Feeling neglected?

Hi I'm sorry to have been neglecting this lovely blog of mine but you see there are exciting things afoot!

Dulcie and I are moving back to our Homeland...Cornwall! Ok so I wasn't born there but we moved there when I was 12 years old and I left my heart behind when I moved up to Lancaster Dulcie was born there so She really is going home!

I have had just had 6 weeks to get myself ready and I'm sad to say because of my health there was a lot to do! and also because of my health I've not been able to do everything. I'm not moving to my own house just yet, I'll be staying with my little Goddaughter and her family 'til I find a place and so I can only take the things I 'can't live without' and will come back for the rest when I need to.

I am so excited and can't wait to share with you my progress and making for Teri's Handmade Home :-)

I'll let you know when I have arrived and settled in :-)

I'm Moving!

Hello all from a very excited Teri! I am finally moving back to Cornwall. the place that stole my heart when I was just 12 and was my home for 18 years is again going to be my home :-) I'm moving to help my friends out with their baby girl (My Goddaughter, Sarah) when her mum goes back to work. Initially I'll be staying with them but as they haven't got room for me I will be officially homeless and so hope to have my own home soon!

As the move up to Lancaster cost me £1300 in just removal fees I'm being really good and strict and downsizing on a massive scale keeping just those things I really love or have plans for...more about them to follow :-) After all the less I have to move the less it will cost!

I don't have the time or the energy to sell the things I don't need and so it is being given away to various friends and charities and Freegle. I have given away the mass of craft stuff that would take me a million years to get through (ok so that is a big 'Coleman' exaggeration that we are known for) and things like a dog crate that cost £40 and was never used. You might think I'm mad just giving it all away (Surely I need some money for my move?) but do you know what? It is totally liberating! It is a blessing to me to know these things are going to people who need them or supporting some worthwhile charity (and that also means every time we take stuff to the Wolfwood dog rescue charity shop at the end of our road we also end up spending more money there hehe) And maybe through giving it all away God will provide for my needs from some other unexpected source though I am trying to save up too and not spend too much money! In preparing for my brothers visit last weekend we had a big clean up and clear out and actually got rid of most of the stuff under the stairs (and there was a LOT!) Mum and Dad are planning a move in the future too and so they are taking a leaf out of my book and getting rid of lots too :-) I think that makes it more fun and easier cos one of us isn't hoarding while the others are clearing out. It's a clean sweep and very cathartic.

So watch this space for more news and plans and how I do end up making my home on that non-existant budget :-)

Come Join Me On Bloglovin'

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Hi I have just started using Bloglovin' and wondered if you would like to come and join me there? 

I have already started copying across the blogs I follow so i can keep up to date with everybodys latest musings having found problems with blogger dashboard and google reader. I hope this will also help me to be a more involved reader as you only get a snippet of each post whereas on google reader you often get the whole thing and so I only comment if I really want to as I would have to take the time to visit the blog in order to comment.

Anyway part of this post is to see how I can claim my blog name on Bloglovin' so we'll see how it works out. (more to follow on that soon)

So I do hope you'll pop over to Bloglovin' for a browse and follow me there too :-)

New! Birthday Organiser and Book!

A few weeks ago my dear friend Maria made herself some dividers for a basket she had to help her be more organised with birthdays etc. Well I loved the idea and I too needed to be more organised and went shopping on ebay to find a suitable holder for some dividers. Well the first purchase, though pretty and is being put to good use for my laptop bits (another good idea of Marias), was too small. Back to ebay with a better idea of mearurements required and found a lovely little wicker basket with handles and for a good price (which I don't remember) I don't have a pic of the empty basket I'm afraid. So armed with a basket and measurements I cheekily asked Maria to make me some dividers which she readily did. I left the choice of graphics up to her but she knows me well and I love them! They are also way better than I could have produced with my own printer so very professional

Anyway onto the next project (a week or 2 of card making later) I thought the next thing I needed was a birthday book to sit in the front of my birthday basket. This was prompted by a free tutorial for a birthday book from Craft Creations (the birthday book is the 4th project on the list). Well I didn't like the book but I liked how it was made. I asked Maria if she could send me the graphics she used for my birthday dividers which she did and then using my new Photoshop skills I designed each A5 page required for the book. It has taken me a few days to do all the graphics and sort out a couple of problems caused by doing it from memory and to get used to my still new printer! But this morning I got them all printed and folded.

Then after lunch I got out the necessary craft items to stick my book together. Double sided sticky tape and some scissors. It was great and so easy and not at all messy like it would have been if I tried glue!!

