Domesticali

Muscle Memory

This afternoon, I spent a happy half hour setting up a blog for a new friend. She is heading off on an adventure to faraway places, but didn't want to broadcast her absence by sharing photos on Facebook. And what better receptacle for memories than a blog? 

But handy though a blog is, to capture big, exciting things like a long planned trip, it is the small quotidian things that make up a life really. And taking the time to record them is the best way of appreciating them.

Because I tried, I really did, to embrace the concept of a daily gratitude list, but it made me cringe a little each time I tried to write one. Don't know why - they seen to work for other people, but not for me. But blogging? Turns out it's deeply ingrained in my muscle memory. Even if I need to remind myself to take more photographs. With the camera, not my phone.

Gratitude and iPhone photography - two millennial skills that elude me.

 

 

Planning for improvement

Seven. That's the number of posts I managed last year. Pretty pathetic, no?

There's no dramatic excuse. I didn't break an arm and find myself unable to type. Or blow up my computer. Or drop my camera off a cliff. Nothing dramatic. I just found that I wanted to spend my time doing other things. Stop sniggering at the back - you know who you are - yes, I fell prey to the lure of a different hobby. For the whole of the past year, I have been a tennis court traitor to blogging.

Today, there was something (I forget exactly where I read it) saying that having a hobby that you love to do has far more impact on your happiness than material wealth. Ain't that the truth? And it occurred to me that if one hobby was good, two would be undoubtably better.

The other thing is, I scared myself a little bit. Over the Christmas break I didn't play tennis for a whole week. Seven long days. And I was like a polar bear in a bad zoo. Pacing, restless, moody. It wasn't fun. At the end of it, hubby begged me to book a court and got out of bed with me at stupid o'clock just so I could hit some balls at him and calm down.  I think I might be a little over-invested.

Now, tennis is great - I love it. Since I didn't pick up a racquet until I was in my forties, I feel like I have a lot of time to make up. I am serious about improving - I even wrote out my tennis goals for 2016. And shared them with my coach today - now that was a scary thing - I am slightly in awe of my coach (understatement of the century). And there was something very exposing about showing them to someone else.

And I remembered feeling the same about blogging when I began - the terror that came from opening up my thoughts to the ether. Vulnerable. But over ten years of doing it (yes, it will be a whole decade in April), I slowly came to realise the strength to be gained from capturing my own life on the page and the fun and companionship and laughs that it has brought. 

And if I fall over and break my ankle and can't play, my family are going to disown me if I don't have any other outlets. So yes, the tennis journal isn't going anywhere, but maybe there's space to be here too. Not to mention the fact that I just got billed my Typepad fees and if I calculate the cost per post for last year, it makes me feel rather silly. 

Many hobbies, much happiness. Sounds like a good mantra, no?

Rusty, but here.

Younger son and I were loafing around yesterday evening discussing calluses.

"There used to be one on the side of my little finger too", I told him "when I was at school and did an awful lot more writing than I do now". 

"What's the longest thing you've ever written?" he asked me.

"Probably my thesis" I said, racking my brains for the correct answer.

"What about your blog?" he replied.

Ah yes, what about my blog. And of course, he's right - though I have no idea what the word count is, I am pretty sure that over the course of the last 9 years, my total output here has far exceeded the length of anything else I have written in the past or am ever likely to write in the future.

And that simple observation of his has brought me back here. Picking up my virtual pen and hoping that even if my calluses have vanished, that I remember how to do this thing.

And maybe remember why I do this thing too.

Accountability, hops and writing

So, there might have been a rash promise about finding time to write a bit more over the summer. Which then got swallowed by I-don't-know-what. Life? Laziness? The pursuit of a better forehand? But if there is one thing the Internet can promise you in spades, it is accountability.

And so I find myself, via the gentle and subtle suggestion of Tess from Driftwood, with a spare half hour and some questions from a why I write blog hop before me...

What am I working on?

Did I already mention my forehand? Oh yes, so I did. Because I have to tell you that my growing tennis obsession is what is largely to blame for my absence here. And in the fields of housework, knitting, sewing, laundry... the list goes on. As I'm sure my family will attest. In fact the only passtime which seems to have escaped being bumped from my to-do list is cooking. Tennis is hungry work.

But the question is with reference to writing. Hmmm, it's not like I have foregone my blog to pen my magnum opus, there really hasn't been much writing going on of late. Believe me, if I was doing it, you'd be reading it here.

Why do I write what I do?

Because in my real life, I have discovered that most people aren't listening to what I have to say.

The children ask me the same question over and over again, because they never actually listen to the answer. Don't even get me started on the in-one-ear-out-the-other tendencies of the husband. And even with friends (making me wonder if they really are friends, or just people I speak to regularly), sometimes I get the feeling that the part of the conversation when I am talking is just the interlude in their own monologue when they think of the next thing they want to tell me about.

I began blogging when I had very small children and not enough adult contact in my every day to stay sane. Knowing there was a place with people offering a friendly ear was a lifeline then. And still is now.

