Anyone still out there?......

Hello!  (peers nervously around the corner....) is there anyone still out there? It's been three years since I last blogged so I'm not sure if anyone is still following.

Things are a little different around here - we have moved from The Hague to a small village near to Maastricht and are in the process of building our own house.

We have gained a dog! Madelinetosh - a Cyprus poodle rescued from a pound in Cyprus. She is amazing and we love her very much!

     

The kidlings have all grown beyond belief. Three of the four are now taller than me and in September there will be three at High School - how did that happen?!

I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia

Some things are the same though - I'm still knitting

sewing

thrifting

baking

and dabbling in lots of other crafty things!

Life here in the south certainly has a slower rhythm and we are so enjoying the hills and landscape that surround us. We are so enjoying this new place even though we have only been here for six months and it feels like a breath of fresh air. While we loved living close to the centre of The Hague and made some deep, long lasting friendships (waves hello!) there were few relationships that really were not good and which left me doubting myself, my gifts and my value. I lost my confidence and my voice and it really affected my creativity - I just couldn't design or find the motivation to make, and lost the excitement of sharing my creations on my blog. I know that I shouldn't have allowed myself to listen, should have walked away, but it was so subtle that I didn't realise it until it was too late. It's only really now that we are out of the situation that I realise how much of an effect it had on me and it just feels so good to start being 'myself' again without fear of being criticised.

So that's it, the story behind my absence. I do hope there's still a few of you out there and that you'll forgive me for disappearing.. Please stick around while I dip my toes into blog land again! 

Week two...

The holidays continue apace. Just back from an amazing wedding in the UK and life goes back to normal!

Today's activity :

Sunshine on a rainy day..

  Two lots of flowers.

Made by Miss Chatterbox 

and Pickle.

Just for me.

(It makes me smile each time I see them...)

Oh, and just to let you know - another 3 posts will be my 100th! I'll be holding a give-away, so keep watching!

Sometimes it's the small things...

Today I walked into my local newsagents and found a copy of Country Living tucked away at the back of a shelf, hidden behind all the Dutch home magazines. It was a small thing, but it really cheered me up.

 

Somehow this other magazine managed to jump into my basket too, and so I spent a lovely quiet hour or so at home with a coffee, reading and wishing just a tiny bit that I was able to go to the Country Living Christmas Fayre as I would usually be doing about now.

If I'm really honest, I'm struggling at the moment. The initial excitement and euphoria of moving to another country have faded, the unpacking has long been finished and most of the first phase of redecoration which has kept me busy for so long has now been done. Reality has hit like a bulldozer and I'm feeling really homesick and lonely. I've really struggled with finding a new rhythm since the move and as you may have noticed, not much crafting has been done. On top of all this, I'm still struggling with the 'mystery illness' which began around this time last year, and no one seems to be able to tell me what the problem is, which means I have now been taking morphine for the pain since last November and am begininning to wonder if this is me now, forever.

Bleurgh!! There, that's how it really is in one big, rather-feeling-sorry-for-myself splurge. Phew. Sorry.

If you're still reading, well done. I'm sorry for being so glum. I don't want you to think it's all doom and gloom. It's not. I have so much to be thankful for and I am. It's just that sometimes it's the small things that are needed to make the day seem a little brighter..

Normal service shall resume shortly....

... Honest!!

Wow, I can't believe that we've been in our new house for nearly a month now. Slowly, things are coming together, boxes are gradually unpacked, and our family starts to find its new, everyday rhythm.

We have a HUGE amount of decorating to do.

Our living area is starting to come together. We still need some coffee tables, another bookcase, curtains etc, but it's starting to feel a bit more homely.

Do you notice the sofas?...

Meanwhile, the rest of the house looks a little like this :

we're doing one room at a time while the occupants sleep in one of the 'spare' rooms. It will take a while, but we'll get there.

The children have done so well in adjusting. We have lots of phonecalls, emails and skyping to friends back in the UK, but I am so proud and amazed at how well they have coped with all the change - not least of which has been having to speak (and learn in) Dutch all day at school. It's not been easy, but they are doing so very well.

