Safely Home.

Hello, dear Lovelies!🌷

It's Friday ( not so easy remembering which day is which these days! ) and today is day 21 of our 21-Day ( Very Strict ) Lockdown, except....it isn't! It's Day 1 of our NEXT 14-Day Lockdown!! I'm not complaining ( I am, quietly, inside ) because I know it's for The Common Good... but shooowee, even for a homebody like me, this is hard on the emotions. I feel I've been forced onto one of those carousel ponies, going around and around but through all the stages of Grief, instead of a manic fun ride!

I think it's fair to say, we are all grieving our "before" lives? Even if it seems as if your life hasn't changed much, on a day to day basis, everything out there has changed forever. We are literally living through an epic historical moment which will become part of our children's or grandchildren's History syllabus! That is, to coin a 70's phrase, blowing my mind!

I've spent this week disciplining my emotions so that Gratitude overrides overwhelming Uncertainty, Fear and Grief. Not easy for me who's a classic Fixer. I can't fix this but I can fix how I respond.

Safely Home. I repeat those two simple words much like a Mantra every time the word lockdown pops up. We are asked to stay safely Home. How bad can that be? Instead of Home being an option now ( in the recent past I could sell my house, move, or become a caravanning gipsy ) for now, it has become a necessity. Prison or Haven? Choice makes all the difference. I've been appreciating every little aspect of my Home. And feeling so much gratitude. Little things, little moments!

I thought I'd share a few snaps of my Home and Garden, which is my entire world right now. I am so grateful for the privilege of having a comfortable home, a little garden, food in the 'fridge, running water, electricity... and a well-stocked larder.💗 I'm grateful the streets are quiet and that our hedges are filled with happy birds. The air is definitely sweeter. Even the neighbours are ( sort of ) behaving themselves.

The Lounge in the morning.

Where we eat all our meals these days ( as opposed to in front of the Telly or in the Kitchen ).

My old Piano where I make up melodies to please Roxy and the Cats. 

My recently renovated bathroom ( which I did singlehandedly! ). It used to look like this...

And my favourite room, the bedroom where five of us manage to squeeze into every night!

Yep...Augusta, Nisha and Roxy!

As some of you may already know, our house is 118 years old. It's more of a cottage than a house. It's one of two semi-detached houses which many houses in our area are. In effect, we have two houses. My youngest son and his wife live in the "other house". Both houses have their own address although they are on one erf. Old houses are lovely but need lots of ongoing TLC!

Our small front garden got Palletized! I've been battling for years to make anything grow in the sandy soil. Eventually, after much slog... I gave up and then, tadaaaa, an idea popped into my mind to lay pallets on top of the sand and make a container garden!

I made this around the same time that I "palletized" the front verandah!

I am having so much fun each day in these little spaces...tweaking this and moving that and snipping things, watering pots, laying down more stones. One day I'll show you the other side but for now, it's still a work in progress.

Most of my days end with this view and a Netflix documentary or Series. We're working our way through Mad Men!

Time for a GIVEAWAY!!

Let me know how you're working your way through these strange times?

Leave your comment below and stand a chance of winning an adorable Butterfly Shawl pattern by Wilma Westenberg. I loved this sweet, summery, light butterfly design. Butterflies are a symbol of freedom. A little of that would go a long way right now!

Lovelies, stay safely Home and enjoy a happy weekend,
💗Jen

PS: for those of you who are working through the Green Tea Extension...Part 3 is live!
https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/green-tea-extension

Hello Homies!

Oh, my dear Lovelies...Hello, Homies has never rung so true, right?

THANK YOU ALL so much for your lovely comments on the last blog post. I was answering everyone's comments and then realised we are all on the same page! Sending you all much love and best wishes for happier times to come. 💗

Just last night we learned that our very, very strict 21-Day-Lockdown here in South Africa will be extended until the end of April. Effectively another 3-weeks of:

•    No dog walking.
•    No cycling.
•    No jogging or leisure walks in parks or on beaches ( all beaches are closed ).
•    No surfing!
•    No restaurants open and no food deliveries other than essential groceries from registered Supermarkets or online essential suppliers.
•    No alcohol or cigarettes may be sold.
•    No travelling unless on essential missions ( collecting medication or groceries ).
•    No school, college or university.
•    No online sales of any non-essential items.
•    No computer shops. electronics, hardware stores or paint shops are open.
•    No craft shops, fabric shops or yarn shops are open either!
•    No train or air travel.

