Sadness....

Many of you in the crochet world will by now have heard about Wink. Wink had the most amazing crochet blog, she was candidly honest about her struggle with depression and credited crochet and creativity with helping her beat her depression.

Sadly, Wink lost her fight against her depression. You can read her sister's touching post on Wink's blog here.

Even though I only "knew" Wink through her blog, this news has really impacted me. It seems impossible that someone so vibrant, creative and colorful could succumb to the darkness like this.  It just goes to show you never really really know what someone else is going through.  I've blogged very briefly about my Post-Natal Depression before and depression is a cruel thing.  It's misunderstood, and by it's very nature the darkenss, self-doubt and helplessness is often all consuming for the sufferer.

Kathryn from Crochet Concupiscence says all I want to say about Wink, and far more eloquently than I ever could. You can read her beautiful words on her blog

One of Wink's signature patterns was her love of mandalas.  I was at Yarndale in Yorkshire in Sept 2014 where lots of people across the globe had contributed crochet mandalas for a project by Lucy of Attic 24. (Yarndale Mandalas)  Many of them were Wink mandalas.

Now there is another Mandala Project.... Mandalas for Marinke.  Its in memory of Wink, but it will also raise awareness of depression. Here is my mandala, ready to send off:

I used Wink's "I Love Holland" pattern. You can find it in her Ravelry store.

Rest in peace Wink..... we'll all miss you. 

♥♥♥♥

2014 in the Crummy House

Well, it has take me five weeks (!) to FINALLY get back in the swing of things after Christmas.  Christmas was (as always) a lovely time in our house... Full of love and warmth and cheer... And lots and lots of FOOD! My mother over catered before me, her mother over catered before her... You get the picture!

Here is a wee taster of our Christmas Celebrations.... 

And I got to have my very own Attic24 Ta-Dah! moment.... I made a crochet Christmas wreath:

All kudos totally goes to Lucy at Attic24 for her inspirational blog and her wonderful crochet ideas! If you haven't already, do pop over and see her in the Attic, I promise you'll love it! I can honestly say I wouldn't be able to crochet without her expert tutorials!

Anyhoo - enough looking back! Onwards to 2014, which as I type is 1/12th over already!!

2014 is shaping up to be a great year in the Crummy House...  Future milestones include (more about these in upcoming posts I expect!):

• The Six Nations starts at the weekend! (a wee bit of friendly rivalry never hurt anyone!)
• The Wilburbeast starts pre-school (he's too SMALL!)
• Miss Bags turns 6 in March (I have birthday party angst already!)
• The Wilburbeast turns 3 in May.
• We are going to the Commonwealth Games on Glasgow in July.
• We are off on out holidays to Portugal in August.
• I'm going on a girlie road trip to Yarndale 2014 with some of my besties!

Hope 2014 is being good to you too xxx