The Little Things

Some days it's hard to get going and to keep going throughout the day.  It might be due to tiredness, sad memories or errant hormones (boo).  Whatever the cause, there is a cure, but you do have to work at it - it's practising gratitude, giving thanks for those blessings in life, however small.  The most important thing is to find that small thing, and say thank you.

When I found myself feeling a little lacklustre today, I went into the garden and found the first thing to be grateful for - sunshine - not the warmth of a summer's day, but a gentle light on my face.  Thank you.

I was mesmerized by the tweeting of the blue tits as they flew over my head when I went over to our oak tree.   Thank you.  I enjoyed the quiet time pottering around in the garden, putting away old plant pots, cutting up old and spent plants for the compost heap.  Thank you.

I don't mean to sound smug, but I have felt low many times before and trying to see one tiny thing and to be thankful for that tiny thing has helped stop my spirit from getting lower and starts it on the path upwards again many a time.

Hope you enjoy the pictures of the things I saw in my garden that make me smile.

Gratitude is a powerful thing.  x

Larissa x

Here and Now ... October 2017

Today's my first 'Here and Now', a link-up run by the lovely Sarah at Say Little Hen.  It's easy to join in: copy and paste her list into your blog, create your list, add photos and visit the blog to link-up (remember to link back to the post at Say Little Hen from your blog too).   You can also take part via Instagram, Say Little Hen has instructions for that as well :)

Loving ... buttons ... don't know why, but I always have ... especially putting my hand in the jar, Amelie style and letting the buttons drop through my fingers ...

Eating ... dairy-free yogurt!  ... in an effort to de-toxify my liver ... following Sandra Cabot's liver cleansing diet

Drinking ... rooibos tea ... for the reason listed above

Feeling ... a little bit sad ... missing my dog who went to doggie heaven in February, it still hurts, and I miss walking with him, he'd love the forest walks here ... and happy because I'm here with my boys

Making ... socks ... gloves ... winter is coming ...

Thinking ... I should go for more walks

Dreaming ... of hugging my big kids still living in Australia xxx

Click here to go to the post at Say Little Hen :)


Larissa x

Festival of Light

Ooooh - we have an outside broadcast today :)   Or rather, tonight as it was part of the Festival of Light at Robin Hill on the Island.  The theme was Indian 'Diwali' which is the Hindu festival of light. 

To be honest I wasn't expecting too much as the description I had been given was 'it's trees being lit up at night-time', plus we had a new teenager coming with us who would have much rather been spending time on the computer, so it was touch and go as to how 'light' the evening would be.   It was, however, very beautiful.  I am a sucker for fairy lights anyway, add in lovely colours, brightly patterned animals, climbing nets and a falconry and owl display and you have one very happy mother!   There's also a mesh bridge spanning between 2 of the paths, and obviously the way to keep a teenager happy is to let him bounce said bridge up and down whilst terrifying his mother in the process.   I think that was the best part of the evening for him :)

The other part that brought great joy was climbing the Squirrel Tower, which is a spiralling, tall tower you climb up the inside of using cargo nets - you can just make out the 3 boys walking ahead to the start in the pic above; I stayed behind as I knew I would be slower.  About halfway up I froze, at the same time as realizing I had the same distance to travel up or down and I just forced myself to keep moving.  My son came down to look for me I took so long! But I'm really proud of myself I did it.

One part of the walk through the trees was called 'Spiritual India' and I did feel really peaceful here, I don't know if it was the music playing or the more subtle effect of the lighting under the trees, but it was just so calm.  I love walking about at night-time anyway!

I hope the pictures do the festival justice - they say so much more than I can with words alone. 

I particularly like the picture of the tree with the purple up-lighting - I can almost see a man standing tall with outstretched arms - brings new meaning to the tree of life!

Larissa x

Day 10

I'm one tenth of the way through my 100 days of blogging!  I did consider going to bed without blogging tonight, but I want to keep my creative muscles flexed and in good condition, and the only way to get better at writing (or anything for that matter) is to practise, practise, practise. 

