A BUSY BUNNY . . .

Just popping in quick to wish everyone a slightly belated Happy Easter ~ hope your Easter Sunday was a good one with lots of family festivities and a visit from the Easter bunny.

We had the grandparents over for the day yesterday and although an empty seat does bring some sadness it was still a nice day with lots of memories shared and everyone enjoying their meal and the company :)

I've been a busy bunny and have managed to stitch up the second part of the '12 Days of Christmas SAL' . . .

Loving this SAL and I'm pleased with this 2nd part ~ I love the white goose standing alongside Mother Night as she sprinkles snow around her

The Primitive Hare's description of this day reads:

27 December: 2nd Day of Berctha ~ The second day of Christmas is the MOTHER NIGHT.

A few words by John Matthew's book 'The Winter Solstice':

... another older figure known throughout Germany is Frau Holle but a better name for her is MOTHER OF CHRISTMAS.  Deriving from the ancient figure of the Mother Goddess, the feminine principle of deity, she was regarded as a bringer of fertility and justice ... she rode through the land during the 12 days dispensing gifts from a sleigh pulled by dogs.  The most famous story about Mother Holle is the folk tale collected by the Brothers Grimm.  Holle is also the ancient Goddess that brings snow in Winter.

Easter always means bunnies to me and deep down in 'that' pile, you know the one that you hear scream 'finish me' everytime you open the draw was a finish from March 2013 ~ Rosie the Rabbit . . .

Time for some Tilda fabric and some pink buttons to match her name and here she is . . .

Cute!

I finished the next one only yesterday before the family arrived.  It was a find on the internet and only showed the graph in black and white, I couldn't find it stitched anywhere to give a clue to colours so this is my offering . . .

a simple white border

with a brown hare leaping over spring grass

The corners on the graph were little squares but I changed them to hearts to match the fabric colour, again another Tilda one then added some pom pom trim for a decorative finish!

I'm pleased with these 2 finishes ~ nice pastel colours which will brighten up those gloomy days that sometimes just won't go away :(

and finally ~

a decision ~ tea towel or hare, tea towel or hare, tea towel or hare . . .

Tea Towel

NO NO NO

the Hare wins

double sided too so a choice of colour!

This is called Hester Hare and was a find in a local craft shop, the designer has several animals to choose from but the hare won the day, easy to sew but a real pain in the butt to stuff ~ those ears!

Finally ~ Thank you for your offering of names for my knitted bunny in my last post ~ all great names but how could I not choose Barb's choice 'Bobbins' ~ perfect, thanks Barb and thanks too for the lovely homemade Easter card you sent, cute bunnies!

Thanks for stopping by

{{{Hugs}}}

Jane

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MY FIRST SAL AND A NEW BUNNY

Good afternoon blogging friends, Friday is here ~ Yippee! and I can't wait for the weekend.

A huge thank you for, yet again, your very supportive comments on the loss of another loved one ~ the funeral is next Friday 20th and the plans are going very well ~ I am very confident the service will be lovely with pretty Spring flowers and beautiful readings and hymns ~ this will definitely be a celebration of a lovely lady's life xxx

Can you believe I've signed up for my first ever SAL!!!

I've chosen to stitch The 12 Days of Christmas by The Primitive Hare ~ 12 ornaments based on one of the 12 magical days of Christmas, but not the days of the popular song instead the days of the ancient Solstice celebrations/traditions beginning with the 26th December.

The SAL started with the first download on the 25th January and I only joined up last week so am already playing catch-up with 2 to get stitched but here's the first one . . .

Twelve Days of Christmas: 1st day ~ Boxing Day

I thought I'd share with you The Primitive Hare's description of each day ~

26 December: 1st Day of Berctha ~ Berctha is an ancient mother of winter, an old hag, an old fairy, an old goddess ~ these 12 days include a bunch of ancient traditions and celebrations inspired by her and by old believes.

This day, Boxing Day, is also called the Day of the Wren and generally of animals.

From John Matthews' book 'The Winter Solstice' ~ "The themes of Boxing Day have to do with death and resurrection and animals."  Animals needed to be fed also during this day, that was a day of rest.

Berctha is not only a Mother of Winter, but a mother and guardian of animals.

This is the perfect day to cuddle your pets, feed wild birds ... find a connection with them.

Animals are bringers of joy and positive vibes.

