Lovely Testimonials: Sophia

Jil Shipley illustration from Jackie magazine
Jil Shipley illustration from Jackie magazine

I was chatting to Sophia on Facebook recently, and she said that I’d inspired her to have a go at some clothing upcycling: 

“Having admired the Eternal Magpie website and especially your beautiful dresses, I was inspired to pursue some clothing upcycling ideas which I previously assumed would be beyond my ability. 

I am pleased to say, that today I am finishing my second upcycling project! 

Thank you for inspiring me to have a go ” 

Sophia

Isn’t that lovely? 

I’ve been having vague thoughts about putting together some easy upcycling tutorials, similar to these fantastic ones that I used to love in Jackie magazine in the 1980s. These pages have a lot to answer for, including my much-loved oversized men’s tail shirt with ladybird buttons, painted Doc Martens and baseball boots… not to mention wearing a bowler hat painted with glittery puffy paint circles for no good reason. (Well, it was the 80s, so wearing a hat to hide my permed mullet was probably a good idea.) 

Anyway, dodgy 1980s styling tips aside… would you like to see some upcycling and mending suggestions? I’m not sure I can illustrate them as fabulously as Jil Shipley did for Jackie, but I hope I can share a few interesting ideas!

Hats, Shoes and Dolls.

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I mentioned, back in my New Year post, that my One Word for 2015 was going to be “focus”.

I also mentioned that the three things I wanted to focus on were HATS, SHOES and DOLLS.

So, as you do, I promptly took a three-month sabbatical from making hats.

Although this might seem counter-intuitive, it actually gave me time to think about how the hats had been received at the wedding fair in January (nowhere near as well as they were at the Christmas craft market), and start to gather some extremely useful feedback. As a result, I’m having a bit of a re-think about the styles of hats I want to make.

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This is the first experiment off the blocks (well, actually, off an old biscuit tin!), and I have to say that I’m quite pleased with it so far. It’s a small top hat, about 10cm in diameter, and about the same high. The brim was blocked flat and then hand shaped and wired, and finished with bias binding. The embellishments are some felt “tentacles” I made a while ago, and you can see that I’ve started to add a few sparkly Swarovski crystals, which I love against the matt felt. This particular one won’t be for sale, as it’s part of an outfit that you’ll have seen a sneaky glimpse of if you follow me on Instagram. All will be revealed when it’s complete!

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As far as shoes go, a plan is currently in the works! These are a few cotton pairs that I made back in 2011, but decided not to take any further. This time I’m changing both the materials and the method, and I have a few people signed up to do some wear testing of a batch of prototype wool felt shoes.

They will be shoes, not slippers, as they’ll have a durable rubber sole that can be worn outside. They’ll need the same sort of treatment as any fabric summer shoes, although I think the wool will be fairly robust. If they turn out well, I have other fabrics in mind. Harris Tweed, anyone? Silk, for weddings? We’ll see. Fingers crossed that the prototypes turn out well!

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As for the dolls… well, they’re firmly stuck in my imagination at the moment. They were going to live over at Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium, but I simply haven’t had the time or the energy to do anything other than think about them. Olaf hasn’t even been tweeting very often.

I know exactly what the characters all look like, and I know how I want the dolls to turn out… but the gap between my current skills and the finished dolls seems impassable right now.

For the moment I’m concentrating on the new top hats, plus my favourite shape of close-fitting cloche. I’m ordering the materials for the shoes this week, so I can start to get those into production as soon as the felt arrives. But after that, and my Proper Job, and my Aromatherapy distance learning course, I think the dolls might just have to wait for a little while.

I’m sure they’ll demand to be made when they’re ready.

Smart Casual

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I work in a museum where the dress code is “smart casual”. For many of the staff, this most often means jeans, converse, and a nice top of some description. Maybe a White Stuff or Boden dress. For the visitor services desk (where I work), it means probably not jeans, and primarily Something Warm. The museum’s temperature controlled, to look after the objects, and of course the front door’s opening all the time, so it’s largely freezing. As someone who’s pretty much always largely freezing myself, this has been presenting some sartorial challenges lately. There have been days where, despite the heater nestled under the desk, I simply haven’t taken my coat off, which doesn’t look terribly smart! (Normal rules don’t apply when you’re in the museum’s garden, holding a chicken. Obviously. I love my job.)

