Hoppy Easter! To be fair, Easter has never really been a thing in our house until the children were old enough to realise that Easter = Chocolate eggs and cute bunnies. Now, Isla can't help herself but squeal with delight every time we see Easter decorations out in the wild - ohhhh look, this is the cutest bunny I've ever seen! No, this is the cutest bunny I've ever seen. Ohmygoshmom have you seen this one? There is a lot of flapping and ohmygoshing and shrieks. 

Anyway, I made a quick and easy cushion which - here in Abu Dhabi, is the height of my Easter decorations. It is an IKEA Sanela cushion which is soft cotton velvet, perfect for a little soft and fluffy Easter bunny. 

Did you know that IKEA makes the best embroidery blanks? I think it's because they are designed to get a lot of use so they're extra sturdy and resilient. I'm so ridiculously spoilt as I've got an embroidery machine, so, after seam ripping one side of the cushion, I just hooped it up and used this Mister Bun's Gardening Service design from Embroidery Library (here). 45 minutes later, and a few seams resewn, and done! You could, of course, skip the seam ripping and do the stitches by hand. The cushion cover itself was 25 dirhams, which is (according to Google this morning) £4.92. The fabric for the cover would have cost me more, so using a premade cover works well all-round.

My embroidery machine is a Janome 550e which comes with the very large R28b hoop (200 x 280) - perfect for cushions. When I was umming and ahhing about getting the machine about a year ago, I was so worried that it would be another one of those things - you know, the kitchen appliances that only get used once a month when you remember them (I'm talking to you, juicer). But no! I use this one at least once a week and usually for three or four different projects in one sitting: gifts, personalised pouches, little wildflowers, motifs on dresses, you name it. It is amazing, and I am so glad that I went ahead with it. 

Book an appointment with Mister Bun's Gardening Service was one of the clue's in our fun little egg hunt this morning - and the children dashed off without a second thought. They love this cushion cover where it sits pride of place in the middle of the couch! Now, after a very succesful egg hunt and a breakfast of chocolate and caramels, Isla is leaning back against the cushion with her feet up, very carefully composing a 'thank you' letter for the Easter Bunny. Be still my beating heart. 

I've always wanted to make a Farmer's Wife Quilt. I think it is one of the rites of passage for a quilter - like upgrading to proper quilting thread, or discovering that you have more quilting rulers than is strictly necessary. Farmer's Wife Quilt? You've arrived. 

I fell in love with Lori Holt's Farm Girl Vintage 2 when she released it in 2015, but at that stage I had a tiny baby, another one on the way, and absolutely zero sewing time. I would look at it wistfully on instagram and blogs, watching everyone make their beautiful Farm Girl Vintage quilts while I sterilised baby bottles, changed nappies and packed moving boxes. 

Fast forward six years later (!) and the babies are both a little bit bigger and quite self sufficient. There are no more nappies. The bottle steriliser is gone and there is space for a sewing machine (or two). And I'm ready. I'm ready for slow stitching, fabric gathering, block measuring, and quilting. I'm ready for 50 pieced and quilted blocks, and to indulge in a Farmer's Wife Quilt with a difference. This isn't the old-fashioned quilt of yesteryear. Although those too are beautiful, the cheerful blocks and bright colours of the Farm Girl Vintage quilt are just more - me. 

There are two Farm Girl Vintage books (creatively named Farm Girl Vintage and Farm Girl Vintage 2!). In the sampler pattern (on the front cover of the Farm Girl Vintage 2 book above) there are 20 12-inch blocks and 30 6-inch blocks, and I chose blocks from both books based on what I'd have in my farm if I were lucky enough to live on one! It was really slow going, especially when trying to fit blocks within the tiny moments I've managed to carve out in the early mornings or late afternoons. But it is so worth it. 

I quilted each block differently, and I really like the way that it makes the blocks pop out. I left some small areas unquilted - like the yellow stripes on the bee's body, or the cat face, or the heart in the middle of the beehive. I like that they're puffy and dimensional. 
I really love these yarn skeins! It's the "Grandma's Crochet" block. In my case, it's definitely Mama's Crochet, I don't think either of my grandmothers are known for their crochet.This is the "Evening Star" block. This was my first quilt block for the whole quilt, and I absolutely love these fabrics and the design. We have spent many, many nights under the desert sky watching the stars come out and swirl across the sky in a way that is totally unique to the Abu Dhabi terrain. The beauty of wild camping, which we've been fortunate enough to do for the past year or so, is that you're all alone in the great outdoors and there are no lights to obscure the sky and no other people around to interfere with the quiet of the great outdoors. It's really very magical!