Sounds silly but I'm really quite excited by it and the 25th of each month is already marked on the calender to remind me to download each new chart.  Rather than stitch them up as individual ornaments I have decided to stitch them as one big design and as each finish is 4.5" x 4.5" I am working with quite a big piece of linen! Hopefully this weekend I will get to grips with the 27th December and will be able to show you in my next blog post.

Apart from that I have nothing much else to show you in the stitching line so thought I'd share a new bunny with you instead.  He's not new new as I knitted him last Summer but as I was missing a lot last year I never got round to showing you . . .

Isn't he cute? 

 Quite a butch bunny so I insist on calling him a 'him' and like all my creations he has to be named ~ any ideas?  I'm waiting to move him to my sidebar with all the other bunnies but as he is still nameless, he'll have to wait!

I'm no expert at knitting but was pleased with his little jumper and the little heart ~ wouldn't mind a bigger version of this for myself!

His arms looked a bit idle I added a little string of cotton reels and some scissors ~ maybe this little extra will spark some ideas for a name?

I am looking forward to this weekend, it will be family time on Sunday and tomorrow an afternoon out hunting out some more bits and pieces for the new Craft Room, my rolls of sandpaper and tins of Chalk Paint are screaming to be used and now we finally have some warmth and sunshine it will be perfect weather for some upcycling!

Happy Weekend to everybody and to all English Mums I hope you are spoilt rotten on Mothering Sunday and have a lovely day of stitching.

Thanks for stopping by

{{{Hugs}}}

Jane

x

SAD TIMES AGAIN

This Friday is the 1st year Anniversary of the loss of my MIL and the memories of that time bring back much sadness.

   To add to this sadness my husband's Aunt (my MIL's sister) passed away yesterday after a 3 year battle with Dementia.  Although we had been warned last Friday that her deterioration was a concern naturally we are still shocked to have lost her and of course are feeling the heartache today :(  We were very close to her and she has a been a big part of our lives and adored our children ~ a truly lovely and kind lady.

What a cruel disease this is both for the sufferer and the carer ~ to not know a name anymore, to not recognise a face anymore and to live in a world you no longer know and when events that only took place a minute or so previous are straightaway forgotten.  I am happy for her to finally be released from the cruel symptoms she suffered and know now she is peacefully sleeping xxx

I do wish life would pick up!  I'm so fed up with feeling sad and unwell, my foot doesn't want to co-operate and get better and now I have been called for another scan to check my bone density ~ grrrr life!

I have been stitching non-stop ~ I guess it's my way of coping and by concentrating on counting stitches I can try and block both sadness and pain out, not always successful but it helps!

'A Beautiful Dream' is progressing well and a new tree has grown complete with conifers and golden stars are now scattered above the rooftops.

'Santa's Nap' is looking good too and Santa is now growing a lovely white beard, next I can start his face which I'm looking forward to.

Thank you for your comments on my last post and it was nice to hear that many others of you get a lot of comfort from your pets.

Monty was a lucky pup at Christmas and received toys galore ~ he's a real chewer and nothing stays in one piece for more than a day but one toy, a squeaky sheep, took his fancy and that went everywhere with him!

Last week the squeak gave up!!!!  So a dash visit to the Pet Centre and a hunt for a new sheep, none left so instead a new cow . . .

(looks like a fish in this photo but it has 4 legs and udders so definitely a cow!)

Success! Monty love him xxx

Thanks for stopping by, it means a lot to me

{{{Hugs}}}

Jane

x

TWO WORKING FEET AND A BEAUTIFUL DREAM . . .

Good afternoon blogging friends!

It's a lovely sunny but very chilly day here in the South and a welcome sight after a whole day of heavy rain yesterday. 

Well, finally I have 2 working feet again and am walking without crutches.  I'm now in the transition stage of air boot to orthotic and so far so good ~ 30 mins to start with and increasing by 30 mins each day until I can wear the orthotic without pain during or afterwards for 4 hours :)

I go back to the Specialists in 4 and 8 weeks time to see if all is as it should be on an X-ray and then to decide whether I need a permanent orthotic or not.

Fingers crossed!

In my last post I showed you my new WIP and a couple of bloggers have asked who the design was by, sorry I missed typing that info and sorry I haven't been able to contact those bloggers personally ~ my computer just won't let me and if I am successful the emails come pinging back to me with the message 'fatal error' ~ that's not very nice is it?  Anyway . . .  the designer is Sara Guermani, the design is called 'A Beautiful Dream' and she has her own web shop and also sells on Etsy.

It's a treat to stitch and my little Christmas Village now has some greenery as five lovely conifers have joined the scenery!