10414450_10153106962778829_244072257356306818_nTo try and overcome my chilliness I have been knitting a cardigan… but I’m a very slow knitter, and I’m still only a back and half a sleeve into this one. Once I get into the cables, it could be a fair while before this cardi sees the light of day. Sewing, of course is much quicker, so I’ve been on the lookout for a nice smart jacket pattern that I could whip up in lots of colours to match all my different trousers.

V1435

This is Vogue 1435, a very smart suit by Tom & Linda Platt. I’ll never wear the dress (not least because I can no longer reach behind myself to do up a back zip – stupid fibromyalgia), but the draped jacket looks as though it would be interesting to sew, and easy to wear like a cardigan over lots of different tops. The collar would keep the back of my neck warm, and it wouldn’t look as though I’ve left my outdoor coat on indoors. The pattern recommends both tweed and linen, so that’s summer and winter covered right there!

I’ve been waiting for a pattern sale to come along, because Vogue patterns at full price are out of my budget, so I almost always buy them in a sale. Except I obviously wasn’t paying enough attention, because the sale in my local fabric shop ended yesterday. Drat.

But!

The pattern sale also means new patterns, and Marcy Tilton blogged about two new dresses that she’s designed for Vogue, so I had to go and check them out.

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This is Vogue 9112, the “cirque” dress. It looks a bit short because the model’s extremely tall, but a centre back length of 35″ should bring it just about down to my knees. Again, the big collar should keep the back of my neck warm, the loose shape makes it perfect for wearing over trousers, and of course it has the all-important pockets, tucked away in the side seams. Unusually, this dress is shown in only one fabric, but I think the piecing means it would work well in different colours. As with all of Marcy’s patterns, the construction is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle, but the resulting shape makes it worth the extra little bit of brain power required.

V9108

This one’s Vogue 9108, the “apron” dress. Designed as a layering piece, it comes complete with patterns for leggings and a long-sleeved t-shirt to wear underneath. Like several of Marcy’s dresses it’s longer at the front than the back, though I think that could be easily altered on this one if you felt like it. It’s designed for stretch knits, so this would be an extremely comfortable summer dress. (There’s also a version with crossover straps at the back, which reminds me of a dress I wore constantly during the early 1990s.)

But!

I’ve made two Marcy Tilton dresses already, and I simply don’t wear them very much.

Vogue 8975

I blogged about the construction of Vogue 8975, but I haven’t worn the resulting dress more than a few times, even though it’s extremely comfortable and I really like it. Firstly, I think I made a mistake with the neckline because no matter how much I iron it, it simply refuses to stay flat. Very irritating. So I think I need to unpick that and do it again. Secondly, I’m just not quite convinced that it’s smart enough to wear to work. I have done, and nobody’s complained… but it’s not quite on a par with the Tom & Linda Platt lady in her nice swingy jacket, is it?

Vogue 8813

I made this one in January 2014, and despite being deeply in love with it, I don’t think I’ve worn it once. Okay, so the tea-dyed fabric was an experiment, and I like the way it looks, but honestly, I can’t go to work in a dress covered in (albeit deliberate) tea stains, no matter how comfortable it is. And given the colour, and the smocking, and the nature of the museum… it’s just going to look as though I’ve borrowed a 19th century smock straight out of the collection. Not ideal.

I could re-make it in a different fabric (I have plenty, and I had lots of ideas and enthusiasm once I’d finished making it!), but at the end of the day, will I ever actually put on the resulting dress and wear it? I don’t know.

I go through these phases every now and then, of deciding that I must dress more smartly for work. Sometimes it’s brogues and button-down shirts. Sometimes it’s a nice tweed jacket. Sometimes it’s vintage dresses, novelty print blouses, or lots of organic cotton chinos.

