Coming back

Hello everyone. Yes, I'm back after dropping off the face of the earth for a little while there. Things got hectic, overwhelming. I had to take a break from here in order to focus on other things for a while. It wasn't even a conscious decision, but time stretched on. Honestly, for most of November and December, I didn't even think about coming back here. I thought for a while that I never would.

It's funny how it didn't really take much to completely derail my time here - a bit of a PhD crisis, some people and things happening in life that I just needed to concentrate on for a while, to figure some things out. Nothing bad, just things. You know how it is.

Thanks to some great, understanding people that I have in my life, things improved by the end of December. I had a bit more head-space to think about some more self-indulgent things again, this blog and crafty-ness included.

Christmas was good, S and I have a fab time away with his family - much laughter and happiness occurred. Then I spent a day with my own folks, and that was great too.

There are big plans ahead for 2015 - exciting ones for me personally. Hopefully I can continue coming back here regularly - I think that is my personal ambition for 2015 - to get some balance in my life. It may not be easy - I need to stop procrastinating about the things I don't really want to do, in order to make sure I free up time for things I do want to do. I think it's that simple really, it's down to me.

Wish me luck! See you again soon!

Colour play

It has been wild and windy here! Our house was without power for about 7 hours on Monday, the day of the big storm. Suddenly being without electricity makes you realise how much you depend on it - for everything from boiling a kettle to heating water to shower or bath in!

Actually, I kind of liked not having electricity for a little while! It was nice to have no distractions and be forced to fall back on more traditional methods of entertainment, such as reading (and crochet of course). Though I probably would have taken a different view if the power outage had lasted until dark - as my other half said "crochet by candlelight - very exciting"! Exciting it may have been, but I'm sure it would have been bad for my eyes.

We were lucky to have our power back the same day - I know some people who were still without power on Tuesday afternoon/evening.

Perhaps my liking for not having electricity relates to a general need I'm feeling lately to try and slow life down. I feel a bit like I'm on a merry-go-round at the moment. I'm trying to cram so much into the days that the hours just fly by, and it leaves me feeling a little dizzy. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining - I'm loving everything I'm doing at the moment - work and study. It's just that some times I find myself at one of the regular points in my routine feeling like it's only been about a minute since I was doing the same thing the day before!

Do you ever feel like that? Is it a side effect of modern life? I think it must be.

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Well, continuing with my attempt at a slow pace of life here, I've spent some time over the last couple of days playing around with the colours for my starburst squares, rolling ends into nice neat little balls, not hurrying the process, but just enjoying. 

In the photo above you can see the colours I'm using. I was going to try and tell you what make and shade each colour was, but I've completely gotten mixed up with trying to work it out now! Maybe I'll try again when I've finished the blanket.

I've made around 90 of these little squares now, and have started sewing them together.

I find working in batches make the process flow a little more smoothly, so I've been working the first two rounds on a batch of circles, then the third and finally the white edging.

Tonight I'm starting the stitching together process - I have to say it looks pretty good so far!

Stay warm

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