The filing cabinet

Warning this is a post full of the laments of a sentimental old fool! Thank you for letting me indulge myself

I am a romantic dreamer at heart, I wear my heart on my sleeve, I spend a lot of time thinking, I get depressed easily. I believe in the innate goodness in everyone, I reflect a lot on the past and can cry easily. As an ex-patriot living in England there have been and are times when I find it hard to know where it is that I belong. I miss my kin, my own kind at times, there is no need for words or explantions there is just a mutual understanding. No words necessary.

Nostos = homecoming; Algia = pain

I love the meaning of nostalgia, I like the word a lot.

It describes a collection of hopes, dreams, losses and gains and was first used appropriately in Homer's The Odyssey. Interestingly enough, The Odyssey as you probably all know was about the Greek hero Odysseus and his long journey home after the fall of Troy. His wife Penelope, waited patiently for him remained faithful by fending off suitors by weaving by day and unravelling a tapestry night she said needed to be completed before she wed again. This clever decoy prevented her from marrying any other whist she waited for her beloved.

I like that my name and nostalgia have a connection.

So to put it in a nut shell I've been feeling nostalgic these past few days. I've had some time to think, day dream and reflect whilst Alice has been away and it never ceases tp amaze me how much I have developed a 'coping' mechanism to deal with my feelings of the past, my homeland and childhood spent in South Africa. I have a cerebral filing cabinet, it has drawers, folders, layers, papers filled with pictures, smells, tastes, sights, feelings, memories, dreams, sounds...

I have nostalgia compartmentalised.

                                                                               source

What else could I have done? I needed to, I have to, otherwise a cloud would hang over me and I wouldn't be able to embrace this life, the here and now, the beauty, the joy, the all encompassing gracious life I have been given.

So what better to with these feelings but create. Create a little of my past, do something that I haven't done for years...... something very basic and simple but with so much meaning and a sense of nostagia for me..... play with buttons. Change something old into something new(ish) with buttons, something I used to do in my late teens and early 20's and it has felt GOOD.

I bought these beauties a little while ago

They are from the beautiful Rice in Denmark and sold in a pretty upholstery shop in Hastings Old Town. They made me feel nostalgic for my childhood and all those pretty homemade dresses my mum made for me and my sister and I knew these would find a very good purpose in my crafting.

So I chose one of my old cardigan's I bought in Gap about 12 years ago

It's 100% cotton and has been loved and worn a lot but I think it still has another few years left in it yet and so I got busy snipping off the original buttons (thank you kind person who originally sewed these on with such precision)and sewing on the new sweet buttons to give it a new life, something for the future, something which will one day feel nostalgic to me.

New life, New joy!

Simple but so me



My humble thanks to all of those who read and comment on my blog, it's really lovely to be in your company xox

24 hours until I have my precious child back

xox