Category Archives: Reasons to be Cheerful

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

Mid November Cheerfulness

What do you think of that for an Autumnal photo? Albertine usually only does her stuff, very spectacularly, for three weeks in June! She’s a little confused!

It’s been a little hectic this week, and again I’ve had moments of ‘Humph, what is there to be cheerful about?’ but it’s always there when you look for it.

We had a bit of worry over my mum. She struggles heroically with all sorts of health issues and keeps amazingly positive but this week new pills rendered her a bit more wobbly than usual and for the first time she had to use her alarm necklace and we had a call to rescue her. She’s less than a mile away so we were there within minutes to find that she had gently capsized rather than fallen, and had only damaged her dignity. It was so fortunate that Tim was home though as I could never have got her off the floor single handedly and probably would have had to call the emergency services. Knowing my mum, she’d have said, ‘Ooh, lovely, firemen!’

So for a couple of days I’ve been going round every couple of hours but now the doctor has been and the pills sorted out we are back to normal for the moment. Such a worry though.

Any way, The sun’s been shining through the last remaining cherry leaves this morning…

I think over the next week the rest of the leaves will be down, but there’s been a lovely sparkly carpet for a small dog to rush about on!…

If you look in the top left hand corner of the first Higgins photo you’ll see my Drummer Boy rose which is still blooming too…

I rescued it from the ‘Nearly Dead’ bin at the local garden centre some years ago and it has been gratefully flowering every year since! And talking of buying plants, I was very happy to find hyacinths to buy at the Farmers Market last Saturday.

You might remember last winter I had these…

…and now I have these to look forward too…

This morning Selvedge arrived…

Which has gone into the pile with Country Living…

…and Country Homes and Interiors…

…to be read, sometime, when I’m not wielding a a red hot felting needle!

Which reminds me. Thank you for all the suggestions which were made about listing the Felty Balloons on Folksy. I’ve taken them all on board, but I think I will wait now until after the Pick’n’Mix Market which is in 10 days time. It would be rather lovely if I don’t have any left to list, wouldn’t it? We’ll see!

Yesterday afternoon I went out to the studio with express intention of have a good tidy up, walked in, spotted a particular piece of fleece, had a brainwave and ended up needlefelting again! But it was very productive, because I made this little chap…

I thought if he had a couple of brothers, they could go carol singing, and here they are! This one has the music…

…this one rings the bell…

…and this one knows all the words!

They are quite wee, just over 2″ tall, and look SO cute on the mantlepiece. However, I will be sensible, and they ARE for sale! (Ed. to add: and were sold, the very next day! Another reason to be cheerful!)

I hope that you too have found some ‘Reasons to be Cheerful’ even if you felt it’s been a tricky week so far. And I hope too that you’ll be able to join in with the ‘Linky’ so that we can spread a little happiness about. I’ve really enjoyed popping off to other blogs, and sharing the cheerfulness. I’ve decided to start the Linky slightly earlier, Wednesday afternoon rather than Thursday morning to give as much time as possible for people to find it and join in and so here it is!

See you soon xx

Searching for Reasons to be Cheerful…

I have to admit to having to look really hard this week for any cheerfulness at all! It’s entirely weather related, and I’m sorry to be so feeble. I haven’t coped at all with the heavy layer of cloud which has been sitting on top of our little corner of Norfolk, my mother describes it as being inside a Tupperware box with the lid on…

But this morning, hooray… after a gloomy start the clouds started to break…

and as the weather lifted, so did my spirits…

and of course there are reasons to be cheerful!

The very first one must be the wonderful response that I had from my last post about Team Hannah which you can read in the comments there. I know Hannah has been very appreciative and if you go to the Team Hannah website you will see the amount raised is moving steadily up, although there is still along way to go. Its very uplifting to find out how many kind and caring people are out there.

I’ve been beavering away making Christmas decorations for the Pick’n’Mix Makers Market which is not far away now, and as part of my stall I have bought a Christmas Tree, which is …whisper it….up my studio with decorations on it!!!!! In November!!! Very scary! I’m not going to frighten you with pictures of the tree, but just a little peek…

Coming on nicely I think, and out on my walk this afternoon there was holly…

and ivy…

…so I’m really getting into the spirit of things!

Out in the garden, there are still a few brave plants doing their thing. the Welsh Poppy…

…and these little blue flowers which normally flower in late Spring whose name escapes me for the moment…

…and the Eden rose.

This isn’t a rose I would really recommend as it has these spectacular heavy blooms on spindly weak stems so it’s very droopy, and the roses easily rot in wet weather. but they do last for ages as a cut flower, and it’s trying awfully hard to do its stuff at the moment!

I also found this dear little bird feeder in our little market town this morning which I hope the birds will discover soon…

…and it cost £3!! I couldn’t believe it!

