A - Z Challenge - A is for Art.

My cousin Wendy is taking part in a blog challenge this month. Blogging from A - Z. One post a day, every day except Sundays. You can find out about it here: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/what-is-blogging-from-to-z.html

I have just read Wendy's post for today which is A is for ancestry. Wendy is keeping to a family theme for the whole month I think. However I don’t think you have to do that, I think you can just have a different thing every day. A bit like I did way back in my Yahoo days.

Anyway, I don’t want to actually join the challenge as I am pretty certain I will fail. But, I thought I might join in from time to time. So today is the letter A.

My theme is Art. I want to know what art means to you? How do you define what is art and what isn't?

That definition is something I have always had a problem with. When I was at secondary school we had lessons called “art”. We mainly drew things and did some painting. I was hopeless at it. To this day I still cannot draw. Although, that said, I guess everyone that can make a mark on paper can draw. It is in the eye of the beholder if it is good or not.

Because of those “art” lessons I have always thought that art was about drawing. I do know that many other things come under the heading too but I am thinking about drawing and painting right now.

So, what makes something art? For me I think it is when something is a true representation. Something that looks real. I really do not like abstract stuff. As for some of the stuff that looks like a 2 year old may have done it, well I just don’t see how that can be art.

I guess it is all to do with how we actually define that word isn’t it. “Art is a visual expression of an idea” according to the dictionary. So I can see that my limited view of it being just about paintings isn't quite right! I know that really

I think my problem is where do we draw the line? So a beautifully handmade quilt is art. An intricate piece of handmade jewellery is art. A lovingly hand knitted garment is art. A hand embroidered doodle is art. Hand crafted paper flower bouquets are art.

I can agree with all the above. Here are a few examples. Do you think they are art? **

Handmade Chainmaille by Victoria Sol:  

Hand Embroidered doodle by Kim's Handmade Cave. 

Handmade paper flower bouquets by Dawn the Funky Flower Girl

Hand knitted Cushion by The Feminine Touch

Needle felted Hamlet Hamster made by Jenny of Mythillogical

What does not in anyway constitute art for me are things such as “My Bed” by British artist Tracey Emin. I mean come on, how is that art? It is just a horrid example of what a room looks like when it is left uncleaned for a few days! She is clearly a sloven not an artist. This “room” was sold at auction in 2014 for a little over 2.5 million pounds!

If there are any takers out there I can create you a piece of art like that in no time at all. It isn't art. It's bullshit. Actually wasn't there another so called artist who actually painted with shit? Don't get me started!

What are your thoughts? What constitutes art for you? Do you have any examples?

I am going to finish now with a cherished piece of art from my own home. It was painted by my Dad and I love it.

** The above examples of art are by some of the members of the Etsy team that I belong to. Craft Britannia.

Jilly. 

Bloody British Weather

Afternoon all, just a quick pop in to let you know where I am at. First of all, yes I know I had said that I was going to try and do daily blogs but hey ho, I also knew that was never going to happen! I do have a good excuse though. We were away. No internet access.

Do you know, it's actually a funny thing about internet access. We went away in February and were staying at Wareham Forest. It is a rural area in Dorset, but that said it is also just a few miles from a very busy, urban, tourist area.

On our van Tallulah, we had between us, 2 smart phones. 2 Ipads, a very expensive Snooper GPS unit, all singing and dancing with internet, plus our own MI-Fi hotspot. Could we get on the internet? Not on your Nelly. Could we get a phone signal? Absolutely no chance. Somehow, I thought things were better than that nowadays. Obviously not.

Anyway, we were away with no internet. As some of you know we should still be away. We had planned to be way until Eater Monday. We were going to travel the North Norfolk coast and then go to Verity's for Easter.