Is it time to grow up, smarten up, and become the sort of woman who wears a smart jacket to work? Or is it time to embrace my inherent need for comfort and desire for funny-shaped clothes, and just give in to the eccentric middle-aged art teacher look? And more to the point, how on earth do I decide?

Back to the fabric stash

3/5/14

So, I’ve been writing recently about mindful consumption and buying handmade shoes. A few years ago I wrote about Value versus Cost, and sneaked inside a post on vintage sewing patterns, I wrote a mini essay about ethically-produced jeans.

I’m trying very hard to be as responsible in my own shopping as I possibly can. My trousers are ethically produced. My yoga pants are organic cotton. My shoes are handmade. I try, as much as possible, not to support mass production in terms of clothing.

But, like everyone, sometimes I fail. I got very, very excited about these Yellow Submarine Vans, so I “treated myself” and bought them. (Ten months later, they’re sitting on my shoe rack having been worn only about half a dozen times because they don’t fit right and they’re not comfortable, so there’s a lesson for me!)

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Shortly after I’d bought them I got very excited about some almost-matching fabric, so I “treated myself” to that too. It’s cotton, but it’s not organic, and I had it sent over from America. I’m currently sewing it into a shirt that I can wear with the Vans. (Hopefully the shirt will actually fit, at least!)

I’m always a sucker for a novelty print, and in fact I’m currently waiting for the arrival of a parcel containing a shirt’s worth of this Lorax-print fabric. It’s coming all the way from America again, and at least it’s organic cotton this time. But while I was shopping I popped in a couple of other half-yards “for Milly”, and “to make the shipping costs worthwhile”.

That’s when I realised that I was basically making excuses to myself, to justify the purchase of cute things that I liked the look of, rather than thinking about what I actually needed, or how it was made.

Bishopston fabrics - straight out of the box

Given that I still have metres and metres of this lovely handwoven organic cotton sitting in my sewing room (bought all the way back in 2008, before Bishopston Trading closed down), I really have absolutely no excuse for buying any more fabric right now. Okay, so plain colours of cotton are not as fun and exciting as hilarious novelty prints. (And you know I do like a certain amount of my wardrobe to be hilarious!) But I can make up for that by printing simple designs myself… over-dyeing the fabrics… adding embroidery or lace… wearing lots of jewellery or knitted accessories… or just enjoying the nature of the hand-woven, hand-dyed material.

After that it’s time to go on a different kind of shopping spree I think – doing some research into what lovely new ethically-produced fabrics have become available since the last time I looked. Now that does sound exciting!

Travelling Show

Carters Steam Fair

We try to visit Carter’s Steam Fair every time they come to our local park, and this weekend was no exception. I wanted to take lots of photographs of the typography. (I still haven’t saved up enough money to go on Joby Carter’s signwriting course, but one day I will. One day.)

Carters Steam Fair

The rides feature two main styles of artwork – the intricately carved and decorated work of the 19th century…

Carters Steam Fair

…and the streamlined Art Deco style of the early 20th century.

Carters Steam Fair

This gorgeous Morris JB van is from the late 1950s. Every time I see it, I mentally drive it away and use it to travel around selling lovely things. Fortunately for the Carters it’s extremely unlikely that I’m ever going to learn to drive, so their ice cream van remains safe for now!

One day I must be brave and ask for permission to photograph some of the fair’s living vans. (There were people doing that, but it seemed a little bit rude. They are people’s homes, after all.) The Carter’s website has some more information about them, but not about the one I fell most in love with, which was a very streamlined caravan, which you can catch a glimpse of from their Facebook page:

I must admit, I’d gone to Carter’s looking for magic, and didn’t find it there this time. (Not through any fault of the fair, which I absolutely love, but more to do with my own frame of mind at the moment.)

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So, I was very excited to go online yesterday morning and find out about Rima and Tom‘s new project – Hedgespoken. It’s going to be a travelling performance space and home all in one! Please watch the film, it’s absolutely gorgeous, and explains their hopes and dreams beautifully.