 

How does my writing differ from others in my genre?

I don't know, is the simple answer. But as I'm forced to consider it, I find myself uncomfortable with the notion of being in a genre. Because it smacks of putting similar blogs together so that they can be compared or ranked or judged in some way. Begone genre! Viva la individual! Space for everyone!

 

How does my writing process work?

Well, first comes a stimulus. Might be taking a photo, or something noteworthy happening, or finishing making something, or a list of questions. Then it stews in its own juices while I get the opportunity to sit down in front of the big computer.

For some unknown reason I find it almost impossible to write on either the laptop or the iPad. Perhaps it is because photos are on the big computer? It certainly isn't because my big computer sits in an oasis of peace on a clear desk, with carefully curated inspiration board alongside. No, from where I am currently sitting  I can see an empty yoghurt pot with crusty spoon, two cricket bats, one set of trainers (which can only mean the other son has entered the house with smelly trainers ON), a pile of Maths workbooks and a tape measure left there after the new school uniform ordering session. I can only write if I steel myself to ignore domestic chaos for a half hour of me-time.

Secondly, comes the spouting forth of drivel. Tippy tappying away, with very little care taken about what is spewing from the keyboard. Chuck it all down there. Then return to the beginning. Look at the first paragraph - if it starts with 'I' then ditch it as boring. My first paragraphs are inevitably rubbish. Maybe that's why no-one listens to me - I begin speaking with the dull stuff - little do they know there might be a gem to come a few verbal paragraphs down the line. Here, I do you the very great favour of deleting it so you don't have to read it. But do please promise me not to go back through my blog focusing on the first paragraphs of each post, stroking your chin and saying "Hmm, see what she means. Weak, very weak, in the opening paragraphs", because sometimes, life is just too short for a thorough edit.

But life is never too short for a read through with spell check. I'm not a fan of errors. Willful mis-spelling or creation of new words is fine.

Damn, the half hour will soon be at an end. Rootle through the archive to find some illustrative random photographs (cannot post without pictures). Hit the publish button, hope for the best. Or more specifically, hope that whatever appears will resonate with someone, so they might talk to me in the comments, or tell me a funny tale of their own, or even violently disagree. Anything to know I'm not talking to myself.

 The flowers are for you - I've been very very lucky with readers. And let's face it, writing without readers is a pretty futile exercise. Possibly a bit like the quest to improve my tennis game.

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!

Back to earth

You may already have heard about Saturday on the blogging grapevine  - Tracy, Val, Monica, Julie, Nancy, Alice, Emma and I got together. The excuse was a crafty day, but it was really one huge munch-and-natter-fest, with the odd bit of yarn being wafted about. Tracy was kind enough to host us in her lovely home, but quite frankly, I would happily stand in a muddy field if I got to do it with those guys.

I was thinking about them yesterday, when I ended up grabbing a bite of lunch alone in Nettlebed at Field to Fork. As a total aside, it's a great place  - if you are ever in the vicinity, stop off there. Better still, email me and I'll meet you for lunch - that's how much I liked it.

But back to the point. I was sitting next to a group of four women. They were around my age and were having one of those yummy mummy chatty lunches, on which I eavesdropped shamelessly.

Do you do that when you are dining alone? Is it dreadful of me? Well, confessing must absolve me of a certain amount of guilt. Anyway, I was listening to the usual school gate type mix of bragging and gossip (they even touched on knitting at one point) and all I could think about was how very very fortunate I am to have the group of real on-line friends that I do.

They might not have been physically present yesterday, to come and have lunch. Some I may never even meet in real life. But every time we connect, in real life or on-line, they turn up with their very best selves. To chat, to share knowledge, to cheer one another's successes, support precious plans and dreams and to proffer a virtual hug when things are rough.

Hooray for finding a tribe. I am so grateful.

 

 

Maternal wisdom

Claudia is expecting a baby - and in her hormonal state, she thought I might have some wisdom to impart to her. This is a mistake for a number of reasons:

1. I became a mother a decade ago - couple that with the extreme sleep deprivation and I'm surprised I can remember anything about it at all.
2. Newborns scare me. I know I have had sole responsibility of a brace of them and should really have conquered my fears by now, but there is something of the unexploded bomb about babies which makes me twitchy.
3. My own offspring have moments of such extreme foulness (don't talk to me about school drop off today) that I can only conclude that my template is not one you would be well advised to follow.

However, I like Claudia very much, so when she asked for a guest post, that's what she got. It's up over Aux petits oiseaux. She's after pearls of maternal wisdom - you might like to leave her some of yours. I have no more to give - mine have all been strewn before the little swine who live with me and ignore everything I say to them.

 

Stats and your blog

Okay, so posting about blog stats clearly stirred up a whole can of worms (and quite a lot of emails asking how to go about checking them). Now the internet is stuffed full with tutorials and tech websites discussing the merits of different site trackers, how to install them and how to interpret the information they give you. I thought I could just refer you to a some. But then I tried to sift through to find the best and quickly realized that they are not so relevant to us crafty and family bloggers. So here - a non-tech take on why you might want to keep an eye on your stats and how to do it. Just don't ask me too many tricky questions, okay?

