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

An unhappy start to the new year :0(

The first few weeks of 2014 certainly have not been kind to me, I've had the most diabolical cold I've ever had the misfortune to catch which made me really poorly for well over a week, although thanks to the power of echinacea, sumbuccol, honey, lemon and ginger mine only lasted 9 days whereas my poor hubby who unwisely poo-poo'd my attempts to stop my cold in its tracks is now into his 3rd week of it and still rough. Then to add utter insult to injury the muscle in my shoulder went into spasm, I have never experienced pain like it, and have to admit I think it may have been worse than labour! Thankfully though I have an amazing Osteopath who worked hard on it and a very understanding GP who gave me kick ass pain killers and a tot of diazepam and it finally seems to be easing, but by gosh was it painful.

The weather here in good old Somerset is still diabolical and it is still raining! So many places are completely flooded out, some have even become marooned on islands of high ground amid metre deep floodwater unable to leave without the aid of a boat. I'm beginning to think that if we have much more rain poor Somerset will sink without trace beneath the waves never to be seen again and will become England's first Great Lake!!!!! 

Water, water and more water, far more water than you can shake a malacca stick at!

The upside to all this rain and pain, is that I've spent lots of days at home, sleeping, watching daytime TV, (what an eye opener that was!) and of course crafting. I finished the minion mittens to his masters exacting specifications: they had to be flip over at the top so he could use his fingers and he wanted his thumb sticking out, the minions had to be smiling and he wanted one of each, so with these instructions in mind I set to and brought a pair of minions to life...............

I handed them over in trepidation while little H with his very exacting standards inspected them carefully then he looked at me very very seriously and I was dreading hearing the words "I don't like them" but to my relief, he grinned from ear to ear and beamed, "I love them Mummy" and gave me a big sloppy 5 year old type of kiss and a fabulous great big hug, the kind that are reserved especially for Mummies :0) xx

I also wanted to try my hand at some patchwork, I used to do hexagon English paper piecing patchwork when I was about 18, it was my babysitting project that I took with me every time. If I dug around in the cupboard above the stairs I'm pretty sure it's still lurking in there, half finished, somewhere.

I had a bag of oddsies of fabric that I had saved for such a project, so whilst stuck at home not wanting to spread the evil cold about I decided to give it a go. I didn't really have much idea of what I wanted to do, all I knew was that I wanted a new cushion cover to replace the tatty one that kept letting the feathers out, so I just spread it all out on the floor and made it up as I went. 

I stitched all my squares together, and added a border and corner pieces. It looks great, the colours and patterns work well together and I was happy to leave it as it was and make it up into a cushion, then my friend showed me her Belle and Boo book Craft Book and I fell head over heals in love with Boo the rabbit. Its inspired from Mandy Sutcliffe's books about a little girl called Belle and her toy rabbit Boo and is absolutely delightful (yet another book to add to my 'I want' list) 

I particularly loved this picture of Boo

So here's the cushion cover so far:

And then decided I just had to add Boo as an applique onto my cushion. And Ta-Dah.........

Here's Boo!

Isn't he just gorgeous! I made him out of felt and flipped him to face the other way and he has made my average patchwork cushion simply AMAZING.

I'm almost finished now, I've just got to finish constructing the cushion by adding a back panel and stitching the two together and my scratchy old feather cushion will be transformed into something really rather special, all thanks to a lovely fluffy bunny!

Baby it's cold outside!

Golly gosh was it cold this morning, I was genuinely shocked when I drew back the curtains and discovered a hard frost coating everything. It was so cold even the wheelie bin was frozen shut until the sun defrosted it. I know it's nothing like the big freeze being experienced in America, but it's been so mild for the last few weeks I just wasn't expecting it to be -2.

I am the first to admit that I am sooooooo lucky to live where I do. Rural Somerset, in my opinion, takes some beating and on a frosty cold but bright sunny day I wouldn't care to live anywhere else.

After wrapping up warm, including Jasper Puppy in his smart red jacket we headed out, dodging the icy puddles and dropped little H to school and then Jasper and I headed off for our usual morning stroll. The frost where it forms on car bonnets is so pretty

It's like a frozen fern............

And freezing spiky hair all over the roof of my car

Spread all over like a mystical fairy has waved her magic wand. So pretty.

As we walked, the patterns made in the frozen puddles were like something from another planet.....

It looks like they were snap frozen and I wonder whether the temperature suddenly dropped and the water froze very quickly making these amazing patterns.

Up until now it's been very wet and mild but even still I was shocked to find catkins frozen solid, glittering away in the early morning January sun. They don't normally dangle their little lamby tails of the branches until the end or February at the earliest......................

Poor things, they'll be in for a shock when the cold weather hits us, normally anytime from now until the end of February, snow, even this far south isn't unheard of.

Everywhere I looked, it seemed as if everything had been suddenly snap frozen producing beautiful patterns.............

Even the poor Daisy's looked like they'd been frozen in time.................

And then as quickly as everything froze, the weak winter sun shone down and it had all melted away by 10am.

When I collected little H from school, he complained that his hands had got very cold at playtime and he informed me in no uncertain terms that he needed some warm mittens, but not just any old mittens, oh no, he wanted minion mittens, with tops that fold back so he could still get his fingers out if he needed to use his hands. Yes Sir! So this evening I set to and started a pair of minion mittens, I'll add some pictures and the pattern once I've finished them. Oh and by the way, the minions have to be smiling and have 2 eyes and not one!!!!