Tuesday 15 April 2014

What Is Your Superpower Bloghop

Welcome to this bloghop! As always, many thanks to Madame Samm and Pauline for hosting. They must have so much energy!

I had a long think about my superpower before finally turning to my husband and asking him. "You could call yourself 'MegaMess' or 'The Mess Monster'." he helpfully suggested. He sometimes comes home to find me cross legged on the floor or sofa with fabric, knitting, embroidery and more spread around me. At these times he refers to me as "Craft Buddha"! But having seen a great Buddha at Kamakura a month ago I thought something a little less emotive was needed. Finally it occurred to me - yes, I am a tad messy, but I do know where everything is! Therefore....behold! The Mistress of Mess!
Mistress of Mess Embroidery
I mixed chain stitch outlines on the letters with a running stitch outline of the limbs and a kind of messy satin stitch on the hair, dress and shoes.
Mistress of Mess Embroidery Detail
Mistress of Mess Embroidery Detail
The central figure is a design I had saved as a flickr favourite from 2008 which made it onto Pinterest and came to mind when I heard about this bloghop. Unfortunately her shop is no longer open so I had to freehand copy the design but if it does reopen I will gladly pay for it. So happy that I finally got to stitch it myself!

I hope you like what I have done and are all aware of your own superpowers! Please visit the others who are in today's bloghop and those form other days. You can see the full schedule here.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 16

Monday 14 April 2014

Things Can Only Get Better

Here I am back in the UK. I hadn't really noticed when in Tokyo but we don't seem to get decent clouds there. The sky is either blue, blue with a few wisps of white or completely homogeneous grey. Not like the UK.
longleat 046
I was mesmerised on the way to my sister's house. Apart from that I have slotted back into english life pretty easily.

I came back a week earlier than planned because of a family crisis - my sister's husband walked out on her and their 10 month old about five weeks ago leaving her without the money to pay the rent due the next day and just two weeks before she was due to go back to work full time from her maternity leave. I came straight to her house from the airport and have been here since but now I'm wondering whether I've done the right thing. She is so terribly upset and I have been trying to convince her that things will get better and to stop focusing on the worst possible scenarios. Unfortunately she sees this as me criticising her and she's ended up getting annoyed with me.
Dour Marble
She's also said that having me here has made it worse as it has highlighted how much easier it is when there are two people to share responsibilities for Jasmine and for the house.
NYC: St. Patrick's Cathedral behind Atlas
I've offered to stay in the hotel nearby so she has her evenings free and just be here to look after Jasmine during the day (her sitter is on holiday this week) but she was too upset to discuss it. I don't really know what to do. It is all a little awkward while at the same time I couldn't have more sympathy or be more sorry about the situation she has found herself in through no fault of her own. I am not very good at emotional stuff.

Looking for a ray of sunshine in all this - spending time with Jasmine has been wonderful although it did involve a particular nappy which I swear I saw Government agents in hazmat suits coming to collect later on.
What's That Noise?
We've been reading books and playing games and I'm starting to recognise the cries when she's tired or hungry and I even gave her a bath and put her to bed all by myself! Quite a feeling of achievement even though it has all strengthened my intention never to have children of my own. I don't know how anyone with one (or more) manages to get anything else done in their lives. I am due to stay with my Mum for a few nights from Saturday but I worry about leaving my sister in this state, especially as she has a house move coming up (to a cheaper place since she's been left in such a mess) and will need to start packing.

All in all it means a perturbing time is being had by all in this house at the moment.