So why do I have a photo of the path to the Wellington Monument at the top of this post? There are several reasons for me personally I find it very calming; it is very quiet even when there are other people around; it is still very peaceful, on a hot and sunny day, to be able to sit under a tree where the air is fresh and cool, is for people like me sheer bliss we can enjoy being outside without suffering. I am very lucky to have the Wellington Monument close to my home, but there are many other places close to where I live that I can go.
I was going to name this blog The Phoenix Rises, but I am not a phoenix. I am Crafting Butterfly, and today marks the beginning of my climb from the darkness of trials of the last few years back into the light and the chance to soar up into the sky. I have relearned old skills that I thought were lost to me forever and learnt new ones. Sometimes it is necessary to look at the things you want to do, work out what makes them complex and find the tools to make them more accessible. The first challenge I faced was sewing; whilst I can manage to hand sew, admittedly slowly but I make up for that by being very neat, no the problem was that I was having issues using scissors. A few minutes was the limit. Help was at hand, though; in the guise of someone who believed in me, we went and bought me the most helpful machine ever; my mother calls it the Critter; I call it my extra pair of hands. Everyone else calls it a Cricut. Painted glass bottles were something I took up during the first year of lockdown. It was a new skill but never a challenge as I love colour and geometric shapes. When I altered the items I made, I was left with boxes and boxes of assorted bottles and jars, it seemed such a waste to take them to be recycled, so in my wisdom, I thought to myself, why not paint sell them. I researched both methods and paints and tried some out to see which worked best; I settled on the Pebeo range of glass paint. Soon I was surrounded by painted bottles and jars and had nowhere to store them, which was always a problem for me. I don't know the meaning of moderation; it is all or nothing. My final challenge was a challenge last year. The National Rheumatoid Arthritis Society (NRA Sthey) was celebrating 20 years since its foundation; it set up #DoThe20Challenge to raise funds. I chose to create 20 multimedia images, I did achieve my target, which was excellent, but I found I thoroughly enjoyed what I was doing, especially when I got past the feeling that I couldn't paint because I couldn't draw; that idea has well and truly been blasted away. So I would like to invite those of you who have read to the end of this blog to join me on my adventure of discovery into what one woman can achieve with her pair of her, at times, very disobedient hands. So far, I have found that nothing is impossible for me; it often takes imagination and a good range of tools, but I have managed to achieve the things I have set my mind to. Long may it continue
