The darling buds of May

Hi,

I want to start something new.. drastic I know!

Each month I want to set myself some projects or goals or ideas and hopes.

Things that I hope will make this month glorious.

I know I am a bit late getting started with May but lets go with it!

In May...

-I want to work on embroidery

-Experiment with linen

-embrace mobile photography

-journal and record more

-write out blog posts by hand (I find I write a lot better with a pen in my hand!)

-I probably won't see the boy so I want to be BUSY

-Fully embrace spring

-read, read, read

-find a new colour to obsess over. Teal is currently my favourite!

What do you hope May will bring for you?

Abi 

Storytelling Sunday- The Boiler and the Mouse

Hi

Yep, it's that time again. Seriously, I count down to storytelling sunday! Sian, it was such a great idea. Thank you.

This is a story from yesterday.
Picture the scene if you would. The family is all home for the bank holiday weekend. This includes the youngest brothers girlfriend and the boy.

Our house is pretty crazy at the best of times. With seven people? It's brilliant!

So.. our two cats were stalking the boiler all morning. The intellectually challenged cat tried to fit down the side of it, with the airer in the way. One dusty and squashed cat later, he decides this is not such a good idea. The clever cat sits and watches.

We all have a faint idea that there might me something hiding behind said boiler.

At that moment mum moves over to take the airer and littlest brother cries.

"mum, there's a mouse on it!"

Mum, oblivious is lifting the airer.."where?? I can't see the mouse!"

 In one swift movement me and the littlest brothers girlfriends are up on chairs screaming "mouse, mouse!" "ahhh mouse." in an incredibly melodramatic way. Mum is still puzzled, the two brothers and the boy are leaning over the boiler to try and see said mouse and Dad is asking what on earth is happening.

The noise in the kitchen is incredible. Mousey has retreated behind the boiler. The stupid cat has decided to flee the scene and my Dad has reached over to shut the backdoor to which he was greeted with more shrieks... "don't shut the door, that's how the mouse will get out! Don't block the exit!"

Mousey's tail comes back into view. At this point the boy has found a torch and mother is armed with a wooden spoon- what she thinks she will do with this spoon I don't know.

My Brother then realises that the torch has a magnetic retractable stick. He uses this to try and poke mousey only to realise the stick has attracted to the boiler. Slick.

Whilst he is trying to pull it off, me and the girlfriend are still shrieking, the boy is crying that he can see it and mother issues a sceam...

"My cake, my cake in the oven!!!" The cake is rescued from the oven in the nick of time smoke starting to appear.

The boiler is now surrounded. The boy on one side with the torch, the brother with the spoon and mother with a plastic tub.

We wait.

Mousey does not come out.

They try shaking the boiler. Nothing. They try being quiet. Nothing.

The mouse capturing team leave their stations and the girlfriend and I descend from the chairs. All day we are ready but nothing happens.

This story doesn't really have an ending because as we speak...

Mousey is still behind the boiler. We think.

Thanks for stopping by

Abi

Scraping the Surface & a little bit of audience participation

Hi,

*Today is Operation Speak Out- get your commenting shoes on!*
The other day I was thinking... ( shock I know)
Our blogs are funny things aren't they?
One the one hand they are personal and intimate.
We share photos and hopes and dreams.

On the other hand these hopes and dreams and photos and posts are- for me- anyway just scraping the surface of everything that goes on in the little world of Abi.

I pride myself on the fact that my blog is as much real life as craft. ( I personally like this balance). My blog is a document of me.
But how much of "me" do I realistically need to keep off my blog and how much should I put on?

An example is the boy.

He is part of me, so I document us.

But, he is his own person- hence why I choose not to use his name.

Where is the line between sharing and not sharing?

Interesting huh? (or is that just me?)

I also tried to put myself in the shoes of someone new to my blog. How accurate a picture of Abi do they get? I came to the conclusion that there isn't a great snapshot of me. A good summing up. If you read regularly I think you might get a better idea of me but if you were just visiting? I want there to be something more than just an "about" page.

This is where I need some help...

I would like to start a FAQ section on the blog.
So here is your chance to be nosey!!!
If you have a question about anything to do with me/ my crafts/ my blog/ my photos leave it in the comment box. It can be as simple as what do you eat for breakfast!?

Hopefully putting all this together I can make a better all round picture of me and hopefully give you guys some interesting content!

Thank you thank you thank you in advance!

Abi

Let's Speak Out!

Hi

Last month lots of you joined me for Operation Speak Out. The aim is simple. To stop being a lurker on others blogs. In one day to fill the internet with words of encouragment and hapiness.

The original post can be seen here

On Thursday 3rd May I am going to make it my mission to comment on EVERY BLOG I VISIT. Just for this one day I am going to speak out on these blogs. Blogs big and small. I will write a comment.

I would love it if you would join me in commenting. It is such a great experience to give comments and recieve them and I know that to everyone comments mean a lot.

This is a totally no pressured thing. If you visit one blog in the whole day and comment that is brilliant. If you want to sit down with your cup of tea and have a comment marathon, amen!