Sometimes it is really difficult being so far away from friends and family, but I'm ever so grateful for technology which helps to bring us a bit closer. Whatsapp and zoom calls are amazing and have become part of the norm, especially during covid. 

Sadie, in England, sent me a picture she had taken of her own oreo millionaires that she'd bought from a local baker. They were delicious-looking, but a bit grey on top instead of a rich chocolate colour, and overall a bit disappointing, she said, because they smelled of the paper they were wrapped in. Still, they looked amazing and I wondered if we could easily find a recipe online to replicate these little morsels of oreo yumminess here in Abu Dhabi. 

In short - yes, you can find just about anything on the internet. There's a really scrumptious and easy recipe over on Jane's Patisserie blog (here) which is everything an oreo millionaire should be. 

Isn't it amazing that an idea that starts in the snowy east of England can make its way to the deserts of Abu Dhabi and settle eventually in the warmth of the Cape all the way at the furthest tip of Africa? It is like magic!

Time is flying so quickly now that schools have gone back. I feel like you blink and the days just disappear! There's so much running around to do - wash school uniforms, make school lunches, fill waterbottles, drop kids off, tidy up, squeeze in work for a few hours, pick kids up, make food, repeat! I spend a lot of time telling the children to go! After being still for so long during lockdown with curfew restritions, it feels quite liberating. 

I've been trying to make time every day for me in all of this craziness, even if it is just half an hour, so I've been getting through my backlog of unifinished projects and have even started a few new ones. I've really appreciated a slow and happy little bit of time to punctuate all the hurry, it is my happy place.

The Noodlehead Minimalist Wallet (Paid Pattern Here) has been on my to-do list forever; I really like the mini size wallet, it is perfect for grabbing on the way out the door (especially here, where you must carry your Emirates ID with you when you leave the house) without having to take a whole bag. 

The inside has a slip pouch in the front which fits a card or two very comfortably, a zip pouch in the middle for coins, and a pocket behind the zip pouch for notes or extra cards. That's it. It folds down, snaps close, and done. Yalla! The whole wallet took about an hour to put together, which included trying to make heads or tails of the instructions. In the end, I watched a youtube video of someone sewing it up and then it all suddenly clicked together and I made it easily. I used a combination of hot pink and dark denim, which is my go-to at the moment, and a tiny bit of cork for the flap. And I am so glad that I brought my KAM snap setter with me when we moved over! It seems to be getting a lot of use. 

Overall, the pattern came together well and has been made so many times by so many people online that it wasn't hard to find ideas, inspiration and a bit of help when I needed it. I'd make it again, especially for gifts. 

Happy New Year to you and yours! I'm so glad to see the end of 2020, as I'm sure you are too. It was a year unlike any other, and I still shudder when I think about our lockdown here in Abu Dhabi. As we are in an apartment 27 floors up, we didn't have access to a garden (oh how I longed to have our garden back in England! Or a balcony, at the least) and I think it's amazing that we were all still friends by the time we were allowed out for "socially distanced exercise". We miss our family and friends, not only in England but in South Africa as well - I don't think that the world has ever felt so big before, or so far away. We are all in this together, but apart.

Happy New Year from us and all the dinosaurs!

I posted this picture months ago on my instagram and I suddenly had loads and loads of people asking me if I'd be willing to sell dreamcatchers.

Hula Hoop Dreamcatchers In Progress

We've spent five whole weeks indoors as the Covid-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were playing on the swings at the park and building sandcastles at the beach! Still, we've managed to fill our time incredibly well with crochet, crafts, soapmaking, reading, painting, cooking, canning and baking.

I'm trying to stay busy and stay positive, but being indoors for this long is really taking its toll. Still, we've made a point of dancing along to GoNoodle, we have worked hard at assembling lego sculptures of awesomness, and have fingerpainted a gallery of magnificent artwork that we've stuck to every available door/wall/surface. It's pretty awful to be stuck indoors for this long, but I think if I'm going to be stuck anywhere, I'm pretty sure that I'd want to be stuck with this crazy bunch of humans.

