overwhelming

settling

Getting there. Getting here, to this new house. Trying to feel at home. It takes whiles longer than I expected. But my expectations were a tad on the optimistic side of things...

Now that we're done as far as we're going to be done with it all this here year, I'm going to try and get back into my creative groove again. Which is also taking whiles longer than I had hoped. I've been feeling rather drained over the past, hmm, month or so.

I have no idea whether anyone is still checking this space, but if so - hi!! Thanks for sticking it out! Here are some pictures of the living room to tie you over till I get back - again ;)

basically

Basically?

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrghhhhhh!!!

Moving is hard work. I think everything will be alright. I think the new place will be beautiful when it's finished. I do.

But right now?! It's a shambles. And a roof tile blew off in last Friday's storm. We have water damage, probably - hopefully! - because of it. And for the first time in my life, I can't just call the central number to get it fixed.

So basically? I think it'll all be cool. Soon. But for now? If I weren't so busy getting wall paper stuck to walls, and assorted other stuff, I think I'd be sitting on the floor with my fingers in my ears. Rocking to and fro. Singing lalalalaLALALAAAAA! Obviously, that never helped anyone, but it sure feels good, at times ;)

Do you want to share the last time you really wanted to sit down & sing to shut out the world? Or is everything smooth sailing in your corner? Hope so!

photo challenge: HAPPY

I thought I'd kept the challenge simple. Photograph what makes you happy. Even amidst chaos & mayhem, there are things that make you happy, right? Or, there should be, to keep you grounded. The important thing is, you should never stop looking for things that make you happy, especially while in the jaws of disorder and dust bunnies, both actual and in the form of dislodged bits of settled life.

And I do actually still see the happy! I would be lying on the floor in one big blubbering heap by now if I didn't. Honestly, yes, I am that dramatic in the face of Big Change. But Squirt keeps me firmly planted in the Now, most of the time. I like to think I'm more realistic and practical these days, since becoming a mamma almost 2 years ago. But still. All I ended up with was a photo of a pizza cooked from frozen (with added banana and jalapenos), after a hard day of sorting, discarding, packing, cleaning...

& a bowl of fresh home-made pesto. So apparently, as far as visible records go, my happiness is in food these days! But it isn't, not really. Although it helps, food. Especially the not quite responsible, greasy kind. My happiness is - as always, really - in the small gestures, the funny remarks, the Big Hugs I get at times. The stuff that doesn't photograph well at all. So I emailed Mridula, and told her I was out of the challenge till the move - The Move - is complete, somewhere near the end of November hopefully.

But my creativity isn't locked completely - granted, it's a tangled heap at times, these days, but it's definitely part of what's keeping me sane(-ish, some might argue)!

And also, I think there is nothing wrong with responding to a challenge saying; 'well, there it is. This is the best I can come up with right now.' So, I'm not out! I'm still in! I can't promise to meet exact deadlines at the moment, but I'll be there with what came up, whatever it is, to publish when I can!

Please look at Mridula's post to see how she interpreted the assignment! She came up with the next challenge, SHADOWS, and the deadline is the 8th of November. I'm going to try to make it there :)

photo challenge: QUIET

So here I am with my photos for this round of the photo challenge Mridula & I set up a little while ago - a day late & all... It's not that I'm not taking this seriously - I do and I love it, too. It's just that I didn't have a lot of head space going spare over the past two weeks due to lots of snot - both my own and Squirt's, and the mounting - let's call it suspense - surrounding the house-moving-thing that's getting closer by the day.

I had all these ideas that I didn't get around to trying out. Scenes that would have taken me out of the house and into nature - soft leaves and moss, for example. And I couldn't think how I was going to get 'quiet' across in another set of photos taken on my trusted coffee table...

I'm not sure if these first two photos give you any sense of quiet at all, but quiet it was. That's what I ended up with, eventually. Squirt was picked up by my dad on Friday morning for a sleepover, so that we could have a little time; to think, talk, eat and drink ideas for the new house, and to sort a couple of things. Which we did. And it wasn't quiet at all. Not in my head, either!

Except for my early mornings. Which are sort of sacred every day, but got seriously extended by Man finally grabbing a chance to sleep very late! :) So I decided to use the light. And space both literal and figuratively speaking. And I ended up with these light filled macro still lives on my coffee table. Again.