I taped each edge and then carefully stuck the right page onto the tape.

Oh I must also mention with the above right photo that the card graphic on the cover is courtesy of The Graphics Fairy (if you haven't visited her before you should she has a amazing range of vintage images free to use. She does backgrounds too)

Here are the pictures of the finished book, front and back as it is concertina style...

Just one job left to do...Stick on a piece of ribbon with which I could keep the book closed and of course because it's pretty! :-) So here are the last 2 pics...

The finished book and in it's own little place in the front of my birthday basket. I have to say I have enjoyed this project despite the problems which included running out of double sided sticky tape on the last page (so I then used my latest favourite product...glue squares from Dovecraft (I bought mine when visiting Maria in Leominster so I needed to find an online seller and am happy to have found one)

So what do you think? Do you like it? I love it! I am looking forward to being more organised...once I've written everyone I can think of in my book :-) (lets hope I can remember them all as I don't seem to have them anywhere else (if they're not on facebook that is lol)

Thanks for stopping by

Magpie Monday

Welcome to my first Magpie Monday! I'm linking up with Missie Lizzie of Me and My Shadow who started Magpie Monday! I hope you'll pop over to her blog and see all the other link ups and 'Magpie finds'

So here is my Magpie find bought today in Scope charity shop

A beautiful little teaset! 6 perfect cups and saucers and a sugar bowl!

All for a fabulous £4!

And then I turned them over and looked at the bottom finding this...

I may be wrong but this looks like they were made in 1850! Made by Foley Fine China this design is called 'Ming Rose' and I have done a little research and found 1 cup and saucer on ebay selling for £19.50! 

This lovely design is inside the cups and the sugar bowl!

I can't wait to have my own home to display them in and maybe have a tea party in aid of Scope who helps people like my friend Anna who has Cerebral Palsy :-)

I wouldn't have looked twice at this set or maybe thought it was pretty but nothing more if I hadn't been reading my friend Karen's blog and all the lovely vintage bargains she finds! Thanks for the Inspiration Karen!

I hope you think my 'Magpie find' is as wonderful as I do! Hope to see you again soon

New Look Blog

Hi welcome to my new look blog!

I've not been well today, I've been very tired, depressed, had a nasty headache and have had to stay in bed! So I have been thinking of updating this blog for a few days so I just started slowly looking for graphics and it has come together very quickly and I love the result! 

As the new banner didn't go with my old background I have had fun searching for a new one. Also the old blogger template didn't look good with the new look so THH has had a total makeover! New banner, new background and new fonts! I hope you like it too! 

A big thank you to Maria who made the original banner for THH! I loved it and I'm very grateful for the work you put into it for me. I'm a bit sad to retire it. You are my inspiration and I'm very happy now to have been able to make my own :-)

So how am I feeling now? Happy, and my headache has gone! Just goes to show how therapeutic creativity can be! And on this note I would like to tell you about my aim....To do a little creativity every day. It's too easy for that to be on Photoshop so I will make sure each day it is something different! To prove I am doing this I will be taking photo's and putting them on here. I'm just not sure if it will be daily or weekly but do keep an eye out! Would you like to join me?

Thanks for visiting! See you soon :-)

A ~ Z of ME!

I have done some about me on my other blogs recently so when I saw this on Maria's blog I decided it would be a nice thing to do on my 'Home' blog! I have also had some fun this morning making a pretty graphic to go with this post :-) So here is my A~ Z...

A. Age: 37
B. Bed size: Double which still isn't big enough for it's 2 occupants (see picture above hehe)
C. Chore that you hate: Dusting

D. Dogs: Umm check the picture above! My dear doggy Dulcie who has her own blog Dulcie Days
E. Essential start to your day: a doggy kiss and cuddle followed by my cup of coffee
F. Favourite color: Jade Green
G. Gold or Silver: silver
H. Height: 5'7"
I. Instruments you play: Flute, Recorder, Guitar, Tambourine and i would love to learn the Piano!
J. Job title: I don't have one
K. Kids: Still in my future but much desired!
L. Live: Currently Lancaster, England but looking forward to moving back to Cornwall in the hopefully near future!
M. Mother's name: Janet Iris (Iris means rainbow which is something very special to me and that makes my mum very special to me too! We are best friends)
N. Nicknames: Teri is a nickname from Teresa (pronounced Ter-ay-ssa) Tish Tash by my mum's friend so mum frequently calls me Tish, Pteradactyl (P-Teri-dactyl get it? hehe) I have others but They are not ones I want to share with the world or ones I'd rather forget!
O. Overnight hospital stays: lots and for weeks not nights! I have had 5 eye operations for Cataracts! I was totally blind at the age of 4!
P. Pet peeve: People overreacting when my dog(s) upset their dogs! Esp when their dogs are tiny and can be picked up! I had to laugh at the reaction of 3 adults with 1 or 2 Yorkshire Terriers when Bessie our soft pup when over to say hello...The dogs were on their owners laps and started yapping at Bessie so she barked back (not surprising really) so they all stood up and surrounded their tiny dogs and then moaned that I was too far away to control my dogs. I called Bess to me she came, sat on command and I put her lead on muttering about the fact that 3 adults seemed incapable of protecting 1 or 2 tiny dogs! (I never could tell if there were 1 or 2!) I had to laugh!  (well after I got over my annoyance! 
Q. Quote from a movie: "Where's my truck?" Crash "there it is!" - Twister

