Spooky Goings On... How To Make a Wreath

It's October and nearly time for Halloween. It seems to be getting bigger and bigger each year, though we sadly don't get any trick our treaters down our street. I thought I'd make a wreath with this lovely  spooky fabric, bright orange with black pumpkins and black with sparkly silver cobwebs. I also picked up some orange ribbon with black bats.

I had some black pipe cleaners in with my felting stash so borrowed them for this project too and some small wire clippers so I could clip the pipe cleaners in half to use as wires to connect the fabric to the wreath base.

I scrunched up a strip of orange and black fabric and tightly wrapped a pipe cleaner around it.

The wreath base I used has 2 concentric circles, so I connected my little wrapped 'bows' each circle, packing them in quite tightly.

To sit on my wreath and add the spookiness, I wanted a big spider. I made 2 pom poms, tied them together and trimmed the bigger one to make it flatter underneath. I used my glue gun to stick 4 long pipe cleaners to be my spiders 8 legs and 2 large googly eyes. I used yarn to tie the spider to the wreath and hid the knot under the fabric 'bows'.

A long piece of ribbon tied to the frame as a hanging loop and a few more pieces to make bows. I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

It's actually quite heavy, the frame I used was 14 inches, so quite big.

I thought as I'm talking Halloween, I'd show you these lovely pumpkins and gourds, all different shapes and colours, they make good decorations.

Anyone else making any halloween preparations?

Take care
xxx

Welcoming Autumn

Firstly I must begin again by thanking you for your lovely comments and well wishes for my parents. I'm happy to report that they are now settled back in at home and dad, although still very thin, is looking so much better and feeling much more like his usual self. This type of operation takes around 3 months to recover from, so hopefully by Christmas dad will be feeling much better.

Here in the northern hemisphere, we're welcoming autumn in with open arms after a rather hot and sticky summer. I love the changes in season, adoring them all for their different attributes. We started off by giving the garden a good old tidy up. Emptying and cleaning some of the tubs, weeding and lots of sweeping up. There was a bit of a bargain to be snatched up in our local garden centre with their Cyclamen, just the thing to brighten up the garden.

 I put some in the back and a pot in the front to bring some colour.

Some of the other flowers are still going strong, a second Foxglove appeared from nowhere, which we were quite thrilled about. It makes me wonder about what will spring up next year!

Lots of deadheading and weeding helped show off some of the summer's marigolds and geraniums that are still looking quite vibrant.

Some heather and violas dotted about

The physalis is at it's best this time of year, I love the bright orange lanterns

Honey, Alfie and Gary sat outside with us enjoying the September sunshine, but just couldn't be persuaded to pose for photographs. I think this was the best with Gary (in the middle)

Honey in the middle here

this isn't too bad of Honey and Alfie, but Gary wasn't having any of it that time!

After sorting the garden out, I thought it time to update the mantelpiece too. Brought out the Halloween globes so we get the benefit of them for a little while.

I think this little chap may be my current favourite, I don't tend to use him as a time piece as my slowly ageing eyes need to get quite close to him to make it out, but he does carry the correct time.

 Hope you're enjoying your seasonal changes wherever you are.

Take care
xxx

Settling in for Autumn

Summer feels a long while ago (I think it may have been a couple of weeks in June) and it's definitely feeling a bit more chilly. I for one am welcoming it with open arms, as much as I couldn't wait for Spring earlier in the year, I now feel ready to fully embrace the autumn and all that comes with it.

The school term has started and we have all slipped easily into the routine that has been part of my life for the last 25 years (that's what happens when you have a large age gap between your children). I started off with the changes on the mantelpiece.

I've put our Halloween globes out, I like to display them from September otherwise it feels like they're only around for such a short time. The dancing skeletons are musical and I do think they're rather beautiful.

The 3 little houses each have a tea light in and give a lovely glow in the evenings as the nights draw in.

Settling down in the evening to watch a bit of TV (I do like the dramas that BBC and ITV show, the second series of Doctor Foster is one of my favourites right now), it's good to have something in my hands to keep me busy. I've started crocheting a jumper for Imogen, just a bit of rib so far.

I love the colour, its a marble chunky from James C. Brett. I picked it upon Hobbycraft as it was a special offer (all the different shades were on offer). Just the right sort of colour to be using in Autumn!

