It’s interesting to me, how my relationship with and feelings towards, my me made garments changes each year. The corduroy pinafore of day one, for instance, I loved the year I made it. Hated it last year and didn’t wear it at all. Love it again this year and wore it multiple times even before the start of the month […]
My first MMM, I sewed like a possessed woman all month long and filled out my me-made wardrobe. Last year, my second run through, I committed to handmade everything, aside from a handful of allowable exceptions. This year, I’ve noticed myself started to buy ready to wear again, less out of laziness and more out of languishing. MMM is a […]
What a wild month March was to document in stitches. Two forty degree days, hot days either side, and then bam, straight into the greens as autumn hits with a vengeance. April is promising to be as delightfully wet as the past couple of weeks have been, and first frost is just around the corner, so I think I’m safe […]
As I slowly built my newest needlework kit, I thought I was just about done…and then insta inspo struck, courtesy of my awesome #saturdaynightcraftalong community. I already had a magnetic needle minder, and a floss minder (my new rainbow versions of those are coming over the next couple of weeks!), but it involved threading and unthreading the one needle, and […]
At the end of January, I felt like I would stick with my daily temperature stitches, if I’d made it that far. Then February came, and I honestly considered giving up more than once. I even dropped into the chat the suggestion of starting over. If I dropped each colour down by one temperature range, my summer stitches would look […]
Tangential crafting, I think is the best way to describe my projects for projects – the bits and bobs I make to work in with other projects. When it comes to magicking the thinnest excuse for a related project, something connected to whatever my big project is but is really just a cover for more making, there’s often a limited […]
I’ve long joked that I have crafty ADHD. I’m either 100% hyperfixated on a project or hobby, or I shove it to the back of the cupboard, left to languish for a decade until that particular hyperfixation comes around again. Swings and roundabouts, is the best description of my creative habits. After fifteen years of writing and sharing projects in […]
The end of the first month is normally a good litmus test for year long projects, I’ve found. If I’m still excited by it, it’s likely to stick. If I’m already looking for “do that tomorrow” excuses and procrastination, chances are tomorrow will indeed never come and the project is about thirty seconds from falling over completely. This year, I’ve […]
Trying to buy gifts for teenagers – too cool for the beloved obsessions of their childhood, too trendy to allow for too much advance organisation – is a tricky business. Buying for other people’s teens is even harder. Trying to balance the desire to get something they want or is useful, without shifting away from surprises too early, can be […]
“I know you prefer messaging, but this deserves a phone call”, my friend said when I answered the phone, just a couple of hours after we’d last chatted in person. I’d spent a lovely twenty minutes snuggling her brand new baby, rocking him to sleep and clucking over the tiny noises and adorable faces he was pulling in his dreams. […]
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