A few weeks ago I started crocheting a small blanket for the couch to keep myself busy and productive. I pulled together some really nice colours from the Scheepjes Stone Washed range, and made up a bunch of African Flower Hexagons. I used this pattern tutorial: here - it was quick and easy to work up a bunch of these in random colour combinations. I really like the colours I had on hand, they're tonal and have a lot of rustic charm with their tweedy colour blending.

Happy African Flower Hexies

I joined the African Flower hexagons together with the crochet-as-you-go method and added a final border when I ran out of yarn. I've still got some ends to sew in, but I'll get there. Eventually.  I am especially pleased with the way it makes me smile whenever I see the finished blanket draped over the back of the couch.

Of course, when the children saw my blanket they wanted one each too - and I thought it was a good idea to let them come up with their own designs. Rookie mistake. Isla's design is a smorgasbord of unicorn glitter, with granny squares, flowers, hearts and a unicorn hood. Honestly, I have no idea what I'm doing with this one but I hope it works out.

Unicorn Granny Squares, with Added Glitter

The design also includes a hood, a horn, ears and a spiral mane. Of course.

Finnlay chose some really strong primary colours and a vehicles theme. It more or less matches absolutely everything in his room. He has chosen a few pictures out of his most favourite book (A 101 Vehicles) and I'm attempting to copy them and make them out of yarn. Wish me luck.

"But mom, this grey stripe should be a road." Obviously.

I have a feeling that we're going to be in lockdown for a lot longer than the four days that are left. I've still got a long list of fun (messy) things to attempt with the kids to keep them busy, thank goodness, but I am starting to wonder how on earth we're ever going to get all of these crafty makes back home with us when we make our trek back to the UK! We will have to get a container full just for the artistic masterpieces (finger paintings and scribbles) alone - nevermind the leftover yarn!

For example, this week we arranged to have some suits dry-cleaned. With two presses of a button on an app, we had scheduled a collection on the same day. You then fold up your garments into a pre-provided bag and leave them outside for collection. Two days later they're returned to you at a specified time, completely dry-cleaned, pressed and neatly left outside your door. All of this happens without even having to talk to anyone else.

Another luxury is the incredible availability of things. I've been able to get Dutch yarn delivered to me from a yarn shop in Dubai. I've bought amazing American bakeware in a local hardware store. I found a Kiwi-made youghurt Maker from a vegetable shop in Abu Dhabi. I've also managed to find Yorkshire Tea in some local stores on the main island, which is only a short drive away. Before I moved here, I worried about how easy it would be to find things that I was used to - things like toiletries, groceries and even fresh fruit. I needn't have worried; the UAE is like an oversized global marketplace if you just know where to look.

When we moved into our flat, we got an enormous gas-burning oven - another luxury that is considered the standard size here, where catering could be considered something of a national pastime. It's double-width, and I've discovered that it takes two very generously-sized baking trays side-by-side. I can bake an enormous birthday cake with four layers in just one oven session. Or, 48 cupcakes. It is truly a thing of beauty. And I've been using it. A lot. I've baked across the globe this past year, trying all sorts of recipes every week and making Southern biscuits for dinner (it's a bit like a savoury scone, rather than the sweet snack you'd have with tea), Australian lamingtons for tea, South African snowballs as a treat, and most recently an Irish tea cake - because, well, it reminds me a bit of home.

Granny's Irish Tea Cake

This was my husband's late grandmother's recipe. She had an enormous collection of amazing recipes - both indulgent, and war-time. This one was one of her regular makes, and a firm favourite in our house. I'm incredibly grateful that I managed to write down a number of her recipes which we now use quite regularly. Making fresh tea cake for (well) tea has been a little luxury for us too, in this time of Covid-19 isolation. It is proper comfort food.

Elice's Irish Tea Cake (our family recipe)

• 1 teacup of cold tea

• 1 teacup of brown sugar

• 2 teacups of self-raising flour

• 1lb of raisins (450g)

• 1 egg, beaten

1. Put the sugar and the raisins into a bowl, add the tea, and soak overnight.
2. The next day, add flour and a well-beaten egg, and mix well.
3. Pour mixture into a well-greased small tin and bake on the middle shelf of an oven at 150'C for 1 1/4 hour - 1 3/4 hours (or until brown and baked through). Mine took about 2 hours.

