Category Archives: Reasons to be Cheerful

Sharing our Reasons to be Cheerful…

…just one more time!

Which doesn’t, of course, mean we can’t keep looking for them!

Here on Planet Penny, I’m still finding little flashes of springtime promise, (even though as I type the wind is howling and rain is lashing against the window!)

Higgins is not quite so cheerful because although the ‘boss’ came home from work last week, he’s had to go away again on a course…so Higgy hasn’t got his early morning vantage point. The routine is that Tim sits in the reclining chair to drink his morning tea, and Higgins gets as far down the chair as possible, so he can lie on ‘ a person’, always the best place as far as he is concerned, on red alert, looking down the garden ready to leap, like a coiled spring when the post lady and the paperboy arrive. This is how he does it…

After my last post it’s been very cheering to have lots of enthusiasm and lovely comments (thank you!) for the Planet Penny Cotton Club project, and I’m still trying out different ideas…

…and I’ve been happy to pack up the cotton packs in the pretty pink mailing sacks!

(If you’d like to join in do get in touch, there are still some packs left, and if I sell out there will be a waiting list!)

This is the last Reasons to be Cheerful post and Linky for now, I hope you’ve enjoyed it, either joining in or just following the links to meet other bloggers. I know I’m really happy to have gained some new bloggy friends!

Please join in for this last Linky below, or leave a comment so we can go out on a high, I do love to hear from you…thank you for taking part x

Reasons to be Cheerful

I can’t believe it’s that time again, time flies by so quickly! I’ve just looked up when, officially, Spring starts in the UK. Not that I’ve found the definitive answer, the Met Office say it’s the 1st of March but historically it’s the time of the vernal equinox, 20/21st March. I think it’s best to let nature decide, and we’ll just watch!

But it’s not far away, and so I’ve decided that next week will be the last Reasons to be Cheerful Linky for a while, as I started it to get us through the winter gloom. Not that I shall stop looking on the bright side wherever possible, Planet Penny is supposed to be jolly place to visit!

So I’m going to share my own Reasons to be Cheerful this week, and hope that as many of you as possible will join in for this week and the next and we can finish on a high.

Firstly, there were flowers, Valentine’s Day flowers, flame coloured tulips, frilly orange roses and lilies, such a lovely surprise…

Despite the cold the seeds I’ve sown in their mini propagators are beginning to germinate, always a moment of magic. If you are interested in my garden project for this year I’m keeping a note in The Garden Dairies, with weekly updates on the drop down menu at the top of the blog. Nothing much is happening just yet, mind you, but it won’t be long!

And yesterday I had a small parcel, which made me very cheerful…

Sometimes you see things you just can’t resist, and this was one of them. Over on Fan my Flame, Gina is on a mission to raise funds for an exhibition and has started a project, putting little books in altered match boxes. You can read all about it here.

Anyway, one of the had my name on it! And this is it…

Alice in Wonderland, a teeny tiny Alice in Wonderland, in a matchbox…

She is just exquisite, so tiny… Don’t forget, a matchbox is only 2″x1.5″ or 5cm x3.5cm, and even enlarged here, the details are perfect.

Gina is making 50 little books in altered matchboxes, for the incredible price of £10 each, no matter how intricate they are. If you visit Gina’s blog you can follow the project, and see whether you fall in love with a matchbox book like me!

I hope you’ve liked my little dose of cheerfulness this week and I do hope you join in by adding a link to your blog on the Linky below, or in the comments. It’s always lovely to hear from you…

See you soon…! x

Reasons to be Cheerful – Hearts and Flowers Bunting

I really should have written this yesterday, a glorious day when the sun shone and I was feeling bright and positive, very ‘hearts and flowers! Today has been a ‘tupperware box‘ day, and I’ve been as grumpy and growly as Higgins with a new bone.

I will get out yesterdays photos and try to talk myself out of the glooms…

The day started beautifully, and despite the low temperatures managed a slow thaw during the day. I spread bird seed under the cherry trees and had a lot of visitors, chaffinches, sparrows, tits and a robin, three blackbirds and to my delight, a song thrush.

Also a mystery guest, slightly bigger than the thrush and blackbirds, and rounder with feathers in shades of grey. It didn’t get close enough to see properly, and I only managed these slightly grainy shots with the zoom…

Anyone got any clues? (Edited to add: Celia, of Purple Podded Peas, has enlighted me…A Fieldfare, thanks Celia!)

We went for chilly walk…after a disagreement about wrapping up warm to go out…

and despite the fact that by 4 o’clock it was freezing fast…

It was still very enjoyable…

and in the evening I made lots of little crochet flowers and leaves then sewed them together with the hearts from this pattern to make a Valentine’s Day garland. What do you think?

So I hope you’ll join in with some reasons to be cheerful to dispel any negative thoughts floating around. I must finish to get ready for this month’s Knit and Stitch meeting, that should cheer me up!

So do join in via the Linky below where you can leave a link to your blog, or by using the comments list. It’s always lovely to hear from you.

See you soon x

A Reason to be Cheerful? It’s February!

I don’t want to wish the year away, but I’m never sorry to wave goodbye to January. There’s an optimistic feeling to February, an anticipation of Spring, even when it bitterly cold and wintery.

