Monday 31 December 2012

Turning the page

Hello folks.

Time to turn the page to 2013. I know there are a lot of people out there who aren't into the whole 'new year' thing. I am not one of them. I'm not fussed about the parties, the auld lang syne, the kiss at midnight (though I'd say no to none of them). But I really love a stop and then a start. A chance to assess, give thanks, plan, move on. I know in a sense it's a spurious break in time, but it's one I need. I know I could make a resolution any time, but I don't, and most of us don't. This day forces us to put down tools and plan the next project, the next year. Cheers to the end and the new beginning.
 
My resolution for 2013 is a simple one that will cover so much - if not all - of my life. It is to make myself proud. That's all (that's all!). But if I can hold that thought in my head with every decision I make, I will be better and happier. And so will all around me.
 
I have some plans for the blog too. I hope to return to more regular posting, with a 'making', 'baking', 'wandering' and 'wondering' post each week. We'll see how proud I can make myself on that.
 
As I look back on 2012, the word that comes most readily to mind is 'cherish'. It has been in places a busy year and a hard year. But it has been a year where, as a family, we have cherished one another and become a unit. A year where friends have been held close and gladly. A year where the wider family have meant so much to me, where my blessings have been counted and my heart has clung to them ever tighter. Yet as the year draws to a close, I'm aware of where I have forgotten to cherish or not done so enough. I hope to make myself proud next year by showing the people I love how much they mean to me through the time and thought I can find for them. In 2012 I nearly lost my father. A good friend nearly lost her brother in just the last few days. There can be no taking for granted.

Forget the booze and bonhomie, this New Year is a time when I'm going to reflect and refresh. And plan, plan, plan for those pride-making times ahead.

(Though, in good old contradictory style, I'm now signing off so that I can go next door for some booze and bonhomie with the neighbours!).

Let's make it a Happy New Year everyone.

Thursday 13 December 2012

Motherhood and me-hood

Gosh, isn't this frosty photo just beautiful? My lovely husband took it. I think he's all kinds of talented.
 
It's kind of unrelated to this post, because I am going to have a grumble. Well, not a grumble per se, more a rambling, complaining bit of verbal vomit at the computer page, and then leave it there for all to read. Because sometimes it's better to spew it out and then just get on with things.
 
What I really love to do, wanted to do, revel in, is be a stay-at-home-mum. Oh I wish there was a better, grander name for it because however you word it, it always sounds a bit like that box you tick on a career list - at the end - that says 'none of the above'. But it's the biggest, greatest, most important job on the planet. Think how many grown-ups ruin their lives or other peoples' because of how their mind was messed with in childhood. Think of all your happiest, largest memories from childhood and how your parents helped make them.
 
Once upon a time I was a stay-at-home single mum to a lovely little boy. Then he went to nursery and I went to university, and fast-forward a few years and I was the full-time working single mum of said boy. He had a lot of family around and he didn't miss out too much but I dreamt and dreamt of being able to take and collect him from school every day. I dreamt of more children, happy families and a life spent immersed in the joy and wonder of their childhood. I knew there would be tough days, exasperated days, but I knew it would be the greatest pleasure of my life to be there with them as they grew, and one of the greatest pleasures of their little lives too.
 
Here I am living it. Husband, two little ones, and the big one too. We moved away from the big smoke in part so that we could live our dream of me bringing up our babies. I love it just as I thought I would. I am fulfilled by it just as I thought I would be.
 
There's a but. Oh, you just knew there would be a but, didn't you?!... In the time I had to stay at home with these little marvels, I knew I had to search for the vocation that would fulfil me once they head on to school and don't need me at home as much. I'm just not going to be one of those ladies who lunch while their primary children are being schooled elsewhere, even if it wasn't for the fact that I need to earn my keep.
 
I found it. It's sewing and writing. Ta-dah! But I found it too early, as I'm still three or so years away from my youngest going to school. And I still love the mothering just as much. I don't want to stop doing it in order to sew or write. I want to do it all! Oh, frustration!
 
