Happy Mothers Day!

Mothers Day here in the UK this year was a warm sunny event but annoyingly I was still laid up in bed with this stupid bug that's been lurking about however by the afternoon and a good dosing of meds I managed to make it up to see my own Mum.

I wanted to give her something that shows I care rather than just buying her a bunch of flowers or some boring old chocolates, so I decided to make her something especially for her.  This time of year, spring, is just beautiful in the UK, the weather is improving and if you dodge the April showers, the days are getting longer and warmer. The hedgerow song birds chirp out a happy melody and the spring flowers are popping up all along the way.

I love being outside at this time of the year, the warmer air, the buzz of bees, cows back in the fields and the promise of hotter weather on the horizon are all good for the soul! And of course Jasper pup thinks so too as it means more walkies!

I think spring flowers are just beautiful, so delicate and well just "happy" but my favourite has to be the daffodil, throughout the whole of spring, I have daffy's in my living room window, they're just so bright, happy and welcoming, and my very favourite of the spring blooms.

My Mum and daffodils make me happy so I decided to put the two things together to make her something really special for Mothers Day, and with the help of Lucy's Blog at Attic 24 I made some beautiful daffodils

Very easy to make, and as you would expect from a Lucy tutorial, very easy to follow, but the result is fabulous. What this picture doesn't show (this is after I blocked the petals) is the sweet little fluted effect on the trumpet that you get on real daffodils.

I added some buttons to the insides of the trumpets to embellish them and then put the whole thing together on a white wicker heart

Her favourite colour is green so I this tied in nicely with green buttons and ribbon and it sat with the yellow of the daffodils really well, and it was especially lucky that the heart in the middle which says "best Mum" was green too. I hadn't planned it really, but it all came together beautifully and she was very pleased with it.

It's got me onto thinking about making one of those beautiful wreaths that Attic 24 is so well known for, perhaps all my favourite springtime flowers and a couple of chirping birds to remind me how great spring is when we're in the depths of a gloomy winter?

Long time no blog.............

It feels like forever since I last blogged, but I've been incredibly I'll with the nastiest bug. I realised its probably been hanging on since the beginning of the year and 4 months on I'm still doing battle with it. I am however starting to feel a little more human even if my brain feels like its full of cottage cheese and thought it was about time I updated my blog.

After the disaster with the market, I decided to turn those bitter lemons into sweet lemonade and hatched a plan. I'd consider myself a bit of a passivist and would like to consider myself as also a bit of a philanthropist. I could never be a hard nosed business woman stepping on whoever gets in the way whilst climbing to the top. I'd rather do good by good people and have a conscience I can live with. I was incredibly hurt and upset with the cut throat way the whole market business was conducted in, it felt like they had no care that a family with a special needs child had spent all their very hard saved for savings on stock before telling them 10 days before the start of the market that they didnt have a stall, and when I wrote to them explaining the whole situation they didn't even grace me with an acknowledgement, but on a positive note,  it made me even more determined to succeed in a compassionate manner.

Luckily a friend from years back had witnessed via my protestations on Facebook and also felt I had been treated very badly and offered me the function room of their Inn free of charge so I could set up a craft fair. As you can imagine I was absolutely over the moon! My initial plan was to hire a hall and split the cost of the hire between any local crafters who wanted a stall, but then Simon jumped in with his offer. It was never my plan to make anything from holding the fairs, I just wanted an opportunity to sell my items at a reasonable price as everywhere I looked, stalls were so much. So now we have a venue for a regular craft fair on the first Saturday of every month (April's is on the second Saturday as a friend is hosting one this Saturday) and as the hall hire is free, I've asked each stall holder to contribute £5 for their stall and each month am going to give the proceeds to a local charity.  This sits well with me as it helps others already trying to help the less fortunate, and gives local crafters and artists a chance to sell their goods at a reasonable price. 

So despite feeling rough, rough, rough, this week I've dosed up on meds and worked really hard, all of which would not have been possible without Skye's invaluable help!!!!!!

