Just seven days left to go of the daily entries on my Gratitude Journal. It has made an enormously positive impact to my thinking and my general state of being. Now, I'm noticing the small things that make all the difference to a bad mood: a hot cup of tea, especially when the cup stays hot long after you've finished the tea. Sunshine warming up the bricks after the hurricane has blown away all of the clouds. The smell of fresh croissants wafting in from the bakery on the corner.
I've started looking for silver linings in dark clouds.
Silver lining: My overlocker is back. Fixed!
Dark cloud: It was exactly what I thought was wrong: the loopers weren't in sync. I was so disappointed with the service; I had bought it from John Lewis because I wanted to know that someone would look after it if something went wrong, and lo! it didn't work when I got around to using it. They took it back after first making me phone half way around the country, but only under the agreement that they would fix it and not replace it. Then, they lost it, they jiggled it, they refused to return my calls. Weeks passed. Eventually, it was discovered somewhere in the recesses of JL. There was even a signed-for note stuck on the box indicating that it had been sent back some days before. Hurrumph.
My experience with John Lewis was (really quite surprisingly) less than good, but the machine is back, and I zipped my way through a pile of hemming that was waiting patiently on my sewing table. It works. It's great.
There is always a silver lining: you just have to look for it. It may be hiding, or very small, but it's there.
Today, the most amazing thing came through my post box.
FREE HUGS. A giant squid accompanied by an enormous collection of hand-written hugs.
And pineapple lumps.
I am so grateful to have a collection of incredible friends who just get me, and who send me hugs and love from the far reaches of the world when I'm feeling glum.
How can you not smile when there's a fluffy squid offering you affectionate squeezes at every opportunity? He shall live on my work desk.
How amazing.
FREE HUGS. A giant squid accompanied by an enormous collection of hand-written hugs.
And pineapple lumps.
I am so grateful to have a collection of incredible friends who just get me, and who send me hugs and love from the far reaches of the world when I'm feeling glum.
How can you not smile when there's a fluffy squid offering you affectionate squeezes at every opportunity? He shall live on my work desk.
How amazing.
My positive thought - and appreciation - for today is learning. I've always loved learning, and I'm so grateful that I still do. I originally moved to the UK with the vague thought that I'd pursue further studies in my genre of choice -- Fairy Tales and Feminism -- but the university fee structure changed so drastically when I got here that it just wasn't an option. Instead, I opted for more practical learning.
I started off with baking.
And then, I progressed on to all manner of stitchery: crochet, initially, then cross-stitch, embroidery and finally knitting.
And then, I started inking, painting, drawing, stamping and screen-printing.
And then, I started sewing real things. Things like shirts, and patchwork quilts.
And now, I'm enjoying lazy long-distance learning with Craftsy. They provide an online learning platform made up of videos and interactive course material and discussion forums. You buy a class, and then you have access to the videos "for life" along with feedback from the tutor if you need help or assistance.
They have an assortment of free mini courses, so you can "try before you buy" - but I've bought two sewing classes so far and I've really enjoyed them. They're very... thorough. I like that you can watch them whenever you want and go back anytime, and that you can also ask the tutor if you're not sure about something. There's also an online community of thousands of students for each class, and they all help each other out.
The very best thing is that you can wrap up warmly on your day off work, snuggled up with a blanket, a hot cup of tea, and some knitting, and you can catch up on the latest lesson. No need to brave trains in hurricanes!
This month, I'm making my way through Meg McElwee's class Sewing with Knits (in the pic above) which comes with five knit patterns to try out. I really like Meg's designs (Sew Liberated) so I bought this class when it went on sale. Her lessons are quite intense, each of them individual lectures, but they're wonderful. Lectures and sewing. It's my happy space.
I started off with baking.
And then, I progressed on to all manner of stitchery: crochet, initially, then cross-stitch, embroidery and finally knitting.
And then, I started inking, painting, drawing, stamping and screen-printing.
And then, I started sewing real things. Things like shirts, and patchwork quilts.
And now, I'm enjoying lazy long-distance learning with Craftsy. They provide an online learning platform made up of videos and interactive course material and discussion forums. You buy a class, and then you have access to the videos "for life" along with feedback from the tutor if you need help or assistance.
