Go gently

On 1/1/12 I posted about my plans to "Live Simply" as seen here and it's made me reflect on whether I managed to achieve this or not? Part of my time was fulfilled in a simple way of living but by half way into the year my motto changed and became "Simply Live" as the second half of the year became heavy and filled with anxiety and fear of the future.

 With strength in my faith and support from family and friends we made it through the rocky ride and here, on the precipice of 2013 I have a strong sense of hope and optimism for this fresh new year. After all, I am an optimist at heart.

I am not one for New Years resolutions because I never stick to them! Instead, I plan to try and strive to be more mindful of taking care of my/our physical, emotional and spiritual health.

I believe that if we can keep these strong and balanced, then we can be brave and feel equipped with adequate armour to live a purposeful and meaningful next year. 

Sometimes, so much easier said than done I know but I think it's all in me being mindful and a bit more self aware when I make choices.

Here's to wishing all of you a really richly blessed 2013, may it be gentle and sweet and memorable in whatever comes your way. May kindness prevail through every thought and deed that we do and may we have courage for those sharp, twisty bends and bumps that we may have to endure. 

Sending you all light and love and humble thanks to all my wonderful bloggy visitors, your generosity, empathy, inspiration and kindness has been so uplifting over this past year and once again I am grateful that I have had this place to share my hopes, makes and dreams with you xox

Go gently into the night

x

Mustard Mossy ways

Thank you so much for your kind comments on my last post, I feel so touched to have all of you kind folk visit and then comment on my posts whether cheery or a bit on the blue side. 

Knitting has become such a comfort to me over the years, especially during the cold grey English Winter days. I moved the UK from South Africa in February of 1996 and really do feel like this is the wettest most grey Winter I have experienced. My re-kindling of my love of yarn and building on my knitting and crochet skills happened almost 3 years ago and there is just no way I can look back now. Knitting and crocheting brings such therapeutic joy to my hands, heart and mind. 

I spent yesterday (whilst Alice was at her rehearsal for (Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella) tidying up all my crochet hooks, knitting needles, yarn, threads and fabrics ready for 2013. It was so satisfying sorting everything out and now I know what I have in my stash and where all my needles and other bits and bobs are after this year's making.

I also sorted out my knitting, crochet and stitching books and spent some time looking through this Jane Brocket book I bought after visiting Loop in London for some knitting inspiration. I eventually decided on the simple but satisfying Moss stitch scarf and then came the task of yarn choice...

My inspiration for colour came from one of my Christmas cards made by a dear colleague of mine (thank you Sarah). It had to be mustard of course (my new favourite colour) from this Madelinetosh Vintage hand dyed yarn in Nutmeg and some of my Debbie Bliss Donegal Tweed.

Moss or seed stitch is surprisingly relaxing and I spent a lot of this afternoon listening to my Radio 4 iplayer catch ups from the week whilst sipping on tea and mossy stitching. Each stitch a testament to knitting on through to the other side of the blues.

How about you, has knitting/crochet/crafting/making/baking ever helped you get through the blues? 

Other than that its all about hair, hair nets, hairspray, costumes and make up for my pretty grade 5 ballerina doing the first of her dance and performing arts school's annual show tonight, break a leg my darling. We look forward to seeing you shining on that stage tomorrow.

Cheerio for now 

See you soon

xox 

You can't always get what you want

But if you try sometimes, you just might find

You get what you need

Our beautiful girl made us this ceramic bird feeder for Christmas

I am hoping that your festivities around Christmas were joyous and your gatherings were memorable (good or not so good?). It's been a strange ol' time for me this Christmas, I've been overwhelmed with feelings of nostalgia and sheer sadness that I have found hard to shake. I have surprised myself in letting my feelings surface in the quiet recesses of the past few days and can honestly say there have been moments when I have really struggled to compartmentalise the heaviness that life has brought to us this year. 

This blog is not a forum for me to shed "my load" as such for I know we all have our heaviness to bear in different shapes and forms and I do not believe in self pity, but I honestly can say that with hand on heart I am pleased its all over which is the first time in my 42 and 1/2 years I have felt like this. It wasn't intended or planned or carried in my mind to be released during this break from work and the usual routines, it just happened. I must say that I have been surprised and to add a cherry on the top, crazy family stuff always seems to surface its fuzzy ugly head at this time of the year too...

And so, the Rolling Stones have been an unexpected solace for me in my headphones these past few days. Sometimes life surprises you when "You can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes you just might find, you get what you need".

Thank you all for visiting, 

I do love to hear from you.

I'll be back on a more cheery note soon I promise

xox

Penelope

Have yourself a...

Merry little Christmas

Hastings Art Forum Creative Christmas 

Crochet doily and festive felted brooch

These are my favourite festive bottles

Hastings Art Forum Creative Christmas

Lego Santa Selfridge's 2012

Wrapping presents this Pre-Christmas weekend

Here's wishing you all a very blessed and holly jolly time with family, friends and folk.

With love from l is for love

xox

Penelope

Gloves, gloves, doo-bee-doo-bee-doo

happy hands = happy heart

xox

Winged Wednesday

If you suffer from Mottephobia {a fear of moths I kindly advise you not to continue reading this post}

So, this Wednesday, it's all about wings. Specifically the beautiful wings on these moths.