I’m hoping to find a little money to send their way at the end of the month, and I’ll be following the project’s progress with great interest.

I’m always a little bit nervous talking about my interest in magic and liminality and travelling life (particularly when I don’t travel myself!), for fear of being thought even dafter than most people think I am already. But in a world as horrible as the one we’re currently living in, I can totally understand the need to create your own magic, and to share it as widely as you can.

Walk in the woods.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

My mind’s been full of bees, lately.

Busy. Buzzy. Noisy. Distracted.

The only thing for it was to go for a walk.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

I borrowed Paul’s little Lumix camera, and made my way down to Oldpond Copse, the piece of woodland next to our old house. I’ve missed coming here.

It’s not far away – just a 15 minute walk from the new place – but that seems a lot, compared with being able to step out of the old house and be in a little field almost immediately. We do have a huge garden now, but that’s nowhere close to being the sanctuary I need it to be. We have a park too, but it’s small and surrounded by houses. I knew I missed the lake, but I hadn’t quite realised how much I needed this little patch of trees.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

This is where we had our engagement photos taken. I think the photographer was a bit surprised when we took him to a gap in the hedge and led him down the steps, but the photos he took that day are the nicest ones we have. (Nicer than the wedding photos, even.)

Oldpond Copse, Earley

I love the way that you can really feel alone here. Despite the dog-walkers, local walking club, “Erlegh Elfins” kindergarten, fishermen at the lake, and the countless other people that use this space, it’s a really good spot to go for thinking. Listening. Watching the birds and the squirrels. Getting to know the trees. Really looking, to see how it’s changed since you were last there.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

The little stream was slow and shallow today. I was able to climb across it to capture this little feather. All of an inch deep, the water could barely be bothered to move.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

I love all of the different elements in this one, all mixed up together. The earth underneath the water. The sky reflected below the feather. Everything slow, and gentle.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

Even though I know that these steps lead up to a sports field, the light at the top always seems to make them feel magical. As though you could climb up, and come out in a different place every time. I can’t remember what the sign says, probably something about keeping your dog on a lead (which nobody does), or not riding your bike through the woodland. I like to think it says “Narnia” or “Wall” or maybe “Keep Out”, depending on who’s looking at it.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

This was the only fungus I managed to capture in focus, but there were plenty of them around. There was a huge great chicken of the woods, sadly trampled underfoot, and lots of things I didn’t recognise – including this. It looks so beautiful on the trunk of this dead silver birch tree, as though it couldn’t possibly have grown anywhere but here.

Oldpond Copse, Earley

The lake was busy with people today, so I didn’t stop for long. Just long enough to notice the fluffiest feather I think I’ve ever seen.

On my way back through the Real World, I noticed a stunning garden filled to bursting with dahlias – an absolute shock of colour in an otherwise nowhere street. I popped into the local shop on the way past (soon to be usurped by a horrible new Tesco that’s taking up residence in what used to be the local pub), and bought a knitting magazine full of potential Christmas gifts. I think that might take up the rest of my day now. A bit of laundry, a bit of cleaning, and a lot of knitting, to try and keep my head in the space that the copse has cleared for it.

Satisfying Saturday

Look what I just found for the princely sum of TEN PENCE at my local church fair! It explains all the things I never quite understood about dart manipulation, plus I love the 1980s styling. Brilliant!

Now this is what I call a bargain. Paul and I popped into our local church’s fair on the way home from the Post Office, where I managed to pick up this excellent book for the princely sum of TEN PENCE. I had a quick flick through, and suddenly the mysteries of dart manipulation seem a lot clearer. Once the Vintage Night’s out of the way, I feel inspired to draft myself a new bodice sloper and do some experiments!

The start of a Miette cardigan - my first top-down seamless knit. Though I'm a bit worried I'm going to run out of this great sparkly yarn!

