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 […]
The 100 Days Project is the project that broke me in 2020, turning me from an almost irredeemable procrastinator, to someone who finishes projects in the same year she starts them. It was the beginning of a profound shift in my creative practise, and yet I haven’t been able to replicate that success since. Partly, I think, that first year […]
It’s strange, when so much of my content – the podcast especially – is centred around connection and community through creativity, to be talking about disconnecting. The blessing of technology in 2023 means 90% of my crafty village lives anywhere but here, and yet we can still keep up with each other and our projects and our happenings through our […]
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 […]
You never really know, when you start a conversation with “hey so I’ve had an idea”, where exactly that idea will end up. 90% of the time the end result is completely unrecognisable as the original idea. Our Twelve Days project is a bit like that – going from “we should do an advent calendar for our podcast community” to […]
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 […]
January is a month flush with holidays and down time and sneaky getaways for long weekends. There’s day trips and hours spent poolside and beachside. With so many moments finding myself at a loose end, it’s no wonder January is generally always my biggest reading month. It was a pretty even mix between hard copy/ebooks/audiobooks – of the twelve books […]
“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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