They have an assortment of free mini courses, so you can "try before you buy" - but I've bought two sewing classes so far and I've really enjoyed them. They're very... thorough. I like that you can watch them whenever you want and go back anytime, and that you can also ask the tutor if you're not sure about something. There's also an online community of thousands of students for each class, and they all help each other out.
The very best thing is that you can wrap up warmly on your day off work, snuggled up with a blanket, a hot cup of tea, and some knitting, and you can catch up on the latest lesson. No need to brave trains in hurricanes!
This month, I'm making my way through Meg McElwee's class Sewing with Knits (in the pic above) which comes with five knit patterns to try out. I really like Meg's designs (Sew Liberated) so I bought this class when it went on sale. Her lessons are quite intense, each of them individual lectures, but they're wonderful. Lectures and sewing. It's my happy space.
The clocks went back today.
It's not an awful lot of extra time, but at the end of a long day where nothing goes to plan, an extra hour to just sit and enjoy is rather lovely. Of course, I used my extra hour for knitting. Doesn't everyone?
My positive thought is a calming and silent thanks for the extra hour of grounding, quietness and calm.
It's 9pm now but feels much later. There has been a lot of wind billowing about today - apparently we're getting a tiny bit of a hurricane that is passing by in the next few days. Trees are blowing over, shoppers are battling with trollies, the gates outside are making quite a noise. I'm grateful that our little home is in a secluded spot out of the wind, and I've got tomorrow (mostly) off work to catch up with everything.
Oh look at that, two positive thoughts today!
It's not an awful lot of extra time, but at the end of a long day where nothing goes to plan, an extra hour to just sit and enjoy is rather lovely. Of course, I used my extra hour for knitting. Doesn't everyone?
My positive thought is a calming and silent thanks for the extra hour of grounding, quietness and calm.
It's 9pm now but feels much later. There has been a lot of wind billowing about today - apparently we're getting a tiny bit of a hurricane that is passing by in the next few days. Trees are blowing over, shoppers are battling with trollies, the gates outside are making quite a noise. I'm grateful that our little home is in a secluded spot out of the wind, and I've got tomorrow (mostly) off work to catch up with everything.
Oh look at that, two positive thoughts today!
I had every intention of sharing with you all the wonderful lazy things I was planning to do when I got home after The Event yesterday... but then the trains weren't working. They stopped half way home. And I had to sort out dinner. And then there was a grumpy husband.
And so Sunday is here. There is a bit of overspill from Saturday, but I'll shake it off. Positive thinking and all that.
It's been an awfully long day. I've been working at an enormous event for a client, and my feet, my heart, my soul are all equally tired. Today, I am grateful for a hot bath at the end of the day, and for my husband's company on the long train journey home (he came to meet me at the event in the afternoon). Even if he is a bit miffed that I'm sitting at my computer now instead of sitting on the sofa with him. Just two more minutes, I'll be there soon.
However, the point of a gratitude journal, I think, is that you find something small that powers you through the day. Having a positive thought at the end of the day is an added bonus, but really, you need something meaningful - for you - that makes focussing on the good so much easier throughout the day. This morning I had a Very Long Train Journey which gave me plenty of time to think about it.
The positive thought and thanks that got me through the day was this: I am grateful for my once-a-month knit and natter group who get together for two hours on a Thursday evening to have a glass of wine (or a pint of beer, or a drop of whisky) and chat about life, the universe and everything. There is usually quite a bit of knitting and un-knitting happening, a spot of crochet, and a lot of yarn appreciation. The sound of ideas, sharing, and laughter mixed with the clickety-clack of knitting needles is rather lovely and creates a wonderful sense of community and togetherness. In these two hours, you forget about everything else and you just be.
Never underestimate the power of a shared hobby, a shared natter and a jolly good glass of wine.
Today I have a really small moment of thanks to share. Tomorrow, I'm attending a massive event that I helped organise for a client. With just a few hours to go, I'm so very grateful that all of my equipment, machinery and suppliers worked exactly the way they were supposed to.
The plotter cut, the thousands-of-flyers arrived in the nick of time, the designs came out brilliantly and the promotional materials are spot on. It could have all gone horribly wrong, but it didn't.
All of the preparations came together just fine. Any minor changes were accommodated and dealt with. There were late nights and grumpy moods, but we made it. Thank goodness.