We managed just one night. We went on Monday to Brancaster and had quite a nice day despite it being very cold.  A few photos:

Things started to go wrong around dinner time when we visited 2 dog friendly pubs where we thought we could have a nice meal out. What we hadn't thought about was that “dog friendly” means the world and his wife are there complete with their family of dogs! This is therefore not going to work for us as Beanie is nervous of other dogs. So it was a long walk in the wind and rain back to the van for pasties and beans.

Earlier in the day Simon had attempted to put up our Drive Away awning, despite the wind! He has only ever tested it once before, last summer when we purchased it. Of course by now he has forgotten how to do it and has lost the instructions. He did get it up but it didn't actually look quite right. The wind did not help and in fact it proved impossible to attach to the van mostly because of the wind. I kept telling him it was way too windy, but men always know best until the wife proves to be right!

So, we went to bed. It wasn't pleasant and the wind was picking up more and more and the rain was torrential. After about a quarter of an hour I got up. It was bloody scary. The wind was rocking the van quite violently and actually making me feel sick. Imagine being on a boat in really rough sea or on a plane with the worst turbulence ever. You have some idea.

Long story short, I spent the night sitting in the drivers seat with my feet propped on the seats opposite, trying to console Beanie who wasn’t entirely happy with this new experience. Simon of course stayed in the bed although he didn’t sleep much.

After a very long night where I was checking my watch about every 20 minutes, just longing for dawn to come, Simon finally got up. I was able to inform him that our lovely new awning which we have yet to use was now lying in a tangled, muddy mess on the ground. I watched it gradually go down over the course of the night. Nothing I could do. I have no idea at the moment if it is salvageable or not. It is currently in a heap in the back of the van waiting for a dry, non windy day so we can get it out in the garden and survey the damage.

With rain and strong winds forecast to go on until today we decided that after just one night it was best to head for home. I could barely move. A night spent sitting upright had made me very stiff and set off my lower back pain again. Just when I thought I had got rid of it. I also had the beginnings of a migraine almost certainly due to the stress of it all.

And so we are at home. Feeling pretty fed up. We had been looking forward so much to our first, longer foray. Right now, I am seriously considering if “motor-homing” is really for me. Something always seems to go tits up. (For my Merikan friends, who may not know that expression; it means gone wrong!).

JILLY

Blessings - Shafiq Morra Usman Abdullahi

Phew, just managed to make it here. That's 3 days in a row. Simon has finished now for the Easter holidays. He will be at home for 18 days so it is a good long break for him.

We have had a relatively lazy day. This morning we were sorting out Tallulah ready for next week. Simon had to change a fuse which had blown on our last trip and stopped the heating working. It took a bit of figuring out. I gave her a thorough vacuum to make sure she is spick and span for her next adventure. I also loaded in some new food supplies and got all Beanie's food sorted and stored.

With that job done, I set about doing some online banking whilst Simon got our potatoes planted. We already have onions and garlic in that have overwintered. We just ordered some seed today. This year we would like to grow some of our bedding and basket flowers from seed.

This afternoon we paid a visit to the kennels to drop off a load of stuff for the market tomorrow. We are not able to go this month as it is Morra's 1^st birthday party tomorrow.

Speaking of Morra gets me back to my theme of blessings. Morra is Saskia's little one. All our grandchildren are wonderful blessings and all very special. Morra came to us at a time of great sadness and he bought such joy and happiness with him. He was born just 4 days after we lost my Dad.

The day Dad died, I travelled with Verity and Jackson to Saskia in Leicester. Because she was so close to giving birth she was not able to be with us at the hospital. We could not tell her that her Granddad had gone over the phone, so we had to go to her. I will always remember that journey and Saskia's reaction. We were all so upset that Dad never got to meet little Morra. Every time I visited him in those last weeks, the first thing he asked was “how is Saskia doing”?

Morra was born on the 23^rd of March. He should have been born at home and Saskia had Coralie there with her but in the event, due to his heart beat dropping very low, she was swiftly moved to the hospital and he came shortly after. What a gift he was too. I can't tell you how much he raised our spirits. It was good to have something to smile about even though my every thought at that point was tinged with sorrow. I would have given anything for Dad to have been able to see him. I am sure that Dad knew that he was at the funeral service with everyone else despite being just a few days old.