I'm not sure how some of these other bloggers out there, mothering and crafting away, are doing it. I'm pretty sure a number of them have children who don't wake until at least 7am and they get up at 5 for a good bit of sewing first. Well, my boys wake around 6 and I need my sleep. I've tried the 5am thing. Within two days I'm running on empty. Some of them have children who are all tucked up in bed by 7pm and then spend their evenings stitching. Well, my boys are usually settled by 7.30 but then I'm really tired and my husband wants to actually see and interact with me, and I'm lucky if I have the time and motivation to spend more than two evenings a week sewing. I get some sewing done in the day most days, but I'm forever stopping to soothe arguments, put visors on toy firemen, remove toy horses from the sewing machine or, usually and eventually, resorting to sewing with a child on my lap who really likes the look of that sharp, sharp needle.
 
I've written about this before - I'm getting déjà vu - but with Christmas approaching and a mountain (I am not kidding you) of sewn gifts to complete by then, while the ironing pile becomes its own mountain and the children bounce off the walls... well, it's really coming back into focus.
 
This is all very ironic as I'm spending what could be a sewing evening writing on the computer, but sometimes you just have to spew it out before you can get on with things.
 
And look at lovely photos your husband shot in order to remind yourself of what really matters in life, of the simple beauty of it all, and of the outdoors you're missing while revelling in that sharp, sharp needle working its magic.
 
And hope that someone out there has some fabulous advice to impart that doesn't involve a lifetime of exhausting 5am starts or never seeing your husband. (Shameless plea for useful comments)

Wednesday 12 December 2012

A sewing blitz

Oh I wish this was a post about what I've been making this week (which is perilously little, being this close to Christmas and still planning to make everyones' gifts).
 
But no, it's a post about the things I made last month. Or even earlier. Okay, let's be frank: it's a post about the things I've sewn in the last couple of months that I've been nagging and nagging my lovely husband to photograph for me and he's finally done it. So with that pithy beginning, let's get stuck in...
I've made some more bag tidies. The larger ones hold your regular-sized supermarket plastic bags. The smaller holders are for those little bags you accumulate from the fruit & veg aisles. And in both cases, you just feed your bags in from the top and pull them out when needed from below. The beige, Japanese-style print set above were a commission from the lovely mother of a lovely friend (good genes, those two). The brighter print below is a set for me. There, I finally made something for myself.
And seeing as I was on a roll with the selfish sewing, I made a doorstop from Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing. It is lovely, but huge. I filled it with a kilo of split peas and they barely made it half-way up the bag. So the top's a bit roomy, ha-ha (I'm too cheap to go out and buy another giant pea bag). If I make another, I'll be halving the whole thing!

But I've saved the best for last. This bag is another Lotta pattern: her gardening tote. I think it's too good for soiling (quite literally), and luckily my mum (who received it for her birthday) agreed. It's fully lined and the fabric's John Lewis but I think they don't stock it any more. I love it. It makes me think of Japanese sunshades, with kimonoed ladies shuffling below. 
The bag is fully lined with the same fabrics, and fits nicely on my mum's shoulders for shopping trips. The picture above doesn't show it too well, but the pockets gape at the top and are pleated at the bottom. There should be a photo of the lining too, but after quite a wait for photos I'm not going to do any complaining!
I feel quite proud of myself. It's a nice feeling.
But now that pride's going to fade as I head upstairs to cut the fabric for 60 Christmas cards I'm making and can't let myself off the hook for. Do you do that too? I make plans and promises to myself and then, foolishly, I hold myself to it. Goodbye pretty bag. Hello late night!

Wednesday 5 December 2012

The Little One's boy drive & dig quilt

I've finally got around to showing you... I made the Little One a quilt. It covers his single size bed. It has lots of yellow (favourite colour), cars, diggers, cranes, and other driving and digging paraphernalia! Yes, I have a builder-obsessed pre-schooler.
 Those are my hands, in case you wondered. Yes, they are very little.
And there's the mustard back. Please don't look too closely or you'll see a lot of wonky lines and a few little puckers where they shouldn't be! But it was my first proper single quilt, so I'm being kind to myself about it. I made it with the quilt-as-you-go method. I'd recommend it, but only if you have a cutting mat, quilter's ruler and rotary cutter. I have these now, I didn't then, and look at all that wonky!
 
PS I have the quilting bug really badly.
 
PPS It's December already. Did you notice? I didn't. I am so behind in my present sewing. So I'm off to my sewing corner now.