While I settle in to my crochet, Mitzi was busy settling into my craft storage, it looks like she was making a nest to keep warm through Autumn too.

Take care
xxx

Boo... it's Halloween

Thank you for all the lovely comments congratulating Imogen and all the well wishes. Everyone here is much better, just coughs and colds which are gradually going.

Imogen went back to school after half term today so we had a meander around town. There's lots of work going on at the moment, lots of preparations for 2017 when we'll be the City of Culture, all very exciting. I was hoping to be inspired with some ideas for stocking fillers for son and husband (always the hardest to buy for), but nothing caught my eye. While we were out we popped into Waterstones to see their new cafe, grab a cup of tea and a bacon butty.

A little milk bottle, just like being back at school (I actually used to dread the school milk, I really don't like milk).

I saw these really cute little cacti candles, I thought they were so sweet that I had to take a picture with my phone.

Happy Halloween! Imogen loves to dress up and used to love to go trick or treating, but being a bit old for that now she decided to help out at a party instead on Saturday evening. Dad helped with the scary smile

She wore a scary necklace that made her throat look like it had been cut. An old school shirt that she ripped and used fake blood to make the whole thing more gory - yuck!

Imogen had a wonderful evening and managed to scare some people too, which made her very happy! This evening she's gone to the yearly Halloween fair at the park, they do a 'spooky walk' as well which she loves... yikes!

Take care
xxx

Halloween Felting

I'd like to thank my new followers for following me, it's always good to see that people are interested, just like when I receive a comment, it never fails to make me smile. I have a very quiet life really, struggle quite a bit with my disability and day to day tasks, so it makes me feel like I have friends out there in the big wide world. Not that I would want you to think for a moment that having a quiet life doesn't mean that it's not also a very happy one, content to share my life with my family, I've always been a very homely girl and feel I am very lucky in so many ways.

Anyway... I had a lovely delivery through the post the other day.

It was very well packaged

Lots of lovely bulbs. A couple of packs of Alliums, some tiny Snowdrops, Tulips and a free packet of Crocus bulbs.

Straight into the garden and the Crocus bulbs have been planted. Andy also dug up our Hot Lips as its getting a bit large for the bed and moved it into a pot, I hope it continues to thrive, it has such beautiful flowers.

On the crafting front, I've been busy doing some felting. A little kit for Halloween.

 I sat with it on a tray on my lap, stabbing away with my needles. It's very rhythmic and therapeutic, as long as you keep your fingers out of the way!

A little wreath for Halloween, a couple of pumpkins with leaves on a vine.

It was made in an evening. Firstly the wreath, the leaves are cut out of felt, a small piece of string to hang it with.

It's hanging in the middle of the mantle.

It's made me want to do some more felting, though I think I may have to buy some new needles first as I had a couple of snaps.

Take care
xxx

October is Flying in...

We've been out most of today, running errands and such, unfortunately the weather wasn't in our favour and even my bag was soaked through at one point! I have to say it's very good to be home again, in my pyjamas with a hot cup tea. We've had our tea, the washing up is sorted (dishwasher on) and I'm ready to relax for the evening, do a bit of crochet and watch a bit of TV.

I've changed the mantelpiece display to reflect the October feelings of Autumn and Halloween.

I love my 'snow globe' with Edgar Allan Poe's Crow in it. I try and have the globes out throughout October as it's the only time they come out of the box! The dancing skeleton couple have a key underneath to play music and if you shake them there are lots of teeny tiny black bats floating around them.

The 3 tiered pumpkins at the end are a new purchase and light up.

It all looks very cosy in an evening...

I think the new lamp is my favourite light, I love how the light shines through the holes throwing patterns all around the wall.

These are my 3 little houses with tea lights in them. This picture looks really dark, but with all the lamps and candles shining warmly, you can still see the autumnal colours of the houses.

Again, this picture makes it look far darker than it actually is. If I was clever, I'd be able to fiddle with the pictures and adjust the light... but I'll have to settle for just telling you there's a lovely warm glow in the room.

As I'm showing you some of my treasures, here are some of my others. It started off with the little Blue Tit by the tap.

I love my little birds. All of them are finds from car boots or charity shops, I'm getting quite a collection now.

My little collection of birds has to make up for not getting birds in the garden, the cats and dogs frighten them away. I think because I only buy them as preloved objects, there's always a little thrill when I find another one to add to my collection.

Have a lovely weekend

Take care
xxx