Mindfulness Photography

Hello........ Over the past week I've been taking part in a Mindfulness Photography project over on Facebook, so I thought I would also share the photographs here on my blog.

Living with a Chronic illness can make life very tough and sometimes it's hard to find the joy in the day to day of life, so that's why I joined up to the Mindfulness Photography project.

Here's a description of the project.

'All you do is take 5 photos in one week, of things in life which make you feel Grateful, Happy Loved or Valued.  They can be absolutely anything, small or large, anything which makes you who you are or puts a smile on your face'              

So here are my photo's

 Image one: I made this Poppy last weekend, it sums up in so many ways why I'm grateful. I made this Poppy for a good friend and popped a £1 in the Poppy appeal box

 Image two: We picked the last of the pears from the garden this weeks, it makes me happy to grow things, mother nature never fails to amaze me. The sun was so low in the sky it cast such pretty light through the colander.

 Image three: On Monday we had a day of rain, I caught this image just as the rain stopped, the clouds broke just as the the sun was setting, so beautiful after a stormy day

 Image four: is my lovely Merlin, he always keeps me company and makes me smile, the weather turned colder this week, but he found a way to keep warm hunkering down inside the duvet, with extra blanket, I think he's got the right idea he spent most of the day like this purring and snoozing, at the grand old age of 15, I figure why not!

 Image five : I took this one this morning while I was playing, music makes me happy and keeps me sane, even though I can only play a few minutes at a time. I'm so grateful that I am able to write, sing and play again. Don't know where I'd be without music in my life.

By the end I had seven photo's in total for my week, as I took one a day, so here are the other two with my reasons.

Image Six: Blue sky and sunshine, this time of year it's always wonderful, to get a sunny blue sky day but even more so for me, as it make me so skippy happy.  As I mentioned earlier living with a chronic illness is not a lot of fun.  I used to love being out in the sun so much, to feel the warmth on my skin.  But the treatment I am having for my suspected Lyme Disease means for most of the year when the sun is at it's strongest I have to stay out of it, as one of the drug side effects is a allergy to sunlight.

Between November and March I'm able to tolerate the weaker sunlight so it makes me so happy when the sun shines, as you can imagine in Summer it's really miserable to have to cover up and avoid the sun, a life in the shade is just no fun.

Image 7: This is a picture of my lunch yesterday,  it was really yummy mackerel salad with lemon, I try to eat as clean a diet as possible, in the hope it may help me recover. That's my new mantra to 'Live as clean a life as possible' to give my body the best chance of beating this illness.

Lots of rest, healthy foods, meditation and creativity all have a part to play in this, as well as Yoga I'm trying to get back into that, I have DVD for people with fatigue which is tailored for people with ME and I managed 3 minutes of the stretching and breathing section two times this week resting the two days in between, I'm hoping to be able to slowly build it up from there.

Well thanks for taking the time to have look at my week of Mindful Photography, what pictures would you have chosen from you're week?

Clare xx

October's Mosaics

Hello........ as always I'm running behind, here's last months little round up. Thanks for all the lovely comments left on my last post. I'll get round to typing up the pattern for the dreamcatcher as soon as I can.

October was quite a busy month here at the Summerhouse lots of yarniness from finishing my Autumn wreath to spooky a Halloween make as well as plodding along with my blanket and flower scarf, you'd think I'd learn to stick to one project at a time, but no that's not for me.

Talking of the wreath I hope you don't mind but I thought maybe it deserved it's own  mini mosaic, I'm so pleased with how it turn out.  It's still currently my favourite of all my wreaths but I'm sure that will change in a few weeks time when I put the Wintertime one back up, me fickle never !!!

With all the lovely mild Autumn days the garden was still blooming marvellous in October, so much colour still going on, just the way I like it.

Now my new years resolution to try and do a bit of art each month has all gone a bit awry,  to tell the truth I've just not been well enough, last month I just shared a image from a colouring book and this month it's worse still.

I've not managed anything at all, so I thought instead I'd share a couple of old pictures that kind of fit the month.

The first is a coloured pencil sketch of some pears from the garden from a couple of years ago.

The second picture is a water colour, from a magazine painting course I followed a few years back, seeing as we went to Hastings for the weekend last month, it's kind of fitting.

This months I'm going to try my best to do some art, but I have a lot of medical appointments coming up so we'll just have to see.

The Year in Books:

I did however finish my October read 'Thirteen Moons' by Charles Frazier written in the form of a memoir it tells the tale of a young boy sent out into the wilderness in  19th century America to run a out post store, where he is adopted by a Native American chief.  The book is bitter sweet sometimes funny but often harrowing in it's descriptions of how the tribes were forced out of there homelands.  I loved all the descriptions of the beautiful mountains forests, scenery and wilderness survival.