Yorkshire Tea in Abu Dhabi

I thought you might like to see that while things are certainly available here, they sometimes look a little different. I think you have to be open to accidentally trying new things as you go to make sure you find what you're looking for!

Selfie at the Fossil Dunes, Abu Dhabi

I was reading an article last week and I came to the sudden realisation that I've been living temporarily, or as they say, living with one foot out the door. That is to say, although we've been living in Abu Dhabi for a year so far, I haven't really admitted or committed to it emotionally or geographically. I still tell people I'm "abroad," and I'm still working UK hours. I do everything in terms of what's going on "back home". I have one foot firmly planted in the whirling sands of the desert, enjoying the spectacular sights and new experiences that you get here, but equally, my other foot is already out the door and on its way back to England.

I haven't updated my blog at all with what's happening here because I've been so worried about being judged for being away while still running my business back home - nevermind that I'm still working especially hard, while my very capable mother-in-law keeps things going on-site. Whatever will people think? What will people say when they think I'm off swanning overseas in perceived luxury (I know that's what I thought of before visiting here), when the idea of here is so very different. I'd also been worried about why it was worrying me - just for good measure, I suppose. Where's home? Where's here?

So in all of this quiet worrying, we've still been living life. I've been quietly enjoying things like visiting the Fossil Dunes (that's the picture, above) just outside of Abu Dhabi. We got a bit lost on the way there, and ended up driving around the camel racing track which is smack-bang in the middle of some dunes and is barely contained. We waved to the riders and admired the long eyelashes on the happy camels. We finally ignored the SatNav and just drove straight over the dunes to arrive at our destination. Oh, how things are different.

The other thing that really struck me, while being here, is that people often ask - so where are you from? It's the first thing a taxi driver will ask you, and we get a lot of taxis as they're often a quicker and cheaper form of transport than anything else. It's also one of the first questions that they ask you at school, while the parents natter over the watercooler while waiting for the children to finish school. So where are you from? Often, people try to guess based on your accent. No, I'm not Australian. No, I'm not Syrian.

It's a loaded question. I'm from South Africa. I was born there, I grew up there. My family is there. But home seems to be England, where I've spent the last ten years. Ten! I don't know how that happened so quickly. That's where my two children were born. Where I met my WI family. Where we bought a house. I've felt conflicted when answering that question, as if saying that I'm from England is somehow betraying my family in South Africa. But practically, it's just giving someone a frame of reference for the following conversation. I suppose I've just really not set aside the time to process and understand what this means to me, or to consider why it's having such a profound impact on my sense of self.

And really, it hadn't occurred to me before this that living this way - struggling with this dual-heritage but now displaced diasporic lifestyle in a temporary setting - has the potential to be really unhealthy. I hadn't quite realised the extent of the impact it was having on me personally, and also on my family. It's a silly thing, surely? Everyone here is from somewhere. Everyone here has a home that's elsewhere. Yet for some reason, it's quite a big thing to me.

The one thing that is really quite marvellous about living as an expat in the desert is that there are shops, restaurants and social activities to represent just about every nation. We were so excited to see that there is a Waitrose here where we'd be able to get our favourite British foods and ingredients. We were doubly excited to see that it also stocks a number of our favourite South African goodies that we haven't had in years. There - in Waitrose - the three nations coexist so happily. Yes, you can buy Ouma's rusks and Mrs Ball's chutney in the British supermarket in the middle of the desert. It's a wondrous thing.

And so - I suppose, I want to share these things with you. I want to tell you about the spice markets, and about the old fishing dhows that meander down the waterways. I want to tell you about sandstorms, and navigating yarn shops where the owners only speak Arabic so you have to use hand signals. I want to tell you about how delicious moutabbal is, how we're using up buckets of sumac and that time when I accidentally bought laban instead of a bottle of milk because they looked the same and there wasn't any English on the signage.

So, I hope that I'm back. I hope that you'll join me for the short time that we're here before we embark on our next adventure - although, we're not sure where or when that will be. I left a part of my heart back in our home in England, and quite a large part of it in the tiny but beautiful shop we run in Westcliff-on-Sea. There's another big part back in Cape Town with my family. Even so - there's still a bigger part right here with me in the Arabian desert. I don't know if those holes ever fill up, but I think that embracing what we're doing right now goes a long way to healing the hurts and making way for new adventures.

