Domesticali

She's making a list, and checking it twice

Less than a week to December! There wasn't really any need to remind you of that though, was there? Because right about now everyone starts to be a little more aware of the date than usual, mostly expressed in deadlines - last posting day, days left of term, final order date for turkeys, grocery delivery slots. There's such a frenzied sense of countdown.

Which really renders the whole idea of Advent calendars pretty redundant for adults. When so much headspace is already dedicated to what needs to be shoehorned in before the big day. I think that is probably why hubby's beer advent calendar always goes down well, signifying as it does, a moment of reprieve from the responsibilities of real life. Yup, he's getting one again this year.

But what I really want to achieve in time for Christmas, is for my Toast style lifestyle to materialize. You know the one I mean - when the house is beautifully uncluttered with the personal treasues significant to us allowed to shine. When everything is orderly and I can enjoy the company of family and friends instead of rushing around doing my finest impression of a headless chicken. Where there are whole stretches of the day devoted to staring into the middle distance and pondering, whilst wearing cashmere.

So I've made myself an Advent calender, out of the flier that Toast kindly posted through my door on Saturday.

And over those little pictures of lifestyle desireability, I am going to stick bits of paper with the stuff I need to accomplish between now and the big day. The boring stuff like clean the microwave and finally get round to putting the halloween decorations back up in the loft and as I get them ticked off my to-do-list, I am going to remove the bits of paper and watch my perfect lifestyle emerge.

Think I'll make it by Christmas?

Snuggling down

I'm getting the urge to hibernate. Looking out as the rain lashes down outside, I really have no desire whatsoever to leave the house. It is a new phenomenon for me - I've always been one of those people happier out than in. During my school days, I used to force myself to meet my essay deadlines early - not because I was a particularly conscientious student, but just in case I had the opportunity to do something fun that I'd have to miss out on if I needed to stay home and get my work done.

But as I get older, I find myself more content to be at home. Unfortunately, I also find myself putting things off more. Particularly those things without a firm deadline. Like the Aran sweater that has been on the back burner for too long. My Mum brought it to me. She volunteers in a charity shop, but the shop is uber-strict about what it will sell, and a hand-knit aran jumper didn't make the cut. She thought I might like to have it instead. 

So it sat in my study for a while. A little snug for me to wear and rather bulky and itchy too. I thought about unravelling it to re-use the wool. Then I looked at the other wool on the shelf, already making me feel guilty in its unknitted state and decided to felt it instead. Into a hot wash it went and out again, smaller, shrunken and felted beautifully.

It had cushion cover written all over it. I found a cushion pad - the size looked smack on. But so thick and sumptuous was the felt, that there was no way my little sewing machine was going to cope with it. The sweater sat a while longer. Then one evening, while supervising bath-time, I took some heavy white sashiko thread and stitched up the gaps where the arms and neck holes had been in the original sweater. Three sides of my cushion complete.

But how to finish it off? There wasn't enough sweater for an envelope back. A zipper, installed by hand would not look good. Ditto hand sewn buttonholes. Blanket stitch seemed the logical answer. Blanket stitch. My nemesis.

The cushion sat a while longer, its guts exposed. Until quite suddenly I decided I must finish something. Anything. And armed with some scrap wool and a huge needle, I sewed it up, lickety-split.

And now it is on my sofa, inviting me to sit with it a while. And I am left thinking that putting things off is not a good trait to have acquired, but that enjoying being at home definitely is.

Round 1 done

We have come to the end of Round One over at The Compound Word Project. It has been a lot of fun this week, watching everybody trying to figure out the answers. You have until tomorrow if you want to enter answers, and I'll be letting you know the correct ones on Monday evening over on the CWP blog.

And for those whose minds just don't work in that way, my humble apologies. I feel the same way about algebra.

Positive Mental Attitude

Mark, the elder one, was running in a Cross Country fixture last weekend. We were sat at dinner the evening before, joking about carb loading and planning the arrangements for getting to the race, when he came out with "I don't think I'm going to do very well".

Perhaps he had a point - he had run well in the heats, but this was the regionals. Plus the age category was U13, so many of the competitors would be from the school year above him. It was going to be a tough gig. But there's no defeatist talk tolerated around our table! We had a chat about your best effort being enough and how a positive mental attitude can really make the difference.

