Focus On… Blankets

It’s the last day of February, and although spring is now just around the corner, winter is still well and truly making itself known outside! We may have had an officially ‘mild’ winter this year compared to some years, but today is cold and dark, with rain pouring down- and other than a brief lull over the weekend, this follows weeks of back to back winter storms- including Eunice which, with its ‘Red’ weather warning forced hundreds of schools around the country to close for safety, Little Blondie’s included, caused trains to be cancelled, major attractions to shut for the day- and caused damage and destruction around the whole of the UK!

Definitely still the sort of weather for staying indoors then, snuggled up nice and cosy in a blanket- whether you’re a human, or a doll… 🙂

My fleece dolly blankets mainly come in one size- designed and sized to fit into most doll’s cots and prams. A simple hemmed design, the blankets are cosy enough to either use on their own, or paired up with one of my bedding sets for extra warmth.

Suitable for use by children of all ages; on their own the little blankets are perfect as first dolly bedding- even a tiny little dolly lover will be able to ‘tuck’ a teddy, dolly or softie up in one, even if you can no longer see the toy in question! And being made from a lovely soft fleece fabric means that they can easily be used to snuggle dolly cosily into a doll’s car seat or buggy, and don’t take up much space- ideal for when dolly has to start coming out on every trip or holiday you take, along with their pushchair of course! 😀

In a range of colours designed to be bright and colourful for sole use, but with enough variety to complement any of my bedding sets, or any of today’s doll’s prams and pushchairs, they will also appeal to older children who are more particular with their wants! You can find the options currently available on my website HERE 🙂

Although perfectly sized to wrap around a first size dolly or small softie, I recently realised (thanks to the new addition of two little grandsons) that there was a gap in Little Dolly Clothes Shop‘s range- that I needed a bigger sized blanket to wrap larger dolls in for cuddling. I did originally offer one- many years ago, but for some reason this size had got forgotten along the way when updating and renewing fabric stock!

In the run up to Christmas, I reconsidered this as being an option I should offer. To be more appealing to children, (and the adults who buy them) I decided to offer them as part of a set, rather than just a larger blanket- which could get confusing for customers if they didn’t read the whole item description including sizes! As my little blankets are one of my most popular items, I obviously didn’t want to do anything to jeopardise that!

So, on finding a pretty fleece fabric that I could buy in two colour options, I introduced my first year-round gift set of Cuddle Blanket and Nappy – in Pink and Blue! Just big enough to wrap a larger doll such as Baby Annabell up in, whilst not being so big that a My First sized version would be swamped in it, my new cuddle blankets are already proving popular and I almost wish I’d remembered to add them in sooner!

And of course, whether cuddle sized or pram sized- a blanket is not just for winter! Dolls- like babies, always need snuggling up for a cuddle, and a little blanket is never too hot for use on it’s own in a dolly cot or pram during the summer months… if the winter weather ever gives us a break! 😀

The Ins and Outs of our Lives in 2021 – Family Tributes and Welcomes

Any year that begins with the sad news that a family member has suddenly and unexpectedly passed away hasn’t got off to the best of starts. When the family member was an estranged cousin of your own generation, who you had recently been back in contact with- that news is all the more upsetting and shocking. When that family member was only forty six years old, the news is heart-breaking…

But that was my reality last year, when on the 2nd of January a lazy morning’s browsing on Facebook turned into a terrible nightmare of a day, with the news that my cousin had suffered a fatal heart attack in the early hours of New Year’s Day- devastating the lives of his wife, his siblings and their families and his parents. Those of us in the wider family felt the shockwaves too, as the realisation dawned that this wasn’t some kind of sick joke, but genuine- and that all our lives had in one way or another changed for ever.

I sadly didn’t know my cousin well, the eldest son of my dad’s brother; growing up, our two families were very different and separated by many miles across the country. Our family’s lives were busy, and we met rarely- even on the bigger family occasions we were unlikely to all be there. As a child, it’s just ‘how it is’ and having a life filled with other people we barely noticed our cousins missing from our lives, and I suspect that they didn’t either.