He was quite a small baby but grew rapidly. We think that Mummy’s milk was gold top! Now at a year old he is about average, although on the tall side. His Daddy is tall. It's hard to say who he looks like but in the most recent photos, I can see the Sansum in him.

I can't believe he is already a year old. I have no idea where that year went to. He is walking now and I am looking forward to seeing that tomorrow. I have seen videos and he was nearly there last time we saw him.

His party is tomorrow and all the family will be there except Sam, Lisa and the girls as they are currently in France. I am so looking forward to it. I love the occasions when we are all together. To have a large and close knit family is another blessing. Doesn't mean they don’t get on my nerves sometimes! LOL.

Here are some photo's from Morra's first year.

 

 I love this one of Ellie.  It was the first time they met.  The eldest and the youngest!

 

 Three of my four boys.

 

I will post some photos from his party after tomorrow.

Have a great weekend.

Jilly

Blessings - My Dad.

Righty ho, I said I would blog so here I am blogging. Trouble is I am limited for time today as I have a fair few jobs to get done this morning as I want to go to the big city this afternoon for some shopping. I need to buy a present for my little Grandson's birthday.

I have to use public transport to go anywhere as we only have the one car and Simon uses that for work. The buses from my village go once an hour and it takes around an hour to get to the city. I have to change buses in the nearby town of Bourne and then I can get a bus to Peterborough which is the nearest big place with decent shops. It is a bit of a trek so I don’t do it very often! However going today I can come back with Simon in the car so that makes it better.

Anyway, where was I? See I am already waffling on. I can't just write a blog without some waffle. Yesterday I mentioned that despite recent sadness we are also very blessed. So I think I will restart my blogging habit by talking about some of my blessings.

I am going to start with my Dad. He was the most wonderful man and one year on I still miss him terribly. I think of him every single day and talk to him too.

He was born in the East End of London on the 13^th of December 1926. The 2^nd child and 2^nd son of Harry and Edith Sansum. He eventually had 4 more siblings, another brother and 3 sisters. They were a typical East End family of that time. They were very poor and eked out an existence. His Dad liked the drink a bit too much so although he worked, the family didn’t see too much of his earnings. His Mum was a very strong, sensible lady with good morals and I think it was her influence that made my Dad the man he was.

1951. Great Yarmouth

He was kind, patient, honest, hard working, and devoted to my Mum. Many of you will know how hard it was for our family once the Alzheimers took over my Mum. Dad never faltered in his love and care for her right until the end. Once Mum had gone we thought he wouldn't be long after her but in fact he enjoyed 2 more years.

They were good years. He once again became fully engaged with all of the family. He adored his great grandchildren and we had many family occasions where he had the best time. He also started to visit us every school holiday. He had never done that while Mum was still alive because he would never leave her. He really looked forward to coming to stay and in fact he always knew when the next holiday was due.

This was taken on his 87th birthday and is the last photo of him with his Great Grandchildren.

So we were both eagerly looking forward to the February half term break last year. I had various plans of things we were going to do together. Little did either of us know that it wasn't to be.

Dad suffered a stroke at the end of January. In the first few hours the news coming from my sister was that it might not be too bad. After all he had been out doing his shopping and had walked to his doctor himself because he didn't feel so good. However over the next few days we realised that actually it was the very worst kind of stroke. It had occurred at the back, right in the centre so had effected not just his ability to walk but also things such as his swallowing reflex.

He was in the Lister hospital in Stevenage and over the following weeks they tried hard to do some physiotherapy with him but he was very down. He also had an operation to insert a permanent feeding port as it seemed that he would never regain his swallow. After around a month they moved him to a rehabilitation unit in Old Welwyn. They seemed positive that they would get him back on his feet. To be honest, I always had doubts, I just couldn’t ever see him making it home. I did try to have hope though.