Think this is probably now my only way of seeing snow this year and that's by stitching it!

Lovey Christmas reds and greens

I'm stitching 'A Beautiful Dream' alongside another design.
With the birthday money I received last year for my 'special' birthday I wanted to buy a cross stitch that would commemorate that day to me and something all the family would appreciate in future times so after surfing the internet for some considerable time  I chose this one ...

'Santa's Nap'
A rosy faced Santa and lots of puppy dogs ~ who could resist?

I was a little shocked at the amount of thread that came with this kit, thank goodness it was already pre-sorted!

Not much to show so far and it's back to the old days with this kit as it's stitched on good old Aida, 18 count and has lots of lovely back stitching afterwards but I know, although a pain, backstitching will really bring this design alive.

Tilly and Oscar continue to do well and now only have 2 more days of medication ~ no more symptoms and her condition remains stable :)
I would miss any of my pets so much if I lost any of them, whilst I have been laid up with the fractured foot they have been such good company, sounds silly doesn't it? (must be an age thing!!!)

Thanks for stopping by
Stay warm
{{{Hugs}}}
Jane
x

GOOD NEWS ALL ROUND

Well it's good news so far for Tilly and Oscar ~ we're now 2 weeks through the 4 week course of medication and Tilly remains stable and Oscar fully fit!  Tilly still has her head tilt but we had been warned that that might stay and hopefully she'll learn to cope with it, certainly at the moment these two little bunnies are full of life and sensing Spring is on the doorstep ~ thank you all for your lovely comments, thoughts and prayers xxx

Good news for me too as I saw the Orthopaedic Surgeon on Monday night and my foot is making good progress.  I am still having some pain and swelling underneath the foot which may take some time to improve so I am now waiting to see another Specialist who can make me an orthosis so I can gradually transfer from the air cast boot to a normal shoe ~ nearly a Happy Dance!!!

And .... even more good news ~ I actually have 2 finishes to show you!

That's quite an achievement to me after my poor offering of 3 last year!

They are 2 more Mill Hill Santa's . . .

Holly & Ivy Santa

Lapland Santa

With the one I finished in December I think they will make a nice trio on the tree next Christmas, it's hard to see the beads sparkling in a photo but they are really pretty when the light catches them.

Our promise of snow here in the South of the UK has still not happened, we have the odd flurry and it settles on the roof and car tops for a little while but doesn't hang around for long

so disappointing ~ Monty's waiting so patiently  . . .

So whilst we sit and wait I've started my next stitch and at the moment it has about as much snow as we have had . . .

A Beautiful Dream

This is my 2nd attempt on this design as the first one was using the DMC colours listed on the chart and the result was really dull colours and not too my taste so whilst the air turned slightly blue as I unpicked the 2 middle houses a 2nd attempt began and as shown above it's with my choice of hand-dyed threads!

I'm trying to keep it as Christmassy as possible so lots of Christmas reds and the greens are my choice for the trees, the fabric is as suggested ~ what a brilliant fabric ~ just imagine stitching all that falling snow!

Tomorrow night the Great British Sewing Bee is starting its 3rd series, love this show, 10 contestants whittled down each week to the final 3 and along the way showing us some fantastic (some not) skills and ideas on their sewing machines ~ this will definitely be a me-time with a Do Not Disturb Sign on the door!

Thank you for stopping by

Stay warm if you have the white stuff and if you have lots of it could you send me just a little bit!

{{{Hugs)))

Jane

x

A WAITING GAME

My little bunny Tilly is sick and it's a waiting game to see if she can recover :(

Last Thursday we brought her in for the night from her outdoor hutch and her head was tilted to one side, I honestly thought she had had a stroke but she could still hop and was happy to eat and be petted that evening.  DS and I took her to the vets the next day where she was diagnosed with a condition that effects 52% of healthy pet rabbits in the UK, it's  related to their immune system and can cause head tilt, paralysis of the back legs, tremors and renal failure :(

We have started oral treatment immediately which will continue for the next 28 days but the next 7 days will determine the start of a recovery or deterioration ~ no deterioration yet, still a head tilt which does effect her balance but still eating, still drinking and still my little bundle of cuddles.

Our worries are doubled as Oscar is at risk too so he is taking the medication as well but thankfully as yet no signs!

Love my pets, love my little Tilly and can't bear the thought of losing her ~ please say a little prayer for her xxx

{{{Hugs}}}

Jane

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