But they were always ‘there’- always in the background of our childhoods; and later as we spread our wings with families and lives of our own, their names were always in the back of our minds, and in our Christmas cards. Then more recently, thanks to the magic of Social Media we had managed to make contact once again- us all being adults now, it was nice to have that personal contact that we never had while growing up. All being separated by many miles, and many counties, we hadn’t ever got as far as meeting or anything- but it was comforting to follow their lives and get to know them, albeit virtually.

The shock of having that taken away so suddenly, without ever having the chance to know my cousin properly still hasn’t really left me. He was five years younger than me- was a funny, caring and loving man who adored his wife, his siblings and their children, and his parents. He had a fantastic and successful career, and put his all into everything he did- both work and play. He will be forever missed by those of us who loved him- even if from afar. ❤

It did, however, put into perspective the sad loss of our much loved, but elderly pet rabbit just four days later…

Bambi, along with her rabbit sister was bought by Knitting Pixie and Apple six or seven years before- originally against my wishes. Though both old enough to know better, this had been a perfect example of children ‘trying it on’ between two parents- I said no to any more pets, Mike didn’t really give an answer. So when a friend down the road in the village had baby rabbits for sale…
I was so unhappy about it that I never went outside to welcome our new lodgers- being lucky enough to live in a detached house I managed to avoid going around the side of the house that the hutch was leaning against! I’ll always feel a bit guilty that I never got to see Bambi’s rabbit sister Thumper in real life, as she only lived for a few months.

Bambi on the other hand became a part of the family, and even managed to find her way into my heart! The hutch was moved around the house to a more sheltered spot for the winter, which had then become its permanent spot by the time the better weather arrived in the spring- and which I couldn’t avoid as it was near to both the back door, and the washing line! I found that I actually quite enjoyed having a little furry companion to chat to while hanging the washing out, and once the older girls had both moved out and the younger two had ‘inherited’ her, my involvement in her life became greater.

Her loss was felt anew every time I hung the washing out last year- but our daffodil and snowdrop patch at the end of the garden where she now rests seems all the more vibrant for having her there. ❤

A much brighter time in our lives came in July, with the arrival of Knitting Pixie’s first beautiful baby. Another boy to join our collection of little grandsons, Munchkin had been difficult and caused problems for her throughout, and my worry for our eldest daughter had mostly outweighed any excitement at the prospect of an imminent and UK-residing grandchild!

However as soon as he was safely here, and Knitting Pixie was recovered from the caesarean section that her health dictated was best for them both, we could begin to relax and enjoy all the baby cuddles, and watching him grow and develop. They live across the moors an hour away from us- near enough that we’ve been able to see them every month or so, but not so close that we’re living in each other’s pockets the whole time! ❤

Sadly, our lives were then hit with another loss at the end of November. Another member of our generation- Mike’s brother’s wife, our sister-in-law, had been battling illness for nearly three years. In and out of hospital all that time, having tried just about every treatment- established and experimental, she certainly put up a good fight, no doubt spurred on by the thought of leaving her husband and their two daughters. Unfortunately though, during November things suddenly took a turn for the worse and it was inevitable that the family was going to lose her.

She hadn’t been an easy person to get along with- very private and quiet she had preferred the company of her own side of the family to that of her husband’s. However, with the experience I had of growing up and not knowing my cousins contrasting vividly with Mike’s childhood experience of growing up surrounded by his, we made every effort we could to keep the two families communicating.

Though they also rarely saw them, Mike’s mum has always brought them into conversation- sharing things she’d spoken about on the phone with Mike’s brother, or telling our children the latest news on how their cousins were doing with school, in their exams, or what their career plans were etc. And she made every effort to try to get us to all meet up, even though her attempts were often in vain. But it does at least mean our children have some kind of understanding of who their uncle and cousins are!