And I think I'm finally ready to rumble

Boxes and boxes of stock, over 100 balls of yarn, 2000 buttons, fat quarters, threads, ribbons, pins, scissors, poppers, sem rippers, stitch markers and everything else precious stashed in my tower of boxes. I'm really excited and really hoping this is the start of my dream of running a craft shop and gallery to display local crafters work, with a studio attached so I can share my skills to teach others what I love best! 

When life gives you lemons................

I'm feeling rather fed up with life at the moment, it's one of those periods where just about everything seems to be going wrong  :0(

I received a phone call on Friday evening that absolutely knocked me sideways and has really left me reeling. As you probably know from my previous posts I've been really really exited about my new community project and accompanying market stall, in fact the last 3 months of my life have revolved around researching it planning it, choosing the best suppliers etc and then with one phone call to tell me there had been a mistake, the town hall clerk shouldn't have told me I had a stall, it was down to the market committee to decide and they'd decided someone else could have the stall, everything came crashing down. All my well laid plans now lie in tatters and the dream of starting my own little local business gone. 18 months of hard saved savings, spent on stock that is no good to me now. Completely derailed is an understatement :0( 

The saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade and after a weekend of despair (what am I supposed to do with £800 of stock tailored for a little town market stall) I have picked myself up, dusted myself off and.......................... Shelved everything, for now.   After the health problems I've had the past few weeks, some of which I can say was probably caused by the stress of trying to get a business started, I have decided to be kind to myself and give it all a rest for a bit and go back to what I know and love and what makes me happy, crochet, sewing, crochet, sewing! And then when I've made enough lovely things, I'll run a few little craft fairs in the summer for me and my fellow crafters to sell our wares.

I've decided to forget about the town hall, forget about the committee that has destroyed my all plans, forget about the market and for now forget about the craft group and instead use those lemons to make medicinal lemonade and get myself back up on my feet and firing on all four cylinders. I truly believe everything happens for a reason, at this moment in time, that reason is unclear as yet, but in time I know it will reveal itself when the time is right.

What a disaster!

Note to self: Do not ignore a headache

I wish I'd taken my own advice as I very nearly caused myself a major problem. If you remember back along I was complaining of a pain in my neck and shoulder on the left hand side that was really painful. I thought it was just a pulled muscle or I'd slept funny, then I kept suffering with the worlds worst headaches and was taking to bed early every evening as nothing was helping to ease the pain, then my left arm kept going numb and tingly, yet I still ignored it. Well on Wednesday after a fabulous walk along the beach with Jasper dog I experienced excruciating stabbing pains in my head, started being sick and was terrified by what seemed like a shower of glittery iron filings slid down the side of my eyes. I don't remember driving home but headed straight for the doctors surgery who immediately sent me to the emergency admissions unit where they performed a lumbar puncture and brain scan and discovered the source of my pain. 

(How about this for a bruise! This is where they did the lumbar puncture, it got worse and went through a beautiful range of rainbow colours but now is starting to fade.)

And what a good job they did, I have been suffering with chronic migraine which contributed to intracranial hypertension for several weeks and had it been left, long term could have seriously damaged my eyesight. Now who feels like an idiot! Why oh why did I leave it so long, but then again, who dashes to casualty with just a headache? I guess I just thought it was maybe a stress type tension headache as my eldest is waiting for heart surgery for the third time on his mitral valve, and my youngest is waiting on an appointment at Great Ormond Street for his genetic anomaly, and both of these have been playing on my mind somewhat.

So after 5 days of morphine, anti-sickness drips, rehydration fluids and bed rest they have finally discharged me home and I am trying to take it easy. What a palava, and next time I will take my health far more seriously!

To be fair, I did feel very rough and I must have been bad as although my husband brought my crochet in for me, I just couldn't concentrate on it and completely lost all interest in it. Wow, serious alarm bells ringing when I don't want to crochet!

Since being home I've picked up a project that I started before I got ill and have been slowly plodding along with it, but to be really honest I'm a bit fed up with it, I think it's more me than the pattern, I'm sure if I felt 100% I'd be brimming with my usual enthusiasm for it. When I saw this beautiful bear I just had to make one.

Isn't she beautiful! She's Lollo the African flower bear by Heid Bears.  She has a lovely blog which is really worth a peruse but beware it will make you want to make everything!