R. Right or left handed: right
S. Siblings: 1 older brother (though I should have had 3) and 1 adopted sister
T. Time you wake up: between 9 and 10am depending on how well I am at the time :-(
U. Underwear: Knickers and Bra ~ must be pretty but rarely matches
V. Vegetable you hate: Beans, beans, beans can't stand the texture - Yuck! don't like peas so much anymore or cauliflower
W. What makes you run late: my parents or doing one more thing on the laptop!
X. X-Rays you've had: ankles, knees, wrists, elbows, neck, chest, I think that's about it!
Y. Yummy food that you make: Curry sauce to go with chips! but I love cooking and make great cakes which I generally don't eat (not a big cake person) My mum is a great cook and has taught me well :-)
Z. Zoo animal: Panda is the one that comes to mind but I love all animals except primates!

I hope you've enjoyed reading this and learning a little about me. Do you want to join me? Do let me know so I can come and read yours too :-)

Art Class

I have been attending an art group called CathARTic which is for people with ME or other such disabilities. Now normally I go and make cards as I don't consider myself to be an artist. But we have a teacher coming for 10 weeks and this is week 2 (I missed week 1 due to having just got back from Cornwall) So I decided maybe I should have a go! Eeeekk!

Anyway first we did a colour wheel so we knew what colours we needed to use to make oranges, greens and purples! that was fairly easy though definitely not neat in my case! hehe

so here it is my drawing of the still life we had (and I do normally hate still life) 

I did have to ask for some one to one help as I literally didn't know where to start but the teacher was very good and showed me how to mark out in pencils squares/rectangles where each item was and how to then draw into the squares and paint once that was done.

This isn't completely finished as I ran out of time. some shading is probably required but for my first real piece of art work I'm quite happy with it. I also had some lovely comments from other members of the group. I was sat next to a professional artist and she said that it was good and I might find I'm a painter! That was really encouraging :-)

So lets see what next week has to offer and how I do!

Sunday Sampler Catch Up and A Little late

I'm joining Maria of  Maria Divine with her 

                                                        I have done all her squares to date (some of them twice) and can't  wait to do this weeks! It's so pretty!

But I'm so enjoying whipping up these squares up that I've been scouring my crochet books for some more squares and even made some up myself! I am having lots of fun with it and can't wait to get started on making it up into a blanket. I will be making 2 blankets as some of them are done with a darker wool that's not really me so I'll be making it probably for mum :-)

These pictures are in groups according to size as I am going to make them into kind of a freeform blanket. so it doesn't matter that they are different sizes.

Small

Medium

Large

and here is a mosaic of them all so you can see them individually

I have also had a little bit of fun creating something my own...

I started with this pattern...

which made up looks like this...

But this is a bit smaller than I wanted and I thought I might be able to adapt the pattern to make it bigger

and I did! It looks like this...

and I love it! This picture doesn't do it justice!

I hope you have enjoyed seeing my work and will also pop over to Maria's Blog to see her squares and other lovelies she has there.

New Project

Sadly the baby I was making my second blanket for hasn't made it on it's journey to this world and my heartfelt prayers are with this family right now. So I have put the blanket on hold (hopefully to pick it up if my friend gets pregnant again) and needed another project for now.

My friend Maria has been doing a

feature on her blog. One lovely crochet square a week so I have decided to join her and make me some squares for maybe a throw for my new home :-)

So here are my first 2 squares from weeks 1 and 2 from Maria's feature (she is currently on 4 so I have a little catching up to do)

The Crocodile Square

The Granny Square

Now I have been crocheting since I was young but do you know I have never done a granny square before? So this was a first for me and I have to say I do love it so I might make a few more to keep my hands busy and out of the biscuit tin hehe

Now my Granny square was a little smaller than the Crocodile square I pinned them together overnight to stretch the granny square a little

 Front

back

Well I hope you like my squares and I hope you'll pop over to Maria's blog and see what hers look like :-)

Happy crafting!

