Frank and Josie's House

It's finally finished - the crochet hoodie I've been working on for months. I'm so pleased and look how gorgeous my wonderful girl looks in it! I started the journey with this hoodie in late December, post Christmas rush. My daughter's birthday is in early January and she often gets slightly overlooked due to the Christmas craziness. Family are very good at remembering her birthday but we have to be extra organised to make sure the budget stretches to her birthday. This year (technically last year!) I decided to make her something special: a fairy hoodie. Merida loves fairies, pixies, elves and all such creatures. She's forever searching for them when we go to the woods.  I set about the search, as I so often do in these cases, on Pinterest . I found amazing pictures but few patterns I could either decipher or relate to or that was the right thing. Finally I found this pattern:  Lutine des Fleurs by Sylvia Damey . There was a eureka moment when I found this. It was

Having a long-term illness sucks. Part of the annoyance is that my particular illness is still undiagnosed. I know it's nothing serious, which is obviously good, but it is getting me down. Chronic pain is bad enough to deal with but when the medical profession are still guessing where the pain is coming from and thereby what can be done about it it makes that mysterious pain....annoying. I guess that's the word of the hour - annoying. I know people have it worse so I don't want to say it's worse than anything but at the same time I have days when I can barely stand. I struggle back up the hill after doing the school run. I miss rehearsals for my singing group. I have days when I have no energy or I'm too doped up on painkillers to crochet! Yes, it's definitely annoying. I'm not looking for sympathy here, just venting. People see me in the playground and anyone who doesn't actually know me may wonder why I'm in such a grump. Then others may see me and