I ordered these from this etsy shop a couple of weeks ago and they winged their way over from the States to my home, arriving yesterday.

I like to imagine that they escaped their packaging and flew as a flutter of vintage moths over the Atlantic Ocean.

Are they not the most beautiful delicate creatures?

They are made using vintage illustrations on laser cut wood and painted black at the back.

I am in love and mesmerised with these pretty little things and cannot wait to make them into brooches, drill little holes to make necklaces and some other ideas I have up me sleeve!

I have this little angel. For me she left her wings.

xox

Penelope 

Santa Please

Can I have this book? 

I promise I've been very good...

Ms. Mooncie is my crochet heroine, I met her 3 years ago in her open artists studio house and have seen her a couple times since then. She is incredible with a hook and yarn and when I grow up I want to crochet like her! 

I recently went to an artists pre-Christmas open house exhibition and saw some more of her gorgeous work, including some rabbit crochet-dermy (see below).

Source

You can find out more about her work on her web site Kissy Suzuki. Do have  a look at her range of fox brooches, my goodness how I adore them.

Source

xox

Penelope

Gifts from the garden

I do hope you are all having a week full of joyful moments and not too much stress with Christmas approaching? I wanted to share this lovely book I purchased from The Works here in the UK for the bargain price of £4.99 with the RRP being £16.99. It's a true delight for anyone who has a garden and who likes to use what they grow to make, bake and preserve.

These are some of the pictures from inside this beautifully put together book. Making your own eye press, biscuits with lavender, pressing flowers for applying to candles,catnip mice for your kitty etc. Visually,this book entices you and inspires you to "think outside the box" of what your garden, big or small can offer you. I am almost tempted to keep it for myself but, alas this will be wrapped and lovingly given to Janie this Christmas, a dear friend of mine who is Alice's after school arts and crafts teacher.

She has the greenest fingers and the most beautiful English country garden ever! Oh and she knows all the botanical names of every plant, big and small, I feel very blessed to know her and often end up nodding pretending in a "knowingly manner" that I too am familiar with such botanical terminology :o)

Anyway, did any of you notice the little floral tea towel with silver crochet edge in all of the collage photos above?

Well,I couldn't just give her that glorious book, she needed a little something else I believe.

A little bit of embroidery to help you whistle while you work...

Or,you could just Sing...."Sing the Song you were born to Sing"

Quote taken from here

Did you spot the two little chirpy musical notes coming from the birdies beak? That made it extra fun for me.

This so so easy to do and for someone like me who hasn't a clue on how to embroider beautifully and skillfully it was made much easier by using one of those vanishing fabric marker pens and then all I did was follow the lines with some pretty colourful stitches. 

I love the idea of secretly stitched words and have stitched some secret words into a couple of pillow cases for Alice this Christmas, I do hope she finds them :o)

Thanks for all your comments, I love them so much and I do try and visit all of your blogs if time allows.

Till next time

xox

Penelope

Wonky Wednesday posts

{Random part of my jewellery collection}

Hello bloggy friends

I've been getting excited about today being 12/12/12 I don't know why really but it just tickled me so much so that I had to stop my patient in my clinic this morning at 12h12 to exclaim this remarkable day*. The first and only one:two one:two one:two day I will ever live through. I sometimes wonder if Alice will have children one day who will then have me as their granny born way back in the previous century of 1970! I know I would have been fascinated if one of my grannies had been born before 1900. 

* My patient was just as enamoured as me, I promise that their treatment wasn't compromised :o)

Anyway, it got me thinking in the car on the way home about today being a Wednesday on this number happy day and in order to see me through the next few Winter months I am going to start a bit of a  "W" themed Wednesday, not only because I love this mid-working week day (Tuesdays have always given me the heebie jeebies, they feel like "nothing" days to me, not at the beginning or middle or towards the end)Please forgive me, I have no rhyme or reason for this odd thinking, I am not superstitious in any shape or form but also don't like odd number birthdays, no rhyme or reason, my friends, just a bit wonky and weird I am. 

{Random photo of myself in the Summer}

I know that some blogger's have a "Wordless Wednesday" theme on their blogs which I have always enjoyed, so I decided that my Wednesday posts will begin with a...

Adjectives like; wonky, wonderful, walloping, warped, wordless, wasted, waxy, wavy, weary, weepy, whimsical, wild, wicked, weird, wintry, wimpish, whacky, witty, woeful, wishful, wooden, wordy, wonderous, worthy, wrought, wrinkled, wrecked, worrisome and woozy. 

Those are all I can think of right now, I am sure there are plenty more in the dictionary.

My posts will mostly have works of art, craft, photographs, images or little video clips that I have found and loved on the net, purely for my logging and amusement and ones that I think are worth sharing with you gorgeous people if you haven't already discovered them for yourselves. I will of course always endeavour to remain true to linking the original source.

{Speech bubble made by my beautiful friend, Bronwen found here and here}

So what say ye? I think I will start this special Wednesday with a lovely:           

Wonderful Wednesday

Swedish artist Michael Johansson fascinates me. His sculptures and installations are a wonderful collage of textures, colours and objects re-purposed.

Wonderful or what?

xox

Penelope