It’s difficult to mourn the passing of someone you didn’t know that well- however when they were the same age as you, and left behind a husband and two girls who are only just into their twenties… when their husband is your own dear husband’s brother, and the girls your own children’s cousins… when you have to watch your parents-in-law struggling to deal with the raw grief of their elder son… it’s easy. Your heart goes out to those left behind. ❤

In a huge contrast with how it began, our year did then end on a high note- with the wonderful news from Canada that our newest little grandson had arrived safely into the world. A third son for our eldest son and his wife, their youngest child fitted perfectly into their little family unit right from the word go. Though their oldest found it harder to accept another sibling to begin with, their second boy is besotted with the new baby- asking for cuddles, ‘helping’ his mum, and causing a big sigh of relief all around. Two months on, and he still thinks the baby is the best gift ever- long may that last! ❤

2021 was certainly an emotional roller coaster of a year for us- like the outside world hasn’t been throwing out enough challenges of its own! But throughout it all, there was a constant theme- a lesson in the fragility of life and of love, in all its beautiful forms. ❤

New Year Hopes

‘New Year, new start’… ‘New Year, new me’… ‘New Year, new page’…

Just how many of these phrases do we hear every year, in the build up to midnight on 31^st December? I’ve probably said similar myself at some point- in the past, while joking, and probably while holding a glass of something in my hand! 😉

If you’ve read this blog before, then you’ll know I have never believed in the sentiment of everything changing just because the clock struck midnight on 31^st December. Every minute of every day gives us the chance to change things if we want to. Every new day brings with it a fresh start- the sun rises anew, and we have the ability to wake up and see everything around us afresh and renew our wants, our aims or our dreams.

But, New Year does mark out a time for this. It’s a particular moment in time that we all share, and that can’t be ignored or ‘put off’ until another day, which is perhaps why it is so popular as the time that vows are made to change… to begin again… to start that ‘something’ new… or indeed, to stop that ‘something’ old!

It gives us a moment in time to reflect upon the past year, or the past few weeks or months and to think about the future. Each new day brings with it a change of date, but somehow when the calendar is reset to 1^st January, with a change of year date that’s never been seen before- even I get that there’s something significant in that bit! 🙂

I think maybe losing my mum as we did in the summer of 2019 has only helped to emphasise that to me. That particular New Year was obviously rather an emotional one as we remembered the sadness of the year gone by; now with each New Year I just feel sadness that there’s another year date that she will never know, never write down, or have a joke about when there’s one of those ‘clever’ dates- like 12.1.21, or 12.2.21… And of course, with each one comes another whole year between when we had her living among us, and not…

And as everyone knows only too well, everything can also change in a split second, at any time in any hour on any day. Bad things or good, life carries on regardless of the date! Bad things don’t stop happening at the stroke of midnight on the 31^st December, and have a rest for a day just so that we can all make that ‘new start’ on New Year’s Day!

Two years ago as the clock chimed and 2019 became 2020, outside of our own personal grief there was a real sense of anticipation and hope in the air. We saw the New Year in up at the pub, surrounded by friends from the village and nearby. Talk was of what the year would bring, 2020 was already being seen as a ‘perfect’ year- not only a nice round number, but also with 20-20 vision being perfect vision. There was a lot of reminiscing- it also marking the change of decade naturally meant a lot of comparing between ‘this time ten years ago and now’! Social media newsfeeds were full of this too, and no one had to go very far down their feed to find someone sharing their photos of ‘what I looked like back then’! 😀

Everyone seemed to be gearing up for the fresh start that the year would bring- the only blot on the horizon at that time being Brexit, due to complete at the end of January. It didn’t seem to matter if you were for or against it, it was going to affect us all one way or another, whether personally or through work/ business, and as such it was one subject that appeared to be strictly off limits during that celebratory evening.
No one could have predicted, or guessed then just what life had around the corner for us all… less than three months later and we all knew; because everyone in the world’s lives had been turned upside down by the pandemic.

All that hope, excitement and anticipation gone…

Not quite in the blink of an eye, but over the course of just a few short weeks we watched as the world closed down around us, and experienced a life none of us had been prepared for- locked down, unable to go to school or work, or even to the shops, the pub or a restaurant. Businesses were closed, nurses and doctors in demand like never before during peace time, and all the hopes that Brexit would eventually (given time) perhaps end the financial misery of the last few years were forgotten as the economy suffered a fresh blow.

