A reboot

Getting out of the habit of weekly blog writing certainly makes it difficult to get back into. The longer you leave it, the more difficult it seems to become...and just how exactly did it get to be the end of January already?  I have no real excuse for my blogging lapse, other than I decided to let my blog take a back seat while I focused on other things. Possibly including desperate last minute Christmas present crafting, sledging and drinking copious amounts of hot chocolate.

The local park in all its winter glory

There have been a few changes in the Niche household over the Christmas period, biggest one being me giving up my beloved natural history museum curator job to be a full time Mum to my three year old. Not an easy decision, but almost a month in and I'm loving it and have absolutely no regrets. The outcomes so far are that our household is calmer, less irritable, more organised and much happier (oh and possibly cleaner too :). Another super bonus is that I'm sitting here writing this and crafting while the little 'un is at playgroup, so two days a week I get a full two hours a day of daytime creating...which is an absolute joy. I'm being really strict with this time and keeping it all for me, with NO HOUSEWORK ALLOWED. It does mean being quite organised, but I'm working on a few planning things to help with that.

The dining table, taken over by my laptop, ironing board, notebooks and general embroidery paraphernalia

Although I didn't blog over the Christmas period, I wasn't slacking in the making department. I made some Christmas presents for family, completed a few projects I'd been working on, started a few more, and even worked on some ACEO's for a convention I'm hoping to attend in April.

The 'in progress' pile. The little stitched armoured mouse in the bag is finished and awaiting hooping up. Will post some big pics soon! And yes, the wolfman is practically complete, just need some gold floss for his earring!

I even did some craft organising over the quiet of Christmas, and purchased some more boxes for my floss. Even just looking at those boxes inspires me. So...many...colours! I also got some lovely hand-dyed floss as part of my leaving present from work, which I'm carefully coveting until I find just the right project...I even had to label a new 'hand dyed floss' box which was very exciting. Please tell me someone else loves labelling things as much as I do???

*drool* my floss collection is slowly but surely growing

I also featured in my first exhibition, albeit unintentionally! In this post I spoke about the badger I embroidered for an Embroiderers Guild project about the centenary of the museum building I worked in. Well, the final textile book featured in an exhibition entitled 'Inspiration', an exhibition of work by the Dundee and East of Scotland branch of the guild. The exhibition was fantastic, and I came away from my visit awed and excited, and very very inspired! Oh and just a little bit chuffed to see my little stitched badger in amongst the other work. I'm hoping to join the guild this year, and I look forward to learning a lot and meeting a lot of new stitchers!

Jules

PS. I'm having trouble with getting batteries to last more than a few seconds in my digital camera, so I'm afraid it might be poor quality phone photos for a while.