What a great Day!

Yesterday was horrible. The worst day since February. 
I was so weak, I had to use both crutches to be able to walk about 250 meter when I had to buy some cat´s food.
Lots of pain to. Frustrating a bit.

BUT: today is just great! I was able to do some stuff for university (finally) AND i could walk 500 meter entirely without crutches! 
I haven´t been able to do that for some time now, so that´s an relief.

I am on a good way now, the paralysis of my left leg is getting better every other day. And that is something i really have hoped for. Those really worse days are quite frustrating, okay, but they are getting fewer every week. I just have to clench my teeth just a little longer and rely on the good days.

What still annoys me the most is that nasty little thing called Fatigue which goes hand by hand with amyasthenia :(
It´is bugging me the most during or directly after an episode and lasts about 3 month. (which is the case right now)

There is a theory that the reason therefor is: that the brain needs all the energy one have for a day to repair or try to repair some of the damaged brain cells, so that no energy is left for the rest of me.
That´s a really consoling thought. I am telling myself that having a bad day means my chances to be able to walk normally again is raising.

This day isn´t over now and  I am a bit exhausted because of all the things I was capable of doing, so I will spend the rest of the day with my little Projects.

Do you want to see what I am going to work on today?

First thing is my Blue Cardigan Project:

Back Side

I got the Cardigan about 8 Years ago and when it started to look not so pretty anymore, I crocheted some flowers and sew them onto. 
I Loved it and wore it a lot (again) BUT saddly about 3 month ago I made some kind of washing mistake and the formerly white flowers got grey so that the whole thing started to look quite shabby.

Back in Detail

So I finally decided that the Flowers have to go and I will make new one. First I wanted to do the same Blossoms again but in the end I went for something new:

Daisies! (Because I really love Daisies since I was a Kid)

Ready one at the left side, in Progress on the right side

You can find a lot of different daisy pattern on the internet, i got mine from ravelry.com (as a free Ravelry download). If you are a member of Ravelry, here is the pattern.

I already made a lot of them in the past days and I even did the *weaving in* from almost all the Flowers. That´s one big surprise (because I so don´t like this part of the progress)

Guess which one aree the old :)

I haven´t removed all of the old Flowers, just those three you can see above, to show you how dirty the old one look compared to the new :)


The second Project I am actually working on: a new Bag!

I chose a cheap worsted (10ply) yarn in ecru. 

I really like the looks of it :)

Here is the pattern in detail 

First I have thought about doing some self - invented pattern, but there are so many nice already out there in the World Wide Web :)

I found this little treasure around a month ago: A free Online Book with 262 Chrochet Pattern in it! They are not written out, but charts with a picture.

The finished bag will have Strawberries attached to the front, because:
I already made a *Strawberry - Princess - Cardigan*!

I love Strawberries!

I know the Cardigan may look a bit childish to some, but I love it and it really suits me! 
For me it looks a lot like Spring/Summer :)
After this years long and dark Winter i really needed Spring to come. 

I got the ecru Cardigan at an Estate-hopping.  
When someone dies there is sometimes a lot of stuff the family don´t want to keep or the deceased had no relatives. Instead of throwing away, an estate-hopping is hosted.  
If you want to attend you have to pay 10 Euro and you can take as many things as you want! I got a lot of fine cloth, crochet magazines, wine glasses,.. Others even got a couch or a cupboard!

I know there are people who think its morbid to take things from someone who died, but i think all the stuff was bought and loved from that person, isn´t it nicer when someone else take it and love it henceforth instead of litter it? 
And its eco! (and I am a person who really cares about that)

Back to the Cardigan :) I shortend the sleeves and crocheted  the Strawberries. (everything red and green is made by myself)

Part of the front

Sleeve

I wonder if someone wants me to upload the Strawberry Pattern I made for the Cardigan?

The Bag I am working on now is intended to fit this Waistcoat :)

Have a great day too and thanks for stopping by!

- Cherry -



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I really like Weekends!

I so like my Weekends, Two days of doing whatever I want and not doing the stuff I have to do.

Okay, that won´t count with my exercisings. I know I have to do my practices every day to gain my strenght back. 
My goal is to be able to entirely walk without my crutches till June and I am really working on that *Project*.
And it does work: I already can move my toes and (on good days) I can walk about 100 meters without crutches, just with my splint (which helps me to raise my forefoot).

