a while, in fact I first blogged about it 'here' in June 2013 eek, when I made some Granny Bunting for Yarndale and decided to make some for the Summerhouse too.

I used Lucy's wonderful pattern and various seaside shades of Stylecraft Special DK to make the bunting, edging each with a row of single crochet in a complimentary colour.

I played around with a few flower patterns to add to the bunting but in the end opted for 'Emma's' wonderful flat flower pattern. I made the flowers up to match the borders of my bunting triangles and then added cute buttons.

Before stitching them onto the bunting. To hang the bunting I just made a long chain and threaded it through, catching the triangles at the corners with a few stitches to hold them in place.

Ta-Dah

My Granny Flower bunting, which I've decided will also be going into the Local Craft Exhibition at the end of the month, for the theme of Fantasia, aka 'Waltz of the Flowers Bunting'.

Here it is hanging up, I found it quite tricky to photograph with all the dull weather we've had this week.

So one old WIP completed, so far so good with the New Years Resolution to dig some of them out and finally get them finished.

 2013-2015 to make one bunting eeek !!!

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Five on Friday (1)

Hello........ Today I thought I'd join in with 'Amy' and her Five on Friday link up, I've never joined in before so this week I though I'd share five things from my week.

This week I have been eating  Deliciously Ella Energy Bites, you can find the recipe 'here' these came in very helpful last week as my energy levels were at zero with this current relapse really flaring up.  They are so yummy and helped me resist reaching for the chocolate. Thankfully the joint pains, fever and inflammation have started to settle again now, I think it might have been a Herxheimer reaction from the Lyme treatment, being ill really is no fun.

This week I have been listening to Jason and Pharis Romero, such wonderful harmonies and playing. After spending several days in bed I was lucky enough to be able to go and enjoy some wonderful live music.

This week I have been delivering parcels

containing yarny goodness, my first ever crocheted Baby Blanket you can read more about how I made it 'here'

This week I have also been sorting out  the yarn in the Summerhouse, yes the craft supplies were getting a bit out of control.What I really wanted was to have the yarn on display on the shelves but being out in the garden the Summerhouse is prone to insects and spiders so in the end I opted for storage draws as no one want cobwebs in there yarn. So that's the first couple full, still lots more sorting to do.

Last but not least this week I have been happy to see the mini iris starting to flower in the garden hopefully Spring is on the way.

Well that's my week pretty much summed up, despite feeling pretty rotten at times I have achieved some things and I'm please to say that I've been feeling much better over the last couple of days  so things are looking up.

Happy Crafting 

Clare x

Cosy Baby Blanket Ta-Dah

Helllo.......... I'm a little bit excited about today's Ta-Dah as it's signals the completion of my first ever crocheted blanket yay skippy happy. Yes I've started a few blankets over the years but this is the first one I've finished.

The inspiration for this blanket came from it's bigger sister my 'Seaside Pebble Blanket'

that I started working on toward the end of last year. While crocheting away I started thinking this would make a lovely Baby blanket if I removed the browns and added in a few more turquoises.

So just before Christmas I ordered some yarn and set to work,

using Lucy's over at Attic 24 'Cosy Stripe pattern' I simply started with a foundation change of about 85cm (hoping that was baby sized) and off I went.

Alternating two rows of Stylecraft Special DK with one row of lovely sparkly yarn.  I'm hoping this blanket is fairly unisex, with it's silvers, whites, neutral tones and shade of aqua and turquoise. I've fallen a little bit in love with this colour mix, which my sister has named the 'Frozen' blanket ( I hope you're not now singing the song!!)

So here's what I used.

Stylecraft Special DK in 

Sherbet

Parchment

Cream 

Silver

White

James C Brett Twinkle in

White TK2

Silver TK8

Turquoise TK17

Silvery Blue TK18

The silvery blue yarn is gorgeous and I think I'm going to add some into the mix for my Seaside Pebble blanket too.

Then it was onto the edge, at first I considered adding a shell edge to the blanket but in the end

I decided to go with the same border Lucy uses on her Cosy Stripe Blanket which I think turn out really pretty.

Ta-Dah

one completed Cosy Stripe Baby Blanket.

I'm so please I finished it before the little one arrives, so it's back to the 'Seaside Pebble' now to try and get that finished.  I'm turning 40 this year and have made a list of 40 things I want to do or achieve, one was finished a crocheted blanket so I can tick that one off the list.

I'm not sure if anyone will want a list of the colour order for this one, but if you do let me know and I'll do a separate post, I basically made it up as I went but I did make a note of them before giving the blanket to my friend.

 

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

28 Drawings later (week two)

Hello......... So it's week two of the February art challenge I'm joining in with over on Facebook.  It's been a struggle at times this week as I've had a major flare up of symptoms and my joints are not very happy at all but here's what I came up with.

Day 8: I drew this goose in water colour pencil and ink, it's not that great but I was feeling pretty rotten.

Day 9: A colour pencil landscape

Day 10 Another landscape, I love using purples and magenta in my landscapes.

Day 11: A spot of still life

Day 12: A very quick pencil and ink, why waiting to go to doctors, was feeling really rough hence how shaky it is in places.

Day 13: I only had the energy for a quick pencil sketch of a mini daffodil today

Day 14: Is this weeks cheat, it's a watercolour and ink I painted this time last year but I thought it would be perfect for valentines day.

Well that's about it, you can see what I got up to in week one of the 28 Drawing Later challenge 'here'  I'm ever hopeful for better energy levels and health this coming week and of course some drawing inspiration.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Fantasia Wreath

Hello......... A few weeks ago I was pondering over the themes for our Craft Club exhibition ad suddenly realised that it wouldn't take too much work to convert my Wintertime wreath to fit the theme of Fantasia.

I watched some clips of the movie online and hatched a plan.

So  first off I started to dewinter the wreath removing the berries, little bird and teal baubles. Ready to start pinning all things fantasia. 

You see most of what I needed was already there on the wreath Waltzing flowers and snowflakes, little mushrooms and swirling leaves, I just needed to add a few more things and I'd be done.

So I needed dancing snowflakes

For which I added extra felt snowflakes with a little bead in the centre for some sparkle

I needed  a Fantasia Fairy too

Who I found ready and waiting for a wreath adventure on the blossom tree lights in my room

and of course lots and lots of cute little mushrooms.

You remember them from the Waltz of the flowers right! so cute ! 

So it was time for the fun bit putting it all together.

  Shall we go on a little tour,

Here's the bottom half of the wreath with it's fantasia fairy (who's looking right at home already) and of course lots of added snow flakes and sequin flowers,

On the sides of the wreath I've added groups of little mushrooms amongst the tinsel pom poms and flowers

The top of the wreath is pretty similar other than adding some snowflakes to try and cover the holly berries in the hope the leaves will look a bit like the dancing thistles.

Ta-Dah

My fantasia wreath, just a subtle change really from the Wintertime wreath but hopefully it works. So that's one more thing finished for the Exhibition which starts at the end of the month, still lots to finish off though.

It's all mask making and bunting finishing here at the moment.

Happy Crafting 

Clare x