 

What should I use?

You can get basic stats from Typepad, Blogger and Wordpress or you can install something like Sitemeter or Google Analytics on your blog (I have both). They are free and relatively straightforward to set up - to find out how to install them, Google is your friend - there are a bilion tutorials out there to talk you through the specifics for the platform you blog on.

Okay, I see stats. What should I check?

As a first thing, keep an eye on your visitor numbers. You'll get a feel for what is a normal amount of traffic for your blog. If you typically get 100 visitors per day, and one day you get 400, then you'll realize something has influenced your traffic and you can check what.

Where are readers coming from?

I don't mean geographically (although you can check where in the world your visitors are). Are they arriving as direct traffic (a bookmark or typing your url in), as a referral (usually a link from another blog) or via search engine. In my case the vast majority of visitors come direct or as a referral and that's the way I am comfortable with. It means that my visitors either know my blog already as regular readers, or they read the blog of someone who links to me and in my mind that makes them  likely to be friendly visitors. The search engine traffic I like to keep a closer eye on.

Search engine traffic

Google Analytics is great for this. It gives me a list of all the keywords that people have typed into their search box and ended up on my blog with. Predictably, domesticali is my most common search term, but origami wreath, haramaki and toffee apple bites have also shown up there this week. All of which are understandable and don't give me any cause for alarm. If some dodgy search terms begin to show up, you can think why and perhaps change the post which might be causing problems. 

What pages do they visit?

Typically with our sort of blog, people turn up on the home page or the most recent post. If you have a great tutorial, people might land on that page, because lots of other blogs link to it. Keeping an eye on your entry pages lets you know which of your posts are popular and linked to - unusual pages appearing here might need to be investigated.

A word about images

When I began blogging, Google Image Search didn't exist, but it's incredibly powerful now. I really don't know how best to keep track of my images on the web. But if you want to scare yourself witless and have a distinctive blog name, do a Google Image Search on it and see how your photos have travelled. On Flickr, you can choose to opt out of image searches and you can also block them on your blog, but I haven't. It's not been a big enough issue for me to warrant getting my head round the tech stuff, but feel free to investigate if it's important to you.

Speaking of Flickr, you have an inbuilt stat meter there too, under the 'You' tab where you can check visitors and search words too. Call your photos something enigmatic and watch out for anything that could give rise to unwanted attention (there are a LOT of strange folks searching Flickr, believe me and they are extraordinarily keen on feet).

I also recently discovered a site called TinEye - you can put in the url of one of the images on your blog and it will show you where else on the web it appears. It's in the early days of development, but I think it could turn out to be a very powerful tool. It's also good if you have an image and you want to know where it came from so you can attribute it correctly.

Stats are your friend - I certainly didn't post about them to give everyone an attack of the stranger dangers. But in the same way as you'd keep track of visitors to your home, it's good to know who's been to your blog.

Photo ownership

Keeping an eye on your stats can be lucrative, it seems. It's something I try to do, coached principally by Alice, who is always keen to ensure that blog visitors haven't arrived as a result of unsavoury searches. I take her point, and I do try to check, periodically, which is how I recently stumbled across something.

One of my photos had been getting a lot of hits - when I investigated, it turned out to be a particularly seasonal one, which topped the Google Image Search results for a specific keyword. I was feeling happy - after all, don't people pay good money to make it to the front of the google queue? But a few images on, was a photo that looked suspiciously like mine, only cropped slightly tighter.

Now photo 'borrowing' is, in my opinion, a fact of blog life. Sometimes, people ask and I am always happy to say yes and hugely flattered that they want to use one of my pictures. Sometimes they don't ask, but link back to me which isn't too bad. Once, I did find that someone had swiped my photo and put their watermark on it, which did prompt a rather irritable comment from me, but they had the good grace to apologize and set matters straight. The fact of the matter is, by and large these people are individuals like me - they are just carving out their own little nests in blogland and they mean no harm. They aren't profiting by using my photos, they just like them and I am pleased they do.

But the photo I found was different. Because it had been swiped by a very well known and eminently respectable national magazine. They had used it to illustrate an editorial piece, which had nothing to do with me or my blog and carried no reference to them. The thing that got me was that plastered all over their website were terms and conditions for licensing their photographs. But it seems respect for copyright was only a one way street.

So I contacted them. And I have to say, they were very apologetic and suggested I send them an invoice. And that, is how I came to sell my first photograph.

And it felt really, really good.

But I am really curious about your attitudes to image 'borrowing'. Does it bother you? Do you do anything to guard against it? Are you rushing off this moment to check your stats?

Monday show and tell

Jumping on the Domestic Novice's bandwagon and indulging in a little show and tell today.

There's plenty of both, because Monica and I made it to the Festival of Quilts at the NEC yesterday. Which meant much eye candy, even if I was too lazy to record any of it. I've learned from bitter experience that the lighting is SO bad in those huge exhibition halls, that I'd rather just soak in the visual treats than try to photograph them.

