Just catching up…
It’s been awhile since I last posted and I have so much to tell you that I am not even sure where I should start. I’ve not been well over the past three weeks, first had the flu which made me a little helpless because I was so limited in what medication I could take – yes I am a firm believer that if you have pain you should pop a pill – anyhow this resulted in badly infected sinuses and an inflamed ear. So after having been away from work for a week for the flu (yes seriously it was that bad), I get back for a week and struggle with the blocked ear that gets progressively worse and starts affecting my balance that I am away from work again for another week. This past week I had to have my sinuses and ear drained with local anaesthetic, which was really unpleasant – okay I was a big baby and cried. Unfortunately the fluid built up again and I had to have a grommet inserted on Thursday and this ear of mine is still not back to normal (although it can make some high pitched whistling sounds, which I bet you can’t do), so I have spent a lot of time feeling quite sorry for myself, which could have in hindsight been creative time, but let me not cry over time passed. It was also terribly hot last week and with my house is currently in a state of chaos, I didn’t feel like working on my blankets (yes plural because despite my big de-stash two weeks ago, I still have a few crochet projects that really must be completed – tell you a little more just now). What I have done though and I am quite excited about, is finishing a cross stitch project….aahhh cross stitch, my first…no wait second love. Knitting was definitely my first!
Cross stitch is one of my oh so so many hobbies and in fact something I was/am super passionate about. I have an enormous collection of charts and kits –super ambitious and overly optimistic that I could someday finish them all. I found cross stitching to be super therapeutic and it has helped me heal through some not so great times – you start with a blank canvas and you watch a picture appear whilst you concentrate on the number of stitches, so much so that you are able to block out everything else. It’s addictive too, because you want to see more and more of the picture – then I discovered crochet two years ago and all the yummy yarn and cross stitch projects and pretty much everything else went into hibernation. But see what I finished.
This is a DMC kit, not something I would typically choose to stitch, but knowing there is a little girl on the way I having been looking at pinks and lilacs and this felt like it could be a piece for the nursery. I don’t really have a theme for the nursery, although she inherits the wall with a massive tree with the monkeys and owls that was created for Matthew. It initially was a print on vinyl that was stuck on his wall, but it kept coming off, so we traced and painted in the detail and after all that hard work, it is staying! I may add some butterflies and birds and perhaps even some flowers later.
The night before Matthew was born (yes literally the night before!), I completed and hubby framed this piece for his room. I won’t wait until the very last minute to do one for our baby girl, so I’ve already started looking for something personal just for her… you can see that I am really trying to plan and do things well in advance – a new experience for me.
So my de-stashing efforts went really well, I packed up all my yarn bought over the past 2 years for charity blankets (gosh I had an awful lot), crocheted squares, some blankets in progress that hadn’t seen the light of day in a long time and handed them all over to my dear friend, Kim Lategan who is making loads of blankets for charity. I know that she will be able to finish up my projects and use all this yarn and create some masterpieces that will keep loads of families warm over the next winter – rather this than me having big plans and ideas and doing absolutely nothing. Kim is an absolute crochet machine and such an awesome tester too. I can finally see the floor again of my little study/craft/storage room, but this de-stashing effort has only really made a tiny dent, so I have a long way to go before I can say that I was completely successful in organising. Being sick has also made me lose some of the momentum created, but as I said earlier my house is in a state of chaos anyway – let me tell you more about this.
I am super excited about our renovations in progress. We bought our house at the end of 2013 and it really was a fixer-upper, and we were quite excited about the work ahead. Needless to say life happens and it’s still pretty much a work in progress (more work than progress). I’ve always wanted a patio – just somewhere to sit with my family and chat or work on some of my projects. We literally did not have a space that was sheltered, so we hardly ever utilised or enjoyed the outdoor space. I would have been happy with just a carport style awning that created some shelter, but my husband finally delivered something more than what I even dreamt of. So yes he so deserves the “best husband” award. So there is a lot of dust and banging and drilling and all sorts going on at my house (good thing I can’t hear properly, although dust is horrible for infected sinuses), but I will have a patio with not one, but actually three defined spaces. I am hoping there will be some money left over to buy some lovely outdoor furniture when we are done lol. This is going to be an awesome space for friends to come over and chill and perhaps even host some craft workshops or get-togethers – if you live in Gauteng – please watch the space – I already have some plans. I can’t wait to show pictures of it all done, in fact I can’t wait to see it all done too!
Whilst I am in this cleaning, sorting and organising phase, I’ve realised that I have the most gorgeous blankets that I’ve completed as a result of testing for some awesome designers and I am literally running out of cupboard space to keep everything – little people’s clothes really take up a lot of cupboard space. There are also scarves made from some of the nicest hand-dyed yarns and some beautiful shawls that just begged to be made – so I decided to have a bit of an online auction on my Creative Kogi page. For me it’s important that some of these creations to find a new home or owners who will appreciate and enjoy them. It’s all still a plan and I must work out the logistics but my initial thoughts are a reserve price on each item (which is the actual cost of the yarn) and allow you to bid for the item you like. All profits generated will go to charity – either the purchase of polar fleece fabric to make blankets or new-born vests, etc. Please watch my page for further details. I would like to do this towards the end of the month, which will give me some time to complete some of the projects.
Okay this ended up being a much longer post than intended, and by now you are probably tired of my rambling.
So until next time…Create, Craft and Inspire!
Much love
Kogi