Me Myself and I: July 2014

Sunday, 27 July 2014

Friday, 25 July 2014

Beautiful Sweet Peas

Beautiful Sweet Peas picked from my allotment first thing this morning, the scent is just amazing, I always prefer to put them in a clean jam jar as they never look right in a vase.

Sweet Peas are one of my favourite flowers, so many beautiful varieties, my favourites being the purples, pinks and whites as they have the strongest scent. This year we've planted six different varieties down on the allotment, and can't wait to see them all in flower.

We've also planted several Giant Sunflowers, so far so good and they're approx 6 foot tall with good strong stems, I can't wait until they flower, should be good to practice my Macro photography on.

As I've mentioned before we're a little behind everyone else, even though we started really early this year, we had a massive slug problem due to the floods and wet start to this year. For the first time ever we've had to resort to using slug pellets, not ideal, but it's so disheartening to lovingly grow your seeds into strong seedlings, prepare the ground and then plant them out, then to arrive the next day and find everything had been eaten, week's of hard work amounting to nothing.

But as you can see from the pictures things are really coming along now.

These are my flower beds which are a first for us, but we wanted to attract Bee's, Butterflies and other insects, so far we've seen lots of Bee's and a few Butterflies, glad to be doing our bit to help the local wildlife.

Here's our Potatoes, Rhubarb and Cucumbers, we've had several harvests of Rhubarb already this year, the cucumbers have just started to flower even though they're still pretty tiny.

Next on our virtual tour are my Cherry Tomatoes, we have larger ones growing in the greenhouse, more Sweet Peas, Sweeetcorn and behind that is my Red Onions, one or two of them are huge already.

Himself had just been round with the lawn mower, the grass was pretty long because of not being able to get there since my knee operation for a couple of weeks, but it's all nice and tidy again now, just the way I like it.

I'm linking this post to Badger Boo's Smile it's the Weekend, Welcome to the Weekend Blog Hop, and How Does Your Garden Grow.

Follow @Miss_Biggun

Thursday, 24 July 2014

Project #365grateful and #Project365

I recently started doing the Project #365grateful on facebook and love the idea of posting a picture each day for a year, but decided I wanted to carry on with it on my blog instead as I spend more time blogging than I do on facebook.

This post is the first three pictures I posted and wrote on facebook for my regular blog followers.

Day 1 of Project #365grateful Thankful for modern medicine and being able to have a brand new knee joint to replace the knackered one.

Day 2 of Project #365grateful Planted some beautiful flowers in my garden today, to make it feel as loved as much as my allotment is.

Day 3 of Project #365grateful I love my Wool Winder, which turns a tangled mess of yarn into a nice neat ball of yarn that you can knit from both the centre and the outside edge. I couldn't live without it.

It's a bit of a commitment I know, I really hope I'm up to the challenge, time will tell on that one though.

Follow @Miss_Biggun

Sunday, 20 July 2014

Crutch Cosies and Wonderful Friends

If you've ever had to use crutches for any period of time, you'll know just how uncomfortable they can be.

Because I have Carpel Tunnel in both hands I find the ergonomic hand grips more comfortable, but the worst thing about crutches, is the constant rubbing on your forearms.

In the past I've had some really ugly rashes, knowing that I'd be on crutches for some time after my Knee Replacement Surgery, I decided to try and knit myself some Cotton Crutch Cosies as I couldn't find anything in the shops or online to help with this rubbing issue.

The first pair I made worked but were unsuccessful, they stretched and kept moving and I was constantly having to adjust them.

Using them as a template for the next pair, I used two strands of yarn to make it more chunky and this time I knitted in the round.

The result was these beauties:-

They work a treat and even though we're having a mini heatwave in the UK there's no sign of any rash and the rubbing has stopped altogether.

I took them into hospital with me, I received many compliments from the nurse's, physio's and other patient's about what a great idea they are.

They still need a little tweaking ref sewing the ends up for me to be totally happy with them, and I'm currently working on my third pair in electric blue as its such a beautiful colour.

I'll let you know how I get on very soon.