But it doesn't stop me from showing you the goodies which came home with me.

These were impulse purchases, though I do have ideas in mind for the wire. Which is a good thing as I got carried away and bought quite a lot.

In fact, string-like substances made up the majority of my haul. This is becoming a slight obsession.

The wool is ear-marked for some felted bowls, which is quite a co-incidence, as I came across the first felted bowl I ever made at the show. I had dropped by unannounced to the Cotton Patch stand, hoping to say hi to Lisa and snag myself a copy of her new book (more on which, another time).  There, holding her business cards on the desk, was a little felted bowl I had sent her two years ago. It sounds silly, but I was ridiculously touched. Somehow in this wide world, there are little connections which bind us together as a community. And sometimes, as Lisa put it, we even get the chance to hug someone we've read.

I felt the same way chatting to Janet  and seeing her beautiful work, a small sample of which looks down on me from the shelves in my office. There's something about blogs which sticks us together, leading me on (in true show-and-tell linking style) to the washi tape, bought from the Selvedge stand.

So, that's the end of my show and tell. Any questions?

***that was a lot more fun than supervising my offspring's show and tell selections. Explaining why their teacher will probably not want them to bring in a gigantic Lego construction, or one of the cats, or their Granny...***

New things

Whisper, because I know that summer drawing to an end is a sore point for many of us, but are you feeling a hint of Autumn in the air? Something to do with the imperceptibly darker mornings and evenings, or the plums, or some of my blog-chums in the USA heading back to school.

Part of me rails pointlessly against it, and the other welcomes it with open arms. Not that I'm a Summer-hater, just that anything new always seems exciting to me and that includes the advent of each and every new season.

So I have two new (to me) things to share with you, the first being Plum Crisp. Because I have no power to resist a punnet of juicy oozy purple plums from the farm shop. But also no self restraint, which involves snacking on too many at a time. So part of the punnet needed to be cooked. I turned to Nigel Slater (my guru in all things pudding) and in The Kitchen Diaries, there were two plum contenders - a cake and a crisp.

The crisp won. Though Gina made the cake this weekend, I note. It's almost a plum crumble, but the crumbly bit is made with white breadcrumbs and melted butter.

It's good and  it uses up stale white bread, which is an added bonus. I have a guilt complex  about throwing away bits of the old loaf when we start a new one. Mr Slater's recipe for it is here.

The other new thing on my horizon, concerns Google Reader. I love and am frustrated by my reader in equal measure. It's unread posts mock me when I am busy, making me feel guilty. But there is no way I could keep up with the blogs I like to read without one. But lo, the holy grail. You can get a 'next' button for Google Reader, which takes you to the actual post of the next unread entry in your list.

How much easier to comment, and far nicer to read the posts in their home context. I am a fan. And there's a tutorial here which explains how to do it way way better than I can. You've got to love a new bit of gadgetry now and then.

Back to the Fold

Well, the blogging interlude didn't last all that long, did it. I tried to stay away for a little bit longer, but I wasn't really enjoying it. There were so many things I wanted to say and  I missed talking to all of you.

And things I would normally tell you, I had no other way of processing. Like the incredibly sweet anonymous parcel that arrived for me from one of the Seven Days of Special swappers. Or finding a lovely new blogger who wrote a post recently that spoke straight to me and who I thought you might like to meet.

And it occurred to me that my purdah was self-imposed and I could just fling open the door and begin blathering away again - oh, the sweet relief! It's good to be home.

A short interlude

Reading a post from Molly the other day,  reminded me that last summer, I declared that I should have taken a little break away from the blog. It's not something I've really done before - yes, there have been episodes where the posting has been more sporadic, but in general, over the last four years I've been around and about, because the thought of stepping away totally for a while unnerved me.

But as I would say to my boys, faced with the same feelings, - it is the things that scare you a little that are the most rewarding to do.

The timing seems right - the boys finish school in an hour or two and we have a lot of summer stuff to be getting on with. So why does it bother me? After all, just because you draw the curtains, doesn't mean that life ceases to continue inside the house.

Here goes ...

The power of four

It's four years today since I started my blog. And what a  rag bag of miscellanea it now contains. So in celebration of the random nature of life, here are some things, neatly catalogued in fours.

Four books in my half read/waiting to begin pile:

Frankie and Stankie by Barbara Trapido

A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg

Trouble with Lichen by John Wyndham

The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion

Four things I have eaten this week:

Kids leftovers

Fish stew

Black olives

The first poached salmon of spring

Four things on my list of chores for today:

Go to the post office

Bring the bins back in (very smug that I remembered to put them out in plenty of time and was not forced to do a daybreak run in my pyjamas)

Get rid of the giant cobweb I spotted on my bedroom ceiling last night

Attack the laundry mountain so we have some clean clothes for heading off at the weekend

Four questions I am pondering:

What am I going to do with my child free week next week?

