Garden Charms

I saw a photo recently (which I can't find now :-/) I loved - it was a piece of doweling wood with five or so strands of hanging beads to be hung out in the garden.

It inspired me and I really wanted to have a go.  

Only I didn't have any doweling and didn't really want to go out and purchase some 

(bad fibromyalgia a the moment and am trying to conserve energy and lessen pain).  

So ... I thought I would just make single strands of beads with a bell and maybe a charm to add to it.

And then I re-discovered my letter beads and had a ah-hah moment ... 

I could spell something out and link it to the charm perhaps.

I had so much fun playing with the letters and colours and wiring them all together.

And here they are hanging up outside.  Aren't they pretty?  And don't they add a bit of colour to those bare branches?

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April?!! Already?!!

I really don't know where time has gone!

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It has just flown by and I can't believe that we are four months into 2018.  I seriously feel like it is still January or at the very latest February!  But no, it's April ... and yet again I have been so bad at keeping things up to date on here.

The worst of that is that I have made so many things and haven't put them on here.

So let me see if I can get busy and put some photos of things I have created since January.  I warn you though, it may take some time - and it is nice to put similar items in the same posts - so there may be several to follow!  

Hopefully!

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* The picture is by Mary Engelbreit ~ isn't it super!

De-Cluttering of 2017

De-Cluttering totals of 2017

6 x big boxes

4 x medium boxes

8 x bags

And would you believe it there is more stuff to be sorted through....?!

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Happy 2018 !

Happy New Year everyone!

But can someone please tell me ... where did 2017 go?!

I've been very lax recently in posting on here and I do feel guilty about that 

and hope that this year I will be much better.

In my defense we do sometimes have pretty bad internet connection here.  

The kids (especially my eldest son) find it very infuriating 

(and I confess the adults here do too ... especially as now it is effecting the telly signal...)  

It has gone incredibly bad recently, the weather conditions definitely do not help 

and at the moment we have heavy rain and high winds.  

My connection on my laptop is constantly loosing the connection .... arrrgh!

No pictures to show just yet this year.  

However I finished one special project I have been working on over Christmas.  

I will post a photo soon and you can see my first attempt at knitting with beads!

So ... here's to a great 2018 for us all!

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Beyond Puerperium Madness

There is a stunning pattern called Beyond Pueperium that I absolutely love (among many other designs by Pekapeka Patterns).

I have knitted several of these cardigans in various yarns and I wanted to show you my latest versions...

This one was made with one all of yarn that I loved.  I only bought one ball ... and there wasn't quite enough so the sleeves are 3/4 length.  I love how the yarn works up and it keeps me interested!  Isn't it pretty yarn?

I have two big tins full of buttons ... but isn't it funny how you never have the right ones for the knitted garment you've made?!  However this time I was lucky and found buttons in peach, mint and grey that were the same size and went perfectly.  

I am now a cottage license holder for all patterns by Pekapeka Patterns so I am now licensed to knit and sell the items that are designed by Kelly.  Find me on this link (at the present I am the last one on  the list!)

This particular cardigan is now in The Emporium in Yeovil.

I have also completed a really snazzy one that has made it's way up to Warwick for my youngest nephew.

Isn't this yarn super?  This picture doesn't quite do the colours justice.  It is a plum-y purple; bright orange, brown, turquoise-y blue and green.  I saw the yarn in a local yarn shop and just could not resist!  And I loved knitting in it, especially as it was an aran weight and knitted up incredibly quickly.  

Oh, that's another bonus of this pattern - it is written for three different yarn weights - fingering, double knitting and aran.  I am now knitting one out of some sock yarn (fingering weight) that I love and wanted to see how it would work up as this cardigan.  You'll see that one soon!

I found some super buttons for this one too (a good way of using buttons is going for different colours to match your yarn but making sure they are the same size).  The buttons I found were the exact orange and blue shades, so were perfect!

This version is a little older and was made especially for my brother and sister-in-law's expected baby who arrived back in May this year.

It is made with a gorgeous snuggly Sirdar Soft and Snuggly in lovely shades of mauve, pale blue, lime, grey and white.  I loved knitting this one as it was truly so soft to work with and just looked adorable.

And here is baby George in his new cardigan ...

Of course I couldn't leave his older brother Jack out ... so Jack got a jumper version of it in a super varigated Noro Lily Multi yarn and a little matching cardigan for his baby doll!

Below is the second one that I made for George ...

Isn't he a cutie?  He looks more like my brother and is going to have brown eyes like us!  Jack looks just like his mummy and has blue eyes.  Isn't it funny how the same ingredients can go in the mix and two different versions are created!

This one is one I made for brother Jack and this is George in it ...

Loving the hand-knits being handed down!

This lovely cardigan pattern is designed by Kelly van Niekerk and can be found here

2017 DeCluttering totals to date

4 x big boxes

2 x medium boxes

12 x bags

A big box of crockery still to be dropped off along with another bag

2 bags of clothes to friends (does that count too?) and one more to go

Time Flies

I really cannot believe we are now in September!  

