Secrets of a Butterfly

Congratulations & Thankyou

Thankyou for all the wonderful anniversary wishes for my blog's 1st birthday. I have used a random number generator and the winner is........Philippa! Congratulations and the butterflies will set off on the journey flying down to you soon.

Philippa has only recently begun her blog,A little place of my own in December last year,she has a beautiful photo of the Angel of the North as its banner,(she moved from here to the South)do stop by and say hello if you fancy welcoming her to blog land.

My health has been a little rocky lately,mainly a dip in energy levels, hence my abscence both out in the real world as much and out and about amongst my friends here in Blog land, if we should call it that ( any other name suggestions, as thats a bit naff sounding!),but it was just so fitting a time to recieve the heartwarming messages you all left for me and it kept me connected and cheered. i hope to be back to myself soon,but as with this illness and recovery from it, its all about just feeling your way and taking things slowly so i can't really tell for now. I just wanted to give a little explanation really for my quietness, i look forward to visiting you more often soon,like i normally do, in the meantime i know you will all understand and are wishing me the best. BIG THANKS ,luv kat xx

p. s. happy birthday emily thinking of you today,here's the notelet set i made for Em's present...

bye for now

This Spring's colours and sights

a little daffodil in our back garden to put a touch of yellow and sunshine on the blog today and to give that spring feel thats in the air. Thanks so much to everyone for the wonderful anniversary comments you posted. I want to say a special thankyou to Emma Louise who typed out a lovely poem about deer that she said had the same magic as she finds in my blog. I was very touched and tried to respond but it bounced back so i think your email address was wrong, could you, if you read this EmmaLouise, email me(link top left of the blog) or leave another comment. There is another week before the draw for the garland so i will just continue with my posts as usual,then let you know next weekend who's won..

This beautiful spread was in Red magazine this month and i love the way the yellow and turquoisey blue work together There are yellow and blue flowers in our garden at the mo, nothing fancy just some tubs of grape hyacinths and mini daffodils but they do bring in some much appreciated colour here and there.

The bunnies have been out in their run alot more and soaking up the sun which i'm sure is as good for them as it is us we got them a wooden mini hut that attaches to the side of the run and so they can shelter in there should the wind get too much or a cat appear! Jasp went in when an aeroplane went over as i don't think he's remembered that they arent a threat.Here's some more photos i took of Whisper (white/girl) and Jasper (grey and white/boy) on May 1st we will have had them one year!

Just to finish here's a picture of some lambs we saw in a field last week,i've never seen any so close to before,they had little coats made from see through plastic to keep them drier and warmer. Apparently it means alot more of them survive than they do without the protection. The sheep themselves were surprisingly loud!The countryside is not always quieter than the city it seems! But the little ones were extra cute when their tails wagged so fast back and forth when they began feeding.

Here's me down at the riverside last week.

So thats my spring theme update and i will put some more shots on my flickr pages i think. I've been making mosaics up  with some of my photos using fd's flickr toys which i discovered when Julie used it for some of hers.its another little addictive thing to do with Flickr and there are other effects you can do to photos with it too.such as blur the edges or frame them in a stamp design, or a film border.Thanks for your company today. have a pleasant weekend,love kat x

Easter blessings & bunnies

Easter wishes to all my blog friends, i hope you enjoy your easter break and have a pleasant Sunday.

I had to post this picture of Whisper and Jasper,it was taken a few weeks ago as the weather has been colder since and so they havent been out in their run much at all. But it took me ages to get them to be still enough next to each other to get this photo!!

So happy easter from us, love kat

photo from Seasons and celebrations.