Does everyone's house get this dirty or are my family extra good at messing ours up?

What shall I make for dinner?

Something vague about the meaning of life and happiness, but I keep getting distracted and cannot think coherently. A friend once said that with motherhood, you loose the ability to think in a straight line. How very true that is.

Four stray items on my desk:

Packing tape

Mark's Rugby match report for his scrapbook

A Lego money box (why? why?)

A  shopping voucher

How much tidier it all seems, laid out here in regular fours. I wonder sometimes, if one of the attractions of blogging is that it allows you to place a framework around an existence which seems chaotic. Sometimes, my favourite moment in writing a post is the bit where I get to assign it to a category, and thereby assert some control over the flotsam and jetsam of my days.

Here's to the bizarre and random nature of life and my attempts here to pin it down into a coherent existence. Four years. Who'd have thought? Thanks for sharing them with me.

Making my Saturday

This past weekend has been a long anticipated one. There's something almost painful about waiting for the day to arrive, planning and preparing.

For me this meant a visit to the cheese shop and getting busy with the glue to make an altered book scrapbook - my secret santa style gift for a bloggers' get together.

And then, on the day, the glorious coming together of friends, bit by bit - Monica on the train, Karen in a shop in the neighbourhood, Tracy just inside the front door and Val moments later. We had converged for a Make Lounge course  - Extraordinary Embroidery.

See, lots of new stitches. But really? Well, for me it was mostly about the joy of meeting up, chatting, laughing, a little gentle creating. And missing our chums who couldn't make it.

I have to say that I would thouroughly recommend the Make Lounge as a venue for a get together. The lovely Jennifer let us bring a picnic lunch and laid it all out beautifully for us while we embroidered so we could take a break and have something to eat. And the surroundings are very bright and cheery and spacious.

But it's always good to learn something new. And I'm looking forward to finishing off my tea towel. When I get 5 minutes. That's the other great thing about workshops - you DO make the time to do something you want to, rather than finding weeks have disappeared in doing things you have to.

There was gift exchanging (see my beautiful Moleskine cover from Karen?) and yarn shopping (at Loop - conveniently just round the corner).

And home again. One happy (though slightly footsore) bunny.

Seven Days of Specialness

So, it's February. Phew, breathe a sigh of relief that we have made it through another January and are peeking out the far side. This is always the time of year when I feel the lure of a fortnight in Barbados (not that I've ever had one, but i imagine that if money/real life were no object, that I would make an annual booking for the end of Jan/beginning of Feb).

Well, in real life, it's not really an option, but way back in December, I thought a 7 Days of Specialness Swap might provide a similar uplifting effect. The idea was to prepare a little series of gifts to be opened over the course of a week during February. Tiny treats for the recipient, to cherish and uplift them.

My only error was not actually allocating myself a partner - I know. How crazy was I? But by the time I matched everyone up, there was an even number of folks, so it just didn't happen. But still, even if, like me, you aren't swapping, you might still be uplifted by the pictures that are appearing in the Flickr  7 Days of Specialness Project pool.

Here's a big old list of all the blogs of everyone participating - they ought to all be feeling special any time now. Unless of course, there's been a bit of a delay in the sending of parcels, in which case, please please do let your partner know.

Pennys Hen House

Getting the skinny on knitting

Contented

Rattling on

Woolie wanderings

Generally Gemma

Busywork

Daisie Days

Two Owls Design

Dottycookie

French Knots

Fan My Flame

Pink Cat, Custard and Cake

Being Frank

Pebbledash

Lucy Locket Recycled her Pocket

Vintage Pleasure

The Antidote

Make Do and Mend

Dragonfly

Moogsmum

Things [Handmade]

Amanda Makes

Badsparklythings

Love those cupcakes

Pins and Noodles

Just a smidge

Quilt while you're ahead

The Little Pink Room

Driftwood

Linaloo

Little Cotton Rabbits

Ma Mercerie

Soozs

Weedwacker knits

And Sew it is

The Scent of Water

Prosestitich

Kolo kolo mlynsky

SASS

Camelama

Lolo Craft

Crafty Maine Mom

The Moveable Alphabet

Bravexperiment

Little Elephants

Kleas

Do let me know if your link isn't working properly!

Sparkly

Rebecca is totally right. Citrus fruit is a great antidote to winter blues. I had a lot of clementines and a burning desire to make cake - Nigella's clementine cake.  And then it seemed like fun to poke a sparkler in it. Just for extra joy.

Does that not make the winter blues seem far away? There is such childish pleasure to be had from sparklers. I am a big fan.

Though I do have a slightly chequered sparkler past to confess to. Way back in the dawn of the new Millennium (in the era before children) we were planning a party for New Year's Eve. It needed some kind of special centrepiece. Something to mark the occasion. As a nation, the Milennium Dome was deemed the appropriate choice.

Good enough for the nation? It must be good enough for us. So we recreated it in the living room, in the form of a Baked Alaska (we were so damn classy in those days). And for those big yellow struts? You guessed it,  whacking great sparklers. To be lit on the first stroke of midnight on the dawn of a new century.

