Restless........

This is how I feel.

Ever get that?

Every 10 weeks or so, I take a week out. I retreat into myself. I sort of stop my world for a while and take stock of....well.....everything. I think it's terribly important to do so.

We wake up, day in and day out, and many of us just go into auto-pilot. We go to work, we deal with kids, we take on every role imaginable. We go to bed........we wake and do it all again. 

Why is it that when you are a child, your Summers are endless? Why is it, that as you get older, a whole year passes in a blink of an eye? Why is it that when you stop to think about your life, its day to day, its direction, you realise often you go down a path because it just follows on from the day before. 

There are some things I cannot change. The big things. Children and job dictate where I live. But, day to day, I need to stop and think what I can do to cure my restlessness. What I can change to make me feel calmer and more at peace with myself. Other things like, decorating, trying to make an effort with my garden. Making things fresher can all help.....

But, I find it's actually the small things that really help to make the difference. Returning to basics. I always seem to turn to this book. 

It's a Restless life saver for me. It reminds me, that when I stop and step away from the constant hectic pace of life, doing such small little things can have a huge impact on getting me back on track. Just taking a few minutes for myself. Paring back to the basics can have enormous effects on my well being. Reminding myself of the small pleasures, that cost nothing, but can have a huge impact on me. Setting the balance right again to make me feel able to carry on in my usual perky manner. I just need to be reminded of these things about every 10 weeks or so. For me, this book does it. It's not rocket science. I don't read the book from cover to cover. I dip in, often finding, just reading the heading on each page is enough to get me back on track.

I get so easily het up about not having time to reply to people. The daily onslaught of emails means I just cannot keep up. Many get buried or get re-directed into the junk box only to be found months later. It bothers me. It irritates me that I fail dismally. Other people can keep up to date. Why can't I? So, many humble apologies here if you have ever asked a question, and are still awaiting a reply. It's completely unintentional. My inbox has changed format too which means I don't know who is a no reply blogger anymore. I think from now on if you ask a question in my comments box, I shall try and reply beneath your comment. So please do check back if you do ask anything as at least that way I know I will have got a reply back to you. 

I have improved a little though day to day in 'real' life. I have remembered Victorian day, a fete and a fayre, two school coffee mornings, science day and open days. Pretty good going for me, considering, at one point, I would forget the lot.

Life still really is a juggling act. If I spend the day crafting, the house looks a mess. If I get even one day behind with the laundry, then all hell breaks loose in the house and it looks like a bombsite. It's never ending. I am always chasing my tail. It often makes me weary. So, to take a week out every so often to calm myself and remember what makes me happy and what is important in my life is surely a good thing, no?

I'm sure that i'm not the only one that feels like this from time to time. I wonder what you do to get yourselves back on track? Any suggestions would be welcome!

So, for now, I shall take a moment to sit and sip the froth on my cappuccino, smell the freshly cut grass and breathe deeply. I'm feeling better already...............

xxx

Today is a day for.........

Tea

Flowers

and crochet

It's coming along nicely and i'm starting to love it now.

Happy week to you all!

xxx

Thinking.......

.......about a fair bit actually. So what's new?

I was thinking.....How did I manage to get frequent blog posts out up until last year? I still cannot work it out. I don't think i'm any busier than I was, and I certainly don't seem to be achieving as much (in the REAL world) as I thought I would, with my posting being more infrequent. 

Maybe I should be doing less of this! ha ha

I am somewhat baffled. 

I am still fighting time.....like I am sure we all are. 

I simply cannot fit it all in.

I have been busy. Busy with this, busy with that. Life it seems, wants to be jam packed.

I haven't even been able to be as creative as I have wanted to be. Only the odd bits have been done.

My blanket keeps stalling. This is what happens, when you start a blanket on a whim, with no pattern or yarn amount. If there is one thing I am totally pants with, it's judging my yarn amounts for a project fairly correctly. I simply do not have a clue! 

So, my blanket, has become so much bigger than I had originally had in my head. I was thinking 'lap blanket', but it seems that it is working up to be a king size 'bed blanket'. Grrrrrrrrrr. 