And this, the product of about a week’s knitting (on and off) is the yoke of a Miette cardigan in a lovely mottled pink yarn with a sparkly strand running through it. I’d thought that seeing everyone else’s photos from Me-Made May would make me want to rush out and buy lots of sewing patterns. Thankfully that’s not the case, but seeing lots of different versions of this cardigan did make me want to cast on immediately! It’s a cropped style, which is good for me as I’m very short-waisted, and also good as I don’t really have enough yarn for the pattern. It’s supposed to have three-quarter length sleeves, but I’m definitely going to end up with short ones. Once I’ve finished the body, I’ll knit the neck and front bands. Then I’ll know I can use all the remaining yarn on the sleeves – assuming there is some!

I don’t know whether I’ll get it finished in time to wear it as part of Me-Made May, but I’m going to give it a good try.

(Oh, and both of these photos are also on Instagram. If you’d like to follow me there, I’m “inexplicableemporium”.)

Full Moon, Full Brain

Full Moon. Allegedly.

I happened to be awake at around two o’clock this morning, and was amazed by the brightness of the full moon. It was absolutely beautiful, and if we still lived right next door to the lake I’d have been very tempted to go for a little walk. I’m not sure why I thought this photo would express the magnificence of last night’s lunar spectacle, but it’s the best one I managed to take! Sad, really.

(It was two o’clock in the morning, don’t forget!)

As always, I’m at least two ideas ahead of myself, and I was lying awake thinking of all the things I’d like to be doing if I had either time or the money – preferably both!

Thing Number One is a cosmetics project that’s been lurking around the back of my brain for a very long time. I’m thinking that some kind of little Kickstarter-type of enterprise might work for this one though, as the thing that’s currently preventing me from doing it is having enough cash up front for certification assessments and a bulk-buy of ingredients. The idea is a (probably quarterly) Cosmetics Club, where you could pay a subscription to receive a lovely box of goodies four times a year. I was originally considering monthly, but several people have pointed out that a month isn’t very long to use up a box full of bath and body products, and also it doesn’t give me much time to experiment with recipes and make sure I’m sending out the loveliest things!

The whole thing would be branded as part of Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium, complete with faux-Victorian packaging and a story to go with each item. I’m looking forward to that part just as much as I am to developing the products themselves! The main question really is where to start. There are three certification packages available:

  1. Lip Balms
  2. Body Balms, Butters & Oils
  3. Bath Bombs, Melts, Milks & Salts

The second two are probably the most versatile in terms of what I’d be able to make following a single assessment cost, so it’s really a matter of which to choose first – and then encouraging enough people to support the project in advance, so I can actually go ahead and pay for it.

Thing Number Two is MORE HATS!
I’ve been having some quality issues with the felt hoods I’ve been using to make the hats. I don’t think it’s a problem with my current supplier, I think it’s just a problem with machine-made felt in general. I have a number of experiments I want to try out in terms of making my own felt:

  • Will the merino tops I’m using to make all these flowers be too soft to make a good hat?
  • Will it look too “home made”, as opposed to fabulously and uniquely hand-made?
  • Can I get an entire cloche hat out of one carded batt of more hardwearing fibres?
  • Do more hardwearing fibres only come in “sheep colours”?
  • If so, can I dye enough wool myself, using natural dyes? Or will they be too muted for my liking?

You can see I have a lot to think about! This one’s a bit easier than the cosmetics project in that the materials are a lot cheaper, and I have enough fibres already to answer at least two of these questions without having to buy anything new. I just need to find the time to do the experiments, and risk ending up with a little pile of horrible hats if it doesn’t work out!

Thing Number Three (did I even mention three things?) is also hat-related, and it’s MORE HAT BLOCKS! Today I received an email from Guy Morse-Brown with the preview details for their newest hat blocks.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I’d been pondering how to make some different cloche shapes by re-shaping the hats as they came off my existing blocks… but now I find I can buy not only two new sets of brim blocks which are already exactly the shapes I wanted (and which will fit together with the blocks I have already), but there’s also a single-piece cloche block which is simply STUNNING. The down side, of course, is that I’m going to need to find the best part of a thousand pounds in order to buy ALL THE THINGS, which obviously I don’t have. (Or less, obviously, if I don’t try and buy it all at once.) But I’ve been mentally designing hats for exactly these blocks for a while now, so it’s very exciting to discover that they’re actually available!