Sadly from the very first day there things went wrong. He contracted some kind of infection and was in a lot of pain and discomfort. They could not begin his rehabilitation as he couldn’t move from the bed. This went on for several weeks during which time they had him in isolation as they were not sure what the infection was. It was a miserable existence for him and he told me on several occasions that he didn’t want to be here, he wanted to be with Mum. That is very hard to hear but I did understand.

Finally after several weeks he got pneumonia and they decided that he needed to be transferred back to the hospital at Stevenage. They moved him on he Monday night. I went up to see him on the Tuesday. I was shocked. I knew then he was never going home. He had on an oxygen mask but he kept fighting to take it off. It was hard to hear and understand what he was saying with it on. He did remove it briefly to say he loved me. I will always remember that.

I had a long journey home and didn't get in until around 8.30pm. I rang my children to let them know that he really was very poorly. I knew it wasn’t going to be long. I didn’t however expect it to be a matter of hours. I got a phone call around half an hour after I got home from my sister to say that the hospital had phoned for them to go in as he was asking for them. At around midnight she phoned to say I should return.

Simon and I were straight in the car. Once we were there the doctor came and spoke to us. Dad had made up his own mind that it was time. He refused all further treatment and the doctor told him that without it he would die that day. She asked if that was what he wanted and he told her yes. She asked my sister and I if we agreed. We had to say yes. It wasn’t what I wanted at all. I wanted my Dad back. I didn’t want to lose him. However I did understand that he wasn’t going to get better and that he had simply had enough. It was time to go and be with Mum.

They switched of all the machines and removed everything from him. We were moved into a private room as by this time most of the family were there. He died about 20 minutes later. It was very peaceful and he knew we were all there. He even had his youngest great-grandson Jackson, sitting on the bed holding his hand. Jackson was just 1 year old. We asked Dad if he knew Jackson was holding his hand and he nodded yes! A few minutes later the light went out on my world.

I found it incredibly hard. I was inconsolable. Even now I cannot write this without the tears streaming down my face.

And now a whole year has passed without him. The last one of the “first anniversaries” has passed. It isn’t any easier. So many times there is stuff that I want to tell him. On several occasions I have actually picked up the phone and dialled the number before my brain has reminded me that he won't be answering.

I wonder what he would make of it all? I know what he would tell me. “Life goes on and you must pick yourself up and get on with it”. He once told me that my sister Julie had described me as pragmatic. He said “I don’t know what that actually means but I know you will be OK because you are e a coper. You deal with things”. He is right. I am dealing with it. One of my ways of doing that is to try and live by the mantra of always remember the good times and also to always count my blessing every single day.

My Dad was one of the biggest blessings of my life. I was so blessed to have such a wonderful man as my father. A man who showed me how to be the best that I can. A man who taught me that no matter what, family are the most important thing. He will always be a blessing.

I love you Dad.

PS. I hope I haven’t made anyone feel down with this blog. As I wrote it, I got quite upset. It's OK to be upset. You know, my sister is right, I am pragmatic. I am a coper. As far as I can see there is no other choice. Whatever life throws at us, all we can do is carry on. I have my tears and my sad times, but then in the words of my grandson Evan, I “give myself a talking to” and then I follow my road.

My friend Deb will understand the reference to following the road.

Count your blessings every single day and whatever happens follow your road.

Jilly

Dusting off the cobwebs.

Creeping in very quietly, brushing away the cobwebs and wondering if anyone will even notice me.... Wonder if anyone will even remember me?

In the last 2 years I have been here around a dozen times.  Not a good track record when you remember that I used to do a daily blog.  The habit seemed to go by the wayside around the time we moved house back in December 2011.  I guess I was busy.