Where has that time gone?  

I can remember as a kid thinking that the summer holidays lasted forever ... now as an adult they seem to whizz by along with the rest of the year!  Seriously, what is time like?  Why does it speed up the older we get?

Talking of getting older, my man has just turned 50.  He's not too happy about it and keeps saying that we've all got it wrong and actually he's 40.  Bless!  

He's not one to be in the centre of attention and it was hard to think what to do for his birthday.  I wanted to celebrate it as it is a biggie, isn't it?!  So we had a get-together the previous Friday with my parents and my brother and his family, and my daughter too.  We all met at Lyme Regis and had a stunningly hot day down there.  We played loads with my nephew Jack ... who absolutely loves the sea and just wanted to be in it all the time, despite having goosebumps!  Then to finish the day off we got fish and chips and ate them on the beach.  A truly lovely day with us all coming home sandy and slightly sunburnt.

We then all got together at my parents for the Monday Bank Holiday and had a lovely time there with a superb spread laid on!  It was rather a squash but we managed it.  It was also great to get some photos of all the grandchildren together.  Granny and Grandad now have one grandaughter and four grandsons with the arrival of George in May.  Don't they look great?

The following Friday (the 1st and actually his birthday) I had booked two bowling alleys and hadn't told him.  We started driving over to Yeovil and he was panicking big time and kept asking where we were going and what we were doing.  He guessed just before we got there (helped along by the fact that Katie said that he'd need to wear socks!)  We met my parents there and my daughter and her fiance, and had a great couple of games.  It has been years since I've played and I must admit it hurt! My arm is still painful now ... but it was worth the fun!

Afterwards we went to Prezzos for dinner.  Again I hadn't told him and again we had the questions, with my mum winding him up as to where the surprise party was!  

My daughter had already popped in and given the staff some balloons with "50" on and a birthday cake - so the balloons were on the table when we got there.  We all had a lovely meal and our waiter brought the cake out singing Happy Birthday!  We then made Jonathan carry the balloons back to the car!

 The day after we were going to his sister's for another get-together.  The air show was on in Bournemouth and the beach they are nearest to has a fantastic view point for it.  We wanted to go down there to see the Red Arrows especially.

I'm not brilliant at getting up early.  I find it difficult to get to sleep and when I do, I don't sleep a refreshing sleep - so mornings are not good!  Knowing this Jonathan will bring me a cup of tea in bed to wake me up "nicely"!  He did so on that Saturday ... and then asked me to marry him!

We had a super time down on the beach and saw the air displays - the Red Arrows were great!  We had a picnic lunch and then a barbeque in the evening.  I even went in the sea for a dip and a swim.  Adam, my youngest, was barely out of the sea!  He loves it!

We then went back to Karen and John's house for tea and cake ... and a glass of bubbly to toast Jonathan's birthday AND our engagement (I did say yes!)

All in all a lovely couple of weeks with lots of family celebrations.

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2017 DeCluttering totals to date

4 x big boxes

2 x medium boxes

10 x bags

A big bag and a little bag still to be dropped off, along with a box of crockery.

1 bag of clothes to a friend (does that count too?) and one more ready to give away.

Summer Sunday Shawl

I've been busily knitting and crocheting away!

I find that I can't sit in front of the telly in the evening without doing something, 

so out comes the hook or the needles, and sometimes a bit of hand-sewing.

I have been seen to do artwork too whilst I have half an eye on the box.

My latest shawl is a third Sunday Shawl!  This one I have named my Summer Sunday Shawl as I feel the soft green (Meadow Special DK by Stylecraft) with the accents of mauves, violets, lilacs and white at the lacy edge is reminiscent of balmy summer days.  

I even had a nice warm day to go out and photograph it! 

The weather has been a bit typically British recently and quite variable - 

we've had hail storms; winds; buckets of rain; chills and now sunshine!  

You just never know what it's going to be like. 

I love playing around with places to take pictures of my makes ... and it appears Trxie enjoys it too and just had to be in some of the photos! 

I'm sure she's checking out the shawl to see how cosy it would be to make a bed in ...!

Aren't the colours pretty and summery?  

I just love trying different colour combinations out!  Wonder what shades I'll go for next?  

I do have some lovely Stylecraft Batiks waiting patiently in a basket.  

I bought them from Wool Warehouse, where I tend to order a lot of my Stylecraft yarns.  

Great service every time!  And the yarn arrives in gorgeous organza style bags with ribbon ties.

I've also been playing around with Instagram.  Can you see my lovely photo collage above .... one of the tools you can use on there.  It is great fun to play around with. You can find me on there as lucy.mclaurin (also know as The Crafty Phoenix Lady).  

I'm trying to get used to all these hashtags and putting hashtags on everything I can think of that relates to what I've made and of course putting #thecraftyphoenixlady on the posts too!

Let's see if I can get myself "out" there!

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2017 DeCluttering totals to date

3 x big boxes

2 x medium boxes

7 x bags

And another big box to go!

1 bag of clothes to a friend (does that count too?)