Category Archives: Nature

Reasons to be Cheerful – Week 10

Hello, and a very happy 2012 to you! Have you taken down the decorations yet, or are you waiting till Twelfth Night? I must admit to taking mine down after New Year’s Day. The tree was in the window, right in front of Higgins’ look out point and I got fed up with things being swept off by a waggy tail and then secreted behind the sofa to be dismantled. (I got my own back when he stole a cracker, put a paw on one end and then delicately tried to remove the interesting long thin piece of card poking out of the middle… BANG!!! Gosh, I didn’t know he could jump quite that high!)

I find the first week of the New Year a bit strange…I end up a bit like Higgins trying to settle in a newly washed bed, I seem to spend a lot of time shuffling and scrabbling trying to make it all the right shape.

We definitely need a bit of cheerfulness with this awful weather, I hope you haven’t been swept away in this wind, or suffered power cuts or cancelled travel arrangements. I feel for Tim, who is stuck in the middle of the North Sea at the moment, I’m just glad that he’s on something with it’s legs firmly planted on the bottom of the sea…

Higgins has been to the sea, he went with his Boy…

He really loved having his Boy to stay over Christmas and probably the Christmas tree incidents were down to the fact that the Boy went home and left him feeling very bored.

I removed all the holly, which had more berries this year than I had ever seen before and hung it with the mistletoe in the cherry trees so the birds could polish off the berries…

Something which made me very happy was a crafty Christmas pressie from my friend Kit, who knows how much I like stationery…

But the best bit was the bit Kit painted herself…

How on earth am I actually going to use those labels…and part with them?

I’ve been shopping on Ebay…

…and talking of buttons, how about this for a Christmas present?

I’ve got so many possible crafty bits of inspiration all I’ve got to do is actually decide what I’m going to do next!

So what are your Reasons to be Cheerful in this first week of 2012? Do join in, either through the Linky below, or via the comments, it’s lovely to find out what every one is doing to get through the gloomiest wintery bit. And if you are in the southern Hemisphere, your sunshiny, Springy bits are most welcome!

See you soon! xxx

2011 – A Year in Pictures

It’s the end of the year, so I thought I’d do a recap. It’s been very interesting trawling through the archives and seeing how things have developed over the months and I thought I would share the experience…

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

It’s already giving me lots of new ideas for the next twelve months, so I hope you’ll drop in again to see how it’s going! In the meantime, I wish you all a very Happy New Year, where ever you are….see you in 2012! xxx
http://youtu.be/QEVF0fah17k

Winter Solstice – The Turn of the Year

We’ve been celebrating Winter Solstice for several years now, it seems a much more relevant date to remember, Mother Nature herself is swinging the New Year into action, rather than being dictated to by a man-made calendar. We get together with friends to eat and drink, it usually centres around a big game stew, and look ahead to the Spring and new beginnings. And when it’s over there is still Christmas to look forward to!

Things are just building up here. Our daughter is home from Uni, elder son and family arrive tomorrow and younger son will be with us on the big day. It’s a real and rare treat to have all the family under one roof. So as Planet Penny will be a little hectic for a while, I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very merry, happy and peaceful Christmas. Thanks to everyone who has left comments, or emailed me over the year. I may not have time to answer each and every one, but I read everything, and love to hear from you.

I’m looking forward to new things for 2012, I hope you’ll come along and join in the fun! And I do intend to share my recipe for the accidentally amazing Winter Solstice cake which I snatched from the jaws of disaster (but which has now succumbed to jaws of a different kind!)

HAPPY CHRISTMAS! see you soon xxx

Reasons to be Cheerful – Week 7

Hello again, what do you think of my happy jingly heart? I’m always on the look out for heart shaped pretties and this was irresistible. One day I will have to go round the house with the camera and make a heart mosaic. One day…when I have nothing to do!

I’ve been busily sorting out orders after the weekend, and I just have one left…a hamster. And not just any hamster, I have photos of a dearly departed much loved pet to guide me so this has got to be right. Quite a responsibility, I’ll let you know later how I get on!

