Easter and beyond…

I was watching a podcast earlier today that I’d missed at the beginning of February and the podcaster was talking about January being the never ending month. Which it was – the start of 2019 seemed to go oh-so-slowly.

So what happened then? A time warp speed up? February, March and now April have zipped by and Easter weekend is over.

It was a stunner too. I can remember so many Easter weekends when it was cold, grey, pouring with rain and possibly sleet or even snow. But 2019 was a mini heatwave. Not a cloud in the sky, 24 C and sunny for the entire four days. We spent most of it in the garden room and even had to put up the big parasol for shade.

While it was mostly a time for lazing around, eating, drinking and chatting, I tinkered with some solar dyeing and made a few stitch markers early on Saturday morning, before everyone else surfaced.

And the blossom… just magnificent.

Fast forward a few days and I realised yesterday evening that I’m going on holiday in less than two weeks. Panic has now set in about how much I need do to before that. I could do with a time warp or the ability to clone myself into five Crafternoon Treaters, all raring to leap into action.

So why did I think it would be a great idea to pick today, a wet and gloomy post Easter Saturday, to totally spring clean, declutter and reorganise my bedroom. As I sit in bed writing this on Saturday evening, shattered and surrounded total chaos, I’m wishing I had thought this through.

The decorator’s fault, of course. He did such a good job on my daughter’s room and the spare room just before Easter. They are now fresh, gleaming and a peaceful haven of white walls and cleanliness while my room, formerly the best bedroom in the house, has been relegated to third place (son’s room is bottom of this particular league table). And so I threw a little tantrum and set about transforming it first thing this morning.

Several hours later I was demoralised and sweating with the effort of removing what seemed to be decades of dust. Why is it that a room seems perfectly clean until you start moving the furniture and looking on the top of the wardrobes? Then you feel like you’ve become Miss Havisham in that Charles Dickens novel …

It is obvious to me now that the room needs redecorating too, which is unlikely to be possible for another month. Unless I do it myself… in the 12 days before I go on holiday.

But what about all the other things I have earmarked those days for. Posting out the UK preorders for the May sock club. Recording another podcast. Dyeing the sock club yarn for June. Finishing writing a couple of patterns. Like the shawl I showed in Episode 70 and that I’ve now blocked.

Completing two projects for a London publisher. Recording a little mini video on my solar dyeing experiment. Sorting out loads of fun and new projects to take on holiday (ideally with freshly dyed yarn), having finished multiple makes in progress to ensure this can be done guilt-free.

Come back January all is forgiven.

Tomorrow I’ll do what I always do in these circumstances. Make a list then faff about doing things that are not useful, do not bring me any closer to any goal and that definitely will not result in being guilt-free.

Like take more pictures of things in corners of the newly decorated bedrooms because they look nice.

This is really a throwback project – my daisy ripple cushion, that I did as a free pattern yonks ago…

xxx Kathryn xxx