Colour Therapy

In 1893, a wonderful little booklet was printed on Handiwork.

It was called:

The People's Handbook Series

The Ladies' Model

Fancy Work Manual

So dainty in primrose yellow

I have always enjoyed making this pattern

and right now this is my latest crochet project.

I came across a slightly modified pattern made by someone called Sandi Marshall

in 2006.

This simple, but lovely pattern is the centre part of a bigger doily called

"Crocheted Wheel for Tidy"

I wonder what a 'tidy' was in 1893?

The black and white photos at the end are of the original vintage booklet.

There's something refreshing about aqua tones

rich and vibrant

or in a paler shade.

Luminous pink

and sometimes all of them together.

Four together are nice

but five are even better!

They make lovely gifts and I use mine all the time:

Under glasses, mugs or small vases, even a special ornament

or made into a napkin ring.

I've even attached them together on a crocheted chain and hung them up to make a bunting

or individual ones attached with a thread and hung up against my windows!

Here is the link to Sandi Marshall's rewritten instructions to the original pattern

Here is the original full doily pattern

including the central flower motif.

The coaster pattern has been much copied, slightly modified and renamed

by many people, claiming the pattern as their own,

but the original, and protected version here has only one name:

The Crocheted Wheel for Tidy.

I haven't yet tried to make the whole doily, but a blogging friend,

Sandra from Cherry Heart:

has told me that she would like to try and decipher the original old pattern.

Do go and visit this lovely blog about crochet,

you will love looking at all her beautiful work,

Since colour is so important to me,

I had to finish up with a colourful collage!

The Power to Choose

Sunday morning on my balcony!

My favourite place to be as soon as it's warm enough to sit outside!

I'm surrounded by window-boxes and big tubs of flowers

and there is birdsong in the early morning.

I can see trees from where I sit when I turn by back to the road.

I am happy, not only because of all these lovely things, but because I choose to be!

Whatever happens to us in life, whatever our circumstances,

whatever our state of health, we have the ability to choose our attitude

to every single thing in our life.

The book in the photo is a new one that I have recently started.

It reinforces my belief that we are able to develop our resilience

and rise above the hard knocks in life.

Of course, some things are more difficult to bear than others,

but however hard things may seem, our attitude is everything.

We are not the victims of our lives,

but we are the creators of how we want to live.

I love books like this, 

they make me feel empowered.

May and June have been busy months, both with birthday celebrations

and creative occupations.

On the creative side, out came my crochet hook and some new red cotton

which I recently obtained from a local store.

Forty-two crocheted hearts have been made as part of a table decoration

for my son's wedding this August in Switzerland.

I found this lovely rose in the exact same tone of red as the hearts.

There's such mystery and beauty in the heart of a rose.

The weather is already hot and humid

with daytime temperatures reaching 26C but it feels much hotter

because of the high humidity.

Storms have been building up towards the evenings.

This could be the start of a very hot summer¨

It will soon be time to get my ventilators out of the cellar!