Me on Monday

Today I am joining in with Sian's meme, "Me on Monday". 

I ummed and ahhed for some time about getting a 'nice' picture of me. Each one was wrong. My hair wasn't right, I wasn't smiling, the sun was in my eyes etc. 

I clicked over to Sian's post and the words that jumped out at me were 'keeping it real'. 

This isn't supposed to be a perfect shot. This is me, in my comfy dress, doing Monday. 

After a busy weekend (that I will blog about later) my Monday has been calm. It's been a blog reading, quilt sewing, tea drinking, girly chatting kind of day. Thrown into that have been some lovely sunny spells, some project lifing outside and a lot of Harry Potter listening. 

A quiet, gentle, slow kind of day. Just what was needed. 

What has your Monday looked like? 

the details of our home part 2

Back in March I wrote this post about the details of my uni house. It is a post I really treasure.
Yesterday I packed up that house and headed home for the summer. Back to my family in the south and another precious home.

These are the details I want to remember of our family home...

Light spilling in from the open door.

Passion flower curling up into the porch.

Piles of crocs, abandoned as their owners have walked inside.

Flowers across the garden.

beautiful bright red bricks against a blue sky.

The umbrellas leaning up against the porch.

Dad's slippers, stepped out of on his way to work. 

Loose leaf tea, spooned and poured into the tea pot.

This is my challenge for you today. Go grab your favourite camera and wander around your home. Look down, look up, capture what you notice and then record it. Details are so important!

The graduate

Just like that, three years are gone and the boy man has finished his degree.  At the weekend I travelled to visit him at uni for the last time. It was a strange experience because for me it was a series of endings. Last time I will see his housemates (for the foreseeable future), last time I will make that train journey from Durham, last time in that house.

But it is exciting too. Things are changing, life is moving on. The boy has a job for next year and we are looking forward to how God will open more doors in the next twelve months. It is scary and fun and intriguing all at once.

I voiced all this to the boy over the weekend. I am the nostalgic one and I think the change for me is greater than it is for him. I get sentimental over 'last times' where as he quietly likes the transition. Nevertheless I persuaded him into some form of photoshoot in the beautiful park to mark in a way the occasion.

Things are coming to an end for him, but in many ways they are just starting.

Degree. Done. (Just mine to do now!)

One photo & twenty words

A sunny evening. Another hello on a station platform and ice cream for pudding as we walked home hand in hand. 

........................................................................................................................................

My challenge for you today. Find one photo and choose up to twenty words to tell its story. Jot it down and link back here. The link will stay open for a week so you have plenty of time to join in! 

The slow moving blog hop

Welcome to the slow moving and gradually expanding blog hop. You may have seen a few of these posts floating around in the last few weeks. I was asked to join in by the lovely Alice whose beautiful blog you can findhere.

The idea is simple: talk about your craft.

This is what I am working on at the moment and what I have planned for the next few months…

At the moment- Project Life

This project has changed slightly for me this year. It feels less pressured, it is easier to create pages and I think they are simpler. I like that I have found my style with this project.

I no longer have to actively think about doing project life because after eighteen months with this project it is a very natural part of the pattern of my weeks.

As the second half of the year dawns I want to challenge myself to use my graphics tablet more and possibly post a few beginners video tutorials in starting out digital project life. I know that Photoshop can be a minefield but once you have mastered a few basic ideas digital PL is actually quite simple.

I am also looking forward to an opportunity this summer to try my hand at the paper version of project life. I am in turn excited and terrified. I think it will be like starting an entirely new craft! As a heads up, do any UK project lifers know where I could buy the page pockets?

At the moment- Hand lettering

I am always more inspired when I haven’t the time to be. I decided halfway through my exams this year that I would make it a goal this summer to practice hand lettering.

I have seen some beautiful examples across pinterest and filled with enthusiasm bought a fresh notebook, nice pen and a sharp pencil.

Lesson one. Pinterest makes it look easy. This craft is hard! I can’t count the number of times I rubbed out dodgy letters or re drew the flicks on the ends of words. Nevertheless the summer is long and I am determined to write beautifully by the end of it!

Planning- small business idea.

This idea is not a new one. I have been thinking about selling handcrafted for a long time now. My problem has always been what to sell. The crux is that whilst my holidays are long, I haven’t the space at uni, both physically and mentally, to create. I therefore needed a product that I could make in batch at home and easily take and sell up in Durham.

I think I have finally landed on a solution and I am hoping that it is something that is simple enough to make and nice enough to buy.

I am excited by small business ideas but it is definitely a risky and daunting adventure. I am hoping a long summer will let me fine tune ideas and see whether it something I could pursue.

For now I am keeping the plan under wraps until it is more of an actuality. Those of you with small business though, where do you sell? Crafty, Folksy? Did you find it was easy to sell handcrafted? What tips would you give?

I am always excited by crafts. I like the crafts like Project Life and quilting that are now familiar to me.  I like trying new things even if they are hard and I want to push myself a bit more and try and create a product that can be sold.

Thank you Alice for asking me to chat about crafting. I am passing the baton on to three other bloggers and they will continue the hop next Monday.

Do go check their pages out. They are full of inspiration and you may find a new blog to follow.

Sinead at Stories of life and craft:

Sinead is a friend I have met through blogging but has since become a dear friend in real life. Her blog is lovely mix of her life in beautiful Ireland and her scrapbooking.

Miss Smith at a journal of curious things

Miss Smith’s witty writing and gorgeous scrapbook pages always brighten my day. She tells wonderful tales of life in London and funny stories of the school she works in. 

Lea at Freeze Frame

I first met Lea through the swap of small things organised by sian. I have since followed her blog and instagram feed and am always inspired by her clean bright style.

Phrase and photo

Get your photos at the ready and pick up to twenty words to tell their story.
It's that time of the month again...

This month the link will go live in the evening of the 9th as I am participating in a blog hop and don't want the two posts to collide! Feel free to post your photos through the day and then when I set the post up I will try and collect as many as I see and link them up! 

Around here...

The room was still, just the sound of pens on paper, the clock ticking, my feet tapping against the chair. 

He looked up at the clock. We all followed his gaze. The second hand moved slowly,  inching towards the hour. He took a breath and then...

"The time is, up, pens down please." 

Those magic words. freedom. the start of summer. 

We all looked around at each other grinning, stretching, trying to keep quiet as they collected the papers in. 

"you're free to go!", the babble of talk, of question analysis (why do people insist on doing this?) the giggles. We opened the doors, glorying in no work for a few months, excited by summer...and were met by, you guessed it, rain. How perfectly British. 

I'm excited to be back friends. Thank you for your words of encouragement over the last few weeks. The break has been good for me, but oh have I missed this little space of mine!