So, just what can I do?

 No, seriously, what can I do? I'm very aware of what I can't do, what my weaknesses are, but what of my strengths and skills. I'm really good at downplaying any good stuff - you know the sort of thing where someone says something positive and you go 'it's nothing', or 'it wasn't just me', or 'no, no anyone can do it' or - well you get my drift.

When I started on this month's project of looking of ways to increase income I began by looking at the obvious of selling unwanted things that were part of the sorting process that I had embarked on. Very quickly using any skills I have crept in so now it's time for...

Month 3 - Bite 25

Taking a long hard look at myself ... in a positive way.

I enjoyed and often return to 'The Multi-Hyphen Method' by Emma Gannon. It always makes me stop and think about how I've often tried to describe what I do/like/make and so on - like my butterfly brain description. She make it feel ordered and reasonable - it's well worth a read.

Anyway, if I'm going to explore all the ways in which I can benefit from my skills and/or talents (get me!) then I need to start from recognising what they might be. 

knitter..                        

fabric worker..               

literacy consultant...              

spinner...                            

 weaver..                            

classicist...                         

writer.. or perhaps food lover!

it's certainly not style icon!        

So, this task is a thinking and listing one (I love a list), and requires a cup of tea, a pencil and paper (for writing I'm more at home in front of a keyboard, for thinking the physical holding of a pencil does it for me) and a space of time to establish just who and what I am and what use I can make of that information. 

Hmmmmmmmm......

Out of Sight, But On the Mind

 Month 2 - Bite 16

The voyage of discovery into the loft actually turned out to be quite enjoyable! It was really easy to dispose of plenty of 'stuff' lurking up there. I hadn't realised that, even though I couldn't see it, I had been wasting brain space wondering what was up there and beating myself up about not dealing with it.

I was about to flatten the boxes ready for the recycling collection when I had a new idea. There were plenty of craft supplies, odds and ends of knitting, some drawing books - in fact all the kinds of things that are expensive to source when you want some odds and ends for children's projects. I've organised these into one big plastic box along with some unopened kits and other useful bits and pieces as they are just the things to pass on. I could have bundled them all up and deposited them onto my niece ready for the holidays, but why should I gum up her house when I could send them on a slow release in a nice little box, school break by school break? I'll photograph and get to this as time goes on so you can see how it all works out.

One of the boxes contained all the paperwork I've been keeping from when I was self employed. Some of it I still need as it's not the requisite six years from the date of the relevant tax submission, but some of the receipts and records are now well past their 'save until' date so I spent a happy hour shredding, tearing and recycling until all the excess was trimmed.

Month 2 - Bite 17

Having brought a pile of the old pictures and frames down from the loft there's been a bit of a sort out round the house. We took a good look at one or two pictures that have been up for a while and decided that it was time to refresh the displays we've got up. One great picture that acts as a reminder of some wonderful holidays was looking a little tired in its frame. As luck would have it one of the frames we brought down had a worn out and faded print in it, but was exactly the right size for the beach picture that needed a freshening up...

We also had a couple of pictures with rather dark frames that were okay for our last place, but didn't do the paintings justice now. One in particular was painted by a relative and we didn't want to lose it. They'll both be reframed to give them a new life - better than trying to buy something new and yet they look like new works of art.

I'm also going to reuse some of the free standing frames for a creative sewing project or two.

                                               

Finally we uncovered one or two that deserved wall space which we've got as after we moved and put them in the loft we've had building work done which allows for them to be displayed. We'd sort of forgotten about them so the search through the frames was a real bonus in uncovering these hidden gems!

Month 2 - Bite 18

Spending time in the loft rather reinforced where all the heat in the house escapes to! Having already improved the insulation recently it has definitely helped with the efficiency of the heating system. The research into when we have the boiler on and how high the thermostat is set along with using the radiator thermostatic valves better have certainly reduced our energy use. However, we were both sure there were other savings to be had so.... from today there are two new regimes.

Although the heating is still on a (revised) schedule the hot water is not. From now on it goes on for an hour when the first of us is up and about. That gives plenty of hot water for showers and so on in the morning. Then, if needed at any other time, it can be triggered for half an hour as and when necessary. In addition we've decided that as soon as one of us feels that it's well warm enough and voices it, then the heating goes off until it no longer feels comfortable! Let's see if that cuts down our useage even further.

Month 2 - Bite 19

The little piggy bank by the front door is doing pretty well from pocket emptying when coming home, but is also benefitting from a further search around the house. The sports bags we keep by the entrance needed a prune as they often have change floating around in them. Firstly there were the coins for lockers that used to be necessary, but since changing sports' clubs they are no longer needed. Then a dip into the bags uncovered other coins - for court lighting machines for example. Then there were the parking coins kept in the cars - very largely any parking now gets paid by card - you get the idea. Time to complete the hunt throughout the house for any odd pence lying around to add to the stash!

Getting the picture

 Well I guess this first month has all been about getting the picture of what's all around the place.

One group of items that surfaced while in the loft was pictures.

Month 1 - Bite 17

Before we moved to our present bungalow (16 years ago yesterday!) we lived in a three storey townhouse. There were lots of walls and hanging spaces for pictures. Once we'd moved most of those had to be stored in the loft and that's where they've been ever since. In fact even more went up there as we acquired or I created more like this one.

The next task of finding out what we've got to establish the size of our elephant is to unwrap all these and more to decide what we want to keep and move a few round.

