Spring Crafts

June and December have been very busy over the last week, crafting decorations and making cards to welcome in Spring and celebrate Easter.

I have, at long last, purchased a hot glue gun which has been on my 'must buy for crafting' list for years. Whilst it is a very small one and only cost £5 it has made a huge difference already and made these Spring Wreaths possible (we tried PVA glue and it just kept soaking into the eggbox card and not sticking!):

December's Spring Wreath

June's Spring Wreath

On Tuesday we had our first really warm day and the girls spent the day outside creating Spring gardens, making clay creatures to live in their gardens and painting eggs to decorate the house for Easter.

As you can see, there will soon be a zombie threat in their gardens which, hopefully, the giant white rabbit will be able to see off!

They have also made some cute felt baskets

and some gluten free cookies

Happy Spring everyone!

Time for a Change 2016 #2

February was a very busy month for me. Alongside all my usual activities I joined a fortnightly singing group and went to my first meeting of a local women's group.

I have now attended two singing group sessions and am loving it. I particularly like the fact that it isn't a formal choir and that we are singing purely for enjoyment's sake. The inspirational Claire leads us in warming up exercises followed by working on three different songs Belle Mama and Zidele Anathambo (which I haven't been able to find a recording of) which are both four part songs and Gaudete which is a very different style from the first two, though with a Steeleye Span take rather than a choral style.

I always feel very happy and relaxed afterwards and I have found that my sleep patterns are much improved for the first night or so after, too. During the weeks between sessions I usually find myself absentmindedly singing one or other of the songs whilst cooking, driving etc

I've restarted work on a crochet Afghan blanket which I'm making for December - only about 200 squares to go!

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge : Day 7

For the last post on this challenge I thought I'd share these two pictures because the top one is a great reminder to me that Spring always follows on from Winter, no matter how dark and dreary it has been. The second one is testament to endurance and survival - these tiny snails hibernating in a cleft of an ancient beech tree. When I went back a few weeks later they had all gone - I like to think that they left of their own accord and not as a snack for a hungry bird.

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge Day 6

Brimstone

As the weather has been so chilly today, I thought it would be nice to share some photos of beautiful butterflies that I took last summer.

Red Admiral

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge : Day 5

Today I have chosen a couple of photos which I took of the first spring lambs in early March 2015.

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge : Day 4

I took this photo in the woods at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum last March. December and June thought that it looked like an entrance into Fairyland and we spent some time talking about when the fairies would come out and what they would look like. Having studied the photo, whilst trying to decide which one to post, I think that there are a few little elvish faces visible amongst the roots. See what you think :)

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge : Day 3

Minature daffodil and purple crocuses finally add some colour to our late Winter garden.

I've just realised that I've posted this a little early, as it was meant to be for 2nd March!

7 Day Photograph Nature Challenge : Day 2

I started this challenge with a gorgeous sunset, so here is a beautiful sunrise to follow:

I captured this through an upstairs bedroom window a couple of weeks ago and think that it's one of the best ones so far this year.