Midsummer's Butterfly

Hello........ Saturday afternoon in the Summerhouse and it was time for a new craft 'Decoupage'.

This little kit came with May 2013 Crafts Beautiful magazine, so it's been sitting around for a while now, waiting for me to get my 'Decoupage on'

I just love this paper soooo much, just my cup of tea, blues pinks and greens, it just sings summer to me, so it seemed like kismet to make my little butterfly in celebration of midsummer's day (this coming Wednesay) and tomorrows solstice (how can we be there already!!)

After watching this handy video I set too with the paper tearing.

It seems such a strange thing to tear up the pretty paper only to put it back together again, but hey ho, I guess that's Decoupage for you.

Then it was time for the gluing I thought I was going to get into a bit of a sticky mess with this, but thanks to the handy tips in the video it all went fairly smoothly and was actually quite relaxing.

In no time at all I'd covered the front of my Butterfly and it was time for a rest while the glue dried.

To cover the gaps left on the back I then cut some slightly narrower pieces

and glued them onto the reverse side of the butterfly.

Yay skippy happy, I just love this paper sooo much, (my brains a whirl thinking of what else I can cover with it)

I then added a few sparkles, once by butterfly was dry, I just couldn't resist !!!

The kit came with a pink ribbon, but I thought it might be a little too wide for such a dainty butterfly so I found a narrower ice blue ribbon from the Summerhouse ribbon draw, yay I love the ribbon draw nearly as much as the button tin.

 Ta-Dah

My Midsummer's Butterfly was complete.

Wishing you all a very happy peaceful midsummer/winter depending on hemisphere you are in.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Summer Ready..............

Hello........... Over the last few weeks we have being working on getting the Summerhouse garden Summer ready, with my health  being so poor over the last six months and 'P' injured things have slipped a bit.

So we've been planting up the hanging baskets

plus some new plants for the garden too, this is a replacement Clematis Montana, we used to have one that was stunning, covering one of the walls in the garden but we lost it a year so ago, so I'm really hoping this one is going to take,

mother nature has been quietly getting on without us and there are so many weeds, we don't really know where to start, there are some lovely treats too like this rose flowering amongst the forget me nots.

So it's time to reclaim the garden, even the Horse Chestnut tree beside the Summerhouse has had a bit of a trim, as the boughs were almost down to the ground.

Everything is just a bit out of control, although I am loving all the colour,

Even the weeds are pretty, not sure what this is but it's growing everywhere, walls, patio, pots and in the borders, it's a bit like the red weed from War of the World, only much prettier, think we might  leave it growing on the garden wall.

 We even have wild strawberries growing in the patio.

Some things are thriving on neglect, like the Roses

and Fuchsia

At least the Summerhouse border is now looking Summer ready, just ignore the broken trellis, I'm really not well enough to do anything about it at the moment.  Gardening with POTS  and ME/CFS is a tricky business, I've been sitting/lying on a blanket and doing two 5 minute sessions every few days, trying to keep my heart rate down and avoid a relapse.  It taken a few weeks but at least this border is now planted up.

I'm also working on getting the inside of the Summerhouse ready in 5 minutes slots,  tidying up the craft supplies but more on that another time.

I'm still having to spend the majority of the day in bed though, thankfully things are starting to improve, but it's slow going, at least the ice cream squares are a lovely yarny distraction, I'm trying not to think about everything else that needs doing.

Join in with five on friday

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Five on Friday

Hello....... It's five on a Friday time again. Today I thought I'd share with you a few Summerhouse happenings from the past week.

Finger crossed my energy levels are finally starting to pick up again, so I've been tackling the Summerhouse in ten minute slots.

I've also finally finished my first ever attempt at acrylics, I started this picture back in January before the relapse really kicked in and finished it off this week.

I've also started to learn a new musical instrument, I already play the guitar and mandolin and I really wanted to learn the banjo but with my joint pain I decided the banjo was going to be a bit of a struggle at the moment. We have a local Ukulele group in the town, which I went along to last week and a friend lent me her concert ukulele to see how I get on.

My Summertime wreath is back in town too, I've slowly been re pinning the flowers,

Talking of flowers I thought I'd share a mosaic of the magic Roses from our garden, I took a picture of the same rose each day as it transformed, I do love this Rose it's a Florabunda called Masquerade.

Well that's about it for this week, I'm so pleased that this relapse seems to be lifting after what was possibly the worst six months I've had with this illness, I see a local herbalist and at the moment it really seems to be helping, long may it continue.

Joining in with Amy  and KCCO

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Fox Birthday Card

Hello........... Today I thought I'd share with you a card making post as I've not done one for a while, to be honest I've not been making card lately, but this was a very special card for a little friend of mine who is a big fan of foxes.

I found the template for the cute little fox, in May's Crafts Beautiful magazine, then after a bit of a hunting through the crafts supplies I found the perfect foxy paper,  after that it didn't take long to cut out the pieces for my little fox.

I then cut some grass, with scalloped scissors using this cute daisy paper and glued it to the bottom of the card, before adding the fox

Piece by piece a bit like a jigsaw (with glue dots!!)

I then added a little sparkle, before drawing on some eyes.

Ta-Dah

My Foxy card was complete.

Linking up with KCCO

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Patchwork May

Hello........ Well May went by in a flash, I think I missed most of it as I spent the month feeling pretty rotten, medical mystery that I am, fingers crossed things are improving now and thankfully my pancreas seems to have perked up again.

So May, well there were lots of flowers here at the Summerhouse and lots of yarn too,  plus a wonderful trip to the magical Bluebell woods.

There was lots going on out in the garden, at least I'm pretty sure there was, I didn't make it outside that much, so I missed most of it. So when I came to make this mosaic there weren't too many photo's to choose from, but hopefully you get the gist of it, Bluebells and the first Roses of the year, plus the Horse Chestnut in the garden looking at it's very best in full of flower.

I'm still slowly working away on my Seaside Pebble Cosy blanket, above is a picture of the pebbles on our local beach, the inspirations for my blanket

Here are the latest rows to keep you up to date if you are following along

79-80 Cream

81-82 Brown Sparkle

83-84 Sherbet

85-86 Parchment

So June is here roll Summer!!

Happy Crafting 

Clare x

One I made earlier

Hello..... A couple of weeks ago I posted about these granny squares in this post, asking for ideas of what to make with them, a few of you suggested I make some cushions maybe for the garden and I really loved that idea.

 

 So I started playing around with the squares

and made a few more, but then I started to fall a little bit in love with the smaller version with there gentle colours.

So it came down to a decision between the already made granny squares

and these lovely little squares, made using the same pattern stopping at the third round, how I love there gentle ice cream colours. Decision made it was time for the frogging to begin.

As with most things in life it wasn't that easy as I discovered that the frogged squares had been stretched by the fourth round and were annoyingly that little bit too big compared to the new square's.

Here I was thinking this was going to be a quick little make.

Not so, I've had to frog the lot and start from scratch, but I think these little guys are well worth the extra work.

I just need to decide now if I want to add in these extra colours, decision decisions I'm just not sure.

Although they do look rather lovely with all the other colours, currently I'm leaning towards maybe just adding the brown, keeping in line with the ice cream theme, after all where would we be without chocolate ice cream.

The only plus side of frogging the lot are the cute little yarns balls.

I'll keep you posted as to what I decide about the colours, a big thank you to Mamas Mercantile and Gilly for the suggestion.

Just started my first read of the Summer, joining in with the Yarn Along.

Happy Crafting 

Clare xx