Our beach, mangrove forest, city skyline.

Happy New Year to you and yours! What an interesting year 2018 was. Full of opportunities, learning and changes. I keep thinking about a post that I must write, a moment that I must share, but I haven't stopped in the last six months. Not even for a minute. Not even to jot down notes or stitch a tiny bit of that embroidery or even have a play with paints. All I've done is work. It's been the most bizzare time of change, upheaval, acceptance and opportunity, and I find myself back here as a way to share our journey with you all, my friends and family who seem further now than once before. Shall I tell you what's been happening? You might need a cuppa for this.

I'd been working a lot of long hours, seven days a week - making soap, wrapping orders, attending markets and events, stocking shops - and was burning out fast. I couldn't sleep, I was constantly ill, and I was struggling with a thyroid problem that the doctors just couldn't crack. And then in the blink of an eye, Isla turned four. We had a unicorn party (with a pinata of course). We started a new school year. We moved into our soap workshop, and I started teaching classes more regularly. And then - Graeme was offered a job abroad, and accepted it. I was suddenly a single parent with two children and a more-than-full-time job. I burnt out.

We'd agreed that the best decision (for now, for health and happiness) was to follow Graeme a few months later, packing up our most treasured belongings to pursue an opportunity in the UAE. My heart was broken, my soap business - a true labour of love and commitment - would need someone to nurture and grow it. And I'd always seen that as my job. In a marvellous meeting of opportunities, this coincided with exactly the moment that my mother-in-law decided to emigrate and return home to her native United Kingdom.

More and more people are switching to bar soap which is a brilliant thing for the planet, and for everyone's skin which has collectively long suffered from exposure to the harmful chemicals included in liquid soaps and handwashes (included for their ability to dilute and stretch the product, and to prolong the shelf life of liquid soaps or body washes, producing a commercially viable product). Every month we meet new people who have suffered with eczema, who get rashes from body wash, or who are newly enlightened to the benefits of using natural soap. They tell us their stories, share their journeys with us, join our family. It's an incredible place to be - humbling, honoured. We've expanded, and now have two people who help out and Audrey (my amazing mother-in-law) has jumped in to help too, making soap and wrapping orders. She's become the gardener who looks after the seeds I've planted. Once again, I've been so humbled and honoured to have family like this, it takes a lot of patience to share an inherited dream and to work across continents to make something that is so filled with love.

We recently did a few markets together and so many other traders were appalled and completely taken aback that I was working with my mother-in-law. Yes, we do get along. No, she's not wicked. We are actually rather good friends!

And what of moving? Well, we did it. We've been here in Abu Dhabi for a little over a week. It isn't permanent by any stretch of the imagination but it is home for now, a base for traveling and for our comings and goings across the world as we go between home in South Africa to visit family, and home in England to work and to teach soapmaking. It feels a bit like a no-man's land to me right now, but I'm sure in time it will evolve. I can't spend crazy hours in our workshop making soap any more, I can't work late nights wrapping soap, and I can't attend market after market after market while I'm here. So that means I can do all the things that I've not had a chance to: a new brochure, an updated website, better social media posts, blogging. Most of all, experimental soapmaking. The spices and teas here are extraordinary, my mind has been reeling with ideas and new combinations that would be the perfect addition to a luxury bath time collection.

And of course, all the things that I've been wanting to do for me. Watercolours. Project Life books. Studying. Are you on instagram? I'm sharing my progress there. I'll be back here more, too, with big group updates so you can all see at once. Skype and Whatsapp calls are blocked here, so we've had to come up with new creative ways to communicate with relatives abroad. I'm going to try post a little more regularly with the things we're discovering as we travel, and the things I'm making too as we go along. I've enrolled to the Herbal Academy's introductory herbal foundation course which I'm thoroughly enjoying and so excited about. I've unpacked my paintbrushes and notebooks. It's time, I think, to get creative.

It's been an incredibly busy time here. My soap business has grown wings and taken flight off into the sky, and I'm flapping about underneath trying to keep up with it - measuring, making, cutting, wrapping. It used be something I did in the evenings after the children went to bed, now it's a full time job. It's an honour and a privilege to be making soap for families all over the world, and I've learnt a great deal about soapmaking and all of the amazing ingredients that I use every day. But still. Sometimes, we need to go slow.

