... Overcomplicated much?

OK, hands up, I know I'm not the only one - who else overcomplicates things for themselves? 

Every so often, in fact every 7-8 years I seem to reach a sort of crossroads - medical people will probably say its something to do with the cycle of brain cells renewing/dying off, or maybe just dying off now that I'm over the hill, - sends the body into some sort of panic - "MUST do more - MUST try something else before it's too late..." that sort of thing....

I'm a bit of a craftaholic, I've tried lots of crafts and I don't tire of them so much as get overwhelmed by an urge to pick up a new one - the existing what-ever-it-is takes a back seat while I immerse myself in the new thing... from time to time, I pick up the old things and footer a little more

Seven years ago, the new thing was stamping, and I love stamping, I work at stamping. Before that I was a quilter. Before that I doodled at watercolours. I'm a person who needs a hobby, something to footer at when I'm not sorting out children/house/work, and recently work has become so complicated (EU VAT bumf - you don't want to know). I need something less complicated to make me feel like I can still create... so I picked up the crochet hook again, you might have seen my wee shawl I made on instagram, 

Crochet is good. Simple. Take-along-able. It's not like I have oodles of time, so every moment counts, waiting in the car, picking up children. Perfect....until...knitting....

Now, knitting is something I can really get my teeth into, especially colourwork, fairisle, stranded stuff... except that what happens next is that I want to make my own knitting designs, which is something new that I have to learn..... which becomes complicated, because I'm a total immersion kind of learner. I'm not content to pick things up bit by bit over years, I'm the sort that wants to know everything. Now. Today. My head aches with anticipation for all the things I need to find out about knitting, but I have oodles of stuff that I need to do first...like make dinner...pick up the kids, send out shipping notes for the store... the never ending to do list, so whatever I'm gonna knit, it's gonna have to be small...

... Simple shawl for Fall/Autumn

Been knocking up this little shawl in the car, while I'm waiting for folks to come out of school, dentist, badminton... etc.  I can't always get good phone coverage to catch up with emails etc and frankly I can't even be bothered to try stamping in the car....

Pleased with this, it's crocheted in a Stylecraft yarn - Life DK in the Denim shade, they have it here at Love Knitting - must confess that I have yet to purchase from Love Knitting so I have no clue what the store is like to shop with, but they seem to have it at a good price at the mo.

I used three 100g balls of yarn and began by making a chain of 60 stitched plus 4 extra. the stitch is Shell Mesh stitch and that requires a chain in multiples of 12, plus 4 extra stitches. I crocheted the entire of the 3 balls of yarn, joining with a knot as necessary and my shawl ended up 72 inches long by 16 inches wide. I seem to crochet with a fairly loose tension, and I liked how drapey that makes the shawl feel. The yarn is quite soft, but has a 25% wool content so some folks (my little dude) might find that a little itchy, but I find it quite cozy. I liked the denim shade because I live in jeans, it's not too dressy-uppy. There's not much place in my lifestyle for cashmere I'm afraid... It's also well within my price range, the shawl working out at around £6.00 to make.

To make the shawl, I just crocheted back and forth doing the shell mesh stitch - there is a slight pattern to that stitch, you make a shell on alternate rows in alternate places and in between there is a chain row. It's really simple once you start, but if you like the look of this, do check out this video - this lady seems to be doing the exact stitch that I used.

Hope that tickles!

...work for idle hands

There was a time, eons ago, when I was able to sit around doing nothing. That was back in the 80's... Since I've been all growed up - and more specifically, since my dad passed, I've had this inability to sit still doing nothing. I just can't. I can't watch TV either. I absolutely have to be doing something productive. I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not doing something. I don't recommend this as a life plan though... my dad used to say I should try to stop and 'smell the roses'.

Normally I'm working and that's grand, I don't think about it. I'm busy all the time between WMS and the children and the house. I don't have hobbies or free time because my work has evolved from my hobby and while I love stamping, running a stamp company is way more involved than I ever imagined and there just are not enough hours in the day to allow for hobbies, or even casual stamping. There's not a chance I can wind down to a break, I find I just have to pull the plug and go cold turkey on it.

If I'm at home, I cannot resist the temptation to pop on the web for a mo' and see what's happening. So away we went - nearly two full weeks in County Kerry - and yep, if you are interested, I will get to the travel shots over the next couple of days.

I just wanted to show you what I do when I can't do anything else - when there's no computer, no wifi for the phone, no web at all... anywhere, and when the kids have gone to bed - I crochet.

I throw a few balls of yarn in a ziplock baggie and make stuff - I'm drawn to pretty household accessories. Last year's vacation was all baby booties as we were expecting a new family member, my niece, but this year I took a liking to a pretty doily pattern and set about making up a bunch of those. (The pattern is from the 'Crochet Living' Book by Nicki Trench)

Nope, I have no idea what I'm going to use them for, nope they do not even slightly match my home decor (such as it is, but that's another story) and no,  we're not really the sort of folks who use doilies as doilies, but I just really, really needed to make something pretty that didn't involve a deadline.... I'm nearly there... :)

Store News

I'm all caught up with orders and I am tackling the email mountain - I've only another 3000 odd emails to look through, so please bear with me if you are expecting a reply to any emails you've sent me. The next thing on my list after that is to start the new look PJ party and then get the nextrelease items whipped into shape - and ohhh - you should see some of the guest designer samples that I looked at this morning...ah but you will...all in good time... chat soon.

...Cabin in the woods

Lots of you folks will know it has been a hectic couple of years in the Brennan household, and I don't like to rake over old ground, other than to say that a couple of things caught up with me recently and I have been doing a lot of reflecting on things that have happened, things that didn't happen and things that I would like to happen. I am not a planner by nature, but you know how sometimes you just have to shake yourself a little and do some mental organising...

So I have been a busy bee, I have not been crafting much, but I have been designing stamps to the power of 10. Design work is not something that I can really share with you before it is ready to launch, and that has meant a lot of empty days on the old blog. If I was super savvy I would get myself one of those magic web programs in which you can schedule 10 million posts ahead of time, but I find that unlike most women who are fabulous at multi-tasking, I seem to really only be able to do one thing at any one time!

I am going to plead the perfectionism ammendment here and tell you that I will not start anything unless I know that a) I have the time to do it, and b) the means to do it well.

This is pretty much a catastrophe when it comes to running a business. To run a business well I think you need to be able to keep multiple balls in the air at any one time. I am no juggler and so when I'm focusing on one ball, most of the others fall to the ground! I've been drawing and shipping and relying a LOT on our USA shipper Lynn, who is thankfully my opposite when it comes to organization skills!

Exhibit A - The craft room.

Less than a year ago I moved into this house and had big plans to organize and categorize and stylize all my crafting gear to within a milimetre, the above is what I have looked at every day for the last month as I sat at this computer drawing. It's been killing me, but I've been determined to draw and so I have ignored it...

So just in case you are checking in, thinking, " I wonder what ever happened  to old waltzingmouse...." I'm here, I'm drawing and I'm coming out to play soon!

In the meantime I have a pic of a watercolour illustration I did for a quilt that I was planning and subsequently made during that magical year when I was expecting the boy and my house was always tidy, there was always a hot meal waiting for DH and I seemed to get everything done and then some....