Thankyou so much

Thank you so much to everyone for the lovely birthday messages,cards and gifts. Especially to mam for all her care in making my birthday a special day and for baking a cake at short notice, its so good to have your baking again mam and i hope you feel up to doing some more through the coming year because i know it gives you alot of pleasure to create in that way XOX. .

i have quite a lot of photos so its hard to pick out which to share! its my first birthday while blogging as i didnt start this till march so it has an extra specialness to it because i get to record my memories of it on here.I felt everyone of my friends from around the country drop in at least 'in spirit' to share a cuppa and a slice of cake,here is where you would have visited,our living room with some of my cards up around the fireplace and a heart paper garland which i got from RE and use every year now .You can just make out the JoY letters that anna sent me in the centre of the shelf. and this sweet birdie in a nest was off Luigi!

here's a close up of the cupcake card julie made isnt it beautiful what a special treat it was to recieve,thankyou J

I was also especially blessed to recieve a handmade box which my dear friend Mary made. She chose special papers that she knew i would like,and made the box with paper folding techniques which she's perfected over last year. It also has little silver charms attached one of which is a butterfly! i can't believe the skill it took to craft it,and i will certainly treasure it Mary thankyou. It means all the more as for so long mary couldnt have made this or written a card to me as she was so ill with ME. Now our friendship has bloomed because we can be in touch and share our feelings.here is the box..

You know how i've had a poorly throat lately well Shelbi made me this scarf to keep it warm and sent it for my birthday! it was so lovely of you Shel,thankyou sweetie i LOVE it. When you send things off to people and friends in the mail, you don't tend to think of them on the other end doing the same for you things,so when something comes its such a happy suprise and lifts your spirits. Its something thats always meant alot to me within the group of friends i've had, that when anyone is extra poorly we support each other even if the communication back from them has to go silent for a long time till they are able to reply as it did with me a few spells. Now to get to share things and crafts with both some of them and new friends in  blogging makes it even better. How precious a digital camera is for sharing all this.Mine is now exactly one year old!i got it last birthday and have recorded so much through it since. Keep dreaming and believing,love kat xx

 

Birthday girl

Just wanted to share a little of my birthday. This is what mam and dad gave me, a beautiful bracelet by alex monroe who they know i like, as his designs are all nature themed, this one has a hummingbird on it, along with other flowers and leaves and tourmaline and prynite gemstones. I love it! some gifts and below a philosophy set with such wonderful wording as always! i am having a lovely day.. thankyou for thinking of me and stopping by.

love kat x

Angel of Peace

May an angel bless your heart and your home this new year,with peace,health and happiness for 2008,love kat x

Love and Wishes

Christmas Day was great and i really enjoyed so much about it,i can only share a taste of it but hope these pictures bring out how we spent our day at our house. this is me opening some presents downstairs on the sofa in the morning. My mam did a beautiful dinner in her new cath kidston apron!this photo shows the 4 candles i put out likeTracy in Norway,as its their tradition,they are lit for our heart's wish,hope,happiness and peace. i thought it a lovely idea and found enough matching tealight holders to do it too. Next the bunnies and their presents from Emily and Bella .Jasper here investigating the wrapping... 

And here along with Whisper tucking in to their dinner and a few extra treats.Thankyou Em for thinking of them and they send you their cuddles.

   Later we saw my brother Neill and his girlfriend Debbie and opened presents...it was a quiet evening of tv to follow,we watched Oliver. My grandparents came the next day for tea. i had iced some biscuits on christmas eve which were amongst what we had to eat... .Not long to go now till the end of 2007 and the start of a new year. i was in a reflective mood the past few days and feeling very grateful for whats happened over the course of my year.It does make everything seem so much better doesnt it,when you can feel thankfulness that deeply,like your heart is beaming. obviously thats easier at certain times than at others. I watched Love Actually last night and this picture was from one of my favourite scenes in it. Its now put me in a wistful romantic mood and so i'm thinking ahead into the new year and further, wondering what good things will be in store.

You know how precious it is to be able to do that.Once you have increasing health and fitness,how that enables everything to seem more possible. Even if the future is frightening too, because of the unknown, i can remind myself now that sometimes that unknown can simply mean good things that are waiting for you. It doesnt have to all be bad like i'd come to experience in years gone by. Everything changes and evolves and that makes change a good thing overall,and a necessary thing for life of course.