Last week I promised you a look at the Thank You card I made for my good friend Lesley.

I really enjoyed making this card.

I got to know Lesley when I stumbled across her blog Mad Dog Woman of Shackleford and we've become very good friends.
Lesley has been an amazing support through Himself' s illness and my own surgery.

We were invited for Supper at Lesley's house recently along with Jill and her husband from Christmas Pie Crafts who is also another good friend I met through blogging, and we had a fantastic evening and the food was amazing.

When I started my blogging adventure, it never occurred to me that I would be meeting and making such amazing friends.
I've also made many other friends through blogging, some I've yet to meet and others I will sadly never meet in person due to distance, but each and every one of you deserves a massive Thank You for the love and support you've shown us, it means a lot.

At the moment I still can't drive, only another four weeks to go, and have at lot of time on my hands to fill.
Most of the ladies at the Wednesday Knitting Group have knitted a beautiful Mitred Baby Blanket, although I've had the pattern for ages, I've not been brave enough to take it on, as my pick up and knit isn't the best.
Last week I dug out the pattern and some King Cole yarn from my stash and I've made a start on it.

I love the way the variegated colours are coming out and hope it continues like this until the end, also my pick up and knit has improved greatly.

When it's finished I'll be donating it to the SCBU at the Royal Surrey County Hospital.

A slightly longer post than usual and I'll be linking it to My Sunday Photo, Handmade Monday and Creative Mondays.

Hope you all have a great week crafting and I'll see you next week.

xxx

Follow @GKnitting

Monday, 14 July 2014

Where Have I Been?

My regular followers will have noticed I've not posted since May apart from the odd Silent Sunday post. If you saw yesterdays you will probably have figured out that I've been in hospital and had my right knee replaced. I've been waiting a long time for this, I used to blog about it a lot on my other blog Me, Myself and I.

As a result of the surgery 12 days ago I'm practically housebound at the moment, I'm unable to drive for a minimum of six weeks and although the knee replacement has taken the pain of the Arthritis away in that knee, I'm still in a lot of pain from the surgery and the physio and unable to walk far or stand for any period of time.

I've had plenty of time to knit or make cards since I last posted, but to be honest my Crafty Mojo got up and did a runner out of the door, I was stressing so much about going into hospital.

The morning I went into hospital I started an event on facebook, as a result I had the most wonderful support every step of the way, from the most amazing people all around the world, who took time out of their busy lives to wish me well and find out how it was going, if you want to check it out you'll find it here.

Writing the description for the event was hard, it just didn't look right so it became a poem, I'm no poet as some of you may know from my #BlogFlash2013 efforts, but here goes:-

Goodbye Arthritic Knee

You've lost me my job,

You've ruined my life,

You've made me suffer,

Unspeakable pain!

You're selfish and nasty,

Enjoyed causing me pain,

Little do you know,

The fate that awaits you.

Give up I've wanted too,
No, you won't beat me,
A solution I've found,
Soon it'll be,
A shiny new knee

A couple of days ago I decided to get back into the craft room and make myself a Get Well Soon card, I used the watercolour Poppies I painted a few weeks ago whilst trying out some new watercolour papers and a simple Bakers Twine Bow.

I liked this card so much I made a another card to send to a friend with a different sentiment and colours, I can't show it to you yet, as I only posted it this morning and would hate to spoil the surprise.

Whilst recuperating I finally finished the Paramedic for my knitted Collectibles. It's not the best photograph as I was unable to get low enough to get the picture I wanted because of my knee. His hair looks a bit odd to me, maybe it's because the others have hats on or maybe it is odd, please let me know what you think.

Himself took me for a hobble around Godalming the other day and I was pleased to see somebody had been out and done a Yarn Bombing on the tree in the High Street. It certainly bought a smile to my face, nobody from the Knitting Groups have claimed responsibility so it would appear we have a secret knitter in our midst.

In allotment news, there is no news.

It all appears to be growing well without me, including the grass which is in desperate need of cutting, a job for Himself next weekend, although he doesn't know it yet LOL.