28.2.17

Spring (almost) making and cleaning

Pink and yellow tulips
Blue lagoon wristwarmers



I moved my desk to a new angle, so I can see out the window and in the room.

Crocus wool and new tiny bunting

 I like my new eco cloth.

A quick and easy lunch, mozzarella my new favourite
Tulips
Crocus wristwarmers. This wool is so lovely. I'm dreaming about it:-)
So nice to have a clean window screen
I took the car for a clean. That feels good.
Blogger has decided in it's ultimate wisdom to not to let me add any more text into this post, only captions!...so I will leave it just with  photos today and save the text for another day. I'm not going to stew about it being  screwy with me, I'm just going to move on. Hope your week is going well :-) ♥  


24.2.17

purple and green

I found this in the park today. What is it I wonder? it's beautiful.
Sunlight on a crocus patch, so nice.
On my desk. A little mouse cup. Not sure where it came from, it belonged to my Mum. I love it.
Out of focus rosemary. It smells good.
Moody skies on the day of Storm Doris and the entrance to our local nightclub. I've never been in, it looks kind of scary! I'd be more likely to go in the launderette, but thankfully I have a washing machine, so I don't go in there either ;-) 
Yarn bomb, not me...
pine trees and water drops
and a new wool, it's called Crocus, it's a hand dyed, luxury yarn (wow) and I love this too :-)
I've been taking my photos here and there, and I realise that although blogging does take a long time, I have to keep blogging. I always want to be taking photos and I need to have somewhere to share them. I'm very visual. I love words too. I don't think I could do one without the other. I also value story, even if I don't tell the whole thing here. I think you can read so much between the lines and feel so much in peoples images of life. Life moves on, that's for sure. I love to see a new energy or new step taken, showing through in someones work. You can feel it, things evolve. You just have to start somewhere. It's a process, love that. You have to be in it, to go anywhere!  First step.

And maybe blogging is kind of old-fashioned, but just wait for the revolution!! It will be a cool new/old thing....anyway, here I am. Still finding inspiration out there, which always amazes me at how what shows up is just the right thing, for right now. And if you keep going, you gradually work things out. Even things which have bugged you for years.

And inspiration, guess what, it doesn't go away. If you step into the flow of who you are and what your doing, even if no ones watching, it does show up, especially if you do. Even if you are in the midsts of a post Storm Doris day fence collapse, and you see a great shot, you have to take it. That's why you carry your camera, for just those moments, and who knows where it might lead.

I found another blogger recently, who I think has blogged for years, possibly since the beginning, not of time, but just since blogging on the internet began. I might have read somewhere it was around 1994. That is a really long time. On this blog, I find the combination of great photography, little stories, a business made up of lots of crochet and other creative works, really inspiring. Living in Berlin, adds a whole other dimension to the photography. I find it so strange that I never came across her work until now, but now is really when I can appreciate feeling that inspiration. And this lady works hard at what she does. I admire that. Anyway I have been reading and am smitten. You can see Sandra Jutos' blog here. Did you see the crochet?! I love that it brings me back to retro crochet too.

So, I have waffled here long enough today, have a good weekend. Take photos, make things, tell little stories, blog if you can. I know I hope to. See you soon.

♥ 



17.2.17

Bristol harbour on a Sunday and some thoughts.

I love this image of balance and touch.
Portishead Harbour
boat traffic signals
I wonder what it would be like to live on the harbourside?
Nice to have a yellow front door
I like watching the lifeboat go through their manoeuvers.
A hopeful February stand, outside the RNLI shop
An interesting beach here on the estuary when the tide goes out. Lots of pottery and glass.
All the old buildings have been converted into houses.
They do like their pastels here.
I took these a few weeks ago. It seemed a shame not to share. I do love a day out. Takes me out of my normal way of thinking. I must do more. I love exploring. I'm enjoying my camera again. I haven't taken a single shot on my phone hardly this year.