Maybe then, it’s not so bad being on the outside of the New Year’s Resolution ‘gang’… Maybe by setting my sights lower, by believing that each new day brings its own start, it was a little easier to watch as things didn’t quite go to plan. By not really having my hopes built on one particular minute of one particular day, maybe it was a little easier to bear as the world changed? It didn’t really feel like that at the time!

Of course, that doesn’t mean that I don’t have hopes and dreams for the year though!

So what exactly are my hopes for this year?

My main hope for the year is probably pretty much the same as everyone else in the world, and the same as everyone was praying for last year – that this year will see life returning to some sort of normality. Whether that’s back to life as it used to be, or whether there are things that will remain forever changed isn’t what matters. What matters is that one day we will be free from, or able to live with the virus- without having to stay away from everyone else for chunks of time, without having to cover our faces when we do venture out, and without the constant stress and worry that someone we love is going to catch it and become severely ill.

It’s not about our rights for freedom, or our rights to do as we please. But just about the right to live, if that’s what God wills in our lives. 🙂

But yes, of course I also have other hopes too!
I hope that all my family and loved ones are living the lives they dream of and that they have the ability to face up to any challenges that come up along the way in a thoughtful and pro-active way.
I hope I can help them through the tough times, and celebrate the good with them.
I hope they have the vision to see the way forward if ever things look bleak, or that they know to come to us or seek help elsewhere if they can’t.
I hope they all live long and happy lives, but that where life throws them a challenge or they experience times of suffering or struggles, that there are always others there to help or to comfort them.

I hope that my little business continues to grow, and that I continue to have the ability to run it and to enjoy making my doll’s clothes. I dream of having daily orders coming in, and of managing my time better so that Little Dolly Clothes Shop becomes my main focus during ‘working’ hours, instead of ‘life’- washing, housework, etc. always taking over!
I’d love to have the energy to get everything done in the day that I imagine doing when I wake each morning, instead of feeling tired just by thinking about it all, and then spending the rest of the day trying to get just a fraction of my ‘to do’ list ticked off!

But mainly, I’d just love to see everyone I care for living up to their potential. I’d love to see them all with big dreams and aiming high- not with hopes so high that they will inevitably fall and struggle, but high enough that they can be satisfied that they’ve tried and achieved at least partway towards their goal. I don’t care if their dream is to be a refuse collector, to build a family or to make it big in business- there’s room for everyone in life. And time for anyone to make a change in theirs if they want to- however old or young they are. 🙂

Our hopes and dreams are like the daffodil bulbs in my vase- full of potential, and ready to blossom and bloom if given the right environment. Left ignored- without water or in the dark, they would just shrivel and never flower, never find out what they could have been.
Without dreams, support or encouragement that’s all that happens to any of us- we shrivel and become lost in the monotony of everyday life.
With the right environment, and maybe with help, we each have the ability to blossom.

And really, at the end of the day- virus or no virus, that’s all I really hope and pray for this New Year… for each and every one of us ❤

And So- That was Christmas…

I’ll never understand how something as set in date and time as Christmas can always somehow creep up and take everyone by surprise. One day the air is filled with the excited anticipation of the build up to it- each advert on the television is celebrated, each song heard on the radio relayed excitedly to anyone who happens to be nearby, each Christmas light spotted in someone’s window marvelled at. And then suddenly you blink and it’s Christmas Day, then you blink again and it’s back to work and school with the festive season already feeling like a distant memory…

Christmas in our house always begins in September- the first mince pies of the season in the shops make a great ‘back to school’ breakfast, and just as soon as Christmas is only double figures away our countdown ornament begins! Okay so it’s only really designed to count the days of December down, but hey- it’s not our fault that the number blocks on it allow it to start counting down at 95, is it?! 😉

School concert and church Carol service rehearsals begin as soon as the new school year begins, and as a small business I have to add my Christmas items to the website and start some subtle Christmas advertising then too… or risk missing out on some much needed seasonal sales! And working, as I do, in one of the darkest rooms in the house during the autumn and winter, gives me the perfect excuse to pop the first string of fairy lights up before the calendar has even changed to October! 🙂

This year was no exception. The first of the lights went up from the end of September onwards- only one set every few days, (with the exception of the outdoor hedge lights, which have to be done in as few goes as possible to fit in with the weather!) so just enough to slowly begin building our decorative displays and help encourage my Christmassy creativity, without feeling like anyone would judge us for being way too early in our festive decorating!

