Monthly Musings - February

F E B R U A R Y

I this month has largely been the quieter and more peaceful month that I was craving for January.

Well, relatively at least. Life seems to be throwing up endless little niggles at the moment. Nothing serious or even difficult, just stuff that needs to be done. 'Life admin' I suppose would be as good as label as any. That's always going on of course, but there seems to be an above average amount of it lately and it feels like it's been clogging up my time and preventing anything more meaningful getting done.

Still, I've try to allow myself some time to just enjoy and not feel like I have to 'be productive' in. We had half term last week which helped, it's always a good excuse to kick back and take things easier for a bit and me and the kid still love hanging out and slobbing around together. My excuse, if I needed one, is that she is a teen now and there is probably a ticking time limit on this shared pleasure. Before long her life will change even more and I'm sure she'll want to be doing other things, so for now, it is to be enjoyed.

On the crafting front this month has been dominated by big projects. Firstly this small idea that got a little out of hand... I had some vintage doilies, some found at boots sales and antique shops and so on, and others gifted to me recently by my Nan. I was laying them out over the table to look at them and it occurred to me that the effect was rather spiffing and that I could sew them together to make a tablecloth.

I also had a bit of a tatty old white table cloth that I always avoid using due to some stains that won't shift and as I had quite a few different shapes and sizes of doily. I thought it would be good to 'upcycle' it by sewing the doilies on, both to cover the stains and provide a nice plain background for all the different lacy shapes of the doilies. Marvellous I thought!

I didn't have quite enough doilies to cover the size of cloth so I decided to crochet up a few more. That was fun. I like a nice doily to make, it's fun to see them taking shape and usually quite quick to do so I find that very satisfying. It turned out that pining and sewing all these pieces in place was a bit of an epic task though.

I decided to hand sew them, it seemed the easiest way to deal with the overlapping effect I wanted and also recommended by my expert sewing chum, Sam (Betsy Makes). But I'm not the worlds most proficient sewer so it wasn't my most favourite task. The pins were the biggest problem, sticking into me and often falling out everywhere too. I should have used safety pins instead. In the unlikely event you are thinking of replicating this slightly bizarre project, that's what I recommend!

Chore though the process was, I'm pretty happy with the results. I actually love it. I can't imagine it'd be something that appeals to that many people's taste, although I've had lovely feed back from people who have seen it, so maybe I'm wrong. Or maybe they are just being polite!

My second main achievement this month was that I managed to start and finish a whole knitted garment in less than two weeks! I find that quite staggering to be honest. Admittedly the fact I cut my finger and could only knit and that we had a lazy half term did have much to do that personal record, but still. I feel strangely proud of the fact.

When the finger did allow, I worked a lot on my big blanket beast. I didn't think this one was going to be so large, but it's turning out to be quite the whopper. I've made good progress on it and the pattern for it too though, so I'm happy with that. I might actually manage to get the pattern out around the same time I finish the project. Wouldn't that be a revelation?

I finally finished the lap top bag I've had on the go for a while, which I'm glad of as it's been good to start using it. And I made a tiny bit of progress on my living room curtain re-vamp. Not much, but I have at least made all the little decorative balls that I wanted to attach to the edges.

There have been other small things too. I tackled my problem of over-flowing headphone wires with a tiny sewing project, the idea for which I'd seen on Pinterest a million or so years ago. I ventured into some bread making and really enjoyed it. The first loaf was too dense but still edible, the second one was actually fairly respectable! We also had Hubs birthday to celebrate, so we had a slap up breakfast of American pancakes and baked cookies instead of cake, as requested by the birthday boy.

In fact, all in all, when it's all written down, it feels like it's been a pretty productive month!