Sequin Stitches and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

 Good morning all my lovely readers! I do hope you are well. I have been recovering after my 'Choppy Neck Op' and keeping myself busy with Granny who has come to stay and help look after the Sparkles. Granny has been a wonderful help and has smartened up our garden too! Well, all except one corner... You may recall that most of my Nasturtiums perished when we went to Cornwall. The remainder have met a sad end when they became these hungry caterpillars dinner. More about these guys in a moment.

They munched their way through ten juicy leaves. But they were still hungry.

The succulents have been separated and the thug plant from the pathway has its own pot! 

Little Sparkle running an inspection to make sure all is well.

My rose, 'A Shropshire Lad' has made a bit of a comeback after all! 

A frilly tutu for a fairy perhaps?

More strawberry flowers have come out too.

And this is the Super Moon. But I think I missed it looking at its most impressive, sadly. It just looked very very bright but not particularly big. And I only took a couple photos as I think my neighbour wondered what my flash was and came out to investigate. So rather than make the situation worse and frighten him with my choppy neck I ran away and hid back inside. It was the right thing to do.

Super Moon

These are a bit more impressive though! Our lovely Sunflowers have finally bloomed.

Is this Sunflower stopping a giggle from escaping?

The tallest Red Sunflower. This one is just under 6 foot tall.

Anyway, after the desolation of the poor Nasturtiums I noticed two little caterpillars (or Cabbage Worms as they are also known) had decided the food was so good, they would go in for bed and board too.

The top pictures show Mr Fivestar inside the sun room. I'm not sure he wanted his pictures done as he was getting changed ...

And Mr Threestar is a bit more outdoorsy. The brown blob there is actually the old exoskeleton and if you look closely at the bottom right photo you can see where the wings are already forming on the sides of his body. I would love to catch them making their grand entrance as butterflies but we will have to see!

A while ago I promised to make Big Sparkle a dream catcher with real crystals. Real crystals are very exciting indeed. And so are dream catchers, so it's a winning combination.

First I wrapped ribbon around an embroidery hoop. 

Then threaded on ten different threads around the outside. Next I tied each thread to the one next to it and worked my way around until I got near the middle. (Don't knot the threads together too close to the middle, keep pulling them together at the centre to see the effect you will get.) I tied a European bead into the centre and left the threads as a tassel but you can trim them off.

Finally I added some real crystal gemstones on using a cotton thread and then tied some ribbons at the sides.

Making the Dreamcatcher

And here is the finished rainy/sunny day project, complete with a rainbow of gemstones. Why not have a go too, you could use any beads instead of crystals to add some colour.

Big Sparkle loves her new Dream Catcher.

That's all for now, I will say in advance that my blog may be a little late next week as I have some super duper amazing lovely friends coming to visit which I am very excited about! I will be back soon though and I hope you enjoy your week.

Amber xxx