inspiring a playfully creative life
It’s been a long held motto of mine, that focus is overrated. a quick scroll through my instagram, or my blog archives will show how very much I go by that. I might drop into short lived hyper focus (see: my 2021 obsession with sewing my own clothes), but to present a long term, cohesive body of work? Not a chance. Maybe if the theme
It’s always nerve-wracking, putting something of yourself out in the world. This blog? Doesn’t worry me. After almost 14 years of writing and sharing in this space, it feels like an old friend. Instagram? Likewise. But to go that next step, oh man, I get so so nervous. The podcast was hard one to launch. Another was my Crafty Monkies class on Saturday night. It
What. A. Week. It’s been go go go for the first week of summer school, and man, am I behind on allllll the things. On top of running the children around to end of year parties and drama recitals, I’ve had my first Crafty Monkies class, and wrapped up season one of the podcast. Just to really spice up an already busy week, we had
It is a long standing tradition around here, that I make the children a Christmas themed outfit.It’s such fun sourcing the fabric and narrowing down what the children would like me to sew them, and getting stuck into getting them made up. It is never far from my mind, though, that the days of getting all four children in matching outfits is rapidly coming to
“Iceberg, straight ahead!” …and so began a century long fascination with the “unsinkable” ship. Would the Titanic have become part of collective consciousness, I wonder, if they weren’t quite so ostentatious in their claims? If it wasn’t supposedly unsinkable, would it have faded away like innumerable other wrecks? There was a whole lot going on in the decade or two surrounding the sinking, and yet
How many countdowns is too many? Asking for a friend drowning in challenges and countdowns and who added a couple of kid countdowns to the list as well… We have done advent activity calendars for years. We’ve strung up envelopes, we’ve done a lucky dip box, we’ve had kid-made versions, last year we had a little drawer set. It’s fun to come up with a
For the final time for 2021, it’s goal setting time. If 2020 was the year that was 300 years long, 2021 was playing catch up and seemed to race by. These monthly mini goals have been super helpful in keeping me on track, even when things went a bit wonky out in the wider world over winter. It’s December! Pass the candy canes, and turn
There’s always something so wonderful about the lead up to Christmas. The air is sizzling (often literally!), the “night noises” have turned on summer mode – this year with the added symphony of the pobblebonks in the frog pond going off their chops in excitement with all this rain. I’m not the kind of Christmas lover who is counting down from July, but once Advent
Over thirty years ago, a bunch of scrawny kids in shiny new school uniforms met in a great big terrifying playground. Seventeen years ago, we kicked off Very Grown Up Adulthood with the first wedding of the group. Saturday night, we all came together once more (well, most of us – it is 2021 after all, and travel isn’t what it used to be) to
Hello Advent!! I’m super excited to officially be in Christmas season. We’ve put up our tree, the diffuser is pumping out our favourite Christmas blend (Holiday Joy), my Spotify is tuned to a Christmas playlist, and I’m ready to dive head first into a gazillion advent challenges. Let the Christmas Craftapalooza begin! In other, non-secret-squirrel adventures around here, I have been: READING: One Enchanted Christmas.