I think I'm re-connecting with myself again. I'm blogging, taking photos, making things. Listing on etsy. I'm really enjoying flickr. It's so nice to see pictures again in landscape and portrait, I find so much inspiration there. My ideas of what I want to to do are beginning to crystalize.

I'd like to say it's because I'm not going on instagram. But I think that would be giving it too much credit. I've been cutting out a lot of other distractions as well. I'm trying to maintain a focus, which I didn't have before, or if I did it was constantly diluted by everything else. Sometimes I think I am just being solitary, but deep down I know I need this to touch on something in myself.

There is still so much inspiration out there. It doesn't go away, because your not scrolling daily through feeds. It reaches you anyway, and in other ways. I think it strengthens your intention. Now I scroll through a little list in my head of things which I have decided I want to make/do/learn and decide what needs to happen next to move me towards that.

I feel like I'm starting to follow my own path. And I have to weigh that up as more important than knowing what's happening else where. The important stuff finds you anyway. That's what I think. Sometimes I just get a prompt to go somewhere and there is something I was glad I didn't miss.

So I think I need to trust that what I need and what inspires me is going to cross my path anyway, and there has been so much inspiration over the last few years, I feel like it's time to assimulate some of it.

Some life stuff happened here over the last week or so, which threatened to tip me off down a slippery slope. Just some sad things which happen in our lives now and again. Without my new found structure of daily stretching and clearer thinking, I think I would have toppled into a kind of crisis. But I'm happy to say that I was able to see the warning signs and adjust my thinking accordingly, and make some decisions to hold steady in what's right for me, and what I can do. We don't have to be heroes. We don't need to feel guilty about what we can't do. We just need to find that place where we can be okay in our selves and all that radiates out from that point. I read a good quote this week: 'draw in to be able to beam out your light more further', by Lindsay Mack on Alana Hellbig's Podcast, Untangled. I like that. 

So here we are at the weekend. I hope you do some nice things. I will be out another teenage 'airsoft' mission this Sunday. In a new place, yay! Well a new old place, nearer to the outskirts of London, where I am from. So I'll see what that brings. I've got some lovely new wool too, so it could be lots of crochet somewhere. I'm kind of hoping :-) Enjoy.

10.2.17

Bloom

I hope my little etsy shop will begin to bloom
I found some gorgeous blooming snow drops, the full and round and look at me kind. Not the usual shy and retiring kind.
My little dog is turning into a white haired snow drop herself. Me too  :-) oh and I might be full and round too, but not that kind of full and round. 

I'm re-creating my Etsy shop. A wine box and some chalk paint is helping with that, and a nice branch.

So far so good. I have a few more garlands in there, if anyone would like a look. And a 10% discount code LOVEFEB, to get the ball rolling, which lasts until 17.2.17.

I'm kind of excited...that is it now, my blinkers are on and it's straight on from here. She says with a big plug of her shop. Splosh! 


Have a good weekend.

♥ 

8.2.17

sunday coffee stop


Sunday: teenager playing airsoft in Bristol. I'm the driver. He needs the stress busting exercise. I need the self-imposed free time. To wander with the dog. Drink coffee here and there. Follow my thoughts and fall asleep in the car if I so fancy.

I found this place made of huge old containers from shipping, next to the harbourside. It was full of dogs and their peoples...I was happy I had followed my gut and walked the way I did. Who wants to leave their dog outside in the cold, when they could be lolling around on a rug in here...

There was a red suitcase on display....I'll remember to look inside it next time, maybe give it a little dust on top ;-)

I said no the gluten free cake because it had sugar in it and then I ate the fudge that came with the coffee, so I could have had the cake. I got toppled. I wished I'd eaten the date and cashew nut bar in my bag instead, but you know I am not perfect. My not perfect habits have changed a lot though.

Wishing you a happy Wednesday folks.