Which is how we came to spend the first half hour of 2000 on the front lawn of the house, with all the doors and windows open, trying to get rid of the noxious smoke that had filled the whole of downstairs. Crying with champagne fueled laughter. Who knew you weren't meant to use outdoor sparklers inside?

Thankfully, the new millennium has brought with it the advent of the indoor sparkler.

So much more civilized. And in the dinkiest box, to boot. So there is no excuse not to spread a little sparkly joy.

Beginning to bite

Winter - it's beginning to bite. And I don't mean the cold. More the relentless dark days and far too many hours for my liking spent indoors. Feeling irritable with myself and everything around me.

I wish I could find a way to reassure myself that spring is just around the corner. That a month from now, the daffodils will be blooming and the whole world will seem much brighter. And I will be full of energy and enthusiasm again.

At least everyone taking part in the 7 days of specialness project has something to look forward to in the very near future. I've made a flickr group, for sneek peeks or full reveals - please join up and post your photos. Don't forget, your parcels should be ready for posting a week on Monday (Feb 1st). See, now I put it that way, spring really doesn't seem far at all.

And the winner is..

Well, if truth be told, the winner is me really. It was amazing, thanks to the Lisa Leonard giveaway, to see so many old faces from the comment box joined by throngs of you that I haven't had the pleasure of meeting before.

Lurkers. It's not a terribly warm descriptor is it? I'm not much of a lurker myself - if I am going to take the time to read a blog, then I want to feel I have some kind of relationship with the person writing it, and that for me means a two way dialogue. I guess I'll lurk places like Apartment Therapy or Whip Up, which have more of a multi-author, magazine style feel to them. And I am probably guilty of commenting less in places that regularly get huge numbers of comments. But I wonder if I comment, because I blog and therefore appreciate the preciousness of comments as a form of reward for sitting in front of a screen pouring your thoughts out into the ether.

I had no idea how large a proportion of the folks who read here do not blog. And perhaps if you do not, then your feelings about leaving a comment once in a while are different. Comments are a blogger currency of sorts, after all. I comment on your blog, you comment on mine. Everyone is a winner. But how do you feel if you have no blog? It's all very fascinating - I'd love to hear your take on it.

But anyway, on to business. I got Johnny to draw the winner for me. Though Reggie the cat was keen to get in on the act.

And the lucky person is:

Gemma! I am so pleased for her -  she didn't have the greatest of years last year, so hopefully this will be just one of many signs that this year is looking up. I will pass your details on to Lisa, Gemma - now get thee to her website and start picking! 

Reggie thought he would do some picking (and chewing) of his own.

So Petit Filoux, though I sadly do not have another Lisa Leonard piece of gorgeousness for you, count yourself a winner of sorts, at least in the eyes of my cat.  If you will let me have your details, Reggie  would like to send something to you. He promises it will be better than a furball.

Choices and a giveaway

How swiftly is it possible to say 'yes' without appearing indecently keen? Such is the dilemma which confronted me when Lisa proposed a trade recently. Well, that and which one of her wonderful pieces of jewellery to select.

Falling in love with the open circle necklace happened pretty fast too. But then all speedy decision making ability left me. What did I want it to say?

The thought of being able to have something personalized and unique is wonderful, but the pressure to get the words right was weighing heavy. What was truly important and meaningful to me? But not too cheesy, or heavy, or mushy. Something joyful. Many options were discussed and discarded.

For a while, I thought it might say "the little things", as a reference to noticing and appreciating life's small pleasures. But hubby told me I shouldn't put myself down - it took a while to dawn on me what he was getting at.  Men.

So back to the drawing board. And eventually, after much thought, this is how it turned out. And it just makes me  smile.

I never thought, way back in 2006 when I began, that blogging was going to be something so important to me. It's a part of my life now and a space which I have come to value hugely. Although possibly less than my mother. She likes to call me up and harass me when I haven't posted regularly. I have suggested she just speak to me, but she says it's not the same.  So much so, that when I suggested I was a bit overstretched a while back and perhaps I should put domesticali on the back burner for a bit, she told me she would rather I gave up work and just blogged instead.

It's a funny world.  Thank you so much for stopping by here and sharing it with me. And by way of thanks, I have something to share with you too.

Would you like to have a $75 gift certificate to spend in Lisa's shop? Because that's what she is giving to one of you. Although please, please do not ask me to help you decide what to say if you choose something personalized.

Just leave me a comment to enter the draw, and then nip off over to Lisa Leonard Designs and start deciding which one you'd pick. Just a word of warning, it may take some time.... but like blogging, probably time well spent.

 

Key

Life has  a habit of getting busy sometimes. To the point of overwhelming. Tonight there were many ways I could productively used my time - stuff needed doing. But there's a film I'd been dying to see ever since I heard it was being made. You know what it is too don't you?