My family have been to visit me this past week and it was magic. We had so many ups, so many happy moments, so many shared laughs and hugs. I feel so responsible for causing the distance by moving away to pursue other opportunities, but it makes the time we have together full of love. Parting is such deep sorrow though, and I think that's when the distance feels impossible.

And so - I've slowed right down. This week I'll be finishing off all of my outstanding projects and deadlines at work, and then I'll be taking stock and considering what needs to happen and how. I'm two modules away from completing my diploma in reflexology which has been a much-needed escape, and then my aromatherapy diploma starts not long after that. I've been reading everything I can find on folklore and herbalism, circling back to my degrees in fairy tales and the role of the women in communities. It's so funny to come back after ten years of living outside of books. It was inevitable, I think, that I would find solace and self-time in the pages of second hand journals discovered in charity shops and elsewhere.

Next week, I'll start my embroidery tutorials leading the some 20,000 downloads of my "life is beautiful" embroidery sampler through the different stitches and colours that I used to create this little sampler. I think that some scheduled down time, working with my hands away from soap, may be just what's needed.

May is very nearly gone, and that's happened really suddenly! This big boy turned two a few days ago which I can hardly believe. Happy birthday Finnlay, you are magnificent!

He has grown into a brilliant child full of ideas, boisterous enthusiasm and helpfulness that is well-balanced by an ethereal sensitivity. It's magic to watch him grow. We step through the days with vigour at the moment, tiptoeing between cars strewn around the house and picking up bumbling toddlers who throw themselves into everything. Sometimes the days feel unreasonably long, and I look forward to bath time so I can focus on work and get things ticked off the list. Other days disappear far too quickly, and I long for weekends where I don't have to work (rarely) and for time not occupied by looming deadlines. It's a tough balancing act between being a working mama and a guilty-feeling parent.

In my infrequent "me time" after the children are in bed, I've been crocheting. It is slow going. It's a focus thing, I think, as a way to keep mindful about the day while winding up my to-do lists in my head. I've made some socks which has been quite a brilliant learning activity, and I've already got some new yarn to try out a variation which is rather exciting. I used to think of knitting and crochet as my winter sports but spring is here and I've got no intention of packing the hooks away any time soon.

And, I haven't forgotten my promise to do a step-by-step embroidery tutorial with photographs, that's happening soon. Things are going to get really busy and super crafty around here very soon, so watch this space.

The busy season for markets, festivals and events in July, and I shall start finding more time (I keep promising myself) to do the things that I've wanted to do for forever. Before then, though, I've got a workshop to decorate from the ground up (not the nice kind of decorating either - the painting, flooring and roofing type! - more on that in another post), some big decisions to make and lots and lots of soapmaking and teaching! It feels a bit impossible to fit personal time and making in amongst all of these things, but the slow moments of making and mindfulness are the ones that centre us the most. There's something so internal and therapeutic about making something useful and beautiful. I know that "therapy" is an awfully dirty word in most circles, but it does seem most apt at the moment when we need more love and less stress!

The garden is looking magnificent as the weather improves - the strawberries are nearly here, the tomatoes have grown into towering green monsters and the beans are working their way up and over the beanpoles. There are peppers on their way, a pumpkin, chillies and raspberries. The apples and pears are starting to look more fruit-shaped than flowers which is exciting (and good for the soul). I expect a healthy and happy glut from the garden this year, and I look forward to experimenting with a thousand different ways to cook with the enormous yield of tomatoes we're expecting. I'll have to get out there and get some photos to share with you all. Do you use instagram? You can find me here on my personal account and here for work. I'm going to make a big effort to post on my personal account more regularly and I work my way through testing shots for embroidery and other bits. Come and say hello!

I think I've been crocheting the Solar System CAL (crochetalong) forever. Far longer than space, and time. Far longer than expected. In the beginning, there was nothing. And then BAM! We had a sun. Cute. Then it grew and grew with void space and orbits - bigger, and bigger. Each new pattern portion was released weekly on a Friday and I raced through each week's void space to get there.