I’ve also been catching up on correspondence, which is why I bought some cards last weekend at the Pick and Mix Market. The trouble is, I’m finding it really difficult to spoil the beautiful presentation! I mean, look how lovely this looks…

…and I couldn’t resist buying these jolly Christmas cards from Moobaacluck…

(although I should probably have kept them a secret, I hope no one is looking!)

I must bring in Higgins as a Reason to be Cheerful this week, although he manages to be that anyway (99% of the time!) I had to chuckle this morning as I watched him carefully dragging the throw off the sofa, across the floor to the patch of sunlight streaming in through the french doors. Having arranged it carefully into a Higgy shaped nest, he selected his current favourite toy from the toy box and settled down to warm his tummy! But he’s come into his own getting me out of the house on days when without him I would NOT have ventured into the great outdoors, what with the wind, the rain, and the mud.

It hasn’t been like that every day, and today we had a lovely walk.

Finally I have a Reason to be Cheerful up my sleeve that I can’t tell you about just yet, but which me made me very happy this afternoon! Hopefully in the next couple of weeks I can share it, if it come off.

So what are your Reasons to be Cheerful this week? Please join in, just click on the Linky at the end of the post. It’s lovely to be able to read all the things, both big and small which have raised a smile over the past few days. And if you don’t have a blog just share your thought in the comments column.

See you soon! x

Planet Penny on Folksy – A Year On

I’ve just sat down at the keyboard with my Reasons to be Cheerful hat on, and realised I have an anniversary to mark this month. It’s a whole year since I needlefelted my first robin and my chums in our little Procrastinators Anonymous group said, “Just get ON with it!” So I put it in the Folksy shop which I had set up months before and then had a crisis of confidence, and I sold it. And it’s a whole year since I took a clutch of robins to the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market in Holt because Emma of Silver Pebble wanted to choose one, and she sold the rest on her stall…

And this time last year I was visiting the Market as a customer, and this time I’ve got a stall, so I think I’ve got a Reason to be Cheerful right here!

(While I was digging around in the archives I found a photo I can’t resist using again…how ridiculous is this…?)

Anyway, enough of all that silliness…

I’ve taken advantage of Tim being back in the middle of the North Sea to commandeer the dining table on which to sort out my packing for Saturday…

Oooh-er, putting it in a photo makes it look so darn little, but actually sitting alongside it I’m sure it’ll be fine.

Needlefelting does NOT lent itself to mass production!

I’ve had some fun with the baubles…

and I’ve made a Christmas Angel…

…or two.

And I’ve put a bigger robin in a wreath which I’m quite pleased with…

I’ll hopefully have lots of pictures of this Saturday’s event to show you next week (note to self – REMEMBER THE CAMERA!)

So all that is jolly stuff, but before I share some other cheerfulness I just wanted to say a big thank you for all the lovely encouraging comments you have been leaving me. I might be beavering away on my own, but I never feel it while I have so many virtual friends visiting Planet Penny. And also, there’s been some interest in the whole needlefelting process, and what it’s all about. Excitingly, I’ve been asked to run some classes next year, I’ll let you know more as I get the information. Obviously that’s only any help if you live relatively nearby, but when things are a little calmer in the new year I can put a tutorial on line if you would like. Do leave a comment if you are interested.

So back to the matter in hand. I’m still finding loveliness in the garden but with the weather turning colder it seemed a good idea to bring it indoors…

…and Sweet Peas in November?

After yesterday’s fog, this morning’s sunrise was beautiful…

…and it was fun getting a Higgins’ eye view of the toadstools!

And finally, and I know I’ve gone over the three reasons but that can only be a good thing, there was a glorious misty sunset the other evening…

…it’s just a shame it has to happen so early in the afternoon!

So, what Reasons to be Cheerful have YOU found this week? Please share them on your blog and link them through the Linky below and spread a little happiness. And if you don’t have a blog, feel free to add them to the comments on this post, I’m looking forward to hearing from you…x

Planet Penny

Crafts, Needle Felting, Crochet, Patterns & Tutorials