What I've learnt in June

Emily over at Chatting at the Sky is having a fun and serious link-up about "What I've learnt in June" today and I thought I'd join in.

1. I can cope with my daughters without assistance better than I thought.
The Hubster had some hard work to get down this month, which left me fielding the kidlets, and I managed surprisingly well. This means that I can feel freer to do things without him and to encourage him to go where he needs to go and do what he wants to do (youth ministry conference coming up for example?).

2. If I keep plodding, work gets down. (But when I don't plod it can be sitting waiting for weeks!)
PhD work has been plodding, and progressing slowly, but I still have a pair of pjs cut out and waiting to be sewn.

3. Marking can be hilarious, as well as incredibly boring.
Okay, so I knew this already, but I've been doing more undergrad marking, and some of the things that pop up had me laughing out loud. Other bits had me facepalming and losing faith in humanity, at least until I was laughing again or came across a really good essay.

4. Sometimes the littlest things can really matter at the same time as them not mattering at all.
Case in point: "We are made in His image" vs. "We are made in God's image" - no difference, but all the difference in the world.

5. Printing out documents and reading them on paper gives me a very different perspective on them and I find it easier to edit.
Not tree-friendly, but I console myself by the backs becoming free-for-drawing for Miss S or recycling. And then more PhD work gets done (and this is good).

6. Fires are awesome (and messy).
Winter has set in, with days in a row being less than 10 degrees, so we are enjoying our fire - it makes the house so cosy! But there is always more dusting and tiny bits of wood scattered around the place.

7. An old familiar book that hasn't been read in a while is a great comfort when you fall into bed tired at the end of the day. You know you're not missing out when you find yourself half-snoozing through your reading, but it's still a good read.

8.Sometimes the most profound things we learn from babies who cannot even move around or talk for themselves: Sometimes you have to let go before you can grasp something new. (Oh, and Miss A is amazing, sitting by herself and being generally gorgeous.)

9. We have far more computer power cords than we will ever need.
I've made a small start on sorting and reboxing (and throwing away) things stored in our garage. First box accessible was the Hubster's cord box. I'm not even halfway through and I've found around 5 computer power cords and 3 old printer-to-USB cords (the type that aren't used anymore).

So what have you learned in June? From the ridiculous to the mundane to something seriously profound...

A return

I've been thinking of reawakening my blog.

It's been a long time, but I feel like it might be a good thing to have a place to set goals and share the things I manage to get done.

I'm in quite a different place to a few years ago when I was last around here, but in some ways still similar, echoes of the past. I've had another baby and am about to be back full-time studying, and as ever I am trying to fit more crafting into my life while balancing the fact that crafting causes me pain (lack of crafting also causes me pain, but emotional/psychological rather than physical).

So goals for the next month/wee while?
1. do a little bit of something crafty every day. I have long skirts to make, clothes for Miss S (who's now 4!!), a bit of knitting that has been waiting to be finished for a few years that I am determined to get done.
2. Take photos more, of said craftiness, baby Miss A, not-baby Miss S, and other things that catch my eye.
3. My book pile is growing rather than being kept up with, so I want to be a bit more deliberate about it.
4. AND there's that pesky PhD to work on ;) Might do another post of goals for that one. Though I'm not officially back into it till 1 May, I'd like to be able to ease my way in.

To help enable number 1, I've got my sewing machine sitting out all the time, with the laptop away, instead of the previously usual other way around, though bits and pieces still need to be put away from curious little hands.

Another thought of getting back into blogging is to get myself writing more, even just blog posts, and to help myself 'think on paper/keyboard' again which will help my PhD writing.

We'll see how we go :)

have books... will study

It is a miserable wet and gloomy day here, and, after dropping the darling husband off at work, I took Miss S adventuring out in it to Uni to get my books and study notes for the semester, both of us arrived home rather damp. So to brighten our days, here's a few pics I've taken recently on a much sunnier day:

Some of the trees in our street think it's autumn.
(apologies for the hideous smudge, I took this photo through my car's windscreen - it obviously needs a good clean!)

The cross on local Our Lady of Lourdes catholic school and church.

What do you do to brighten gloomy days? -Especially all you Northern Hemispherians hanging out for spring.

The Painted Man

A little while ago I mentioned that I had just started reading "The Painted Man" by Peter V. Brett. I finished it about a week ago, it really was fabulous!


I don't usually rave about books, but this one was really really good. It's not yet released in the US, but will be out in March as "The Warded Man". It's also being/been published in a few other languages around the world, more info about that on Peter V. Brett's website. It's a fantasy book in which three young people challenge the fears of their elders. Determined not to accept those fears as their own, they challenge the way their society is built and look towards saving humanity from the darkness. A good description can be found on wikipedia here, without giving away any of the story. If you like fantasy books, I really encourage you to find a copy.

Since I've finally been able to put that book down (it really was that good) I've taken a break from sewing nappy pockets and have been making more cards, more on them another day.

sewing books

I haven't blogged in the last few days, but for good reason - I've been sewing! Here's a sneak peek:


I'll show more when I've finished it's twin :) Doing a bit of sewing has gotten me all enthused about sewing Miss S's nappy pockets, so maybe that'll be the next project. I've been overdoing it a bit though, my wrists are a bit sore, but it's hard to stop sometimes, and I've been loving being creative again after a bit of a dry spell.

I've also finished a book that was starting to drag a bit, and started a new one which I'm loving so far: The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett. Published as The Warded Man in the US, being released in March there. It's fairly recently published and it's his first published book. It's the first in The Demon Trilogy. I was hoping it was a standalone, but no luck, I'll have to wait on the next two being published and my library getting them. So far it's very enjoyable and intriguing. So by the time I've finished reading it, it's quite thick and chucky, the book that got ordered as a birthday present will have arrived and I can read that :)

What's on your reading pile at the moment?