Tonight, in spite of the hundred and one little things which need my attention, I snuck away from the house and saw Juile and Julia. Many reviews I have read have painted it as a portrait of Julia Child by Meryl Streep, but it was the Julie Powell angle which really drew me in to the story.

Because, as I suspected, the film captured the same essence that I found when I first read Julie Powell's book a few years ago. That sometimes a blog can begin when we are need of something and the simple routine of commiting to pressing the publish button on a regular basis can lead us to discover things.

I went to see the movie by myself - not because I couldn't have seen it with a friend, but because I didn't think I could bear to see it with a non-blogger. The thrill when Julie gets her first comment (followed by the swift come-down when she realizes it is from her mother), only a blogger could get it.

Driving back from the film, I was thoughtful - the portrayal of bloggers as narcissistic and willing to sacrifice their real life relationships to the cause of their blogs was not a comfortable thing to watch. I am under no illusion that my musings here will be leading to book deals, which seemed to be the rationale behind justifying the tantrums thrown by Julie Powell in the course of her project. Is blogging without objectives just a totally self-indulgent waste of time?

But then my thoughts returned to Julia Child, who didn't set out to be the phemomenon she became. She was searching for something to occupy her. She was just doing something she enjoyed. And that seems to me to be key.

Comments

Comments are a lovely thing. A little e-mail in box full of good cheer. But sometimes, I get a comment that is totally unjustified. And I don't mean a nasty one. On the contrary, it's usually someone paying me a compliment that I really really don't deserve. About having a tidy house, or beautifully behaved offspring, or managing to 'do it all'. And I laugh, and sigh a bit, and wish I had truly earned those accolades.

So before you pass judgement on my Amaryllis. I feel I must come clean.

It was all a big mistake. See, I bought the bulb last year, planning to force it for Christmas (like normal people do).  But in my frantic disorganized manner, I forgot to do it. And then 'lost' the bulb in the garage (because it's like a black hole out there). Then I found the bulb, but was too riddled with guilt to do anything about it because it was too late. Then I panicked that I had wasted money, so I stuck it in a pot about 4 weeks ago.

And look how it has rewarded me. Sometimes we get so much better than we deserve.

Crayon Box Survey

Meme time. Oh yes. Because I haven't made anything to share. Or even cooked anything photogenic. Or taken a photo today that was blog-worthy. Sometimes you've just got to type.

RED = Anger

1. Are you currently mad at someone? No, not just now. Oh, actually yes, the Mum who ostentatiously doled out party invitations in the playground and left my son out. Grrr.
2. Which of your family members has the worst temper? Me.
3. Have you ever thrown something at anyone? Oh yes. Most often an item of their mess which I am clearing up, while they are sitting there staring at the television.
4. Does your face turn red when you’re angry? No, but I think steam comes out of my ears.
5. When you’re mad, do you prefer to stare angrily or yell? I'm a yeller. Unless i am on my best behaviour (at work) at which point I become unable to make eye contact with the subject of my anger in case my death stare vapourises them immediately.

Why did they have to begin with anger? I'm sounding like a real psychopath. On to happier things...

ORANGE = Excitement

1. Has anyone ever thrown a surprise party for you? Oh yes, my 21st birthday, planned by (now) hubby. He's never trumped it. I was truly surprised.
2. Do you get easily excited? Oh yes. Very.
3. What’s something that you’re most excited about? The Children's Food Festival coming up.
4. If you won a million dollars, what would be your first thought? I have nothing suitable to wear to go and collect the cheque.
5. If you could have anything right now, what would it be? A summer holiday booked. Yes, once again, we've left it very late...

YELLOW = Self Discovery

1. Name: Ali
2. Birthday: December 1st
(I'm not really sure these questions are helping me discover myself)
3. What’s your main goal in life? Aah, that's better. Joy in as large a dose as possible.
4. Do you want to have children? It's a bit late to answer 'no' to that one, really.
5. When do you want to die? Last time I looked, there wasn't a 'select date' option. If there is now, I'd better put it in the diary. Because I like to plan and also if I don't write things down, I tend to forget them.

GREEN = Opinions

1. Are you against gay marriage? No
2. Lower the drinking age? No (it's 18 here and that seems fine)

Gosh, of all the opinions I have, those were the ones you chose to ask? What a missed opportunity!

BLUE = Love

1. Do you love someone? Many people. Oodles. I'm big on loving.
2. Do you believe in love at first sight? The rational part of me says no, but I have to admit - with hubby, I knew.

PURPLE = Q & A

1. How many beds did you lay in today? Just mine. Oh no, Johnny's too, to read him a story.
2. What color shirt are you wearing? Green
3. Name one thing that you do every day. Clean my ears out with a cotton bud. Can't not do it.
4. How much cash do you have on you right now? Not a penny - no pockets and my wallet is downstars.
5. Look to your left. What’s there? Window, with camera on the windowsill. Plus (if I am being honest) 4 used post it notes with Egyptian facts (Mark's school project), Abel and Cole catalogue (last veg order), cutting mat and bits of paper (last crafty exploit).
6. What’s the last piece of clothing you borrowed? A t-shirt from my Mother when we were staying at her house.
7. What website(s) do you visit most during the day? Hotmail and bloglines
8. Do you have plants in your room? Not in my bedroom, but in almost all the other rooms.
9. Does anything hurt on your body right now? My nose - hayfever. Pah.
10. What city was your last taxicab ride in? London.
11.  Do you own a picture phone? Yes, but I have to think really hard to remember how to use it.
12. Recent time you were really upset? When hubby lost his job.