♥ 

1.2.17

photo diary

Hello, hello....I thought I would make it back here before I did. The time slipped away. January slipped away, and here we are in Febuary already. But I have been using my camera, hurrah! In fact it's all I've been using. So the blogger that I aspire to be, I must bring the photos here and tell you a little of life around here.

little blooms in my yard
This photo takes me back to my last post on instagram. At least several weeks ago now. Something happened for me around that time. My phone was threatening to combust if I took another photo. It was full and I found I just wasn't using my old camera, and I had begun to feel as though I had just lost a year on instagram, as wonderful as it is.

very strange gluten free muffins
I had just made these blueberry muffins. I was really excited because after several months of gluten free eating, I was finally baking. On the first day of eating the taste was lost in a frenzy of coconut cream and jam and photo opportunities. The next day I realized just how awful they were and how much lovely ingredients I had wasted making them, and after eating them I didn't feel good either.

What has this to do with instagram you might ask?....I can't tell you exactly, but I wondered just how many more awful moments, crappy makings, dire recipes, were disguised on there! How easy it was to hide the truth, in just a photo. And I wondered why I want to lose time from my life, reading about them, and if I might have had enough for a while. I know it can be an inspiring and entertaining place, and I still think about the people I met there. So I won't say never.

But I was definitely addicted to my phone. I think most of us these days are struggling with an on-line addiction of some kind. Something else I realized was that I don't think it would matter if you had a million follows or 10. The addiction is the same. It's like you either smoke or you don't smoke. It's what you do to relax. Before you do that thing, after you do that thing, instead of doing that thing. Once you start using, it seeps into everything you do, every free moment. Instagram is shaping your life, you are not.

Really I just don't think I'm supposed to be there. I think I'm supposed to be doing something else. I'm not missing anything either, It's just that simple.

I just want to tell you that those first few days, I felt liberated. Like I had finally taken my day and my power back. That wears off of course, as you create the new norm. But I have been so much more productive. My thinking feels different. I occasionally just sit and think, allow thoughts to reach me in a way they couldn't before. I craft, I still take photos on my camera. I read the blogs I still follow, mainly through email now.

Things like instagram and facebook are used a lot, by people in business to drive traffic to their website or shop. It is the social media buttons for something else, their real work. That's how I see it. To just get stuck there, is not what I want. I know a few are there to just spread a little happiness around in that corner of the web, and that's fine too. I just want to do my real work. I'm still working on that ;-) and then maybe I will fling out a few ig posts, just to celebrate that. So I have planted a few flowers there and left them to grow a while.

frost on the common
Well okay, that was definitely a rant. Should I stop there, or just keep going?!..... I will lighten things up. So January, well it was cold! We had some frosty days, a little snow, some mist and fog. A cough which kept me of the common and walking in the warmer bottom of the valley. A whole load of soups, warmth and self-care has been the order of the day.

a gift of socks
I was bowled over by a gift of hand made socks from an on-line friend on flickr. They are so comfy and special, and I must, must learn, how to make them!


drippy trees
There's been some lovely photo opportunities. I carry my camera everywhere, so I don't miss them!

handmade hats
Two hats have been made. I loved working with the pinks, and it's a fun hat. But I think 'slouchy beanie' is not quite the right look for me! I treated myself to some luxury yarn for my next hat, and oh my, what a difference, and I love it. I will show you soon.

blue sky and seed pods
Oh yes, spotted blueskies. Always noteworthy in Jan. So pretty against last years seed pods.

At home. Landlady duties here ramped up this month. A couple left and one was away for 6 weeks, so I found myself constantly checking heating and worrying about frozen pipes. But all was well and some changes are definitely afoot. I don't blog about everything of course, and there are perhaps some missing parts to the picture you see here. But I share what feels right. I often used to blog about how a situation made me feel, even if not all the details. Looking back some of my posts felt a little heavy I guess. And life is still not perfect, but looking up I think.

It feels good to be here. I hope your still here too. Give me wave. Onwards and upwards as they say!

♥