Remember this?

I showed this pic a few posts ago. It looks a bit bland doesn't it. Actually, it was quite colourful but the bland bit was the bit I was working on at the time.

This picture below shows the bigger picture of what it is to become.....

Can you see what it is?

When I was making the hot water bottles last year with the cross stitch flowers on them, I thought whether it was possible to make a blanket of small squares using a pixelated flower design, similar to the cross stitch. I'd not really seen anything similar in the crochet world, although I had seen something similar done in fabric patchwork. So I set about finding something that I thought would be good to translate. Cath Kidston was a pretty obvious choice. I had planned to make her pin cushion design from her 'Stitch' book, but thought it was a good one to do in crochet instead. It incorporated a border which pleased me! But let me tell you, it has not been plain sailing. At first the plan was to do it in a one round granny square, but it soon became apparant that that was not going to work well and that two rows needed to be done. That is what suddenly made my blanket big!

Choosing colours was tricky too. I wanted to stick to a Cath colour palette for it, but I didn't want white as I thought it was a tad too harsh. I settled for a cream. I decided to join the squares together as I went along. This was because they were small squares, and my total number was to be 1152. The thought of all those little squares loose gave me chills! The only trouble is, when you start this way, you cannot change your mind with colour. The pale pink would stand out more if it was next to white, so i'm not convinced cream was the way to go. Also, the deep red of the rose may be too deep. Again, it's difficult to judge when you are working with it so closely. It's only when you stand far back from it you can see the picture developing. I could go back and change in the red for a really deep pink. It wont be easy to weave the blocks in, but i'll make that call when it's finally finished. I am over half way now. I have had to keep stopping because I keep running out of yarn. I am trying to get little projects done in between whilst I wait.

This is a big blanket. Goodness knows when it will be finished. I think because I am not entirely convinced of my colour choices, I am happy to put it down for a week or two at a time. And, although it is a good bed size, i've decided it will be a blanket that will be kept in the car for journeys and outings etc. Just thinking that, makes me not feel too bad if my colour choices are not as good as they perhaps could have been!

So, projects in between.

Well, after the shawl-scarf, in my last post, I made a present for a blogging friend whose birthday it was.

It was a coat hanger cover. The pattern was taken from one of my favourite Japanese crochet books (the name of which I don't have to hand at this moment in time. Sorry. I have posted about it before). 

I also have made a start on a little granny squares blanket for a gift for a family member's new arrival.

I'm hoping that this project won't take so long. I am on a tight schedule!

My other little crafty project was making over a cabinet I bought a while ago. It was a simple little cabinet, perfect for my crafting bits, but it was stained deep brown and heavily varnished. It needed to become pink. Then, when it was pink, I thought it needed something of interest on the front as it looked a bit bare. I took a design from a cheap favourite tea towel and voila....

I'm happy with it. It's quite quirky. It just needs a bit of sanding down and bashing about to 'weather' it in a little and it will be tickety-boo.

We managed to get away for a few days in the half term holiday just gone. A few days of glorious weather was a miracle in amongst all the bad weather we had been having. Sun, sea, flowers budding. I was a happy little bunny that's for sure. It's amazing what a few days of being away from your usual surroundings can do for you!

The sun has 'mostly' continued to shine since we have been back. Sunny days are so great, so uplifting. I have been making use of my little teapot and cosy....and loving it.

Not sure if I ever posted about this little make. The trouble is, as I do stuff, I click and upload on instagram. I then cannot remember if I have posted about it on this old little blog.

This teapot was a Mother's day gift and it needed a bit of fluffery around it. A little impromptu tea cosy was made and some Apple Blossom was added. I'm really rather taken with it. It was an ad-hoc, make it up as you go along pattern, but i'm pleased with the results! Tea is a joy to have in it!

Okay, I think i'm now up to date since my last post. Eeeek, sorry about my ramblings, that's the problem with not posting so frequently. I have a lot to say!

Cheerio for now

Have a super day

Vanessa

xxx