In fact, I may even be on time for Knit & Natter tonight.
Incidentally, the pic happens to be 8 long metres of custom-branded bunting to go around a booth at the exhibition. Made from scrapbook paper. Which took HOURS.
And then, all of a suddenly, it was Autumn.
Today, I had a quiet moment in the park as I walked home from the shop. I don't have to go through the park to get home - in fact, it's quite a bit quicker to skip it - but it's a walk I've come to love, even though the park is always full to capacity with children, lunching pensioners, parents pushing prams and uniformed kids pushing past you to get to the bus stop on either end of the pathways.
But, today, for a split second the park in front of me was empty of people, the noise was gone, and the traffic subsided. I stopped to take a quick picture and appreciate the falling leaves, the orange leafy carpet along the pathway, the sunshine bursting through the trees. And then, a car hooted, a bus honked and pushed past, and someone rushed past.
It's Autumn.
Today, I am grateful for fairy tales and forests, and for late nights reading Sara Maitland's Gossip from the Forest in time for Book Club, tonight. Thank goodness for stories. Thank goodness for fairy tales. Most of all, thank goodness for reading.
The only thing better than newly-baked cake is of course fresh bread, straight out of the oven. Last night, the whole house smelled of warm, yeasty granary bread. A small loaf, but that doesn't matter. It doesn't stop the warmth of bread from enveloping the house. The smell permeates every room - even through closed doors - and suddenly all you can think about is warm buttered bread with thick slices of cheddar and chutney. This is a happy place - a smell of home - and is definitely something to be grateful for.
Today I am thankful for just-warm cakes cooling on a breadboard in the kitchen. The smell of the iced Spiced Honey Loaf cake is intoxicating, and you'd be forgiven if you can't help but break off a bit of Boiled Fruit Cake when you walk by. The crusts are the best bits. Best served warm on a cold wintery day, when the rain is pouring outside and the smell of warm traditional cake fills the house.
There's something really nice about receiving goodies in the post. The postman knocks once, twice and then hand-delivers a bubble-wrapped item. It's like your birthday - or perhaps Christmas? - a gift! It's even better when the goodies inside are fabric samples you ordered six weeks ago.
Today I am grateful for receiving my Spoonflower Samples. I ordered them ages ago and they're finally here! It takes ages for orders to arrive from America, although the wait is often worth it. I love that you can create custom fabric designs and have them printed and shipped in just a few weeks.
This collection is a single design featuring flower doodles that I've recoloured in five colours: chamomile, rose blush, lavender, thyme and sage. I'm really pleased with the colouring which took quite a while to get right, so I'll soon enable them for sale in my Spoonflower Shop.
Happy Saturday!
Today I appreciate buttons - and small things that make me exceptionally happy. I've got a good collection of buttons in all manner of varieties - antique buttons, ancient buttons, plastic buttons, wood buttons, coconut shell buttons, polymer buttons, glass buttons - and they add such a burst of personality to projects. It's the final finishing touch that makes it a Stacey-made-this thingamajig.
This is a little patchwork cushion cover made from a small pile of some of my favourite fabrics. I've appliqued a raised heart in the middle (it has extra wadding in the middle to make it poof) made from strips of lovely contrasting fabrics. I haven't yet decided what's going on the back - although linen takes my fancy.
The buttons are the finishing touch. I've got to go through and remove any errant threads, and then I plan to stitch them on using hot pink embroidery thread.
Because I can. It's the small things that matter.
This is for my lovely friend Anne. I'm sorry it didn't get to you in time for your birthday. xx
Today I am grateful that my beautiful cousin (on the left) starting showing signs of improvement after being diagnosed with auto-immune encephalitis an age ago. It has been months, and just today I have had news that she focused - if just for a second - and blinked on command - if only just once or twice. It's something to hold on to.
Today I am grateful for my three closest friends. No, they're not mice. They're real, honest-to-goodness amazing friends.They're continents apart, each of them, but still we continue to stay in touch and share. You know those friends you can speak to after months of not speaking, and everything just falls back into place, as if it had only been a few minutes? These ladies are special.
They're all so different, too.