So far I have done my body

And my head

She's still waiting for her eyes, but I can't drive due to my stupid head at the moment so I'll have to get them later, and my little man insisted I use a black bear nose as it looked like Jasper dog's!

And I've just started on her left foot

I bought a big batch of unbranded bamboo yarn for my stall, but when it arrived I realised I hadn't read the details properly and what I thought was DK was actually 4 ply. I panicked a bit, thinking people wouldn't want to buy 4 ply so I decided to make Lollo out of it to show my customers how lovely it is when worked up. It is soooooooo soft and smooth and such a joy to work with, it's 70% bamboo and 30% pure cotton and just beautiful. As it's un branded by the manufacturer and the care label is completely in Chinese have had to put my own labels on it. I'm working it on a 3mm clover amour hook. The pattern calls for lots of different little crochet hooks which I didn't have and in my haste just wanted to get going so decided to do it all on a 3 and its coming out OK, I'm sure the designer would want to shoot me though!

If you would like to make a Lollo you can purchase the pattern very reasonably on ravelry:

http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/lollo-the-african-flower-bear

And the blog can be found here:

http://heidibearscreative.blogspot.co.uk

Enjoy! Xx

Still no photo's but some exciting news

I am so excited that the second part of my plan has finally come together and I can share it with you, but alas still no photo's yet as I spent all day yesterday sorting out the under stairs cupboard and the shed to make room for.................................................................... My stock!

I am so pleased, I have been allocated a little market stall at the traditional, market town, market, which starts on the 18th of March in our little town. It's a very old right and tradition that had fallen by the wayside over the years but has now been reinstated by the town council and I've got a stall there every Tuesday for 5 hours. I'm so pleased as its always been a dream of mine to run my own craft shop and have a studio where I can display local people's work and run classes from. Up until now it's remained a dream due to family commitments and lack of cash! But now I can finally see the  flicker of a beginning of a dream.

I've got all sorts of haberdashery items: thread, needles, felt, thimbles, tape measures, gorgeous ribbons, pins, scissors, pinking sheers, etc. I've also got loads of beautiful fat quarters that I just want to keep for myself!  But my absolute favourite item to shop for was my yarn and needles and hooks. Imagine my delight (and my husbands despair) when 2 enormous, and I mean enormous boxes arrived full to bursting with delicious yummy scrummy yarn!!!! I just wanted to take all my clothes off and dive in!!!!!!  (For any potential customers you'll be pleased to know I resisted the urge!). I've got knitting needles in every size possible from minuscule to huge, cable, circular and sock and crochet hooks by the spillion in lots of delicious colours, types and sizes. I am one happy bunny!!!!

My plan is to put some of the profit into repurchasing new stock and the rest into a savings account so that once my boys have decided to stop running me ragged with worry (my eldest needs a third heart op and my youngest has a form a skeletal Dysplasia, epilepsy and hypotonia) I can open my dreamed of craft shop. I'm thinking on a 5 year time time scale which hopefully will give me enough savings to open without the need for a business loan. I was horrified when I realised how much you'd need to pay back on a loan and then with rent to consider its no wonder many businesses just fail to make it past the starting line no matter how good the idea.

So there it is, my long held dream is finally becoming a reality and I am so excited to be starting on it, now to decide how to display all that fabulous stock of mine, it's like being a child playing at shops!

Exciting news

Wow, I feel like I haven't blogged for ages but in my defence I have a very good reason, I mentioned in my last post that I had some exciting news but was just waiting on the final confirmation and now I have it so can finally reveal my plans.

In the little town where we live is a beautiful old Town Hall that houses a museum, a town office, a ball room and has an undercroft (a sort of roofed open air area) and a "Shambles" that up until now has been open to the elements and so called because the upper building over hangs part of it. The building itself is very large and imposing and gives the air of belonging to a very large town when in fact our little town is relatively small and probably only just scrapes in as a definition of a town rather than a large village

The town hall has recently been undergoing some refurbishment to the Shambles, to take it from an open air area to a beautiful glass roofed meeting room. It's hard to see it on the picture above, the area to the front behind the columns is the under croft and then behind this is the town hall office and the shambles.