Seeing as we are getting toward the end of the Year in books, I decided Novembers book is going to be a bit of a guilty pleasure read.  I have to confess to a bit of a liking for a trashy vampire book.  

This book however written by a author of vampires books is about faeries, a stand alone book so I don't have to think about getting into a whole series. I know I'm way to old for Fairy tales, but I just don't care it's cold and wet and winter like outside, and I have lots of medical tests and appointments ahead of me, so  I figure now is the perfect time for a bit of a easy read and some escapism.

Joining in with The year in books

Wishing you all a wonderful November

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Sweet Dreams are made of this.....

Hello.......... Last week I had a phone call from a friend asking if I could crochet her little girl a dreamcatcher.  'Err yes !!'  was my reply while thinking, I have no idea how to make one but there must be a way.

You see this little girl 'C' who I'm Guide Mother to has been having some very bad dreams lately. So it was time to put my crafty thinking cap on and see if I could help chase those nightmares away.  Surely there must be a way to crochet a dreamcatcher. 

But where to start, my first line of thinking was they are kind of like a Mandala, right??

So disclaimer time, in no way is this going to be a traditional dreamcatcher, just a bit of yarny goodness with good intent.

So after a bit of looking about online trying to find a pattern, without any luck I decided I was just going to have to make it up as I went along.

As I said I was thinking Mandala's but it needed to be more lacy and web like. So after playing around one afternoon, last week I came up with this.

Next up, I needed some sort of ring, so I used what I had, the inner part of a six inch embroidery hoop,

Next I tried to figure out how to attach it to the hoop, first I tried to crochet it on but it was just too tricky so in the end I just threaded the yarn through the crocheted loops and around the ring trying to keep the tension steady so it was evenly spaced.

Yippee, from this working prototype I could see it would work as a concept, hopefully!!

So I took it apart again and set to work covering the hoop. I simply wound some turquoise yarn around the hoop holding it in place with some double sided tape at the beginning and end before tying in place but not cutting the yarn end.

Then using the same yarn,  I placed the crocheted web into position and wound  the yarn around threading through each of the loops on the last round of crochet. Tying it off at the end and leaving a loop to hang it by. (Sorry about the lighting in some of the shots, the grey days of November are truly upon us)

After a bit of online research I discovered that every Dreamcatcher needs some beads and feathers. 'C's' favourite colours are blues and turquoise's hence the colour scheme so I added some blue metallic beads to the centre of the dreamcatcher.

Next up were the feathers eek, how was I going to manage that in crochet.  I thought about adding some actual feathers but I one, I didn't have any and two, I'm not so keen on dyed feather I think they can look a little on the tacky side. 

So in the end I knitted two feathers using a leaf pattern I have and hopefully turned upside down they look a little like feathers

I then crocheted three chains and added a few more beads before stitching the feathers into place.

Now do you remember the flower from last weeks post 'here' well now you know what I was making.

After adding a cute little button I stitched it to one of the chains

 The feathers and flower were to attached to the bottom of the hoop, simply just tying them into place

Ta-Dah

My Dreamcatcher was complete. It's all ready now to go off in the post, hopefully keeping the nightmares at bay and only bringing the sweetest of dreams.

 I'm not sure if anyone else would like to make one, but if so, leave a comment and I write the pattern up and share it in a separate post.

'

I've almost finished 'Thirteen moons Octobers read and so far I'm enjoying it, plus I nearly finished it on time,  joining in with Ginny's 'Yarn Along'

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

This Week

Hello........ I hope you are enjoying the weekend? Todays posts is a little round up of what been occuring at the Summerhouse.

This passed week has seen me start on yet another project. Not another WIP I here you cry, well this one is a very special one and from this little bit of it, I'll bet you'll never be able to guess what I'm attempting to make.

A week with pretty flowers from the farm shop, such a lovely surprise when my sister turned up with them.

There have been Pumpkins and croaking frog to spook the neighbourhoods trick and treaters, yes the frog has a motion sensor  and ribbits when anyone passes by.   My Dad got it years ago and used to love making people jump with it, so we  keep putting it out every Halloween, just as he would have done.

I've also been sorting out the Summerhouse a bit ready for Winter, removing some of the things to the house. When I realised I don't think I've got around to sharing this Spotty beauty on the blog.

It was my birthday present back in April to go with my New Sewing machine, a Button It box for the Summerhouse, I already have one by my bed but that's a long way from the Summerhouse when you're tired so this medium size box is perfect for  keeping some sewing bit in.  

