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.

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

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

Five on a Friday

Hello...............  Today I'm joining in with Amy's Five on a Friday, it's been a quiet week here at the Summerhouse.  I've been making a few more hearts for UNICEF and I even managed to make it to a heart making workshop for a hour yesterday, I might do another post with my new hearts in a few days, but I don't want to bore you all too much with it.

 I've not been feeling very well at all over the last few months, so over the weekend I decided I was going to do as little as possible, just rest, no crafting, just quiet and rest in the hope it might pull me out of this relapse.  Very boring but I thought it was worth a try, I've been reading lots about CFS/ME and Mitochondrial failure lately where they now think patients suffer two type of fatigue within the mitochondrial cells off the body and the medical research suggested that when you are bad,really bad, it's helpful to have complete rest for a couple of days to help the cells recover and I have to say my energy levels did pick up a little.

Enough that by Saturday night, I was able to cheat a little on the resting and spend ten minutes working on one of the songs, I've selected to record on my EP. In fact this week with the help of some friends I had managed to narrow down the options a little more and nearly have the final line up of songs.

Out in the garden nature never fails to amaze me, mid November and just look at this rose.

So we've covered resting, creativity, music and nature, what's left ah lovely healthy food to nurture, this was breakfast the other morning, organic yogurt, nuts, seed mix, chia seeds and lovely strawberries. Sometimes eating clean is not so very hard.

Hope you've all had a wonderful week.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork October

It's patchwork time again....

October was a mixed month here at the Summerhouse my health has taken a quite a nosedive so I've been struggling lots over the last few weeks, we also lost out lovely Dylan, who used to make life so much better, with his funny antics and cuddles.  Not a awful lot of crafting really but I did finished off my ice cream cushion, plus make some cards, as well as some top secret Christmas crafting. 

There has been lots of thinking and planning to do though, about a exciting project.  As some of you know I'm a folk singer/song writer and the plan was that this November I was going into the studio to record a EP.  Very exciting, so over the past few weeks I've been trying to select which songs to record, which is quite a tricky business, decisions decisions.  Sadly with my health in a full on flare, the recording date has had to be postponed at the moment as I'm struggling to even lift the guitar, but at least that gives me more time to decide on the songs.   So I'll keep you posted just need to get my joint pain under control and find some energy.

Out in the Summerhouse garden there is still lots of colour to be seen, as the Autumn so far has been so mild, yippee!!

Over on Instagram the month of October looked something like this, you can find my instagram page 'here'

So a sad farewell to our lovely crafting assistant, I'm really missing Dylan, it's so strange to have a house without any fur people in, since I was eight year old there has always been a cat or two around so losing both Merlin and Dylan in the last six months has been very hard.  They both lived good lives to grand old ages but are surely missed around the Summerhouse.

Now as for the Blog award and paying it forward, I've not forgotten, but I've just not been well enough to do it, I think this time reluctantly  I have decided not to forward on the award.  I'm just feeling too ill to cope with anything much at the moment.  So a big thank you to Sharon for nominating me and a bigger sorry for not being able to pay it forward.

Pesky Chronic illness, I'm hoping things will start to improve again soon for me as the dosage of my Lyme disease medication has been put back up. It was reduced on a consultants say so a couple of months ago, as the NHS would have you believe that there is no such things as Chronic Lyme disease and that it certainly doesn't need treatment. However my health falling to pieces seems to suggest it does exist (or least that I'm fighting some sort of infection that is effecting every part of my body and that this is not purely ME/CFS)   the treatment I was receiving before was at least holding it at bay.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Suffolk 2015

Hello....  Today's post is all about  a somewhat soggy Suffolk,

A couple of weeks ago I travelled to a very pretty village in Suffolk with some friends, 11 of us in total, six children including two cute as buttons babies for a fun filled holiday.

Day one the sun shone so brightly so we set off for the beach, crossing the cute little crabbing bridge

to get to the golden sands of Walberswick.

Where was paddles picniced and of course I took my crochet along.

The next morning was sunny too, and it was wonderful to practise some gentle yoga in the garden, enjoying the sun on my skin, a rare chance for me as one of my medications makes me allergic to the sun,  I was a treatment break especially to go away.

 Then the weather kind of broke, perfect for the ducks who live on

 the villages very pretty pond, but not so great for us.

So after that it was all about inside activities, for young and old alike, hedge row crumbles

A little bit of music

Warming homemade soups for lunch

Board games

and Play Doh,

 I was thrilled to discover they now make glittery Play Doh!! 

and some crafty upcycling, which you can read more about 'here'

The rain did stop occasionally and everyone was bundled into the car and off out for a walk in the woods.  I was happy just to admire the beautiful sight of Dunwich Heath from the shelter of the car.

Happily reading my book while the others were off exploring.

Then down to the beach, for the mini's to go fossil hunting,  while I happily sat listening to the waves crash to shore.

I had plenty of time to put my feet up and have a good rest too, while the other went for walks in the drippy drippy rain to help ease the mini's cabin fever.

 and of course there was plenty of crochet, we did go to the RSPB reserve at Minmere one day, which I'll share with you in a separate post

Then of course I managed my epic slip and fall, flip flops, wet decking and kitchen floors are a bad combo.  

Thanks for all the kind words, I had four X-rays taken today as it's still very painful.  Thankfully no broken bones, but I have damaged the ligaments, which are going to take 6-8 weeks to recover with the help of some physio.

What a wet old summer it has been here in the UK

Happy Crafting

Clare xx