It's been another creative day - all I can smell is mixed spice and spirits after making copious amounts of Christmas pudding and mincemeat.  I'm still cooking for a family of 5 even though my grown-up kiddies are living abroad and we are a mini family of 3.  So I will be giving a lot of handmade, cooked gifts this year!

I've read my newsletter from Meg McElwee of Sew Liberated today, and she was advocating slow-sewing, suggesting making one item this month and taking time whilst you do it, hopefully finding it more enjoyable in the process.  I love her concept of sewing as self-care.  We all need to indulge in that.

Larissa x

PS  Meg writes a wonderful post about perfectionism here  - well worth a read :)

A Creative Day

I don't know if writing about being creative actually makes you more creative, but I've been on a roll today! 

Lovely Liberty

Firstly I made a little patchwork from my prepared Liberty fabrics, which will find itself on one of my messenger bags, which will then be put up for sale on my Etsy shop.  I will be doing a proper shop update very soon, and then you can see the treasures therein :)

Christmas is coming

I also managed to make the skirt of an apron, finish the other half of a pair of crochet granny square fingerless gloves and make a Christmas cake!  Oh and I bottled 2 and a half litres of blackberry gin, so now Christmas is sorted ;)

It feels good to have been so in the zone today, but I think I'll need a lie down to recover from all that productivity!

Larissa x

The boring bits pay off

Yesterday I shared how much I dislike prepping fabric for creative projects, and how I possibly overdosed myself on doing it for nearly 6 hours!   Well, today after dropping my lad off for the school bus, I went home with the intention of making one of the aprons for a friend, which we had discussed several weeks ago and I filed in my 'get round to it later' pile, which is a dangerous place to be!  No more - I really am trying to finish up my WIPs in a futile attempt to make room in the house for future WIPs :)   This project was a priority because the recipient is one of the best cake makers in the world, as well as being my crochet (and birthday) buddy, plus the fact she was feeling under the weather and it's always nice to receive a gift when you least expect it and it's guaranteed to cheer you up if you're feeling a bit 'woolly' (especially as my track record for completing gifts is pretty pants to say the least, so it's always bound to be a surprise). 

The pattern I used is the Emmeline apron by Sew Liberated - it is my favourite apron pattern as whilst it does take some work, it also looks mighty fine when it's finished and lasts forever, whatever you throw at it, because it's double-layered - reversible see!

The only thing we really did discuss was the piece of fabric with roses and butterflies,which she already had in her stash and wanted included if possible.  The rest she left to me (my friend is very trusting).  As C is a baker, I almost did a somersault when I saw the lovely stripey fabric, and seeing as I somehow managed to smuggle my entire stash back to the UK without my husband noticing (ok, he did notice a bit, but it was too late once I'd wedged it into the packing boxes) I knew I'd have something in there to match C's lovely fabric, and indeed I did and I like the colour-blocked effect very much indeed.

The whole thing took me about 4 hours to make - it would have taken slightly less, but it's necessary to hand-stitch the binding to the bodice and it took me longer than expected because I couldn't see too clearly because it was rather dimpsy today and I'm still learning to drive my new vari-focals,  It all got done in time for me to hand deliver the apron though.  The look of sheer happiness on C's face when she unfolded the apron made all the boring prep business fade away in time (also relief for me that I'd made something she's happy to wear, which is very important obviously).  I love making things, but making something for somebody special, who really appreciates the work that went into it and is happy with the result is even more lovely.

So, two happy people sat contentedly, sipping tea, crocheting and chatting away for a couple of hours, what a perfect way to spend the rest of the day.

Boring bits ...what boring bits?  :)

Larissa x 

The boring bits ...

I did some crochet hearts to break the monotony - they're so quick to make it's instant gratification!

