May 30, 2011

Crafty Business

The urge to craft has hit and hit hard but the time I need to organise and devote to such crafting tasks is just not becoming available to me.

Although it will by friday when I drop the kids off at their grandmother's house to spend the night and all day Saturday with their dad, so I will get about half of Friday and all day saturday to myself, the question now then, is, how will I get all the prep work done between now and friday so I actually finish at least 1 of the inspirational crafting projects I want to take on?

And should I take on something I can start and finish in a day or an hour or 2, or should I be practical and finish off the curtains that have been waiting for my attention for a while now. I can't hang them yet, I need the curtain rods first. and I cant hem them until I have the rods to hang them so i get the right length. I can however sew on the curtain tape and put in the rings so they are ready when we have the rods in place.

I have a list of 4 people to make pants for (including myself), I have a bunch of baby items to tyedye, I have a Quilt to make a skirt to adjust to fit my 9yo (ok 9 in a week and 2 days), I have a bunch of old clothes and bits and pieces to reconstruct into various things given the time, space and inclination, maybe it is time to move some stuff on?
I have a blessingway bunting to finish so I can list it for sale.

I had an inspired moment to create a soft toy Chess set for my children, a quilted base, and stuffed toy pieces, so that is another thing to add to my ever growing list of crafting adventures. Maybe that would play out best as a Christmas gift?

I have birthday mania this weekend, and really a little this week with my babies 2nd birthday on Thursday and my (then) 9yo's birthday the following wednesday, we are doing a combined family celebration effort on Sunday for both afternoon tea and tea, it should be quite fun I am sure!
School term ends on friday and I then have 2 weeks with my big girl home.
I am going to try and loose my grip on control of her and let her free in the kitchen to create and learn about jobs that just need to be done, similarly, she had a go at hanging out the washing and it didn't turn out too badly, I will show her a few pointers on how to use less pegs and hang things out straight, but she did well given it was really her first attempt.
Maybe the results of those will make my Journey to Learning blog awaken, I guess I can add all my uni experiences to that blog too can't I?

May 25, 2011

Sickness

Sickness lurks in my house again, luckily (although I don't know who for, me I guess) I am the only person who is sick. The kidlets were sick over the easter break and again the week following. I managed to keep it at bay for a few weeks and held it together while the kids were falling apart, vomiting and making the washing pile that I could finally see the bottom of, grow to infinite proportions! Just as I get on top of that pile and a new one has started up, I fall prey to illness and I really just can't be arsed doing anything, so the washing is actually getting done because, well, damn it, we need clothes to wear.

My kitchen that my husband has almost managed to make spotless, on the few occasions he has been here to see the kids and I, is completely covered in dishes again, and when he gets here this afternoon (he is staying tonight, in the hope that the extra sleep tomorrow morning will mean a faster recovery) he will be greeted with a mass of dishes in the kitchen that he almost had spotless!

There is no wood in, and it is too damned cold out there for me to want to go get some, so the first thing Hubby will do is go fill the barrow and trolley with wood and bring them to the house. I have enough wood to last until he gets here provided the fire stays shut down most of the day.

I have birthday's coming up in the next few weeks, kidlets x2, SIL, a few friends, friends children, then in July... Dad, BIL, Hubby, Mine, Sister, Niece, and a few friends too!!
The next few months are busy as hey!
I have a crafting bug that desperately wants to be let loose and some of the up coming birthday's give me the perfect opportunity to do that, but being so damn busy means finding the time to actually do the crafting really hard.

Well lets just see how the next few weeks/months work out for the busiest time of the year aside from christmas!

May 19, 2011

Life moves along...

No matter what you feel, think or want.

Life always moves on and drags you with it, you have a choice to make that movement work with you or against you, and if it comes to a deadline you have to meet, things will get tough and it will be hard to manage and at times you will fail, but nothing has stopped around you so the moment you sit and stop to 'give up' you are wasting a moment in time that you could be using to reach that goal.

Now having said that, if you don't sit down and take stock of everything now and again, it can feel like you should just give up!

In reference to my last post;

There is a lot there that I will never achieve to an end point, I think I have found my way, it is however always going to be lost again at random times through my life, and that is ok.
Inspiration comes and goes, and the inspiration you find might not be the inspiration that you sort out to find. I have found inspiration to enrich the relationship I had with my husband, that part of the relationship that we lost, it is a long process and there is no rushing back to where we were, because that brings added stresses and pressures that we need to adjust to slowly. I think a lot of the problem was that with all the changes we made in our lives our relationship never fully adjusted to those changes and that caused us to stress and turn out thoughts inwards and forget the bigger picture, that is us and our lives together and as a family.
So inspiration has been found but in a different direction to the inspiration I was hoping to find.
Dreams, what is a dream? If you realise one dream and make it come about, you add another dream to the list and you will find an ever increasing list of dreams both old and new, accomplished and yet to accomplish.
Wants, a bit more specific than dreams but much the same principle.
I have taken a rather large step forward in my want and dream to have something that I am that isn't "mum, wife, housekeeper"
I am going to enrol in the bridging courses I need to start my Uni degree (hopefully next year). This is something that I have moved to do at least twice before, this time I will be doing it, there is no more "life is too hard right now"...
I have seen the struggles of some friends moving through this and if my life is too hard to move on with something so important to me then their lives must be worse than hell.
It is inspiring to see other people taking on and accomplishing so much, yes it is hard and hellish at times, but you can move through it and make it work or you can throw it aside and never know if you could have done it!

Being the best parent you can, changes on a day to day basis, you work through the bad and try and calm the angry, and enjoy the great times. There will always be days where you just can't seem to manage and that is ok too :)
I am strong, I can do this, I am going to do this, and I will do, and be, the best I can.

This is my time to rise up and be ME, to do MY thing, and that doesn't mean I don't care about my children and it doesn't mean I am more important than my children, it means we are equal and that we all deserve to have what we want and need.
I can't give my children what they want or need if I am not giving myself a little of the same.

Nurture the parent to nurture the child.

My life is looking good, I feel good, I have plans, I am no longer lost in the mess, I may still be struggling to clean it all up, but I can see the end, and it looks GREAT!


I went shopping the other day and treated myself, I have a new cocktail dress for an engagement party, I have a new dress and a cardi to wear out tomorrow night, I have shoes to match. I am going on a date with my husband. I am excited and nervous, we may have been married almost 10 years but we have never really done this (save anniversary night) Other than my leavers dinner and wedding day, I have never bought clothes for a specific purpose!
I have always hated shopping, and I loved my shopping day this week, having a shopping assistant who is experienced probably helped :)

Life feels GOOD! :)