Baby Blanket 1 Finished!

I'm thrilled to announce my first baby blanket is now finished! All sewn up and useable! I paid specific attention to the fact that with a ribbon woven through it every time it came out of the wash it would prob be necessary to straighten the ribbon out again! Just the kind of job a mum with a baby and 3 teenagers doesn't have time for! So I have sewn parts of the ribbon to the blanket to ensure that doesn't happen. It took a few tries to find the right spot to sew that doesn't affect the look of the blanket and am very pleased with the results and so here it is....

I hope you like this blanket as much as I do. Hurry up little baby so you can appreciate it's warmth :-) if you want to see the rest of the process in making this blanket check out my Product Diary.

New Phone, New Phone Case

Today I got a new phone! It's the poshest phone I've ever had! Touch screen and internet access (which I've yet to work out!) It's a Samsung Tocco Lite but being a 'girly' girl I had to go one better than just pink....

Can you see that?

Yup! It's a Hello Kitty phone!! I have had my eye on it for quite some time and I have saved up my catalogue commission and then got this phone in the sale so combining those factors this phone has cost me the grand total of .....£20 what a bargain!

After I had ordered it I decided I had to make a case to go with it. I had been told the phone would come tomorrow so I thought i had plenty of time to get it made. So I went hunting around the house for some (it had to be) pink wool and found this....

 This is a lovely mess of a ball of wool caused by our puppy dog Bess getting hold of a new ball and playing with it! I was in just the right frame of mood for untangling wool! Excited about my coming phone and the new case I would be making and my mind occupied by the television I quietly worked my way through it! It did take all evening but eventually I got to this...

One big ball, one smaller ball and 15 tiny ones! Now it is important to me that you know I did not cheat...that is I didn't use scissors once! The number of balls have been created by puppy dogs teeth! 

Sadly the next few days were not good ones and so it is with the arrival of my phone today that I have had to get on with making my new case and here it is...

and with the phone snuggly inside...

Do you like it? I do! I love my Phone case and especially my phone!!

So what do I like the most about my new phone after just a few hours play? I love the musical keypad for writing texts! it makes writing texts such fun!! I love the fact that I could receive a photo from my dear friend Maria (shhh! don't tell anyone she's been out buying wool again!) and I love the fact that when I'm listening to my music I can carry on doing all the other things I need to do on my phone like writing texts and exploring all the wonders that come from having a new phone! I am looking forward to finding out more about assigning MP3 music of my choice as a ring tone and as individual ring tone for my friends and I seem to see that I may be able to assign photo's to my contacts too! What fun! 

Well you might be enjoying this over excited missive from your fabulous IPhone and if so I will say I'm glad you have the best that mobile phones have to offer. I'm sure you're way too nice to say anything about how excited I'm getting over a phone way behind the amazing Apple technology but I am happy with my little phone and can aspire to get me an iphone in 4 or 5 years ;-) I'm used to being behind the times but still absolutely delighted with my beautiful phone!

Baby Blanket 2

You may remember I started a baby blanket in white and filet crochet with butterflies? It was very pretty and I started off really well but then I started making lots of mistakes so I started another simpler one. Well that one is almost finished (just got to secure the ribbon) so now it's time to get on with this one. I have undone it to start from scratch. I have also taken some advice from Maria to make the filet crochet squares instead of rectangles. Instead of doing 1 treble, 2 chain, miss 2 trebles, 1 treble. Maria found that 1 treble, 1 chain, miss 1 treble, 1 treble is much better and she was right! I have also been having a play at designing my own filet crochet designs!  These are the ones I did all the same size so I can do a patchwork style blanket (project for a later date) and here are the photo's of them...

I am very proud of the rabbit which is entirely my own design! I decided to make my life less complicated I needed to have a symetrical design so to keep it simple (in a good way) I picked 3. The heart, well just an outline, the bunny, couldn't leave him out and the butterfly in flight. And I have already completed the first set of motifs...

I'm loving it and the great news is that it is much easier to keep track of the pattern so I'm a calmer crocheter! Thank to Picasa for the collage photo's! it made it very easy to make them up and the blog doesn't take lots of scrolling down to see them all!

I hope you like what I've done and feel free to copy the patterns.