Well I’ve certainly exceeded my three reasons this week, and I haven’t even come to the one which cheered me up no end last night. I won something!! Such a surprise. Wendy over on 1st Unique Gifts had a giveaway draw, and despite having 72 participants, I won one of Wendy’s brilliant clocks. And it’s SO appropriate!

Isn’t it great!

So what are your Reasons to be Cheerful this week? Can you share them so that if like me, someone is having fit of the winter glums we can visit your blog for a little happy moment. Just add yourself to the Linky at the bottom of this post and then we can find you, and if you don’t have a blog do join in via the comments. I love to hear from you…

I’ll leave you with another beautiful Winter Sky…

See you soon x

Reasons to be Cheerful 3

It’s that time of the week again, and actually there’s a lot of cheerfulness this morning as the sun is shining on the dew in the garden so it’s all looking beautifully sparkly!

Higgins is rather enjoying being allowed to have the door open so he can gallop in and out without always being the wrong side of the door.

And the garden looks rather good from his level too!

I’m very cheerful about the fact that I have a hollyhock growing at last. I love hollyhocks, and have been so annoyed by the way they will happily seed themselves in between gaps in the paving at the side of the road, and refuse to grow in my garden. This one has spent six months getting enormously tall, but has managed to flower before the snow arrives!

Now I’ve just got to see if I can get colourful ones to grow next year…

And talking about sparkly things, today my younger son’s new fiancee is coming to lunch to show us her engagement ring and to talk about making bunting for their wedding next May. Now that really is exciting!

So I have no trouble at all finding three reasons to be cheerful this week , how about you? If you’ve only just arrived, you can find out all about the Reasons to be Cheerful Linky here. If you add your three reasons to your latest blog post and add it to the Linky at the end of this post, then we can share a bit of cheerfulness with all our bloggy chums. And if you don’t have your own blog, don’t worry, just leave a comment, I’d love to hear from you xx

Reasons to be Cheerful 2…

This is going to be a little brief, one of my Reasons is turning up At Any Moment! Two little grandsons and their Dad, driving up from the South Coast, apparently battling the traffic.

Anyway, I do hope you can join in, there’s been quite a bit of interest, and some lovely reasons shared since I started this last week, and the general concensus is that we do need to count our blessings, especially as the winter approaches. Have a look at last Thursday’s post here if you missed what is going on.

So, I’ve already told you the first reason I have for cheerfulness, a few precious days to spend with three of my favourite boys…

And secondly, It’s still cheerful in the garden, in places…

And Thirdly, we have tickets! Theatre tickets. And next week we are going to see this…

http://youtu.be/yW2gQfHcjVE

I do love a bit of tap dancing. My inner Ginger Rogers is buried pretty deep, but she’s in there!

So do please, add your 3 reasons to your latest post and then add your blog to the Linky below between now and midnight on Sunday so that lots of other people can discover you. And don’t feel you can’t join in if you live in the Southern Hemisphere and are looking forward to Spring, we need pictures of spring flowers and sunny things!

P.S. If you need any more cheering up, do call in at Silver Pebble’s blog and find out what she has in mind!

Reasons to be Cheerful…

Having announced a cunning plan, I’m really nervous about telling you! I really hope you like it…

As an insomniac, quite a lot of strange things run through my head in the wee small hours when I’d actually much rather be asleep! And I often doze off and wake up with tunes running through my head which won’t shut up. Last night it was this…Do you remember it?

Ok, so maybe not to everyone’s taste (though you’ve got to love that sax!) but the sentiment is just right.

We neeeeed reasons to be cheerful sometimes, especially now. In the Northern Hemisphere, winter is approaching. The nights are drawing in rapidly, it’s cold and very often grey. The TV news is full of doom and sadness, the boiler packs up, the toddler grinds his lunch into the curtains, you get the picture, I don’t need to go on.

So I thought it would be fun have some Reasons to be Cheerful, and share them around, so we can all have a little uplifting when we most need it.

So here’s the plan. Every week I’ll put a Linky, here on Planet Penny so you can link your blog post where you’ve included your 3 reasons to be cheerful…as the song says 1,2,3. It can be photos, or a saying, or even a little story about what has made you smile over the past few days, or a mix of all three. I don’t want to lay down too many rules, lets see what develops, but obviously nothing offensive, or that contravenes copyright laws, I’m sure I don’t really need to say it!

Don’t forget to put a link back to Planet Penny in your post to bring people back to the Linky so everyone can join in the fun!

So, what has made me happy this week?

Well, for One there is…

Late October Roses

Two…

My Happy Place!

And Three? Well, it’s just got to be ….!

My noisy little friend!

So please join in and take note of those little moments in your week which make you smile and share them with the world. If you don’t have a blog, don’t worry just pop them in the comments!

And now here’s the Linky…

Thanks so much for joining in!

One more day to add your link for this week, but don’t worry, I’ll be doing it again!