Good Intentions

I’ve had it with the whole New Year’s Resolution thang.  No more, all that inevitable self hatred and disappointment a few weeks minutes into the year.


I start this year with a much kinder list of Good Intentions and a Quilt for me, to help reinforce them.


So, here they are … in no particular order

	Let go   Of course I’m not going to forget all the people who I’ve lost in the last year, but I am going to try to focus on remembering their vitality, not their demise. Grieving must end.  Mourning can continue awhile.
	Read more … and I don’t mean blogs!  I’ve found it very difficult to focus on a whole book this year.  I used to get through a book a week.   Time to buck up.
	Learn More From free motion quilting to writing new training courses via a bit of embroidery and painting.  It’s time to learn and hone and share. Pop over to Kellie @ 74 Lime Lane to participate even more by joining the Creative Collective ... (button on side bar -->)
	Procrastinate Less We all know it’s much less painful just to get on with the boring stuff.  I’m going to make this a mission.
	Nurture Nature I actually started blogging a couple of years ago to document my wonderful little front garden and all the veggies and fruit I grew, but this year, when my brother got ill, it all went tits up.  This year will be a bumper crop.
	Persevere Need I say more?!
	Commune Be it on or offline, I need to participate more and spectate less.
	Frown less, Laugh more (once the ribs have healed a bit!)

And here’s a sneak peek at a couple of blocks from my Quilt of Good Intentions:

Fresh and zingy and very loosely based on a Yellow Brick Road pattern … In fact, I'm intentionally being unintentional!  yum!

So, what is your No.1 Good Intention for the coming year?  Do share …

Full of Thanks + a last shout for ruby star rising Giveaway …

I’m not American, I’m quite, quite English, as it happens.  

But you know what?  I don’t think it’s such a bad thing to have an annual day of thanksgiving.  So, here I am, waving my little flag here in Brighton, a day early!

Today I am full of thankfulness.




Today it's also four months since my brother died.

I am overwhelmingly thankful that my grieving process has taken the form of self-expression, rather than self-destruction.  


Just as when he was ill 'doing crafty stuff with my hands' saw me through long hours of waiting, it now sees me through many hours of missing. 




 




I am thankful for having the patience to rip it up and start again sometimes - I learn a little more each time.

This doesn’t just apply to sewing …










 

I’m thankful for the very real community that I have found since I first arrived in the Blogolopolis.

Generosity of spirit is a welcome delight irrespective of whether the day’s been awesome or irksome.  

It’s great to be able to share and contribute to it, in whatever way.




Wishing you all - wherever you are - and whatever you are thankful for - a good, good day :)


I’ll draw the winner for my Melody Miller scraps giveaway on Friday night (UK time) so hop over here to enter if you haven’t already - and don’t worry if your comment looks like it has disappeared - I have them all backed up :)

Is it just me?

Although there are a gazillion websites and blogs here in the UK that offer really good 'practical' and chatty support for all things crafty and stitchy, it seems to me that they still don't quite manage the community feel of our American & Australian cousins.  Perhaps that's why I keep finding myself unwittingly tagging sites from the US & Oz?

(Before anyone starts chipping in with the anti-American thing, I'd just like to say that I'm not too chirpy about ANY country's politics these days.  Luckily politics and sewing rarely share the same tags)

Is it just that these landmasses are so huge that the proportion of female and male stitchers and crafters who blog is so much bigger? I guess so.  

But there's something else - Along with a lack of guilt and an affirmed celebration of 'doing crafty stuff', there's a natural openness and willingness to 'share' that us Brits are pre-programmed to find cloying and - oh the irony - robotic.


They're not that short on sophistication and irony either ....

Take this FANTASTIC video entry from Amanda Fetters for a sewing-machine giveaway (Q: How would your life be better with a serger?) :

check out her great blog too .. http://littlecumulus.wordpress.com

 

Ultimately, this is the kind of thing that helps build online communities.

I'm delighted to be visiting ... oh, and have a nice day ..