Last year I had such good intentions and started out well in January with some daily photos.  It all came to a standstill mid January when life threw me one of those curve balls.  So, this year, once again, I started out in January and managed a few short blogs until........ Wham....18th January and along comes another one.  I don't like January.

So over the last few years a lot has happened and much has changed and I don't even know where to begin.  I would need to write a book.  Actually that reminds me of a favourite book, "Bridget Jones Diary".  So in the fashion of Bridget Jones here are the last 2 years of my life summed up:

Dads died - 1.  Uncles died - 1.  Dogs died - 1.  Grandsons born - 1.  Daughters having major surgery - 1.  Fire at kennels - 1.  Dogs lost in fire - 3.  Dogs come to live with us -1.  Husbands retiring soon - 1.

Cigarettes consumed -  don't tempt me.  Glasses of wine - Loads.  Weight loss - 1stone 6.5lbs.

So it has been a rough couple of years for us with much sadness,  However, I am well aware that it is nothing compared to what some people go through.  There has also been much happiness and I do realise just how lucky I am.

I make an effort every day before I go to sleep to count my blessings and they are many.  Here are just a few in the style once again of Bridget Jones.

Husbands - 1. Sons - 2.  Daughters - 3. Son in Laws - 3. Daughters in law - 1.  Daughters in law soon to be - 1.  Grandsons - 4. Granddaughters - 2.  Dogs come to live with us - 1.  Home to live in - 1.  2nd Home (soon) -  1.  Motorhome -1.  Food in the cupboards - lots. Money to live on - enough.  Health - yes!  Special cousins - 1.

A big thank you to Wendy who has motivated me to (hopefully) get back into the bloging habit.  I will begin tomorrow (hopefully) when I shall move on to some  of those blessings.

Jilly

Pinterest

Today I thought I would share with you my love of Pinterest.  I am assuming you have all heard of it?  For anyone that hasn't it is a Website where you can collect visual bookmarks of anything, from anywhere on the web.  It is a place to build collections.


You know how when you are browsing and you find something you like and want to keep?  What do you do with it?  Book mark it, email it to yourself?  If you pin it instead you can pin it on to your own boards so that you will always have a visual reminder.  Just like you might have pinned something on your bulletin board years ago.


So how do you build a collection? You can follow other people and re-pin their finds to your boards; or you can use the "Pin It" button which you install in your browser toolbar. This magic little button allows you to pin any image from wherever you are straight to the board of your choice.


I digress.  I am sure you know all this already.  If you really don't the best way to check what it is all about is to take a look yourself XXXX and when you do make sure to follow some of my boards.  Be aware though, that it is seriously addictive and can eat up whole chunks of time. 

I love Pinterest.  I have 58  boards  covering a great range of subjects.  I have pinned over 14,500 items or articles. Why do I like it?  Because it is simply a fantastic resource  for everything!  Interested in flowers, you can find loads of wonderful stuff here.  Interested in new recipes, gardening, travelling, fashion, dogs?  You name it and it is on Pinterest.

Love shoes?  Love Pink shoes?  You can find a ton of stuff covering that topic on Pinterest.  Like purple cars?  You'll find them here.  Green birds?  Yep they are here.  I am trying to make the point that whatever you are interested in Pinterest is a great place to find information or if you prefer then just look at the pictures.

I started out with a “Craft Ideas” board and I collected all kinds of things that I thought I might like to have a go at in the future.  It is an awesome resource for crafting inspiration.  My craft ideas board has 364 pins.  Bare in mind I have other boards with different names that are still about crafting EG. sewing patterns, Hama beads, felt craft, quilting the list goes on.  I will never be able to do even half of all the things I have pinned.  I would need to live several life times.

One of my favourite boards, with over 3000 pins is my “Pinktabulous” board where I collect all things pink.  I LOVE pink,  Pink is my favourite colour (closely followed by purple and blue).  Pink is awesome.

Here are a few pins of things that are on my Pinktabulous board.

 Just love the pink fence and Daisies.