Lots of no-no's, that's for sure!

I was thinking of ways to cheer myself up and remembered that a few months ago at one of our local antique shops ( Froggat and Frost ) I'd seen a lovely kitchen island style unit. It was really expensive, at least for my wee money pouch so I admired it deeply, but left the shop with an enamel coffee pot instead while throwing loving glances over my shoulder at the kitchen island.

So today, while I was thinking along those cheering up lines I thought: why not buy that kitchen unit! You want it, right? You know it's going to fit perfectly into your 117-year-old house, right? What are you waiting for? And thus the saving begins! If not now then when? I've calculated that if I save really hard over the next 3-weeks while we are in lockdown...I WILL have my kitchen island! Also, now my mind is totally focussed on this "reward". I was thinking that this is quite a good idea to get oneself through these unsettling times. Imagine something you really want: a lovely weekend away, a fabulous hike, dinner at a fancy restaurant you wouldn't normally go to, snazzy shoes, top-notch yarn, or more books! Then start working out a plan or strategy that will make your wish come true after "this" is behind us. I'd LOVE to hear about what your WISH is?

On a Yarny note: my mind is all over the place these days. I can't seem to settle on one thing and working on the Green Tea Extension Part 3 has been stalled, again and again. I think so many of us are in the same boat right now? It's just impossible to get into a good flow and then stay there for any meaningful length of time! At least that is my experience right now. I'm baking bread, then I'm deep cleaning the fishpond, then it's brushing Roxy or preparing a meal...I'm all over the place, body, mind and soul! As far as I can I am staying away from daily news, but then I worry that I'm missing some important new announcement! Shoooweeee...we are all going to need therapy when "this" is over...or a damn fine pair of shoes! 😀

Enjoy your long weekend, Lovelies!
Stay safe, stay sane, stay well, stay calm and crochet on!
Chat soon!
💜 Jen

Love in the Time of Corona.

Dearest Lovelies in Crochetland, happy Friday and Happy New Month! 💗

I'm not even going to try and be upbeat today. I'm not going to lie about how I've been feeling. Even for someone like me who works from home and is the definition of a homebody, this enforced 21-day lockdown we are living with here in South Africa, is getting to me. Not because I am in any way disadvantaged but my thoughts, at 3am, stretch out to our wider, more vulnerable communities, and with a sick feeling of dread in my stomach, I fear for what is still to come.

Rather than bury my head in a squishy pile of colourful yarn balls I am making a point of staying marginally informed about what's been happening in our wider world. Italy. Spain. My heart!! So many countries in Europe where I have lived, worked and travelled and enjoyed unparalleled freedoms are now " locked down ". It's the sharp contrast that affects my emotional equilibrium these days. As a classic overthinker, my biggest challenge has been to keep breathing deeply, still my panicky thoughts and try to get on with, and enjoy my simple daily tasks and crafts.

Some things I have found incredibly useful to keep my mind from wandering to sadder thoughts or very deep anxiety:

💜1. Keeping a daily diary where I list everything I need to do on that day. Even the mundane tasks like washing dishes, doing laundry or clipping a hedge. I add it all to the list. Then I work through the list which, at the end of the day, makes me feel I've accomplished something every day rather than just curling up in a ball and fretting.

💜2. Keep up regular routines and personal standards. For example: eating meals at the dining room table ( properly laid, with candles for dinner ), not in front of the telly. Shower early, make the bed, get dressed and eat breakfast before 9am on weekdays. Making sure all snacks and meals are what my body needs, not what my body is demanding ( crisps, cookies and chocolate! ). My thinking is that if I allow things to slide, including myself, it's just going to make me feel a whole lot worse when Covid-19 is behind us.

💜3. Keeping up social media accounts. This requires discipline because the natural inclination when you're feeling anxious and/or depressed is to withdraw. Keeping in touch with the wider world through social media is a blessing for sure. I've made a point of sharing positive and amusing memes or stories and not latest updates on the spread of Covid-19. Thank you, communications technology!