I'm too busy at the moment to take stock of things really, I'm trying to find my feet, decorate a house, remember to speak Dutch to everyone, look after the children, find my new 'place', make friends and work out the health system here to really stop and let things sink in. That will come. I miss my friends dearly and am yearning for company, but I know it will be baby steps, one at a time. Until then I have a visit of my closest friends to look forward to in September!!

I've missed blogging! Really have, but when my workroom looks like this

you can understand why there's not much 'making' going on at the moment, and it's only this past week that we've found our routine again. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll be updating a lot more regularly. Till then, please be patient with me!

xx

Oh My!!

What a mad few weeks it's been here!! We had our offer on our favourite house accepted (they dropped €65 000 in the end!). This means that we have only 8 weeks to go before we move to Den Haag. Eeeek!! At the moment we are swamped with trying to find reasonably priced movers, arranging the mortgage, and sorting out schools - there is only a place for the Engineer at the local school so far, despite us being promised places for all 3 - and all the local schools are full up. We are really disappointed as we were keen for them all to be together locally so they could begin to make friends in the neighbourhood. At the moment we are looking at a long car drive to place the two girls. It's all a bit mad here!

On top of that, I had my operation last Monday, which unfortunately didn't go as planned. I'm in more pain now than I was before and need to have another op. in the coming weeks. Not fun.

I have been a little busy with crafty things though. I made a pencil roll as part of a present for one of Pickle's friends

and of course, had to make one for Pickle too (though it's not finished yet...)

I have been plodding on with my 'Granny a day' project,

I even found a snippet of time to make a brooch for my new coat!

Plus, I've been working on my spring swap project, though I can't show you anything yet! Pictures will follow soon though!

Back ... but not for long!

Well, that was a longer than expected absence. I'm back at home now, still in pain, but with no real idea about what's going on. It's been a strange month, mostly spent in bed, and watching a whole heap of daytime TV!


The drugs I'm on have left me feeling slightly spaced out and therefore not much crafting has been done - morphine influenced knitting is always an interesting experience!! I have managed to finish a pair of socks though - a nice straightforward pattern that doesn't require much thought.



I've also made a few gifts for a lovely baby boy who was born the day before went into hospital and who was three weeks old before I had my first cuddle - well worth the wait! Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures before I gave the presents. Doh!


I did manage to get my Christmas Polka Dot Swap off to Australia before the deadline (phew!) though nearly gave my husband a heart attack when he took it to the post office and was asked to pay a HUGE amount of postage!!! Must bear that in mind next time I do an international swap.......!!! Will post pictures when I know it has arrived.


On Friday we're off to The Netherlands to begin our search for a house. We have booked a cabin on the ferry even though it's a day crossing so that I can lie down whenever I need. It's also got a TV, sofa and internet connection, so (fingers crossed) it should be an easy journey for everyone. It's only 14 weeks to go before we intend to move and I'm in complete denial about the amount of packing that will need to be done! Hopefully our search around the Hague will be successful.

Ouch...

..In case you were wondering where I've disappeared to, I've spent most of the last week in hospital with a recurring kidney problem.

Boo.

I've been home for a day and it looks as though I may have to go back.

Double Boo.

Normal service will resume soon - I promise!

Rainy days and Mondays.....

Not a lot of (finished) crafting going on over here at the moment. I'm finding it really hard to settle on one thing and so am flitting from one project to another without getting anything finished. Meanwhile the pile of chaos on my desk just grows and grows.

Feeling a bit grey and 'out of sorts' really..... (bit like the weather!)

In a feeble attempt to chase away the grey, thought I share some of the amazing colours I saw in a recent walk in our local park.

I do love this time of year

A week in Provence..

At the risk of stating the obvious - I'm back!

We had an amazing time away, though I missed my babies so much! I've found it really hard to get back into the swing of things since we got back home, though I suppose it hasn't helped leaving behind weather like this:

to get back to grey skies and rain!

(the view from our living room)

I took lots of knitting, but the only knitting that actually got done was a small bit of sock on the Eurostar on the way over!

I did however do lots of this:

drank lots of this:

swam in here:

walked here:

visited here:

and here:

and here!

It was an amazing part of Provence, there were vineyards everywhere..

We helped the local economy as much as we could by tasting the local produce....!

Will post Paris pictures tomorrow!