But I got a bit bored doing rounds and rounds and rounds of blue. It's not that the pattern is boring or the results aren't satisfying (erm) - it's just a lot of the same. And my blanket got bigger and bigger and bigger and then I ran out of yarn. It was annoying. I checked online and lots of other CALers had the same problem. I ordered some more which seem to take forever. Next week is the last instalment of the CAL but I've still got seven more rows of void space to do (the blue bits) and each row takes about an hour because it's the gosh darn biggest blanket in the world. Still, the kids love it. I draped it over a chair for a photo and they both claimed it for their own. Isla does a jolly good job of looking stylish while doing it, I couldn't resist a quick pic (and I do mean quick, she  moves at warp speed!).

I am looking forward to catching up and doing the planets and all of the other sciencey appliques which will give this blankie a whole lot of space pop, but it does seem an awfully long way off. I do a little bit every now and then, but only get about half a row around before I get distracted by something else like oooh was that the kettle boiling? It must be tea time already...

Sorry, time really seems to have just disappeared! I keep meaning to find a spare twenty minutes or so to write a blog post after I've tidied the house, fed the children, made soap (and more soap and more soap and more soap), replied to work emails, printed off packaging and orders, done the washing, walked to the post office to post those orders, take/fetch kids to/from nursery, school, playdates, activities... but really, there isn't much time at all. I have the best intentions, promise.

At the weekends we've been doing loads of markets and taking part in events, and have been running circles around ourselves in an attempt to keep on top of the house renovations, while attempting to post regularly on social media for work (which requires photographs, of course, that need to be taken on a camera and then offloaded, resized, re-uploaded to the right place, shared, responded to, sigh.) - it's a never-ending list.

I've decided to embrace the chaos and just go with it. It might take us up and down, but the destination is the same whether you stress about it or not. That sounds very zen, but I had to go through a not-very-zen place to get there. And so, ohm.



I've received the millionth email asking me whether I'd release a stitch guide and information series for my life is beautiful embroidery pattern and instead of apologetically refusing, I've decided to do it. So, I'll be slow and inconsistent, but in the coming months I'll take you through the full embroidery pattern including colours, thread lengths and requirements, and a description of each stitch that I used to make up this embroidery. At the end of it, I'll give the final finished hoop away in a giveaway.

It always amazes me how much reach that little pattern has: it's gone completely global. I get emails at least once a week asking questions about it, I get thank you notes daily, it's been on the cover of a magazine, and it's all over pinterest (which is weird when you're searching, believe me). I love it. I love that there's a mad and wonderful network of embroiderers out there and you all get me and you love the stuff I draw. I daresay we might do a few more of those this year.

So, please be patient with me. I really do have the best intentions and I promise to be better at being online. Pinky swear. Thank you for sticking with me and keeping in touch even though I've been a little radio silent.

It's snowing today, we have had about six inches in our little corner of England so it's wonderfully cold outside and cosy and snug inside. It also means that after-school runarounds have been cancelled, which is how I managed to find those elusive few minutes that I've daydreamed about for so long. I'm going to order some yarn online, and maybe even get a head start on supper prep. I'd rather be popping out for a pottery class or painting daffodils in the conservatory, but I can hear the baby waking up and the washing machine is beeping at me ...

Oh, we've had a marvellous time. We cooked and cooked and cooked - and then ate, and ate,  and ate. We had visitors from near and far, and we celebrated the festivities of Channukah/Christmas (Christmakkah, my cousin calls it) across many meals.

I think it would have been more fun if I didn't have an emerging wisdom tooth (at 32!) and a subsequent abscess on said tooth (no dentists open over Christmas!) and didn't nearly slice off part of my finger (still bandaged up and sore). Although, all things considered, we did rather well.


We were all very good, of course, and our stockings were filled with lovely things. I got the yarn I asked for (for a crochet vintage-style cardigan). Isla got her Hungry Hippos game. Finnlay got a car he can sit in and pedal about like the Flintstones. Such lovely things, such happy smiles of delight upon opening.

Isla is still convinced that it is Christmas every time she wakes up. But Mummy, I've slept. Santa must be here. We've just packed away the tree and sparkling lights, and we've taken down the tinsel. I've explained about new year celebrations and that birthdays come before Christmas in our house, but she doesn't agree. Mummy, do we have mince pies for Santa?

I hope that you've had a wonderful time with family and friends. These treasured moments, however plagued with dental concerns or forgotten stuffing (oops), are the things that make them all worthwhile. We all wish you every happiness for the new year celebrations ahead - here's to 2018!