 Not sure that Simon woud be happy driving this!

 I just know they must be strawberry flavour.

 This is somewhere in Morocco.

 Pink hair!  I want pink hair.

 Pink birdy.

 This pink bike is almost as lovely as my Florence.

My other favourite boards are the craft ideas one and also my flowers and quotes one.  I'll show you some pins from them another time.  Oh and my buttons board too.  I Love my buttons board.

Before I finish this I must just tell you a funny thing.  Have you ever come across somebody so full of their own self importance that you just have to LOL?  Tonight I got blocked by another pinner.  Why?  Because I was re-pinning too many of her pins!   I am obviously a serial collector!  Just making collections for the sake of it!!

Err, that's kind of the whole point! 

Plus, bare in mind lady that pins do not belong to anyone.  They are just visual links back to a web page. Open and available to all. 

If you already use it, or you decide to try it out, have fun and do lots of pinning.  Before you know where you are I guarantee you'll be hooked and you'll look at the clock and realise that bedtime was 4 hours ago.

Must go now as my bedtime was 4 hours ago!

JILLY

Monday 5th January

I really want to get back into my blogging habit so even though I have nothing much to say I thought I would drop by.

We had a fairly normal weekend.  Saturday is always doggie kennel day so that was where we were until late afternoon.  We have just taken in 2 Spaniel puppies, they are 4 months old.  They are very cute and have probably already found a furever home.

The Spaniels were posted on the 3CDR  FB page and all hell broke loose.  People were just going crazy.  I found it a bit sad to be honest.  We have nearly 70 beautiful dogs and it is really hard work trying to find homes, along comes a puppy and everyone wants it.  

As you can see they are cute.

 

 

 

Saturday evening we were out to dinner at Gyll's house.  The usual crowd of us from the doggie rescue.  We are so blessed to have made such wonderful friends.

Sunday was a bit of a lazy day.  We took down all the Christmas decorations in the morning.  The house looks much lighter now.  Funny that. Then Simon pottered around in the garage doing whatever he does ou there.  I did a bit of Internet stuff and generally lazed around.

Today Simon was back to work so I can begin to get back into my normal routines.  So housework this morning including an absolute ton of ironing as it had been left over Christmas.

This afternoon was nice and relaxed and I did some computer stuff and also finished off a Hamma bead creation.

Simon got me some Hama beads and boards for Christmas.  (Perler beads to Merikans).  My children had these and so does Ellie so it seems like a childish hobby.  However, I have seen some really beautiful creations on the Internet and there are sellers on Etsy who do great work too.

I thought I would enjoy trying it out as another craft and another possible thing to sell if I get good enough.  Think it takes practise!  The ironing bit is a real skill I think!  I have manged to make a small dent in the middle of my peg board where the pegs have distorted from the heat. don't think that is supposed to happen!

It takes quite a lot of concentration but it is very relaxing.  It also takes a hell of a lot of beads.  Simon got me a tub of 4000 mixed colours and I had to buy more white ones at the weekend to complete my design.  Fortunately they are cheap.

This evening I have been doing stuff on my computer.  Listing new charms in my Etsy shop and catching up with other bits and pieces.

Tomorrow, I don't have too much housework so hopefully I will get more time for myself.  

Have you all seen that I have been updating my blog "Adventures with Tallulah"?  I have about 4 posts scheduled to go live this week.  Then I should be up to date.  Click on the tab at the top of my page to see it.

Friday 2nd of January

We spent most of today at the dog rescue kennels where most of you will remember we do volunteer work.  Simon works with the dogs,  playing, training, grooming etc.    These are some of the dogs that he had out today.

This is Tess.  She is a Rottweiler and is 5 years old.  She has been with us most of her life.  Sadly, many people do not like Rotties.  

This is Luca, he is an 11 month old Weimaraner cross.   He has only been with us a few weeks and is severely malnourished and very timid.  Simon has gained his trust.