The plan for right now though, is to concentrate on getting as many hats as possible ready for my Indoor Market on Sunday. Anybody local to Reading, it would be lovely to see you at the Corn Stores! I’m bringing along a nice big mirror so you can try on all the hats, and I’ll be taking orders too.

I will be closing the Etsy store for the day, just to make sure I don’t accidentally sell anything twice, so don’t panic if you try to visit and find me gone! I’ll be back on Monday, once I’ve updated the listings for anything that’s sold.

Modern technology and a call to action.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I’m still getting to grips with all my modern technology. I seem to have settled into the iPad quite easily, although it’s useless for writing a blog post – the keyboard takes up so much of the screen that I can’t see what I’m doing. Otherwise though, it’s been amazingly easy to use, and I’m losing every waking minute to adding things to Pinterest. (Follow me! It’s dangerously addictive.)

Paul’s also upgraded his phone, which means I’ve inherited his old one. I’ve spent a chunk of this afternoon switching over to the iPhone 4, which is lovely, but it looks different from my old one (thanks to a software update), which is discombobulating me more than it ought to. Anyway, while I was setting the photo above for my lock screen, I was reminded that I haven’t actually shown you my new bracelet!

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

I ordered it from Honey and Ollie at the beginning of the year, and it arrived (all the way from California) on the 12th of February – much sooner than I was expecting it to travel all that way.  It arrived accompanied by a little crow holding a star (perfect!), who is now pasted into my journal.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

This is the back – and the lovely box it arrived in. The back is so pretty that sometimes I flip the bracelet over and wear this side as the front. The silk ribbon just ties around my wrist.

Honey and Ollie "One Word" bracelet

Like this!

It’s a One Word bracelet (pendants also available), and this was my chosen word for the year.  I figured that putting it on my phone as well as on my wrist would give me a little kick every time I start procrastinating instead of working. Perfectionism and procrastination are my two biggest enemies (alongside getting distracted far too easily), and I have a tendency not to even start doing something unless I think I can do it right first time. This is my handy reminder to JUST DO SOMETHING, even if it’s something very small, and not very perfect.

Speaking of Not Very Perfect… today I was attempting to make a very simple cowl to go into the Etsy shop – just two rectangles sewn together. What I have actually made is a fully lined moebius strip, and I haven’t got the faintest idea how I managed it! Couldn’t have done it if I’d tried. I’ve unpicked the cowl three times, and I still can’t get it to turn right-sides-out. Definitely a sign that I wasn’t really well enough to approach the sewing machine today!

If you don’t ask…

Raining again...

…you don’t get. Sometimes you can ask and you still don’t get, but if you don’t do the asking in the first place, you’ll never know.

I’ve always had a hard time asking for things. Always expected other people to somehow magically know what I wanted, which of course led to disappointment when they inevitably didn’t. I thought asking for things was bad. Greedy. Selfish. Needy. Rude. And so I rarely got what I wanted (sometimes, needed), and so I was sad a lot. My husband likes to remind me that he does not in fact have psychic powers, and that if I want him to do something, I actually need to remember to tell him. Sometimes I remember, sometimes I forget. But it’s always better to ask and be told no, than is it not to ask and to never know.

January is always the time of year for Resolutions. I used to be a great resolution-maker, very serious, and then always very cross with myself when things didn’t work out exactly as I’d Resolved. This year, I’m making a change. I’m doing two things: 1) choosing a word that I want to embody this new year, and 2) making a great big list of WANTS instead of Resolutions.

The word part was easy for me this year, and the word is action! 

I spent so much of last year waiting, hibernating, feeling ill, that I just allowed my life to happen around me, for the most part. Clearly that can’t continue – I’ve done far more than my fair share of sitting around feeling sorry for myself, and it’s time to move on. I decided to treat myself to Honey & Ollie’s One Word bracelet, which Rain will be making for me with the word action! stamped right across the middle. Any time I feel inclined to moan and feel sorry for myself about things not going the way I want, I can look at the bracelet and be reminded that there’s always something, no matter how small; there will always be an action I can take that will change things.