One or two could be reframed, but many I suspect will be on their way out. Over time some will have faded and the frames may be available for me to play with too.... More excuses to make stuff beckon.

Still it's out with the duster, off with the bubble wrap and time to ship some of these rather large clutterbugs out to new homes....

So where was I?

Now I know when I last wrote I talked about rethinking things, simplifying life and creating space, BUT a world wide pause on 'life as we know it' was not what I had in mind....

Every time I've sat myself down to write I've deleted my words as nothing felt serious or respectful enough to take up space.

I thought, like many others I guess, that the lockdown, stay at home, whatever this last six months gets to be called, would mean that I'd get my house in order (literally) and have time for being creative, productive and all those things. Yes, the household stuff I had in mind got done, as did the list my other half had down to do too. The garden has been tidied and sorted and plans for alterations to it made. 

Crops have been grown and harvested, jams made and all looks ship shape outside.

            

It's been great to eat straight from the garden (and not actually buy stuff!).

And with a glut of basil we've been on regular feasts of pasta and pesto 😋

Now though, I think I have to stop prevaricating and step forward ready for what comes next.

I have mentioned before ideas about the Wento project (which is about refocusing finances) and about producing some step by step instructions for creative projects. 

But each time I sit down to write about finances it doesn't seem like the right time and writing step by step instructions comes face to face with my inertia... 

I did think I ought to write about playing catchup with lost learning as I've had some fun during lockdown trying to think of active ways to make home learning interesting for my great-nephew. While I've got some ideas already sorted I'm not sure this is the forum for them so I'll have to think about that. 

Mind you at about the same time Mel, the writer of Ink Spots and Grass Stains, (who I first met many years ago when we were writing for the Scout Association) has just launched a new website about play and life,  (the link is on the right) so perhaps there's some mileage in my thoughts. The coincidence of her starting this up as I was thinking about the role of play isn't the only coincidence in our lives.... She moved to Scotland and I moved to Devon only to find that she used to live a few couple of roads away and babysat for one of our neighbours!

Oh gosh, out on a tangent again.. well the long and the short of it is... I'm not going to follow any of those threads just yet. Instead I'm thinking I'll start with (whisper it softly) Christmas... There's a method in this particular madness and it will link to playfulness, crafting, decluttering, money saving, instructions and so on... just you wait and see! 

Finishing off

Do you get those traffic jams of projects? You know, when you’ve got a growing queue of things that just need finishing off. Of course, there’s always a good reason - I need better light/sunlight to sew it up, some more yarn ( that always seems to be in the loft), to work on larger needles for a while, to get a present finished....

I've been trying to catch up - especially as I want to try something a bit different with this blog in the coming weeks...

I've been doing a bit of small scale weaving and have taken plenty of photos of the process so that I can start putting some step by step guides up here too..

The Donkey Sanctuary near us is a favourite outing with my nieces' children. So I had a go at making a donkey - albeit a rather wonky one. Every time I make a stuffed toy I promise myself it'll be the last time as the combination of my sewing on of limbs and consistent stuffing skills are at a minus level. Then I spot a great pattern and think 'oh I've got the yarn for that in the loft' and behold another wobbly headed, floppy footed character.

We did have  trip earlier this year to Devon World of Country life - got to love an alpaca - even if it reminds you of the fleece from Widdecombe Fair that you bought three years ago and haven't finished spinning .. yet.

!

Ahh well - that's the first batch of pictures I meant to pop up … I'll get the rest of the makes and memories from this summer up and posted soon so I can get on with that next project

Festival and family

It's been another full on couple of weeks, but all great fun. The Exmouth Festival coincided with my family visiting so there's been plenty to do.

I was able to put some of my work on display at the Blackmore Theatre and it was good to get one or two items finished in order to do it!

Here's a picture I finally completed - it's called 'Heartfelt'. I'm rather pleased with it as I hand felted the background and topped it with a ceramic button I made a while ago. I know the photo is on a bit of an angle, but any other shot I tried to take reflected either the rest of the bedroom where it now hangs, or me taking the picture!

 

I also hung a couple of scarves I made a while ago from bamboo poles as wall hangings. These I spun  from sari silk. It always amazes me how a ball of random fluff can end up looking like this once it's been spun and knitted.

I had some of my hand spun, knitted and felted bags on display too.

As well as this bag made from some thicker sari silk.

Once that was all up and on show other than a spell of stewarding on the Monday I was able to spend time with my sister, mum, niece, her husband and my great nephew. Graeham and I had a full day's digging on the beach on the holiday Tuesday while Finn directed operations and gave out spades. He'll make a great foreman when he grows up. Then the action moved on to Crealy the next day with the weather still with us. Thursday saw mum, Judith and me eating ice cream on Budleigh beach and then on Friday we all met up for scones and tea before they had to get ready to head back to Surrey.

On Sunday it was back to the Festival withthere workshops at Seadog Gallery. I took the wheel along as well as a couple of drop spindles and some chopsticks (yes chopsticks) so that anyone who dropped in could try their hand at spinning some merino and silk (yes with chopsticks) to make simple bracelets. 

The sun shone, sandwiches and scones were plentiful and it was a lovely day in Anna's garden. I had time to watch Hayley teaching others how to craft mosaic panels and even got to try making a felt flower in Natasha's workshop.

So, from then on it's been back to the day job, with plenty of writing to get to grips with! 

Today we've been shopping for fabric. A bit of household sewing to do - I'll show you when it's finished....

Phew.... Time for tea I think - and an evening of football......