For ages I have searched for a local social group where I can meet like minded crafters to share ideas and skills and have a general chit chat. As you may have probably gathered, I'm a bit if a social recluse, big social events aren't my thing, I just don't enjoy them, in fact they positively terrify me! I also have a hearing loss due to loud tinnitus for which I have to wear hearing aids and I find I just can't follow conversations in noisy social gatherings and it just makes me feel silly keep asking people to repeat things over and over again or just smiling and pretending I've got the jist of what's being said when really I don't have a clue! I guess some people are social butterflies and some just aren't, and I fall into the latter group that prefers a smaller social interaction.  

Anyways back to what I was saying, I hadn't been able to find a crafty group and during a craft event at our local church in the summer I was discussing this with people there and discovered the only thing available craft wise was the U3A (university of the 3rd age) which is aimed a retirees of which I am not! I was also talking to a lovely lady who oversees the town council and she told me about the shambles and suggested I created my group and met there once the renovation was complete. First of all I dismissed it, then I thought "why the hell not?!" And it is with great pleasure that I can finally announce that my new craft and create social group starting in March!  I'm really excited, it will be on a Monday morning for 3 hours and I've planned it as a not for profit group, thinking I'll just charge £3 per person each week which will cover the cost of hiring the shambles for the session and provide refreshments. 

I'm really hoping it'll take off, if it does I'd like to start some more groups in the surrounding villages as I'm sure there are probably many like minded people there too, and worryingly probably some lonely older people as well, who would appreciate a weekly get together, we're quite rural here and the transport links aren't great so something like a morning group could be just the thing.  Although crafting is very in vogue at the moment, it did drop from fashion for a while and has seen a decline over the past few decades with the invention of modern materials and quick ways to make clothing and home wears etc and I fear if we don't act now, some of the experience and skills held by older folk won't be passed on and could be lost forever. They have something very valuable to pass onto us younger folk and it would be a dreadful shame not to learn from their experience.

I also have another piece of exciting news, but I want to take some pictures to show you so I'll keep you hanging on until I've done so! It won't take long and I'll try to do it today.

Ta ta for now! X

Super Sample Blanket Update 2

I've really been struggling with the dregs of the stupid cold I had but thankfully now I think it's finally making an exit as I'm starting to feel human again, my shoulder seems to be on the mend too, but I fear it may be the very thing I love that is causing the problem :0(   I really am worried it's holding my shoulder in the same position whilst crocheting that is causing the problem. I had a good massage and my Aunt showed me some Pilates moves that have helped but I am thinking I might ask for some physio to see if that can help, in the meantime I'm just taking it steady, even though that is far easier said than done!

I've done a bit more to my Super Sample Blanket, gradually plugging away at it and adding a few rows here and there, it's grown a bit since I last showed you. I was following Another Vegetarian's colour scheme and patterns, but as I thought might happen it's developing into my own version of it and I'm happy with how it's coming along.........

Some of the rows look a bit wobbly wobbly in the photo's but its mainly due to being folded up on my kitchen table, however I do think it might need some blocking once its finished to completely straighten it out.

I also have a work-in-progress (WIP) for an exciting project that I'm just waiting for final confirmation on and then I'll tell you all about it. I'm so excited about it and can't wait to share!

I've started a baby cot blanket following a pattern I have in one of my books

I'm really into this blanket and enjoying this variation on the granny square, you may notice that there are 4 of the green, orange and red squares and only 3 of the yellow. I took the yellow ones with me while I waited at the leisure centre for Little H's gym class so that I could put the cream border on them, but to my utter frustration I discovered I'd left my crochet hook at home so couldn't work on it, then to make a bad situation even worse, I think I lost a yellow one whilst I was there. I'm going to call back in tomorrow morning to see if I can locate the runaway square, but in the meantime I've advanced 4 more levels on Pet Rescue Saga instead!!!!!!!!

I finally finished my patchwork cushion and I have to say I am suitably proud of it, I stitched it all together and sat it pride of place on the sofa where I can admire it.

I just love my "Boo" Bunny

And I think the rustic style hearts finish the corners off well.

As for the weather................... Well I live in Somerset, what more can I say other than amber weather warnings and torrential rain! I've built the Ark, think I'll start loading it on Sunday!

                                                            x - o - x - o - x - o - x