2010 - A mix of news

My blog is a year old today. I had no idea a year ago how exciting the world of blogging was going to be, or how many new friends it would bring me across the world. I had no idea anyone else would actually want to read it! Thank you all so much for joining me, and also for giving me such a good time following all your adventures!

So, first, sorry this is going to be a long post as I have a few things to share.

The last few months of 2009 were fairly hard going for me, with ill health, then having all the building stuff done, Christmas appearing and loosing my auntie. All your kind wishes and messages meant a lot to me.

Sadly, I also had some further tragic news just before Christmas. My oldest and dearest friend Sarah phoned to tell me her older sister Jane had just died, completely out of the blue. Jane had apparently had a million in one condition no one knew about and a chance virus had triggered it. Within 48 hours she had passed away.

Sarah, Jane, their younger sister Ruth and I all grew up together, and have been friends for over 40 years. As you can imagine everyone was completely devastated. Jane spent many years in Canada where she worked as a nanny, she was a warm, kind and caring person, with never a cross or bad word for anyone. People flew in from all over the world for her funeral. It was a beautiful and moving experience, and some small crumb of comfort to her mum and her family to see that she was so loved. She was only 49.

Jane's passing has affected me very deeply. I miss my auntie terribly, but she, thankfully, had had a long and happy life. Loosing someone so close in age, and who was such a part of my childhood has made me think hard. I am going to do my best to make the most of my time and enjoy life, and the time I spend with family and friends. As I start the year I'm going to keep the memory of two people who were both a joy to those who knew them, and try to follow their example, and try to keep a positive frame of mind.

I'm not really one for New Year Resolutions, but I have promised myself that I'm going to "take the time for others", take more care of myself, and try not to get so stressed and worried about things that will probably work out anyway. Oh, and on a happier note I will try to get more exercise, Andy bought us both pedometers for Christmas!

He also bought me a bread maker as one of my Christmas pressies, which I've really been wanting, and it's the best one I've ever had. The dough is rising nicely as I type. The new oven cooked beautifully for Christmas, I'm really pleased with it. As soon as we have the flooring done I'll post the before and after kitchen pics!

I've really felt the past few months as if I had lost all my creative spirit, but over the last week, maybe with my new mind set? things have perked up. I had a couple of embroidery books for Christmas, which was a complete surprise. I didn't think Andy would get then for a moment, bless him!. I picked one up, and it was like a bolt from the blue! I haven't felt this excited for ages, it's been like trying to find the right direction for ages and suddenly someone pointed out the signpost.

So - I spent a lot of yesterday pottering and making notes and sketches, and last night I began to stitch, at long last ( nearly forgot how!)

I was so excited, that in the middle of all this, I had a go at a bag brooch/pin, as I just wanted to create something very quickly, so here it is:

I just used a rough square of hessian, stitched on a cluster of beads and used a kind of a hooky/proddy technique with rough cotton strips and then satin ribbons to try and get a bit of contrast. The central bead is so pretty as it has a pink and green rose in the glass. In my excitement at using it I forgot I had hardly any fabric in those colours.... Had to rummage around a bit! It "doesn't bear looking into", as my mum would say, but it's quite pretty, I think. It's a start.

It's a beautiful day today, there was a heavy frost, but the sky is a brilliant blue and the sun is gorgeous. Hope your New Years Day is a very good one, and heralds a very Happy 2010.