I started going through some back editions of CrossStitcher magazine, looking for something to stitch while I sat on the couch for yet another frustrating "sick day" where I couldn't think or focus properly. These teeny tiny mice were ideal for a full-of-heart-but-no-need-to-think-properly-project.
I stitched up three in a soft cream felt. Each one is decorated with a different cross-stitched motif. A bright pink heart with orange outlines for Wendy. A green and mint heart with blue outlines for Lauriane. A simple rose with green leaves for Anne.
Each mouse is filled with wadding and dried French Lavender. They aren't pests: they're quiet, they sit still, and they smell lovely.
They don't pee over everything and eat your precious Kidsilk Haze yarn which now needs to be thrown away.
Hurrumph.
Still, a positive thought makes up for the negative one, doesn't it? I think so. The real mice have been replaced with these lovely friendly felt ones, which shall soon be making their way across the oceans. New Zealand, South Korea, South Africa. It's a long way to travel for a little mouselet.
Are we really on day 8 of the gratitude journal? I can already feel that focusing on one big, positive thought per day has made an enormous difference to the way I approach each day, and the way I deal with (and process) things, just as it should. 22 days left.
Today I am grateful for my sunshine flowers on a cold and rainy day. I caught a cold this weekend and spent almost all of my waking hours on the couch, wrapped up in a blanket, feeling quite yuck. Graeme came home with a bunch of the brightest, cheeriest flowers you have ever seen on Friday and they've been adding a bit of cheer to my mountain of tissues.
Today, my heart is soaring with appreciation and thanks to Arden, who brought back the most exquisite silk embroidery threads from her holiday in Morocco ... and then shared them with me! Skeins of silk sea greens, sky blues, soft coffee creams and natural bark browns adorn my craft table.
They will likely be stitched into embroidered flowers - my favourite - but they have the potential to become anything. The silk stitching on mattresses for the Princess and the Pea. The tips of a butterfly's wings. The pollen-tipped stamens in the middle of a spring flower.
Today I am grateful for special moments, and being included in them. My beautiful friend Debs is getting married to the man of her dreams, and we're saving the date. Hello, South Africa 2015.
Today I am grateful for knitting and being inspired to knit. I picked up some needles and a Tivoli Tweed pattern a little over two years ago, and have been enjoying "my winter sport" ever since then. I'm still learning as I go along, but I really appreciate that I've found something I enjoy so much - and that continues to challenge me with every new project.
Today I am grateful for Graeme. My husband, my friend, my partner. Thank you for being on this adventure with me, and for supporting me every step of the way. Thank you also for not complaining about the yarn stash. I know you know where it is. x
Today, I am thankful for family. It doesn't matter where we are in the world, or what we're doing - - we will always have each other. Things, jobs, ideas, opinions, relationships, situations, and lives change. Families change too, but it's nice to know that there are people out there in the world who care about you and think about you often, and who would be there if you needed someone to talk to.
This weekend, my amazing mother-in-law encouraged us to start writing a gratitude journal. Once a day, she said, the two of us should be writing down five things that we're thankful for.
It can be a thought, something simple, an idea. Anything. Focusing on the positive will change the way you think. I've decided to accept the challenge, but with one thing a day for the next month, which I'll share with you here. Who knows - it might make all the difference. Changing all the can'ts into cans and the wont's into wants.
It's quite a big commitment, once-a-day-positive-thinking.
Here's today's thought. Today I am grateful for flowers, and for colour. Even when you're glum and feeling low, they continue to open up and bloom into velvety folds of rich, deep colour. They carry on, even if you can't.
It can be a thought, something simple, an idea. Anything. Focusing on the positive will change the way you think. I've decided to accept the challenge, but with one thing a day for the next month, which I'll share with you here. Who knows - it might make all the difference. Changing all the can'ts into cans and the wont's into wants.
It's quite a big commitment, once-a-day-positive-thinking.
Here's today's thought. Today I am grateful for flowers, and for colour. Even when you're glum and feeling low, they continue to open up and bloom into velvety folds of rich, deep colour. They carry on, even if you can't.
The waterpipe in my kitchen burst. My overlocker conked out. I had to cook dinner. My weekend disappeared into a flurry of domestic organisation, engagements and appointments. How is it Monday already?