Today I realized something - I really don't like choosing, cutting out and preparing fabric!  Which is strange because I love, love, love sewing - it's been my favourite hobby for over 30 years, I've dragged my sewing machine to 3 different countries - but the prep?  You can keep that ... but unfortunately it's absolutely necessary to creating with textiles, so I spent 6 hours today cutting out a load of projects (interspersed with tea breaks and sneaky catch-up peeks at Vikings) to give me a stockpile of sewing, which is the good bit!   I wonder why I don't like the cutting out?  Is it because it's destructive initially - an anti-creative activity?  I guess I try and do cutting out in short, sharp bursts so that I don't get too bored, but as I'm trying to build up stock for my Etsy store, thought I'd do all the cutting in one go .. not such a great idea as it turns out, but at least it's all finished.

Do you have a least favourite part of creativity you have to work through to get to the fun part?

But I would say, keep on making the steps to being creative, even if it seems destructive at the start, it's well worth the effort :)

Larissa x

Sunbeams and Liberty

Today a little patch of sunshine found me in my creative space.  Amazing how sunlight lifts the spirits - I was already feeling creative, so this lovely light was an added bonus.  Messing about with Liberty fabrics also makes my heart smile!

Nothing too complicated - just a small patchwork 'patch' to put onto a messenger bag.  I promise you I will be setting up (Etsy) shop soon, and you can see what I've been beavering away at.  I enjoy the process of creating each piece individually, each item will be a one-off, hopefully some of that creative and calm energy will weave its way into my products (crumbs that sounds ever so commercial - it couldn't be further from the truth!)

I've been reading a lot lately about the go-slow movement, and it does sound delightful - but I'm not sure I'm that good at it. I would love to be though.  The ironic thing is that I think you have to work hard at it!  I suppose then it becomes a habit, second nature.  I would love it to be my second nature too, maybe it's something I can work and document here in my little piece of cyberspace.

Hmmm, I shall ponder that slowly ...

Larissa x

Sometimes it's easy ... sometimes not ...

As I intimated yesterday, sometimes creativity doesn't come so easily in fact it feels like hard work and sometimes I have to walk away.  Yesterday's debacle with the socks looks like it was the result of feeling ever so slightly off colour - the rest of my family started complaining about headaches and feeling not able to concentrate, so it looks like we have a virus in the house and I have an excuse for my inability with the circular needles :)

So, what is my excuse today?   I woke up with the intention of sewing all day and making lots of stock for my Etsy store, but only managed to sew 3 bags (which I am really quite pleased with as they've been WIPs since last winter!)   I just seemed to be on a go slow. And I feel like I'm not fully flexing my creative muscles here on the blog either, almost as if something is blocking my words and making it hard to write material that makes sense!  It doesn't seem to flow easily.

Well, I will take my 3 handbags as a lesson - one step at a time, all be it slowly, and I'll get there in the end.

Practise, practise, practise ....

Larissa x

Knowing when to walk away

Great title considering I'm busily trying to create socks!

I'm using this pattern by Winwick Mum - it's a great pattern and the first sock has been made and I'm so very pleased with it.  I was worried that I may be stricken with the dreaded 'second sock syndrome', but it's worse than that - I have 'why-oh-why-isn't-this-sock-as-good-as-my-first-one syndrome' and it requires radical treatment - i.e. walking away whilst you are still happy to keep the blessed thing on your needles and not rip the whole thing out!   That's very difficult I can tell you! 

But I did manage to stop at the appropriate time, and kept all the swear words in my head, so I must get Brownie points for that.  I went off to do some washing up, mindfully I might add, then had a lovely blustery walk in the dark in the rain, coming back much calmer and suddenly able to knit again. 

Sometimes the road to creativity is not smooth ... but it does get me out :) 

Larissa x

PS  I would like to add that it was my lack of concentration causing difficulties, and not the pattern which I think is very good - try it if you've thought about knitting your first socks - there are loads of pics and a tutorial to help.  Would definitely recommend for beginners.  Fab!

PPS  Sock yarn by Stylecraft - called Etna :)