I have to work a little harder at being cheerful this week because Tim went back to work yesterday, so Higgins, Henry and I are keeping the home fires burning while he’s away. It’s good for me that, in Tim’s absence, I have to do more Higgins walking, even when the weather isn’t very nice, like yesterday…

Back at home, exciting things were happening in the garden. My gardening gurus were giving the whole thing a once over, clearing out ‘ground cover’ plants which have been threatening to smother us in our beds (and have certainly smothered quite a lot of pretty plants in theirs…) creating fixings for over enthusiastic climbers and generally getting things into shape for Spring. They also mostly finished off what I had started in the veg patch, which has always been my responsibility, so I’m still on target there for when the weather starts to warm up.

The excitement for Higgins was the appearance of long lost toys which have lurked in the undergrowth for months. He didn’t know where to turn!

Another cheerful thing has been the arrival of a wonderful piece of equipment. I’ve been wanting for ages to dye some more yarn, (you’ll remember the adventures I have with dyeing here and here) but I’ve struggled to prepare the undyed yarn. The yarn arrives in 100gm hanks and I dye it in 25gm mini hanks, in the microwave. A while ago I bought a winder, not the beautiful antique one I would have preferred at a vast sum, but a cheap and ~~cheerful~~ annoying one, which has never, ever worked properly. There was no where I could easily attach it, every time the yarn got tangled it fell off etc. etc… And the whole winding thing just became such a time consuming back breaking faff I just haven’t bothered.

Until it was mentioned to my friend Bill. Kit (my buddy and partner in craft) is married to Bill, and Bill, apart from being an amazing artist, a builder of cars, and all round good egg, does like a challenge, even a little one like making a wool winder.

So I now have a be-yoo-tilful wool winder or ‘Swift’, made of mahogany, which will sit on the table and twirl merrily as I get the wool ready for the dye…

And today, as you can see from the photos of Higgins above, has been glorious…

if very cold.

I had hoped to have finished a new project to show you, but I may have to squeeze in another post instead! Instead I shall add the Linky on the end, and hope that you have some Reasons to be Cheerful to share. And if you haven’t got a blog, you can still join in via the comments.

Looking forward to hearing from you…

see you soon ! x

Reasons to be Cheerful – Lucky 13!

The first thing I found this morning when I went on the computer is that the Guardian has a feature called Reasons to be Cheerful, so we are in good company! And one of their reasons made me very happy, new in at IKEA is this…

Oh how I love raspberry pink! Now IKEA is a day trip for us, we have to do the meatballs and everything, but I might have to work on a visit very soon. I realise there’s a whole love/hate thing with IKEA too. When we introduced Aimee to it she nearly had to be carried sobbing and screaming into the carpark after half an hour but lured in by something like raspberry pink dishes I think I can be brave!

Going from one extreme to another, in this case a multinational Super Store to an individual business, I love the way most of the things I buy on line from small retailers tend to arrive looking like little presents…

…bamboo crochet hooks from Wool and Buttons…

I love using bamboo knitting needles, I’ll let you know how I get on with these…

I’m being optimistic about the garden too, although the last few days have been too gloomy and wet to get anything done at all. I went out in the drizzle this morning to encourage Higgins to follow, he’d really rather not when it’s wet.

I had spotted the yellow crocuses which grow in the lawn were about to open and thought I could get a lovely shot of Higgins smelling the flowers…

‘Higgins! Look! What’s this?’

Gallopy gallopy…CHOMP!

…one less crocus to brighten the gloom…will I ever learn?

We went off to the garden centre to replace the mini plastic greenhouse which was really useful for starting off seeds but had been ripped off the wall and seen off by the gales. Fortunately, still half price so it didn’t break the bank at less than £15.00. This time we’ll put in stronger fixings. This is a problem when you live in windswept Norfolk.

A new trowel and fork in bright blue. New because you might have noticed someone chewed the handles off the old ones, and bright blue so I don’t keep mislaying them…

…and they look very jolly along with my gardening gloves…

And while I’m waiting to get to grips with the great outdoors, I have a few indoor projects from the cut price shelf to be going on with.

I’m very cheerful that I’ve sold one of my Love Bird Hearts on Folksy and later today I will be adding the larger one, which has been finished off with a primrose…

So, despite the gloom, I’m managing to keep my spirits up, how about you? If you’ve got some cheerfulness to share please join in with the Linky below, or leave a comment on the post. It’s always lovely to hear from you….!

A Blog Award

I’ve just been nominated for an award! Isn’t that fabulous? Thank you SO much, TillymintBoutique…

It’s to be awarded to blogs with fewer than 200 followers, and I don’t actually know many followers I have, as WordPress doesn’t work like Blogger. (I’ve recently started using Bloglovin’ which works really well, so if you would actually like to officially follow me, the button is up on the left hand side bar! Ed. to add: and now I’ve found a subscribers widget too! )

The rules are simple:

– Show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to their blog…
– Post your top 5 blogs and let them know by leaving a comment on their blogs…
– Post the award on your blog!

…and I have chosen five ‘young’ blogs to pass on to you all…

They are, in no particular order:

Daisies Divine for knitting and sewing
Moobaacluck an artist and illustrator with a great range of hand painted goodies.. I’m after some painted bunting!
PickleLily making and baking in Somerset
Knitsofacto knitting and crochet and gorgeous photography
Faith knitting and crochet and the most adorable puppy!

Do visit them and say hello, there’s lots to see!

I’ll be back very soon with this week’s Reasons to be Cheerful. I hope you’ve been looking for them amongst the January gloom so you are ready to join in!

See you soon x