Face it, I had few words of wisdom to offer on the actual running side of things, so cod sports-psychology was all I could offer. In fact, the older the children get, the more I realize that as a parent, I honestly have no answers to the vast majority of their quandries. I listen, I try to make sure they know I'm on their team and I trot out a load of old bunkum and hope that it makes them feel better.

But words do have the power to do that sometimes. No matter how well worn or rehashed they are. And sometimes, just saying it out loud makes it seem a little more real or a touch more possible.

I'm hoping this theory holds true at Christmas. Because I've been making a banner.

All is calm, all is bright

Positive Mental Attitude, people. And a little glitter card and a template from here.

The family that plays together

I told you I was cooking up a plan, and it's ready to share. There's a game kicking off next week and I'd really like you to play - all the details are over at The Compound Word Project, and here's a teaser...

Please will you play with me? And would you do me the very great favour of speading the word? Because it's only fun if we all join in.

A little stitching

My reading glasses are lost and have been for about a year, I think. It didn't seem like a great tragedy - I hated wearing them anyway. Mostly because I had to take off my normal glasses to do so and was thus rendered mole like if I needed to look at anything more than a foot away. I know this is why bi-focals were invented, but my optician said I was too young to go there (hey, I take my compliments where I find 'em). And most of the time, slightly fuzzy near sight isn't too much of an issue. I only got the glasses because at the time, I was working in very poor light and getting cracking headaches using a screen at an awkward distance away.

But finding them would definitely make cross stitch easier. Because in theory, sitting with one's hoop sounds like a meditative and relaxing activity. But in practice has involved much tutting, sighing, and strategic positioning of backlights.

Still, my version of The Guardian is done. Yes, there are two errors (which Hubby irritatingly spotted), but I'm counting on the fact that with no reading glasses to help me, I'll probably never notice them again. 

I am really taken with the idea of cross stitch in a single colour on interesting coloured Aida - this one is Misty Blue and I got it from Ray Stitch. I think I have the perfect spot for it, come the season...

Halloween howdy

Is it okay to wish you a Happy Halloween a day late? Seems fitting this year as all our preparations seemed very last second. Not to mention recycled from years gone by. Still, that's the essence of tradition isn't it?

The trick or treaters seemed to like our Coraline inspired orange. Well, the brave ones who ventured out in the pouring rain did anyway.

Honestly, the weather was so nasty that I put off photographing anything until this morning. And I think the toothpick fanged pumpkin looks better by day anyway (he was totally inspired by a picture I saw here).

And there's something about a little row of ghostie lollies in the early morning susnshine.

In a bookshop recently, I was browsing through a copy of Pippa Middleton's book 'Celebrate'. She has a tutorial for making these. Or there's mine. No royal connetions, but hey, it's free. Not that I'm accusing Pippa of harvesting ideas. Heck, these are as old as the hills - we used to make them when we were kids.

But it does raise an interesting question. As bloggers, are we now more averse to freely sharing information, when it is clear that many people are making money (yes that evil word) from the same skills, by way of book deals, or publishing their own ebooks, or selling patterms on Ravelry, or goods on Etsy?

Not that I am against any of these things. I've contributed to a book and been paid for it (and believe me, I know it is not an easy way to make money). I have no problem in paying for a pattern I'd like to knit or an ebook or magazine I'd like to read. I am pleased to support the skills of talented people by my spending habits.

But what does make me a little sad, is the creeping suspicion that by doing so, somehow it is damaging the cohesiveness of our blogging community. In the olden days, blogging was a great way to transfer skills, knowledge and ideas. There was no Pinterest, no Ravelry, even Google Reader was pretty new fangled. Trends travelled by word of mouth, there were tutorials written, swaps organized, photography projects to join in with. It felt like the greatest party and I just couldn't wait to be part of it.

These days, I wonder if bloggers feel a little daft to be 'giving away the goods for free', when other people are monetizing the same thing. Or just that the resources availible on the web are so vast, that there doesn't seem any point in adding another small voice into the mix.

But one of the things that first drew me to blogging was the sense of community that it provided. I'd like to feel that again. So I'm cooking up a plan - a game for us all to play, where the sum of the parts is so much more fun than the individual. It'll take a little while, because it's an investment in time and effort, but I'll let you know when it is ready and I hope that you are up for joining in!