Instead of a vague ‘I’ll add Christmas to the website around this date…ish’, I set a date for adding my Christmas category to the website, advertised it on both the website and my social media pages, shared it to other groups and stuck to it. All of my actual Christmas items had been added gradually to the website in their other appropriate categories from the middle of September onwards so all was ready to go- and I launched Christmas properly on 1^st October.

Knowing when to officially launch the season from a business point of view has always previously had me torn. As a believing Christian the season begins with Advent- four Sundays before Christmas Day. From a school or church practical point of view, Carol and Nativity services are planned and practised from around September or October onwards. From an all-Christmas loving point of view, I’d happily have the decorations up as soon as schools go back at the beginning of September and play the Christmas CDs non-stop from then too. So knowing which side to take for Little Dolly Clothes Shop had always been a bit tricky!

But with the way life has been over the last two years, I noticed a real trend with even earlier advertising this year- not just with the big name stores, but with the little handmade craft businesses that I need to keep pace with. Not be in competition with, which is a mistake so many people make, but just keep up with in terms of timings, seasonal launches etc. There’s a limit even for me though (perhaps the Christian bit) which meant I resisted joining in when others started talking about Christmas being ‘around the corner’- back in June!?! Yes, I’ll buy any new fabric stock for the season then- but only because it sells out otherwise and it can’t be found anywhere past about July, however hard you look! And yes, I am speaking from personal experience!

So with Christmas launched, and a couple of early seasonal sales of dolly pyjamas already in the bag, I was ready to jump full steam ahead into the most wonderful time of the year!

The orders came in steadily and I was working with at least one other order outstanding all through October and November, so I was kept nicely busy. I still had enough time to continue with my gradual dressing of the house, along with keeping up (mainly!) with the washing and other household chores- AND still find time for my own family’s Christmas shopping. Christmas preparations-wise I was as organised and as on schedule as I think I have ever been!

In theory, having only two of the children living full time at home nowadays should of course have made less work for me, in terms of buying all the little chocolate and toiletries ‘extras’ for the stockings that I’ve always found such fun, but very time consuming… However with Games Boy declaring that he was coming to stay for the two weeks over Christmas and New Year (and therefore ‘needing’ his stocking too), and the two older girls still hoping for some sort of smaller scale stockings for when they visited over Christmas, I didn’t really notice any difference in the shopping for them this year compared to a couple of years ago before the three of them all suddenly upped and left home!

Still- the shopping was going well, the sewing was going well, and Curly’s rehearsals were going well for the village pantomime which she’d decided to take part in this year, and in which she was starring as Robin Hood. The annual debate (sadly missing last year due to Covid restrictions!) had kicked in about if, when and where the wider family would be meeting- with my dad and both my siblings and their families living over the other side of the country though, it’s not really much of a contest! 😉

And then the calendar page changed to December… and the pandemic decided to make itself known again. With a sense of déjà vu we were back to daily watching of the news for updates on whether or not we would suddenly be locked down again like last year, or whether restrictions would close schools early for Christmas/ force the panto to be cancelled/ mean that we couldn’t reasonably (or possibly even legally) cross the country for the much anticipated family get together.

And somehow, despite continuing to sew my orders daily, whilst keeping an eye on last order dates for my own family’s gifts, December- which always has a tendency to fly by- flew by even faster than usual. Despite tight restrictions being brought in in parts of the UK, England’s schools remained open with cancelled concerts and the reintroduction of masks and ‘bubbles’ in place… our village panto went ahead for all scheduled performances with no major issues, and Curly excelled in her role and made us super proud!