This is Zeus another Rottie.  He is 6 years old and has been with us a very long time.  He gets over looked time and time again because of his size.  He is BIG!  He is also a soppy baby.   Gentle as can be. 

This is Beanie with Tash, one of the kennel maids.  Beanie is a 2 year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier and he is a really sweetie.  He has not had a good start.

This is just a small selection of the dogs that are currently in the care of Three Counties Dog Rescue.

If you would like to find out more  then please click here. 3CDR

We also have a Facebook page.  3CDR Facebook

1st January 2015

January First 2015. A Happy New Year to everyone. What did you all do today with this first day of the year? Did you all stay up to see the old year out?

New Year has never been that important to Simon and I. It is after all just another date in the calender. A marker of time passing.

We did stay up, but not especially. We are always late to bed in school holiday time. That will all change next week with Simon back to school. (Work!) We were both busy on our lap tops but we did stop about 10 minutes before midnight. We both had a drink and we raised a toast to my Mum and Dad as Big Ben struck the midnight hour and the new year officially begun. I did shed some tears. It is hard not too, but I pulled myself together quick sharp.

We watched the firework celebrations on the banks of the Thames in London. I really don't like fireworks as a rule; I find them pretty “samey” If you have seen one, well you’ve seen them all. Hate the noise of them too. That said the display last night was pretty spectacular. I was happy to be watching it on the TV though. It would be one of my worst nightmares to be there in amongst all those crowds.

We went to bed shortly afterwards but I couldn't sleep so I read back through my old blog entries. Right the way back to 2012. It was lovely to be reminded of the good times as well as the hard ones.

I was very interested to read last years “Goals”. I call them goals you may call them resolutions. I had 5 and I relist them below. Only one had any measure of success.

Lose some weight, improve health and fitness. LMAO. If anything, I probably added more pounds.

Find new ways to raise funds for 3CDR. I had some measure of success here. Myself and Coralie organised a quiz evening in September which raised £700. We are now also collecting used postage stamps although it remains to be seen what money we will get for them.

Double my Etsy sales. I did increase sales over last year but not double. It was helped by selling the little Tibetan silver charms.

Learn how to use camera properly and improve photos. Never even looked in the camera manual and my photography skills are still poor.

Try out a new craft each month. Started knitting in January and, well you know the rest.

So “goals” for this year? Just one. My goal is to do more of what makes me happy.

We did that today. We had a little tip out to Peterborough to go to Hobby Craft. I wanted a few bits for some new crafts. I have the best husband. He patiently followed me around carrying the basket.

Do you set goals for yourself? Were you successful in your 2014 goals.

Hopefully, I will get my blogging mojo back this year and will keep you up to date with everything that is making me happy.

Bring on 2015.

PS.  "A goal without a plan is only a wish".

My Wish for you all

I wish you enough love in your heart, and enough communion with your soul.

I wish you enough light to illuminate your lessons, and enough dark to integrate your wisdom.

I wish you enough giving to open your heart, and enough receiving to bring you home.

I wish you enough activity to sharpen your mind and strengthen your body, and enough rest to bring you peace.
I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright, no matter how grey the day.
I wish you enough rain to nourish your garden and to appreciate the sun more.

I wish you enough gentle wind to lift your hair and your dreams

I wish you enough storms to clear away the old and make room for the new.

I wish you enough dirt to grow your herbs and flowers and to keep your feet firmly on the ground.

I wish you enough clouds in the sky to inspire you to reach beyond them.

I wish you enough birds in flight to delight your eyes and enough birdsong to serenade your ears.

I wish you enough kisses and cuddles with children and animals to bring you simple joy.

I wish you enough friendship to remind you that you are not alone.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive and ever lasting.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.

I wish you enough starlight to inspire your imagination and enough moonlight to stir your soul.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish you enough hellos to get you through the final good-bye.

I wish you ENOUGH.