Today I have violent pain but I won´t talk about that. Instead I will focus on the good things in my life! (and I count my crafting Projects as one of the best!)

So I want to share with you what I have been up to this weekend:

I (finally) finished my Granny Square Bag! I made the Squares about a month ago and than put it away.

Raspberry, Gray and Black Square

I already made all of the 19 Squares in February

I started to sew the Squares by hand on Saturday. Below you can see the way they were put together: 

Looks a bit weird, doesn´t it?

After a little more sewing, .... TADA! 

I really like my new hand-bag!

That´s what it looks like from above, when its opend :)

If you are interested in doing one for yourself: the pattern is made by Drops Design. They offer a lot of Patterns for FREE and here is the one i used :)


- Cherry -

Sharing With: Navy Wifey Peters  @ USS Crafty + Keeping it Simple + C.R.A.F.T. +  Sumos Sweet Stuff + Homemaker On A Dime +  Huckleberry Love + Be Colorful + Reasons to skip the Housework + I Heart Naptime + Making the World Cuter + Sew Can Do + DIY Home Sweet Home + I should be mopping the Floor + All Things Fee +Adventures of a DIY Mom +Sew Much Ado + My Girlish Whims + Made to be a Momma + Ginger Snap Crafts + Lil´ Luna + Lady behind the Curtain + Southern Lovely + SNAP + Domestic Superhero + Imparting Grace + The Better Half + Simple Home.Life + Thirty Handmade Days + Happy Hour Projects + Craftionary + Chic on a Shoestring + Happy Go Lucky and One Artsy Mama + Petals to Picots + Ladybird Ln + Wait Til Your Father Gets Home + Just Us Four + Annemarie´s Haakblog +

Good Days are rare!

Yesterday has been a real great one. I had almost no pain, felt strong and motivated, i even could move all of my left toes! :)
It´s been nearly a month since i could do that the last time.
So it seems all the those bad side effects have been worth it, and the steroids finally work!

Since i have more bad days than good ones for four month now, i try to use every better day to the fullest. and often i overdo it (both my parents and my doctors are not so happy with me about that!)

But i felt good and the sun was shining so i did a lot of homework. Cleaning up and finally repotting my chives :)

Doesn´t it look delicious?

And after my physical therapy (which was pretty exhausting) i had to relax a bit and used the time to surf a bit in the world wide web, and there i found this Tutorial for a pretty Spring Wreath. (thank you, lovely Rachel for sharing!)

I thought about making a cute Wreath for my front door for some weeks now, honestly a plane white door is getting kind of boring after some time.
When i saw Rachels´ i knew this was the kind of thing i wanted to do and fortunatly i already had everything i needed at home - lucky me, half of my small apartment is full of fabric and yarn :)

I tried different fabric combinations and decided it had to be that yellow, apricot and a fabric with little roses printed on it.

 

After cutting out straps (which didn´t take long) i started knotting:  

a lot of knotting :)

The Wreath before and after i did some cutting of the endings

After everything was nice and neat and the way i wanted it, i attached a big blue bow (because i really like bows, who doesn´t?), and ... TADA:

Looks like Spring, don´t you think? :)

I really, really like the Outcome! So again: a little bag of kisses for Lady Rachel at R&R Workshop for her great Tutorial!

- Cherry -

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Weekends are made for Projects!

This Weekend i did some Crochet (again). 

First i had to decide whether to finish one of the Projects i already started in the last few weeks or start something new.  So i browsed through my unfinished things but nothing really catched my interest (i often start with something and then it´s laying around for some weeks until i touch it again).

Here are some of the started, yet unready Projects:

Crocheted little Teapots and Cups

I have already made 10 of these in different colours to sew onto the hem of a simple black skirt i once bought on a Fleamarket for 1 Euro.  I am a huge Alice in Wonderland fan since i was a kid and therefore it´s no surprise i had the crazy little tea party in mind when i made those. The Pattern i found through www.Ravelry.com
I need to do the *sewing in* part of all the yarn endings, block them and sew them onto the skirt. (but when?)

