Little Cotton Rabbits

light, or lack thereof

I remember when I was very little my Dad would sing me to sleep with a song (that I now sing to my own kids) and in the morning he'd wake me up with another:

Morning has come
Night is away
Rise with the sun
and welcome the day

I also sing this to Amy when I wake her in the morning (to a grumbled response) and this morning the words struck me as I pulled back the curtains on another dreary and dark, rainy January morning. Rising with the sun does make you feel good but what to do on mornings like this one where the sun seems so absent? There really is something about the lack of light at this time of year that makes it a depressing time. I've always liked winter (much prefering to be too cold than too hot) but the lack of light does sap my spirit. Summer seems a distant memory and all troubles seem to weigh heavier on a dull and overcast day.

It's not all doom and gloom however because when all is dull, cold and damp outside, I feel completely justified in curling up in a soft, warm blanket and just knitting the day away.

With this in mind I've just treated myself to this new blanket - a pure lambswool Scottish crofters blanket from The Atlantic Blanket Company bought with some of the money which came to me following my Gangan's death last year. I'm planning to stitch a small memorial patch to sew on it. I think of my Gangan and Gampy when I'm snuggled up and it seems so appropriate to be thinking of them while enveloped in a warm hug.

 

So I am happy to be right here, right now, knitting and quietly waiting for spring to come.

Thanks so much for all of the comments on the previous post - reading them really helps and I'm really grateful for the support and kind words. Thanks people x

starting as I mean to go on...

Well traditionally it's the time for new beginnings and for resolving to change things that need changing so like everyone else I'm jotting down my new years resolutions - knowing full well that given a couple of weeks some of them will have been put aside (and number 3 will definitely never get off the ground!). Still, I love the idea of starting afresh (in school I was the swotty kid who got really excited when it was time for a brand new exercise book) and number 5 is the one that really needs my attention this year. So for the record (because apparently telling people helps you to keep them) here's my new years resolutions...

1. to buy less prepared food and make more - I want to make all of our bread, cakes and biscuits (I have done well so far this year - my current tally is 3 loaves, 2 cakes and 2 batches of peanut butter cookies - mmm!)

2. sew some stuff. I've had Wee Wonderfuls put-together-pattern-book no.1 and the Crafter's Companion for the last year and still haven't made anything from either AND I've been hoarding some kitty craft fabric so there are no excuses really. I have a few other projects in mind too - hopefully at least one will get done during the next 12 months!

3. be tidier (hmmmm, like that's going to happen!)

4. chill out about my inbox and face facts. I am never going to be able to answer all the emails or reply to all the comments unless I give up knitting! Sadly my inbox currently contains 58 messages pending a reply - apologies to all those waiting to hear from me.

5. make more time to do simple things with my daughter - she misses out so much on a 'normal' family life and has to put up with a lot less attention than she deserves. We're good at the big stuff but day to day when Daddy is working Toby soaks up all of my available attention. I know I'm going to be carrying around guilt about this for the rest of my days so maybe this year I can do more stuff with her which will ease that a little.

Ali recently wrote a beautifully thought-provoking post about blogging and I think she's absolutely right - when you've blogged for a while posting does take on a different flavour. I'd certainly find it difficult to turn my back on this little space here - it's become such an important part of my daily life and it really lifts my spirits to find people sharing warmth, creativity and ideas. But that said it can be a bit of a black hole that sucks you in and spits you out 3 hours later and you wonder where the time has gone.

In order to achieve my number 5 this year I am going to have to be more disciplined about the time I spend here so whilst I'll be around it may not be as frequently as before. Or maybe it will - new years resolutions often don't amount to much but at least if you know what you'd like to change you can begin to take steps.

illustration and bouncing

Well, school awaits the children in the morning and for me a lovely big pile of new yarn and my trusty needles are calling! The weather was mild today and Toby rediscovered the joy of being outside and bouncing on the trampoline - thankfully using up some of that bundled up energy!

It was lovely and gave me some breathing space so I sat and sorted through my old portfolio of illustration work. It's funny looking at it all now as I've not painted for years. I'm not sure I'd remember how to paint these days. Maybe one day I'll pick up my brushes again.

If you're interested in seeing any more of my paintings I've uploaded a selection over on flickr. I was really grateful for all of the kind comments that you left me about some of my work that I showed in an earlier post - thanks for all of the compliments.

Almost done!

I've begun to look forward to the start of term! I love all of the excitement and magic that comes along with christmas but now it's all over the children are just restless and suffering from a bit of cabin fever. Keeping them both occupied is not that easy - they both have such different needs and poor old Toby just can't bear being outside when it's dreary, cold and wet. So it was lovely yesterday to have a change of scenery. Amy and I joined the others from her ballet school and headed into London to the Royal Opera House to see the Nutcracker.

It was wonderful! I have taken Amy to the ballet before but she was only 4 and she  didn't really appreciate sitting still for so long. Now that she's a sophisticated 8 year old she found the whole performance riveting and I think I spent as much time watching her face as I spent watching the performance. To see her so entranced was a really precious thing.

We didn't get home til midnight so today we're having a pyjama day and listening to a CD of Tchaikovsky's music - all in all a good end to the christmas hols!

happy new year!

I hope your Christmas was a good one and you ate, drank and had a merry old time. We certainly did and our Christmas day, despite getting off to a shaky start thanks to Toby's lack of sleep, went well. We've visited family and friends and are now back home and able to play with all of our pressies!

I got a cold for christmas - not my favourite present and I'm hunting around for the receipt to see if I can give it back! Failing that 3 very large whisky hot toddies tonight might do the trick! I did also get some nice presents and had to show you my favourite one which is from my husband and (luckily for him) came beautifully wrapped and ready to give.

And inside was the lovely Hortense (dingy winter days don't make for great photos - you get a better look at her here)

I've long had my eye on all of the wonderful creations over at Sweet Nellie but I no longer have to admire them from afar now I have one of my very own to cherish! She even arrived with an extra cute little party hat which she will don tonight to see in the new year!

So from Hortense and me - very best wishes for a very happy and healthy New Year!