Join join join!

The sad story of the lost scrapbooker

So this isn't a very happy story- well it is but for different reasons.

I don't really scrap anymore.

There. I said it.

And yep, it saddens me.

I don't know when the break came about or why it happened but it did. I think it was a combination of little time, much work and a feeling of frustration.

I know for others it is different but for me, scrapbooking takes a long time. We're talking days.
If you know my situation, you know that I am not living in one place for extended periods of time, I am about to head off for uni. It is incredibly difficult to come back to a layout after weeks of not seeing it.

I also started to lose sight of why I scrapped. I started to look at how I scrapped and if it lived up to how others scrapbooked. Inspiration is all well and good but when you start to feel that your layout doesn't live up to others, that's when it is hard.

So, I did less and less. I am naturally crafty so I turned my hand to other things. I have done a lot of sewing and knitting and other paper crafts and embroidery and making my own clothes. I have found these crafts amazing. I have started to experiment with ideas. The mobile kites came from an initial picture I saw online and tried to conceptualize in paper and fabric. I have become more confident in my own ability to create something beautiful and practical.

The other reasons I have turned to textiles is that they are mobile.
I can fit them in my handbag.
For a girl who travels this is amazing. I can be crafty wherever. You have to admit, scrapbooking is not so very easy to cart around!

I am sad that I do less and less of the craft that got me blogging. I am sad that for a while I didn't like looking at layouts because I felt upset that I hadn't done one in such a long time.

But you know what. I am still crafty, I am still creative. I think our crafting has to evolve.

The other day I sat down with a clean journal and started filling it with receipts and train tickets and photos. I got out a pen and just wrote about them. Documenting their story.

The photo stories that first attracted me to scrapping.

I don't think it will be too long before those 12x12 pages are dusted off and the jounral expands onto patterned paper.

This craft thing we do, it's circular in the end.

Thank you for stopping by

Abi

How I am (trying) to make 2012 glorious

Hi,

Way back in January I chose a word for the year. That word was

GLORIOUS

At the time I wrote that "Glorious, is how I want 2012 to look. I've come to realise that I have a- what I believe-is a God given talent for creativity. I have the ability to make my space, my life look glorious through what I can create and photograph."
So, a third of the way through the year I want to look at how I am trying to make 2012 glorious.

Writing and brainstorming anything that is inspiring

I find I visit so many blogs that my brain becomes full of so much inspiring material. There are so many things I want to create and do and write but because of the sheer number, I hate to say it, I forget them.

This year I have tried to write down and pin these things. I write a copious amount of lists just of things I want to make, or try out, or combinations that might work. As a result, I think I have been more creative.

Starting a visual journal

I have wanted to do this for ages but I never got around to it. As I started to brainstorm more and write more lists, I found I need a place to put them.

This last month I have started my journal, filling it with photos, drawings and ideas. The more I do it, the more I find to put in it. I have always enjoyed creative writing and starting a journal has fuelled that again. I am combining words with pictures in a way I haven't done since my photography A level.

On an excpetionally glorious note, it is becoming the perfect place to jot down my prayers.


Getting out there and creating

I do a lot of pinning. I don't do a lot of creating. There, I said it. My real aim with glorious 2012 was to actually create things. Things that I could look back on and go "yeah, I created that,it's beautiful."

It is a real liberation to have an idea and then sit down and do it. I am very good and just thinking about it. The new quilt was a combination of several ideas and tutorials and rather than just think about it, I bit the bullet and did it. Yep, there were mistakes but I learnt.

I am becoming more impulsive with my craft, I am experimenting. I am making things for myself not just following tutorials.


Redesigning and reworking my blog

At the beginning of the this year I redesigned the blog. It was a great learning curve, battling with HTML but I am so happy with how it turned out. I want my blog to look glorious so I am constantly trying to tweak different bits to keep it looking fresh.

On that note, I am also trying to blog more. This started here when I brainstormed and came up with a little structure to work around. It's not perfect but definitely better.

Writing down the best thing from each day.

Again this was a project started at the beginning of the year that I have grown to love. I enjoy going through my day and thinking to myself about what moment I will write down as the best. Yep, if I am brutally honest there were/are some days when the best thing was going to bed that night but you know what, I am ok with that. This quote is what I am living with "Not every day will be good, but there is something good in every day." Amen to that.


Operation Speak Out.
I am most proud of this little venture started last month. It was amazing to see so many of you commenting and sharing the love.

A little plug. If you want to join in we are doing it again Thursday 3rd May. More details nearer the time.

This is why I take photos

I was looking through some old photos on my computer.
I found this from the boy.

(Yep, this has to be the worst photo ever taken. I apologise.Go with it for now!)

We were fifteen.

This was in answer to my question about whether we were "together" now.

I love my fifteen year old self for taking the photo.

I love his answer even more.

"I suppose we are because it kind of feels like we are."

This my friends if why I take the photos.

Have a glorious (if slightly rainy) day!