Crocheted Edging

 

I did a hand full of those ruffled Edgings in Pink, Yellow and Purple in different sizes. They are meant to decorate my Mom´s Homemade Jam Jars and other jars like the big one for sugar you can see in the picture above. The pattern is made up by myself.

And here (again) i skipped the *sewing in* part :)

Simple Flower Embroidery

Because i don´t own an embroidery loop yet i "invented" one, made of an old tupperware box and an elastic strap i already had at home :)

As you can see above i tried myself in stitching some flowers on an old black sweater. Not nearly done yet. (unfortunately)

Spring Wrath

You may noticed there is a lot of Pink in my Projects.

I would like to say its a temporary mood but i have to admit it´s a life lasting love i got there :) (yes, this girl´s got a great princess complex!)

I started doing some kind of Pink Spring Wrath for my front door. The frame is made of attached leftover stripes of some IKEA fabric onto paperboard. Then i already started to glue crocheted flowers onto the frame but i ran out of selfmade flowers and instead grabbing the crochet hook i put the wrath into my "unfinished" box :(

But, as mentioned above, instead of finally finish one of those, i started a new Project (bad me!):

I will move into a new appartment soon and thought by myself of how i want my new home to look alike:

So here are my brand new *Heart Shaped Coasters*!

I crocheted six of them, perfect to place a cup or glas on it. It took my some time to think the pattern up but once this completed the crocheting part didn´t take much time. The yarn is really cheap polyacrylic i bought some time ago (worsted) 

So what have you been up to last Weekend?

- Cherry -

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So, here I am!

This is my very first blog and I don´t know exactly how to start.

Maybe I should just begin to tell you some things about me, so you get to know me better.
Maybe I should try it that way:

Hello, my name is Cherry! I am 31 years old and diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis about three years ago.

That´s been quite a shock, I can tell you!

The hardest part for me was to make some kind of new plan. A few years ago, when i thought about my future, i saw myself in some foreign countrys, digging for bones (i should tell you i am not some kind of weirdo, i am studying anthropology! although.. thats maybe the same!).

Sadly, i can´t do this anymore. The digging would be to exhausting for me, and i can´t stand heat any longer (this is called Uthoff Syndrom: the worsening of neurologic symptoms in multiple sclerosis  when the body gets overheated from hot weatherr, exercise, fever, saunas, hot tubs...)

So, for the last years I just had to take injections every day and the rest of the time I tried not to think about it.

But last December this nasty little illness came back, and this time with a Bang!
First (End of December) it effected my eye sight, making me half blind on one eye.
Then, in January, the fine motor skills of my left hand slowed down (you should see my handwriting now! fortunately i can write with both hands).
And in March parts of my left leg got paralysed.

While others celebrated Easter with their family or friends, i had to stay in hospital (again) to get steroid infusion.

(Okay it´s not THAT bad. I spent so much time in Hospital in the last few month that i am already friends with some of the Doctors and Nurses, and they really did their best to cheer me up!)

Also, i got my very first crutches! :)
(I know, most people wouldn´t be happy about getting crutches, but because i can´t fully move one of my legs, it began to really really hurt when i was walking. unfortunatly, pain ´s not over yet, but it got bearable!)

I (instantly) had so many ideas in my mind to "Pimp Up" my walkers, so i began to work on them immediatly! :)
(As you can see on the (really bad) picture above, i crocheted some kind of flower twine made of mint - green and rose lace.)
I can´t think of doing something more interesting then some crochet while laying in Hospital, waiting for some analysis to be done.

I think, now you got already a hint of what´s this blog about: (..drumroll..) ME! haha

A life between severe illness, studying science and being creativ.

Why am i blogging?

First (maybe) as some kind of self - help. I think writing about the things I am struggling with, might help me. I am a really optimistic person, full of hopes and a huge love of life. But even the happiest gal has a bad day every now and then.

Second reason is my colossal addiction to crafting. Sewing, crocheting, knitting, stitiching.. i love to work with my hands.
I am hooked on  that *oh my, i have done that on my own!* feeling! And i want to share it with you.
I´d like to show you the things that inspire me, in hope, you might get inspiration out of it too. I want to show you stuff i am crafting, to hear what you think about it!

Whenever you want to ask or tell me something, feel free to do so! I really look forward to hear from you!

- Cherry -