💜4. Stay on track with my Design "work". This requires a certain mindset which is extremely beneficial when you apply it. Fully engaged with designing is definitely a calming meditation.

💜5. Accepting that this awful Virus is going to be with us for many, many months has been very hard to do. There is a saying " adapt or die ". I choose to accept that we are entering a phase of a "new normal " and I'm working on adapting. Not easy!!

I know that many of you Lovelies are going through the exact same emotional rollercoaster ride as I am. I'm sending you all a HUGE virtual hug. I know it's scary times right now but you are going to be alright! 💗

And, of course, it's not all doom and gloom, right?
Once again, I'll be making 3 x patterns FREEEE for the weekend starting.....NOW! I've called these weekends " Love in the Time of Corona ", after one of my favourite books, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

I'm beginning to run out of patterns to give away! LOL!

This weekend, from your list, I've picked:

 🌹  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/midsummer-solstice

 🌹  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/sunrise-beach-square

🌹  https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/the-amanzi-block-throw

Hang on....there's more!

Tadaaaa...PART 2 of the Green Tea Extension is live! As soon as the Extension is completed I will make the Block + Extension FREE for 24 hrs. So keep your peepers peeled for that announcement!

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/green-tea-extension

Let me know how you are coping with self-isolation in your patch of Crochetland? How are you managing your stress levels and have you found certain things helpful? Please share with us?

Stay safe, stay calm and crochet on, Lovelies!
💗 Jen

Anyone for Green Tea?

Hello, Lovelies!

I'm going to say what everyone is saying...February was two-weeks long! It absolutely whizzed by! I know it's a leap year February, so we have that one extra day but, February was still two-weeks short!

I hope you are all well in Crochetland?

Before I launch into this post I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who commented on the last post about boundaries. I'm still working on replying to each and every one of you Lovelies. I know how hard boundaries are to impose, and I know how much self-discipline and soul-searching has to happen before we make those decisions to draw a line in the sand. I loved reading through your comments, which made me feel that our world is indeed a small place and that we are all fighting the same battles no matter where we live.
We are all connected through our common experiences. 💗

I've been slogging through the Green Tea Block, which you may remember I said I was NOT going to begin in the heat of Summer...yet, here we are. Clearly a crochet addict, right? I must be, as I've proven to myself that I will literally crochet anytime, any place, through any weather! In between rounds I have forced myself to do " something nice " for myself. I set up a little rewards system as a way of motivating myself to stop crocheting and get outside. Step 1: Go to the Theatre! So Mr HooksnTales and I visited "the front side of Table  Mountain" ( we live behind this iconic chunk of rock ) to see one of our funniest local comedic talents, Alan Committie at Theatre on The Bay  As always, his show was hilarious BUT what really got me tingly all over was the incredible view over the Bay as we stepped out at intermission. To be honest, I did not want to go back into the Theatre, no matter how funny Alan Committie was.

The mist was rolling in from the Atlantic ocean across the fancy-schmancy apartments along the edge of Clifton Beach, up and over the Twelve Apostles mountain range, which is where Table Mountain tapers off. And the light was positively celestial.

I reminded myself too, to take those afternoon naps and it wasn't difficult to do, seeing as the heat and high humidity, to begin with, makes me incredibly limp and tired. One afternoon, I napped on the couch with my darling Augusta and woke up to this. Which made me want to lie there forever. Somehow she has turned sleep into an art form. Nisha, for example, still curls up tightly or sleeps in a jackknife position, like someone about to make an elegant swan dive into a crystal pool. Augusta, on the other hand, lolls ( no, she doesn't laugh...ok, maybe inside )...she spreads out, lies on her back and just, well... lolls about, as relaxed and at ease, as ever a Cat was who knows it is madly loved, and safe. She is a constant reminder to me to lower my shoulders and exhale.

I don't know about you but I am a Magpie. Yesterday, when Roxy and I were galavanting about our local forest, I found these on the edge of the road. Seed pods from? Can you guess? This might be a fun question for today? In the comments section below leave a comment and let me know if you can guess, or if you positively know, which Tree belongs to these seed pods. Don't forget to also leave your Ravelry name to win a free copy of this lovely pattern. by Rachel Beth.