So here i am on the doorstep of a new year and embracing change just as i did all last year, and not forgetting to give myself some praise for doing so and some love too for all that i've done.My christmas gift to myself is to continue to love myself even with the imperfect things i do or feel still there,not waiting till i feel they're sorted and so i'm ok.(because to fix it all we'd wait forever to accept ourselves) 

A page from my discovery journal last night.I hope and wish for precious moments and good things for you all too this coming year..love kat x

Merry and Bright,by the tree tonight...

Here is our family christmas tree its a nordman fir and we've used the gold decorations mixed in with some vintage style silver ones new this year. i hope you enjoy seeing it. its been so nice seeing everyone elses i thought i better get this one posted before we run out of days!

me adding the butterflies

 

My friend Jenny came and it was great to see her as always. She and i use the same therapy in our recovery so we have plenty in common and can encourage each other on. Its so important within using the process(called LP) to not compare your progress with anyone else or you can get down about it not being as good. But its ony natural that sometimes you do and thats when you need your friend to remind you how far you've come...

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Jenny (above in grey jumper with me)and i both know how far the other has come and what its taken and how precious being able to do what we can is to us both,each in our own ways. its quite something to share looking back at our photos from this year together. She, like i mentioned in the previous post too is a diamond of a friend. Hugs J!

Speaking of friends, look at these two arent they just cute as a button! they are from Nicky at her etsy shop The vintage magpie. She does the most adorable ranges, with bunnies as well as bears.They were listed individually but i thought of them as friends and so wanted them to stay together. After i ordered them on etsy they arrived the next day beautifully packaged and are settling into their new home really well. Its amazing how much soul handmade softies have isnt it,like their proper little people. I marvel at how their makers can bare to part with them. So i always like to do a post to reassure them they've found a good home and are safe and sound. As these two are on my bed (meeting the little cotton rabbits at present and still finding their feet)they are nice and warm and snug too. their arrival brought me many smiles,thankyou Nicky, kat x

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

A gift for Mam's birthday

Hello everyone i thought today,which is my mam's(vickie's) birthday,i would post o picture of the collage i did her. Its the first i've done in this style and its been made a few weeks now. It was very hard to keep it a secret and not show her it early. I'm glad i waited though to give her it on the day along with a leather bag i chose from reddirect.co.uk. I find they have lovely things for presents on that site. Mam really loves the picture and all the little squares have some sort of representational meaning to her and i. We really have been through so much on our shared healing journey,and supported each other through it all,we are more like friends as well as mother and daughter. It seems strange to think she has memories of me as a baby and growing up that i can't remember! these are the flowers my dad got for her, yellow is her favourite colour. And here's a photo from a month or two ago of us on the beach. Truly happy for the first time in a long time, and having pleasant days to share,hence our smiles that show relief,thankfullness and true appreciation of being able to visit such a beautiful spot in the area. Love you so much mam xxx

Easter

Speaking of seasons and changes the book i recommend on my list by Denise Linn has been a favourite of mine. I've found its very good at giving you insight into the meaningful ways to mark occasions with an altar or mini display. Ever since a little child i've grouped things together and didnt realise it at the time but as is explained in the book this is a natural way of creating a little sacred space. Whether using that to feel close to nature,family members or the Divine. You can also set them up to mark a change in your life that youre going through or a dream you wish to encourage into reality. I think many of us into crafts and art in general tend to do this anyway whether with mood boards or mini arrangements of supplies. Even the beautiful collages i'm coming across on Flickr by the likes of Pam Garrison are like mini altars. representing things in unique ways and appealing to us with words and image that we relate to or wish for.

So it is with Easter that i have now got a little tree covered in eggs for the first time. Eggs represent the birth of new possibilities (now more applicable in my life than previously). And its really egg-citing!! to have some place to share it with other like minded souls. Heres me decorating it its in our living room.I love these little birdies at christmas so pleased they've brought them out in spring colours. All from the Pier. Wishing you a Happy Easter and Spring time. Kx