As a teenager, once I'd given up girl guides and playing the piano, I really had no hobbies. It wasn't 'cool' and lets face it we were all desperately clinging to any ounce of cool that came our way. I was working in a shoe shop aged 13 earning a paltry £1.83 an hour but boy was I rich! I blew it all shopping one summer, it was great.
Later in my teens I joined the school tech crew. This was really just an excuse to mess about and get sugar highs from far too much coke and doughnuts. It is how I got to know my future husband though, not that either of us had the slightest clue at the time. The tech crew also takes an amount of credit for my career choice in engineer. Only a small amount though, my Dad takes most of it.
When I started university I wanted to carry on with the technical theatre work I'd done in school. The university tech crew was just a little too weird for my liking so I joined the Music and Drama society. I did 3 years of shows and enjoyed every minute of it, I resisted in my final year wanting to concentrate on my degree. It was with much sadness that I watched the show and society fail. Being called apathetic for not stepping in was like salt in the wound, sadly sometimes you have to prioritise.
In my second year of university I picked up a Winnie the Pooh cross stitch in Tesco. I completed it in front of the TV in the evenings, added a name and date of birth and gave it as a Christening gift. It was so well received that I did more and more. Unfortunately I set a president and it became a chore, I haven't done any cross stitch in 18 months now after I completed a sampler for my nephew.
When my husband, Darren, and I got married in 2008 I decided to make mine and my bridesmaids jewellery for the day. After I worked in the shoe shop I moved to a jewellers aged 16 and loved it, so I'm amazed it took me so long to start making my own!
For Christmas 2008 my sister, Kelda, gave me a book called 'how to grow your own veg' and a few packets of seeds. By the end of January we had cleared out the back of our garden and built three raised beds. That year we successfully grew courgettes, carrots, onions, sweetcorn, potatoes, to name a few.
Our daughter, Esmé, was born in December 2009. The garden and my jewellery making have been sadly neglected. I did grow some broccoli and cauliflower and made a few bits of jewellery for the Christmas craft fair at church but that was the extent of it.
Just before Christmas a friend and I went on a short course at a bead shop in Oxford in making Christmas decorations. The decorations perhaps weren't particularly inspiring but it reminded me how much I enjoy beading and making jewellery, sometimes you just need a little prompt.
Another little prompt came in the form of my secret santa present from Darren's brother. I got a little pot of parsley to grow in the kitchen and a garden planner. Today I went out to the garden to see if the ground was at all workable. It was in a hideous state and stank of rotten cabbage but in a couple of hours my main raised bed was cleared, topped up with some fresh soil and fertilised ready to plant the over winter onions and garlic that should have gone in last year!
So in a round about, rather long winded way I have introduced some of what my blog is likely to contain over the coming weeks and months. I hope you'll see my garden flourish, some beautiful creations and get to watch my daughter grow into a [hopefully] charming two-year old.