Last week I started knitting a small, soft baby blanket using a pattern from the Debbie Bliss Ultimate Book of Baby Knits. It's going to measure about 80cm x 80cm ... but even that seems a very long way off. I bought this book at last year's Knitting & Stitching show and it has been my most-used purchase! I think everyone is having babies now. Knit, knit, knit. Cardigans, jumpers, booties. I really like knitting baby things as they zip off the stitches in no time at all (after knitting adult-size jumpers, baby things are easy peasy).
This won't be done quite as quickly, but that's okay. The pattern is a 24-row repeat which winds around itself in an easy 8-stitch cable with stripes and a stockinette border.
Last week I started knitting a small, soft baby blanket using a pattern from the Debbie Bliss Ultimate Book of Baby Knits. It's going to measure about 80cm x 80cm ... but even that seems a very long way off. I bought this book at last year's Knitting & Stitching show and it has been my most-used purchase! I think everyone is having babies now. Knit, knit, knit. Cardigans, jumpers, booties. I really like knitting baby things as they zip off the stitches in no time at all (after knitting adult-size jumpers, baby things are easy peasy).
This won't be done quite as quickly, but that's okay. The pattern is a 24-row repeat which winds around itself in an easy 8-stitch cable with stripes and a stockinette border.
I mark off each pattern repeat with stitch markers so it's a lot easier to keep the pattern straight. You can quickly see where you've gone wrong if you suddenly have too many stitches (or not enough), and you can fix things in small fifteen-stitch batches as you work your way down the row. LOVE my Lego Stitch Markers.
This is going to be one seriously long-term knitting project. I've already picked up some additional yarn for the next project - a friend is having a little boy in January and his jacket will need to brave the Christmas post rush! Clickety clack.
I'm planning on knitting the Baby Sophisticate Jacket in Rowan Pure Wool Aran in a kind of charcoal grey (bottom left, in the image above). Mm, soft. The cream merino above is set aside for baby booties (for a set of twins, due January) and the blue-green-teal was an impulse buy. Because you can never have too many additional skeins of yarn. Ahem.
Yesterday was one of those days. You know the kind? Stuff breaks. Things go wrong. It starts off badly. I decided to finish work earlier, refuse to accept that my day was ending the way it began. So, after my overlocker finally gave up the ghost and refused to work, I got out my watercolours and a few ink drawings I made a while ago - and painted.
Painting is a great way to unwind. It always seems to fix things. I'm going through a kind of journalling phase; lots of ink and watercolours, doodles, casual and free typography. I'll show you some day. I have a clear bias towards phthalo blue. I really really like this little set of watercolours.
My palette really needs a clean, but I can't bear to wash away those coloured hues. I just wet them and add more paint the next time I want to use it - I do have a very predictable colour preference, it seems.
I happened upon an old pencil drawing of mine while back at home, and redrew it in micron pen into a sketch pad. I was alarmed at seeing something similar to my ink drawing on Pinterest a few days ago, so I thought it was time to acknowledge my thirteen-year-old self and finally do something with those sketches from way-back-when.
I have an enormous collection of drawings I never do anything about (many of which are stored away in boxes in South Africa). They pile up, in sketch books and note books. They're black and white and grey - and sometimes, they make their way into my work, but mostly they just stay between two covers. I've decided to do something about them. It's a homage to a friend who lives a million miles away. She recently told me to draw all the things- and to stop thinking, and just do.
It's quite nice to work with old drawings and ideas. They capture a moment of your former self, stored away in charcoal or pencil lines. I rather like reworking them with some of new preferences, changing a few details here and there.
I added to the initial drawing and it grew from being a feather into a kind of leaf (inevitable, really). The micron pen uses pigment ink which (mostly) stays in place when you wet it, so it was always meant to be coloured in watercolours, like a giant, over-detailed colouring-in picture.
It turned out almost exactly as I had imagined it. I finished it off with white acrylic ink which I love. Now, if only I had done something about the background before I added all those lovely soft greens. Ah.
Sometimes you look and look and look. You hunt through bolts of fabric, scarves at markets and department stores, beautiful store displays. You're in no rush, but you still look - just in case. It needs to be just right.
And then, you find what you're looking for, quite accidentally. This Swiss Cotton fabric, light as air, from Stitch Fabrics. Discovered while out at a meeting with a wonderful client who insisted on taking me to the fabric store nearby.