PINK = Last

1. Person you saw: Checkout lady at the supermarket
2. Movie watched in cinema: How embarrassing - I think it was the Bond before last.
3. Song you just listened to? That catchy Jason Mraz one on the radio I'm yours? Yes, that's it.
4. Person you talked on the phone with: Hubby - sorting out complicated child transfer scenario as I am Mummy helper at Cubs tonight.
 5. Did you notice that question 2 was gone? No, it's back. Magic!

GREY = Today

1. What are you doing right now? Having a cup of tea before collecting the boys from playing at their friends' house.
2. What are you doing tonight? Helping at Cubs, rewarding myself later with a LARGE glass of wine.
3. What are you going to eat? Chilli.

BROWN = Tomorrow

1. Is:  Friday. Way-hay!
2. Goal: Get children to school, go to work, pick up children, take them to swimming lesson, eat, bath, bed for them, wine for me!
3. Are you going to laugh? Every single day. Without fail.

Little Blog Awards

There was a happy e-mail today from the nice folks at Dorset Cereals. My blog has been nominated for their little blog awards. How exciting. I don't know quite why the prospect of winning one of those cute egg cosies appeals to me so much, but it does.

So, click the egg-cup to pop on over and vote, and you could win yourself a crate of their cereal. Which is very yummy. Especially the kids variety, which comes with super-cool paper automata projects inside the box. Creativity at breakfast-time. I'm all for it!

First of the season

Picnic, that is. We are big fans of outdoor food and mix it up with a playground, oodles of children, chums old and new to chat with, chocolate eggs and a handcrafted goodies swap and it's the recipe for a very good day indeed.

I am an absolutely hideous event reporter, due to my giant inattention to detail problems. But the occasional snippet does lodge in my fuzzy head, so in no particular order, some impressions from the day:

• Thankfully, weather forecasts are not to be trusted
• It was almost certain to be the right group I was approaching, when I overheard, "Sorry, what was your name again?"
• A very stylish picnic quilt
• "Is that one of ours?" - spotting a mid sized child emerging at the top of a clump 0f trees
• Discussion on the clothing dilemmas of a Little Cotton Rabbit
• At least 3 socks on knitting needles
• Missing our absent friends
• Bloggers wear very good shoes
• Even when your offspring are far more grown up, mothers remember how to make little ones smile
• Tepee talk
• Lots and lots and lots of laughter

Wish I could bundle up the warm, fuzzy feelings that a get-together inevitably creates. I even have the perfect spot to keep them. A quilted project bag, from  Kate - thank you so much! And as if that wasn't enough, I had to swipe her photo of it, because it is too dark to take my own now.

 Lucy, you are a star for organizing everything. Don't suppose you'd like to sort out my summer holiday dilemmas too would you?

green week: 4

Jade, the colour of the plant on my windowsill. It's looking a bit worse for wear now and is ripe for replacement. I have a terrible habit of clinging onto houseplants for grim death. Way past the point that they add anything to our decor. But somehow, delivering them to the great compost heap in the sky seems beyond me. Maybe this weekend. After one last photo.

Getting rid of the plant must be preying on my subconscious, because walking through town today, I was stopped in my tracks by a pair of patent shoes in the same hue.

I am cursing having seen them, because now I have the wanties. And I'm trying so very hard not to spend any discretionary money.

It's hard to go against your natural impulses.

green week: 3 Tunic

Something had been sitting on my shelf unused for way too long.

Despite having fallen in love with several of the dresses that have appeared in blogland from within its pages.  But taking the plunge into uncharted Japanese pattern waters has taken a while.  And I won't pretend it was all plain sailing. The pleats are not absolutely perfect. And I couldn't make the sleeves fit at all. Which necessitated a swift modification with some bias tape bound armholes.

But all in all, there's something about my tunic that makes me feel very happy indeed.

And that's not to be sniffed at.
 

green week: 2

Green floss.

green week: 1

Emily is hosting green week this week. Seems apt, as it feels like spring might just finally be arriving. But no lovely outdoor spring shots here today. Because the garden is looking sorely neglected and I am chained to the kitchen trying to quell the chaos in there.

It's ugly. That's what you get for working on Saturday (thereby leaving 3 males to fend for themselves) and then hosting a birthday party on Sunday (thankfully not at home) which left us both too shattered to clean up the kitchen in the evening.

The following is the result of a worktop swoop for all things green.
The chaos calls. See you later.

Yellow week: 4

On the lookout for yellow at the seaside today. There was a smidgen.

But we were distracted by other things.