A day of crafting and doing nothing

 I finally took a leaf out of my own book (telling others to 'take care of themselves' and 'you cannot pour from an empty cup' etc) and decided to take a day off work with no intention of doing housework, ironing, paperwork etc.  All I was going to do was rest and craft.

Now I tend to be a list maker and ticker off....I rarely sit still and talk too much BUT I do meditate on a regular basis and I have found that when I have too much 'internal chatter' going on that crafting takes me out of my zone and allows me to be more mindful by concentrating just on that one thing.  To be honest I have crafted for almost 40 years so I don't even really concentrate on technique anymore more of a 'go with the flow' and see where it takes me!

So I decided to make my husband a birthday card

and finally get round to using up some of these lovely images I stamped ages ago from a friends stamp I borrowed.

Before I knew it I had a stack of cards all made and a few hours of not thinking about work, housework, finance or my RA-what bliss.

So I need to remember this and schedule more days (or even just half days) into my diary for 'me' and to allow time for myself to rest and repair.  I love my daily walks (which I have been doing for over a year now) but I need something else.

How do you give yourself some precious 'downtime'?  I am open to ideas.

Happy crafting

Kyla

A wedding and a Volcano!

 Hello peeps.  I have been absent for a couple of weeks as I have been busy with my brothers wedding.

My brother, Andrew, met his wife (oh that sounds so odd!!) Zoe in Ecuador where they lived for 3 years.  They met on the other side of the planet up a volcano where they were both working for a charity-the odd thing is they were both living in London before they met, yet there is no reason why they would have met in London, different friends and past times, so it was definitely fate that they both met.

They married Friday 13th in Haselmere a mix of traditional church wedding with more than a mix of Ecuadorian flavours (and a lot of it in the native tongue of Spanish).

The wedding was beautiful, the bride was stunning (in what I think was the most beautiful dress I have ever seen) and my brother looked so happy.

 As they left the church they had a homemade piñata filled with rose petals (instead of confetti) which the bride and groom walloped with a rather large stick!

Since they lived on a volcano the wedding had this theme. The tables were named after the various volcanoes they lived on, worked on and hiked up.  Their wedding cake even had cotton wool clouds and guinea pigs....though to top it all the wedding cake also erupted with a plume of smoke from the top!!!  

I decide to make a frame for the happy couple with a map of Ecuador and scrabble tiles with their initials (as I thought A-Z sounded like a travel book!)

I also wrapped a horseshoe that I found when clearing out my dad's shed in ribbon.  It took a lot of cleaning and 4 types of glue before I found one that worked (its the first time Multi Medium hasn't worked!).  Its only 5 months since dad died and I thought it would be nice to have something of his there.

It was a lovely day and I met Zoe's wonderful blended family (Father, step Mother, Mother and Step Father and each of their respective families) and friends.  It rained a bit but no one seemed to mind as it was such a fabulous day.

To Andrew and Zoe, soul mates forever.

Kyla xx