Do you want a little peek inside?

It's just so pretty, with being so ill most of the year, I've not really been well enough to craft in the Summerhouse, so this box got a little forgotten I've not even got around to setting it up or using my new sewing machine.  Maybe next year I'll be a bit stronger.

Talking of health issues, well this week I went to see yet another Specialist this time a Endocrinologist. So I've lots more tests to be done. The good news is that my Diabetes has really improved to the point that my bloods show that I'm not Diabetic anymore.

It very unusual to say the least, to go from such a severe onset Diabetes, my blood sugars were as bad as they can get back in July yet three months later they are back in normal range, without any treatment so the thinking is it's autoimmune, so type 1 Diabetes? with a sudden remission, I really hope it stays that way.

So I'm ever hopeful with the tests we might be able to get to bottom of what wrong with me, as lots of my symptoms are autoimmune and inflammatory, so my previous diagnosis of ME is not really fitting anymore. As for whether it's Lyme Disease no one really knows.

Fingers crossed between the Endocrinologist, Immunologist and Cardiologist we can find out what's wrong. After all these appointments and tests I think a little treat might be needed, maybe something craft based............

We picked the last of the pears from the garden this week, you can see how low the sun is in the sky as it made such pretty patterns shining through the colander.

I've been flicking through the pages of this months Simply Crochet magazine

 Where I found the pattern for this Poppy

Also there was a delivery of some gorgeous new yarn, I'm a little bit in love with it, it's so soft and snuggly.

Well that's about all the happening from around here.

I hope you're week was a good one.

Linking up with Nicoles KCC0

Happy Crafting

Clare xx

Happy Halloween

Hello........ So the Pumpkins lit up and ready to go in the window

The dec's are up too (find out more about how I made the garland 'here' )

The real Pumpkin's been expertly carved by 'L' all by himself this year

He did such a great job.

The Cauldron's stocked and ready for the Trick and Treater's having fun.

and even Merlin has his pumpkin ready

So have a Perfect Pumpkin Halloween everyone.

( Just look at this one I think it might be perfect enough to magic up a Cinderella style carriage, now where did I put those mice!!)

Clare xx

Spooky Garland

Hello......... So we are getting around to that time of the year 'when things go bump in the night,' and this year I decided to hook up a Spooky Garland for Halloween.

It all started on Sunday evening when I was looking through my stash trying to come up with ideas for a gift, I was thinking of  making Stars and found this black sparkly yarn.

Not great for what I had planned but perfect for sparking a Halloween idea.

The Yarn is Wendy Supreme cotton dk and I used this super cute star pattern 'here' , from Sandra's lovely blog, her Twinkle Star pattern is so cute, and I'm longing to make a pastel garland of stars at some point but for now it's all about the Spooky.

Next up it was time for Pumpkins, these are made from Stylecraft Special DK. I found a wonderful tutroial on You Tube which you can find ''here' it a good one and really easy to follow.  

As I didn't have any orange yarn I used Saffron Special DK so hopefully it looks close enough to a pumpkin.  Although for reader in the UK and anywhere else in the world they sell them.  I keep thinking that they look kinda like  Jacob's Cheddars Biscuits, can you see it too or is it just me?

You know the ones I mean !!

Any road back to the garland.

Next up it was time for a Spooky Skull. Which I was so happy that I was actually able to make (yay my crochet skills were up to it) I followed this great tutorial 'here'  although I did change it quite a lot to get the size perfect for my garland, trial and error really, hence there only being one, as I doubt I could make another one to match, as part way through I basically just winged it.

Not to worry though as one is the perfect centrepiece for the garland.

So I made three cute little Cheddars I mean pumpkins, I did try to add a spooky face to one but it didn't turn out so great, so my Pumpkins are uncarved.  Then three Black and Silver Glittery stars plus a Spooky Skull in white glittery yarn from my stash and that was about it really.

To tell the truth it was tough to get this one done in time as we've had a bit of a week of it at the Summerhouse. You could say we've got Gremlins just in time for Halloween as the Phones Broadband and Washing Machine have all gone on the fritz this week. 

What with that, 'P' still recovering from eye surgery and me off to the Hospital to see yet another consultant  you could say it's been hectic, but I digress.

Ta-Dah

One Spooky Garland, about as far we've got with the Halloween decorations.  I simply threaded my makes onto some fine Silver Anchor Yarn and it was complete.

Wishing you all a happy or peaceful Halloween depending on if you celebrate, I know it's not everyone cuppa tea.

Happy Crafting

Clare xx