Suddenly the last Christmas posting date was upon us, and I somehow managed to get the final order made up and out into the post office in plenty of time for the afternoon collection- unlike some years in the past, where it’s been a bit of a race between Mike dropping the parcels there, and the postie collecting their last sack full!

With my orders finished, I could finally concentrate on making our own Christmas happen 😀 Somehow though, despite appearing (even to myself) to be better organised than ever before- there we were with three days to go and I’d still done no present wrapping… the last decorations were still waiting to be put up… the food shopping hadn’t even made it as far as being a list… and we were still watching and waiting to see if we would be travelling across the country or not! At least Games Boy had made it home, and was keeping his sisters ‘entertained’… 🙂

As always happens though, of course we muddled through- three intensive days of wrapping and I had the stockings all nicely filled… Mike braved the supermarket first thing on Christmas Eve and stocked the cupboards up with just enough food to keep us going over the long weekend, without going too ‘over the top’ as tends to happen if we shop any sooner… the tinsel was draped around every frame and ledge… the dining room tree finished off by Curly and Little Blondie… and we finally made the hard decision that travelling far at that time was probably a bad thing to do.

Christmas Day itself passed by way too quickly as it always does- the lovely quiet, relaxed day made even easier this year by the fact that our Christmas dinner was scheduled for Boxing Day, when the two older girls would be coming over to join us all. 🙂

Or not! Once again, Covid decided to butt in- a phone call from Apple first thing on Boxing Day, to say that she had just tested positive for it, changed the course of our day, and indeed the rest of our Christmas holiday. Knitting Pixie, fiancé and baby still came over, but only for a short visit on their way to her in-laws- so instead of a full dinner, we made do with a buffet style meat and snacks meal. Instead of Apple and her boyfriend staying overnight and into the next day, life kind of felt a bit flat- with the anticipation of a full and busy house becoming a quiet half-full reality.

Feeling guilty, but glad that we had called off our cross country trip as Apple and her boyfriend wouldn’t have been able to go with us after all, we of course still made the most of the holidays. A trip to see Mike’s parents who only live an hour away; a doorstep exchange of perishable Christmas presents and socially distanced chat with Apple; Face time ‘chat’ with our little grandson who hadn’t been in the mood to open his presents on Boxing Day… and of course late nights, lazy mornings, playing board games while grazing all day and rare family time without work intruding. And then suddenly it was the New Year. Mike went ‘back’ to work, Little Blondie back to school, and Games Boy back home. But as twelfth night came, and went, we still had presents under the tree… and an overdue dinner to eat with Apple and her boyfriend. Christmas may officially have finished, but for us- there was still more to come ❤

The Trouble with Blogging

Or maybe that should be ‘the trouble with ME blogging’…

I have the ability to just sit down at the computer and write. If I know what I’m doing and the circumstances are right, I can just sit and type and an hour or so later I have a finished piece. A perfect article to publish as a blog post- complete with an idea of where to grab a suitable photo from, a title, and which links and tags to use 🙂

I also have the ability to struggle. To have the desire to sit and write a post, maybe even with a title in mind… only to then sit and stare at the computer for a couple of hours- half writing, half daydreaming, and all the time wasting precious time I could be using on other things…

There is no outside pressure on me to produce perfect, or even any blog posts- no contract, no boss telling me to perform, indeed there is no direct monetary incentive of any kind. I write to help my little sewing business. Since reading up on ways to improve the SEO of my website and discovering that sites with an active blog are seen more favourably by Google and the other search engines, I write to help Little Dolly Clothes Shop win favour and be seen more easily by potential customers.

But I do also write because I enjoy it- usually. If my brain is in the right mood, and I have an idea in mind which seems to be working, I love to just sit and type. Maybe I should have been a writer instead of a maker of dolls clothes! It’s funny because in school, way back when there were only 10 computers in the entire building (!) I turned down the opportunity to take computer lessons as an O’ level, having passed the compulsory computer competency test with flying colours- much to my disgust! I wasn’t allowed to take typing (it being a CSE and therefore ‘beneath’ anyone who had the ability to pass the higher level exams) which I thought I might have enjoyed, so perhaps a little stubbornly refused to learn anything about computers instead!

