An Open Letter to my Loved Ones

I know that a lot of the people in this won't ever read it, its not the point. I heard somewhere that a way to help boost ones happiness is to remind yourself of all the things/people you are grateful for.

Firstly I would like to Thank everyone who has ever, read, glanced or stumbled upon my blog. You may not realise it but it makes my day to know that there are people out there who read this.

To my blog friend Jenny, 

thank you for your support. You leave the nicest comments and always give me such a confidence boost for things I have made. I feel like we may be kindred spirits and I'm so happy to have "met" you.

To Yeomans,

 I sometimes forget how young you are, its strange to think that you're actually closer to my sisters age to mine. I love your honesty, and I want you to know I value your opinions. You're also the only person in my "real" life that shares my crochet passion. When you asked me to teach you, I never imagined that you would take to it so quickly or learn to love it the way you do.You're the complete opposite to me; where I judge everything I do so harshly, you are incredibly proud of everything you make and so am I.

To Bekki, 

you are my oldest friend, we've had ups and downs, its not surprising really as we're both different people to when we first met. I know that no matter what you will be there, even if it was 4 in the morning I know you'd answer my phone call. You're the only one who has any insight into what my life with my illness is like. You even took time out from your holiday in Greece to message me because you knew I was in hospital. Everyone should be so lucky to have a friend like you.

To Liza,

 I miss you so much, sometimes I don't realise how much until I actually see you. You were my rock throughout our time at Uni, and without you I really don't think I would have stuck with it. Whether it was dragging me to the library to finish up some studying, or just coming round to sit with me when I was alone on mine and Dave's anniversary, you were always there, and I hope that I will get to see more of you, twice a year is not enough!

To my Dad,

 I'll keep this short as you have a whole post dedicated to you. Thank you for looking after me all these years, thank you for loving me and giving me a stable home.No matter what anyone says you're my dad and no one can change that.

To my Little Sister,

 I hope you realise how much I love you. I want you to know that I'm so proud of you. I know things are hard right now but you need to stick with it, I promise it will be worth it in the end. I know you sometimes think that we're trying to interfere in your life, we only want the best for you. No matter what you will always be my baby sister.

To my Mum, 

thank you for everything. You're one of the most amazing and strong people I have ever known. You've tried your best to give me the best life possible, and I can't even imagine the life I would have had if you hadn't had been as strong and brave as you were. You worked 3 jobs to support us and we never went without. You're an amazing woman and I am so lucky to have you.

...and lastly

To Dave, 

I'm 99.9% sure you'll never read this. You have no need to read my blog, if you wanted to know what I was crocheting you'd look across the room and if you wanted to know how I did it you'd ask. I never thought I would love someone outside my family as much as I love you. You know me better than anyone else in the world. You have supported me through things that you shouldn't have had to at your age, you've carried the financial burden of me being too ill for work, you've pulled 12 hour overtime shifts just to make ends meet. You've held my hand through painful procedures and stayed with me until the early hours of the morning, even though you had to be at work a few hours later. You are my best friend, and though I always joke that "I can't get rid of you" I genuinely don't know what I would do without you. You stayed with me through our difficult long distance relationship, never letting me give up even when I said things were to hard to deal with. I'll never be able to thank you for all the things you've done, and like I said I don't think you'll ever read this, but I hope that you know all this already.

xx

November DI Craft Swap Part 2

So I'm still working on catching up with my posts from the end of last year. This post is about what I sent to Jenny at pretty column. When I found out that the theme was Woodland I messaged Hannah to ask if she would be able to let me have Jenny as my recipient because I knew what I wanted to make her because of something I'd seen on her Pintrest board.

Jenny had previously pinned some pictures of children's snoods with animal ears and said that maybe one day she would make one for herself, and I remembered this copy of Simply Crochet from September 2013 with this lovely snood pattern in it. Originally I wanted to make an Orange one as Jenny's favourite woodland animal is a fox but I could not find the yarn I wanted anywhere so decided to make a grey one instead.

Whilst I was working on this Craft Swap I ended up in hospital (an unfortunately common occurrence at the minute) and I don't like crocheting in the hospital (germs!) so I messaged Jenny to apologise that her parcel was going to be late; and I suggested that as her birthday was at the beginning of December that I would hang on to her parcel and add to it for her Birthday, and I was really happy when it got to her actually on her birthday.

So in addition to the snood, which was horrible to photograph, for a better picture go to Jenny's Instagram there's a photo of her wearing it...

I also made her a cupcake pin cushion (you can never have too many pins!)

And for the bought items I got her a fox mug and a fox notebook. 

I was so glad that Jenny liked everything I made, I think its one of the things I love most about crafting is seeing someone so happy with something that you made especially for them.

Also realised the other day that me, Jenny and Hannah were all born within 6 weeks of each other, thought that was a bit of an odd coincidence - there must have been something in the water 24 years ago haha

x

Christmas 2014

This should have probably been posted a few days ago but I’ve been living in an Internet nightmare. I hope everyone had a lovely time, Christmas day always feels really busy now that I live away from home. We stay at our house on Christmas eve and have the morning to ourselves, then we went to Dave’s parents for presents and Christmas dinner, and then we went to my parents for our second Christmas dinner and the third and final gift exchange. Dave was very insistent on getting his 2 Christmas dinners, even though he was too full to eat that much at my parents!

I was spoilt (as I am most years), my big present from Dave this year was tickets to see Miss Saigon in London on my birthday in a  few weeks, and then my birthday present is hotel/transport etc while we’re there. I think its made a little bit more exciting by the fact that we will be spending one of the nights with our friends Liza and Leon, we also get to meet their Hamster Winston. I have loved Miss Saigon since I first saw it almost ten years ago. Its lovely and tragic and the songs are just so darn catchy!

He also bought me this crochet book which looks quite standard but is actually amazing, I may review it in a future blog post, it has pretty much every crochet stitch ever invented, as well as patterns so you can try out all the new stitches you’ve learnt. I couldn’t help myself and have already started a new project from it; I found something that my friend Bekki (whose birthday is 2 days after mine) will love and I just so happened to have the perfect wool for it in my stash. Can’t wait to share it when its done!

My sister got me a Carebear onesie, its Gloomy bear and even comes with a grumpy face on the hood. Since receiving it I have worn it a lot and I am starting to wonder how I lived without one. I think its great and I love being able to crochet without my arms getting cold!

My mum and dad really spoilt me this year; as well as the standard bits (nail varnish, pyjamas, socks) they bought me…

I will post a better photo soon!

…my own sewing machine! Not going to lie I did squeal a bit when I opened it, it was a complete surprise. Dave gave them the idea, I've borrowed his sisters one for a bit but its exciting to finally have one of my own. I can’t wait to make lots of lovely things with it and have already been roped into some alterations (it’s inevitable in a family of short people).

I had to go to work on boxing day, we were all scheduled to work either boxing day or new years day.I went in armed with lots of crocheting expecting it to be a quiet day, and it was the exact opposite. There was a constant queue of calls over my whole shift, although I do think it sometimes makes the day go quicker.

  I am looking forward to 2015, I’ve had a horrible last year and unfortunately I think I brought my family and friends down a bit with me. So I intend to spend the coming year (trying to be) optimistic. I haven’t made any resolutions but I have made a list of things I would like to have achieved by the end of 2015. I’ve tried to make them all achievable even if I don’t get any better in the next year, but crossing my fingers I do.

Wishing you all the best for the New Year xx