(Sometimes, yes, the action will be go to the shop and buy a giant bar of chocolate and sit in a nice hot bubble bath whilst eating it, because fibromyalgia sucks and I need a tiny bit of luxury right now. But an action’s an action, no matter how small.)

The other part, the I WANT part, still feels a bit weird, a bit selfish. But the important thing to remember is that just because I WANT something, there is nothing and nobody out there in the universe that is obliged to leap up and simply give that thing to me. If I WANT something, I have to WORK for it. And there will always, always be an action! I can take that will move me one tiny step closer.

So, these are a few of the things that I WANT for 2014.

1) I WANT a lovely garden
I have the bones of a lovely garden, but it will take a lot of work to turn it into the garden that’s in my head, and I’m going to need help. Fortunately my Mum loves gardening, and she’s offered to come over with books to help us identify what some of the giant overgrown shrubs are supposed to be. We have one friend who can help us to design and landscape the space, and another who can help me to keep on top of looking after it all. (We’ll pay them for that, of course, as that’s how they earn a living.) For now I’m reading Gardeners World magazine, and doing a bit of pruning when I feel up to it. I can do more when it’s not raining all the time!

2) I WANT to be more healthy
Well, my doctor’s pretty much given up on me with this one (long story, very dull), and acupuncture’s beyond my budget at the moment, even though I know it would help. So, it’s up to me to try and keep the fibromyalgia a little more under control. I’ve started by giving up coffee and caffeinated fizzy drinks. I kind of want to give up caffeine altogether, but I don’t think I could survive without tea! So I’m taking things a step at a time. I’m giving up dairy, because I already know it doesn’t agree with me, which I need to keep reminding myself means NO MILK CHOCOLATE.  I also need to do more exercise. This can be a tricky one with fibromyalgia, because the increased blood flow through the body can make the pain much, much worse, which then makes the fatigue much, much worse, which isn’t terribly helpful! But, I’m walking a mile home from the bus stop most days, and when the weather stops being quite so revolting I want to start catching the bus a little further away from work, so these little bits will all start to add up.

3) I WANT a pair of silver shoes
Yes, that went from very serious to rather frivolous quite quickly, I know! I’ve spent the past couple of years building up my shoe collection, and the only gap left in it is for a pair of silver shoes that I can wear in summer. I have a moneybox which collects all my spare change as I save up for the pair I want… but that rather depends on whether Ren at Fairysteps decides to make any silver shoes this year! If not, then I’ll order a pair from Conker instead. I figure that the weather won’t be nice enough for summer shoes until at least May, so I’ve got a while to save up!

4) I WANT an instant camera
I recently acquired two boxes of Instax Wide film to go with a Fuji 200 or 210 instant camera. I have a friend who thinks she has the right model of camera and is willing to lend it to me, I just need to wait until our paths next cross at work. If my two boxes of film come out well, and I actually do something with the pictures, then I’ll decide whether to buy an instant camera of my own.

5) I WANT to run my own business again 
Well, that part’s easy. On April 6th, the beginning of the new tax year, I’ll set myself up as a Sole Trader again, and start running Mr & Mrs Magpie’s Inexplicable Emporium as a formal business arrangement. The difficult part will be deciding what I want to make, and how to sell it! As I’ve said before, the past year has been spent doing a lot of research, and I’ll be carrying over most things that are currently in the Etsy store. There will also be new things, once my hat blocks arrive, so I’ll just have to wait and see how they’re received.

There’s more, of course, but I think that’s plenty for now!

I have made one Resolution, which is to do something towards the business every single day, no matter how small. As it turns out I’ve been ill for the past few days (since I went back to work!), so the actions have been very small indeed. I’ve sewn some experimental bootlaces, sent out a parcel, re-listed some items on Etsy, and not much else! Once I’m feeling better (stupid tonsils) I can get back to doing more again.