These days, perhaps because of that, I love typing- I even love the admin side of the website, even though it can become a little tedious when things ‘have’ to be done… Maybe after so many years of doing thankless housework and running around after little children it’s because it feels like I’m actually achieving something when I write a blog post, a new page for the website or fill in the paperwork for a new outfit. Not that I ever didn’t enjoy simply being a housewife and mum, but when I’ve been sitting at the computer and typing for an hour there’s something immediate to show for it- unlike doing washing that always seems to reproduce quicker than anyone wears it, or when I used to spend my day clearing up toys from the floor that just ended up back there as soon as I turned around and looked away…

So why is it then, that as soon as I finally get on top of this blog- by writing a post or two for a couple of months, my brain then seems to go on strike? I can even see the results of having made the effort in not only the interaction with Dolly Clothes Diaries itself, but in the number of visitors to my website- sales really do improve if I have a current and popular blog post which people are reading and ‘liking’ daily! 😀

But it’s almost as if my brain has a ‘stubborn’ feature and, having written three or four articles easily it switches to this mode, and no matter how hard I try I just can’t get another piece written easily. I can have a sudden idea of a topic that would be great to write (and to read), so I’ll sit down, type the title, write a paragraph or two… and then get stuck. At other times I’ll consult my page of half written ideas and potential titles, find one I think will work at that particular time, start writing… and again get stuck only a few sentences in.

Or another trick my brain has is to lure me into a false sense of security- it’s like, ‘hey come on- I’m in the mood to write today’. So I’ll sit at the computer with an idea of a topic in mind and start to type, and type, and type… Many hours and several pages later, and with no idea of how I’m going to finish the post off I’ll stop and read it through. Only to find that it has taken a sharp turn off topic, several times, and that the nearly completed article bears no resemblance to the piece I set out to write in the first place… not to mention the fact that no one would sit and read such a long post anyway!

It’s just so frustrating, because when I sit down to write and it works- it just works 🙂

Of course some of the time over this last eighteen months or so, there have also been outside influences that have stopped me from writing. When the pandemic suddenly took our lives over and the country entered its first Lockdown for example, I just simply couldn’t get into the right frame of mind to even think about blogging. I was in the middle of trying to build my new website and change the company it was with at that time too, and so I simply didn’t have enough brain energy to write as well.

I’ve just about managed to stay on top of everyday life during these strange times but, probably like most other people the world over, I have struggled at times. Days that feel like years, days when hibernating seems like the best option, days when you wonder if life will ever get back to normal… and all them most definitely days that were NOT made for blogging! Having Little Blondie sitting opposite me at the dining table, doing her online schooling for several months at a time wasn’t really conducive to easy writing either- much as she needed no help or time from me, just having her there in the room with me completely put paid to any creative streak I may have had!

Maybe it’s just that I put too much pressure on myself to blog when I’m not really in the right frame of mind? Maybe I should, as I’m sure I’ve said before, just relax into it and accept that there are times when I can churn out several posts in one go, and other times when it will take weeks to come up with the next big piece? Except that life, and more specifically search engines, doesn’t work like that- if I don’t have the hits on the blog, then I don’t get them on the website either…

Maybe I DO need to just relax into a bit though. I’ve tried before with keeping a list on the computer of possible topics, writing a paragraph maybe of something I’ve thought of that I know I could come back to at a later date and write an article about.  But somehow it never seems to work when I actually try to do it. So perhaps I need to find another approach, or find a topic to write about every couple of months- ‘an update on’ or something, similar to my ‘monthly round ups’ I tried once before.

But whatever I do, one thing is certain- blogging may at times seem to be more trouble than its worth, and it may sometimes make my brain hurt and take up more time than it really should, but I’m NOT giving up on it until I really don’t enjoy it anymore. For once I’m in complete agreement with Google- it’s definitely worth persevering for the sake of my little business!! 🙂

* As if to prove the point, this post took just over two hours to complete- from first (and sudden) thought, to finished and ready-to-be-published article!! ❤