And lastly...tadaaaaaa! The Green Tea Block, done and dusted! You can find the pattern HERE! I had lots of fun digitally changing the colourways. Initially, I wasn't going to share the results but then I thought, oh wait, these could be very useful to help everyone connect with their colour creativity and choose different colourways. I'm looking forward to working on the Extension for this Block as the weather begins to cool down. The Throw will be ready just as Winter kicks in for us "southerners". I can't wait for the coolth!😊

I've listed all the yarn and colours I used in the NOTES section on the Ravelry pattern page for Green Tea. The colourway that initially inspired me was this. But I've sort of toned down the palette and ended up with nothing like my original inspiration. That's how the designing dice rolls I guess?

This is the original colourway. The next four are digitally coloured.

Today, I will be sending out 10 x copies of the Green Tea Block to ten randomly chosen recipients of our last Giveaway, so do watch your Ravelry inbox!

And on that colourful note, I am going to say byeeeeee and see you in Crochetland!
Happy Friday and Happy Weekend to you all! Don't forget to nap.
💗 Jen

Be your own Valentine!

Hello, Lovelies!🌹

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you who celebrate this Saint's day. Although... * reality check *...he did get his head chopped off for being an all 'round nice guy. There's a moral there somewhere but I'll leave that up to you to interpret?😊

This year is my big SELF-LOVE year, so every day is treated as a Very Special Occasion and I am, at every opportunity, reminding EVERYONE to practise some much-needed self-loving. Believe me, it's so much, much, much harder than it sounds. I don't know why so many of us don't feel deserving of self-love? I realised too, many of us don't really know what it means " to love yourself " beyond what we see in commercial media who, let's face it, are usually trying to sell us "things", or products or more services. Sure, self-love is also ( most definitely ) bubble baths, mani/pedicures, regular visits to a good hairstylist! However, and more importantly, it's about creating healthy habits that promote a sense of authentic, longlasting well being.

I've touched on various examples of this in previous posts but one I did leave out and it's the one many of us find EXTREMELY difficult to create ( and then enforce ) ...and that is...BOUNDARIES!!
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this? Have you created some healthy-for-you boundaries? What were some situations that required Boundaries? How hard or easy were they to enforce, especially if it involved people close to you? You can also email me privately if you'd like to share your story but feel reluctant to expose your private boundary-enforcing experience. These are the sort of things we'd share in a Knit/Crochet Natter Group, right?

Creating boundaries doesn't have to involve people though ( although it usually does! ). It can also be how you self-negotiate your eating habits, or chores, family obligations, visitors, over-time at work, holiday destinations or staycations, spending/budgeting and so on. For example, I created a boundary between me and the 'fridge. I do not allow myself to step over that boundary to eat the last slice of Tiramisu, after 6pm. See? That is self-love at it's best!

What the above is, is a love letter to you, to remind yourself that it's nice to get Valentine's Day gifts from your SO but it's SO MUCH nicer to learn to unconditionally love your Self. There's isn't anyone out there quite like you. You are an original work. Own it, 'kay?

That's enough thinky thoughts for today! 😊 Moving on to crochet! I promised a sneak peek of the in-progress Green Tea Block but at the last moment I chickened out. I weighed up the sneak peek and the !! SURPRISE !! factors and the SURPRISE factor outweighed the Sneak Peek. I can tell you though, that the pattern for Part 1: The Block is very, very close to being released. So do keep those hooks warm. I will definitely share a little preview post about the colourway I used.

I won't keep you much longer but before I go I'd like to share a FREE pattern by Julia Hart called Sweetheart Soiree. I love all her patterns but this one is so very cute and clever.

💛Congratulations to the three lucky Winners of our last fab GIVEAWAY! 💛

You'll find your lovely pattern gift in your Ravelry Library. 

Enjoy!

Today's GIVEAWAY is 10 x copies of the upcoming Green Tea Block pattern!!! Eeeek! All you need to do to stand a chance of being one of the ten lucky recipients of this GIVEAWAY is tell me about one important boundary you created that worked out for the best. Leave your comment below in the comments section and don't forget to add your Ravelry name!

Wishing you a truly lovely weekend and enjoy spoiling yourself!
💗Jen