My latest project

If you've read my piece 'spontaneous storage'. then you'll realise I'm not always the most organised of people. And so it was, whilst looking for something amongst all my craft goodies, I came across some pretty little butterflies that I'd forgotten I had.

 I think I bought them originally with the intention of using them on greetings cards. As usual with stuff bought on impulse, they got 'filed' in one of my storage boxes and forgotten. However, having found them, I thought they really should be supping nectar from pretty flowers, and thus the 'Butterfly Garden' necklace was born! 

The main body of the necklace is Kumihimo silk braid in pale green, grey and silver. To this are stitched a veritable herbaceous border of brightly coloured polymer clay flowers and green glass leaves. The butterflies, which have jewelled bodies, are cemented to the flowers. The nice thing is, the wings of the butterflies are sprung, so they quiver as you move, giving the illusion of life.

I must admit to being quite proud of this one, which is available in my Etsy shop for £25 plus post and packing.

Time for another poem, I think.

This one is by Welshman, Dylan Thomas - long one of my favourite authors and poets. There is more information about him here on my history blog

Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 

Dylan Thomas

Spontaneous storage

No, it's not storage that bursts into flames, or storage that just pops out of nowhere.......
It's actually a sign of how my life (and craft room) are organised.

Now, I am generally well-organised. All my tools are held in neat racks. My hundreds (and I'm not joking!) of embroidery threads are neatly wound onto plastic bobbins, labelled with their type and colour, and stored into neat plastic storage drawers. My beads are sorted into containers by size and colour, and this organisation extends to stock control. I am sufficiently well-organised to be able to re-purchase items I am getting low on before I run out of them.

But, I do have a big problem. When I'm out and about, and I come within 100 yards of a craft shop, something strange happens. It's as though a huge magnet drags me off my motorcycle and in through the door of said shop. And the same magnetic force will not permit me to leave until I have bought something.

I'm sorry, but I'm a spontaneous buyer. I see something I like and it's 'Ooooh, must have one of those. I might find a use for it one day'

So, I buy it and when I get home, I have to decide where to put it. My craft room is a mass of boxes and plastic containers, and of course, I don't have one specifically labelled for the item I've just bought. Now, this is where the problems start..........

Let's say I've just bought a red star. I look at my storage, and there's nothing labelled 'red stars'. So I pick a box say in pile A and in goes the star. I then promptly forget I've got it.

So a few weeks pass, and I'm out and about, and the scenario above repeats itself. Except when I get home, I put the new red star in a box in pile D.

A couple of months go by, and I get an idea that calls for a blue butterfly. Now, I vaguely recall having bought a blue butterfly some time ago, and I start to search for it. Whilst searching for the blue butterfly, I find the first red star, and I think 'hang on. Didn't I buy one of these a few weeks ago?'. Now I start searching for the second red star, and in doing so, I find the blue butterfly AND the second red star.

I put the second red star in the same box as the first red star, and carry on making what I wanted to do with the blue butterfly.

A few weeks go by and in a craft shop, somewhere, sometime, I see a pretty red star that I simply MUST have, and so it goes home with me and into an empty box in pile G and the whole process starts over..........

About once a year I empty EVERYTHING out of my craft room, and sort it logically..........but it doesn't last.............

The moral of this story is, you can be either organised or spontaneous, but not both :(

New blog

I've been busy creating a new blog, that will deal with the history of the British Isles.

It's still very sketchy at the moment, but if you're interested in a history that will dovetail with both this blog, and My British Isles, you will find it here