I love light filled macro still lives on my blue coffee table. I do. Which must be fairly obvious, the number of times my blue coffee table (here, here, here & elsewhere) shows up in pictured scenes. Even if you're not a close observer! BUT... I wanted something different. Something outside. Something nature-y! But with every passing hour and rain cloud I sort of saw my chances floating away from me.

Until I decided on a fluke to bring my camera along on the drive to pick up Squirt at his grandparents late yesterday afternoon. And the weather gods decided to give me a break. And I ended up with water. Not the spot I wanted to go to; nor a place I would have picked. But light filled waterscapes of silence, none the less!

I don't have many words to add to this. Except a heartfelt 'thank you!' to Man who was willing and able to climb over slimy rocks for better composition!

It was hard work, this week's attempt! Due to circumstances though. Not because it isn't fun! Good stuff, when you end up with something worthwhile to publish after the moaning is done - at least in my own humble opinion ;)

Please click over to Mridula's post to see what she's done with QUIET, and to find out what the next challenge is going to be! If anyone is reading, interested and willing, you're very welcome to join us! Just leave a comment or send a mail; we'd love to see what you come up with!

update

She's doing well. Her head's still on. And the strawberries are coming along nicely, too.
Also, we're fine here, all of us. We're house-hunting and have some tough decisions to make, so - apparently - I haven't got a lot of headspace for much of anything else. I don't seem to notice the little and big things in quite as much colour as I normally do. Life keeps throwing me quirky balls and other mostly inanimate objects - of course - but I'm catching them and putting them away with Squirt's toys before bed at the moment.

This 'moment' won't last forever - I'll be back from this holiday-of-sorts soon enough. I really, really appreciate that there are still people out there popping in to see if anything new is up in this here corner! And I'm really sorry I haven't got much to show for myself... If only I could take snapshot pictures of the mayhem & chaos in my head! But then again - I'm not sure that would really entertain anyone but me (sort of. I'm sort of entertained. But mostly I'm basically going slightly mad, trying just to BE...) right here and now... ;)

Hope you're enjoying a beautiful Summer, wherever you are! I'm reading all the blogs for a vicarious holiday; a little time off, out of my head :)

plans

It has been quiet here, again, lately. Busy busy busy? Yes, that too. But admittedly, after spending a lot of time looking at other people's blogs again (I did say I've been busy, didn't I?), I'm having another Blog Identity Crisis. The whole 'what do I want to share' thing. And I haven't settled it. Yet. It's ongoing and subject to evolution.

But I have signed on to an online photography workshop! Which will give me another chance to get busy with image, neglected a little, of late. That is, when I don't count the pictures I'm always taking of Squirt. Which I don't. For art-ish-tic purposes at least.

The course will start on the 20th of March, this Saturday. So hopefully, soon, this blog will see more posting. Purposeful posting :-)

image

I know I don't have enough time for all the things I want to do in a short, short day. Nor do I have time to blog about it. I might not have (m)any readers either, but that doesn't necessarily mean I don't feel the need to post. To maintain at least a semblance of 'I was here'. Sort of. I'm like that. But don't worry, I've got it under control ;-)

And I know image is everything. So to uphold a hint of movement on this blog - even if it's corner-of-your-eye stuff - I'll post my latest images. Course work. Make of it what you will ;-)

long time...

... no blog!
But when you know your two-and-a-half readers have other things on their minds (and rightly so), and you go on a little holiday of sorts yourself, there isn't much pressure to put out.
Added to that the fact that I want to do too many things in too little time, blogging takes a serious backseat, and I prove to myself once again that I'm not sure this is my scene...

But I'm here now :-D Let's see if it sticks ;-)

what I made

But I was going to show what I made when my sewing machine broke down & got fixed.
Because I said I would... Not because I'm particularly proud, nor because I want you to tell me I should be. Making things myself is not something I do a lot. Ah, I should say "I didn't do a lot of that", because I have only just re-invented being creative, a little, and I have at least the intention to do some more art-ish-tics - *no fixed time frame* ;-)
What I'm trying to say is, I don't have a lot of experience (unlike so many intimidatingly talented people out there! ), which doesn't quite mesh with being a perfectionist ;-) I find it very hard to be proud of something I made, especially when it's kind of cute - and definitely well-intentioned (always that!) - but not quite perfect...
Anyway, here are the pictures:


Baby Boy loves his store-bought heart-with-labels, and he loves to run his nails over the letters I appliqued on the covers of the wicker baskets a week ago, so I decided a combination of those two favourites might make a good baby gift for Man's second cousin's new baby (breathe! complicated compound sentence finished!).
But I imagined it a lot nicer than it turned out... And if there is one thing I find harder than to enjoy something my-own-hands-made, it's giving it away to someone I don't know that well really. Okay, face it, I find it hard to give away something I made myself even when I'm happy with the result, even to someone I know well. Because I think the recipient might think I'm too cheap to buy a gift... That they'll see the tag, which says 'handmade' (yes, the tag too...), and they'll say "that's a bit on the unnecessary side of things, honey, we can tell it's handmade just by looking at it"...
Suffice to finish with, I'm not sure this particular handmade heart will make it to that particular new-born. And that I'll keep practising. And that I really don't know why I posted this log, apart from the fact that I said I would!

daredevil

I fixed my sewing machine the other day!
Right in the middle of a little project, the machine decided it had done enough over the years. Not for me, by the way; I'm not a gifted sewer (in either meaning of the word), I generally don't aim higher than straight seams and even that sporadically - but the machine is second-hand, and it has clearly & visibly been used before.
Anyway, I switched it off for a break, and when I got back to it, it didn't want to switch on again. My first instinctive reaction was to cry ("I don't have time for this crap! I hardly ever want to sew anything, really, and when I do gather courage, I need it to go smooth, and I need all potential mishaps to at least be my mishaps, not the equipment's failures!" - that type of tantrum).
But then I remembered my parents were coming over that afternoon: my dad was going to be there, and he can make pretty much anything electrical work again! Daddy will make it all better! Just like he used to! (how, @ times, I miss those imaginary days that grown-ups could fix everything, but that's another story!)
Aha & okay! Safety net in place - crying put off till after my dad tells me it's hopeless, I decided to 'go in' and see if this isn't fixable for beginners. I turned the machine over onto its side and peered at the bottom cover. CAUTION: no user serviceable parts! A little emblem with a screwdriver and a wrench and a big cross through both. SERVICE TECHNICIAN: disconnect electrical plug before removing cover for service! - I don't know about you, but I'm not sure I want a technician who needs that particular bit of warning anywhere near my sewing machine or any other electrical appliance, but that's beside the point.
Those warnings didn't deter me one bit! I took screwdriver to hand, threw caution in the wind and unscrewed the cover. Found the inner workings of the switch-thingy, switched it to the 'on' position, decided never to switch it off again, and Bob was my uncle (figure of speach-wise anyway)!
That's all! I know, a bit of an anti-climax, but I got my sewing machine back and finished my project - will show & tell in my next post!

That afternoon, my father took a look at the machine, and at what I did to fix it, and decided that's what he would have done, too - now how's that for a girl?! :-D

chicken

Ah & oh, internet. It's amazing what you can find - pretty much anything you're looking for bar a freshly-made cup of coffee. And I spend a lot of time looking for... stuff. Finding a lot of... stuff - absolute gems at times! But there's a sting in this particular tail: the danger of being creative only vicariously!
Obviously - even for me these days, with my busy-being-a-mamma-life - there are only so many hours in a day; and stupid but what can you do, when I spend a lot of my sparse spare time looking at what other people write and create, I don't have much time left to do my own art-ish-tics.
But there is another reason why it's not a great idea to spend too much time looking at other people's blogs : it's so bloody intimidating!!
Being me, I forget I click away from many more pages than ever end up in my favourites folder, but still! Some people - a lot of people, the web being world wide & all - have such a way with words!, with paper, scissors & glue!, with their camera!, with needle and thread! & so on, & so on...

So here I am, with this blog that I'm too scared to publish to people. Yet.
And here are a few pictures of what I got up to this weekend. For the tiny audience out there. So far. Hope at least all of you two like my effort ;-)

Wicker baskets - last year's "Christmas Goodies" came in one of those, but since there are always people who don't really want or need what they get, Man scored two more from colleagues!

Now I didn't really like the natural-cotton-look, especially considering the newest member of this little household: something white-ish with a baby growing rapidly into a little explorer... somehow doesn't strike me as the brightest choice in colour scheme ;-) So I declared one of them 'mine' and covered it in pink (!!),

and the other two can be Baby Boy's - you can't start too early pointing out where the toys should go (hey, a mother can hope!)!