Interior Design...

I have one exam left, and then there is the debate - do I travel or just I just stay in? The chances are I will spend a few days tidying and then the rest travelling. And it will be in that moment that I debate if I want to keep my art stuff out or not. Right now, I think I will be posting a box of stuff home, because, they are are not going to fit in my case, but I should have a better idea tomorrow once I have packed up all the stuff that I don't use. Well most of it.

Anyway! I called this post 'Interior Design', and you may be wondering why. First, I am not planning on branching out into interior, at least not right now. Second, my brother and I are trading rooms. Since I am an uni student I spent little time at home, and when I am at home, I spent some of that time wishing I wasn't - well when it is for prolonged periods. It isn't that I dislike my parents, or my brother, but when you have lived away from home it is hard to go back because your parents are always going to treat you like their baby even when they give you the freedom - it is a weird place. If you are a student or young adult you probably know what I mean.

Well basically, I have been planning what I want my house to look like... You know that house that I cannot afford because I have no job and no income really. Student loan pretty much just covers my university stuff and then some leisure activities. But I still have another year left, so still have another year to get a job, or apply for further education ;) In any case, I suggested that me and my brother swap rooms since mine is bigger and therefore I have been planning what I want that room to look like. 

I thought you people who follow me, or are occasionally brought to my blog might want to see the processes I go through during this decorating period and see the transformation. I will do it in stages and I will write them below. Hopefully it will be finished by the end of June, but I guess we will see... And I will try to give each stage a detailed blog post.

What are the stages?

1) Research & thoughts

What do I want the room to look like? What space do I have to work with? What needs to be in the room?

2) De-clutter & Empty

Remove everything from the room and go through what is to be kept. Think: Keep, Store, Sell/Give or Bin. 

3) Paint, Furnish, Buy...

This stage is all about buying the FURNITURE, I realise how tempting it is to buy other cute things, but really you just want furniture at this point. While waiting for that to arrive, paint the room. Paint should be colours that fit to what will happen in the room, the size and/or the mood. Now put all the furniture in its place.

4) Decorate.

Is there anything that you want to add before everything else goes in?  Artwork? Mirrors? Curtains, blinds or rug? Change of light switch? Lamps? Fairy lights? Light cover/shade? Maybe consider plants?

5) THE STUFF

Now it is time to put all your crap back into your beautiful empty, tidy room! But think about what you are putting in it? Try and keep to a theme at a time, this is also time to think back to what I said in (3). De-clutter. Go through your first theme, then second, then third, etc. Of course, not every one is going to be together, we are human and sometimes not as organised as we think. In my case I intend to go clothes, shoes/accessories, books, boardgames/games, electronics, yarn & other art supplies... Note 'intend', we are bound to forget things. At least I am.

6) Evaluate?

Do you need more storage or shelves? Do you need to clear out further? Are there a few more touches you want to make?

I'll try and post stage one, or at the very least stage one, part one, sometime next week. I'm waiting on my mum to send me some more measurements do I can do a few more sketches.. And I probably won't be able to finalise things until I am home after the 15th June. But I have some really cute ideas and I am excited to show them to you. You know what?! I'm gonna start a pinterest board just for this.

Talk later, keep arting!

Infrequent Posting.

Currently, I don't have much time. I have just finished one of my modules which had three projects one after another and then a presentation. It was on python, which is a programming language. And now I need to catch up on my other module for the exam that is in a little over a week. As well as starting to sort things out for my home university.... I also need to pack, which I started today. Probably a mistake, as I now have to at least finish was I was doing.

First, I am still working on my insomnia piece. I haven't had time to sit and glue everything and to make the hands that I am currently making it as they take a good while. Hopefully I will be able to get some in tonight or tomorrow. Probably tomorrow. Though at the latest it will be a little over a week and then I'll do my second update.

I think I have mentioned it. I am working on two knitting patterns, one is on hiatus until I am back in the UK as I realised I don't have to correct sized needles to finish it off but it is the first sample piece for the fashion line I am working one, which I hope to finish having all of the drawings done this summer and at least this piece completely finished (I want to try different techniques and styles... You'll see). The other is a little bit more complex. It is a jumper. And I am working on that completely from scratch. Once I am done though I plan on making the pattern available. It might be for free or I might charge a small fee. (Seriously, the max I would charge right now is £1.99 but I will see how the pattern goes and then the write up and formatting). I have nearly finished the front of my jumper, I think, however I think I want to change it, so I may or may not do a post once I have done that. I feel I should as it is taking up a lot of my time.

And the last thing I am going to mention. I have said before that I want to create my own business, it would involve cute homemade items that have some form of function around the home. The name has been strong in my mind for about a year, as with the font I want to use. However the spelling is causing me issues.. BUT the logo.. It is driving me insane! I cannot simplify what I want in my head to a logo without me feeling like it is missing something. Nevertheless, I think I might have done it today! I need to draw up a few sketches and talk to some people just for feedback. I am super excited though! I have pushed my idea even further! And now I am just looking for the correct resources so I can practice over summer as I design & finalise the patterns for the first batch.

I have also spent some of my day writing notes about what I need for the business, i.e. promos & business cards. I am aware I need to budget and go through a trailing period where I get some feed back from a few people. And then I'm ready for action! Well, I need to market myself, I think when I know I am getting ready to set up the official store I will start networking online. I don't want to start too soon and for it to all just fall through. I don't want it to feel like a broken promise!

I think there was something else about the business I wanted to mention but it seems to have completely slipped my mind.. OH! I also have a tag line.. But I need to see how relevant it is.

Anyway that is all.  My need for sleep is on the rise again...

From this moment on...

Any personal posts unrelated to what I deem appropriate for this blog will be posted here. It is mainly going to focus on the journey I am currently going through. I.e. self discovery and becoming a better person. It isn't so much that I don't know who I am, but there is part of me I have yet to explore and it is that part of myself that my body and mind are crying out for me to delve deeper into.

If you are interested give it a look ;)

I can feel it all around me...

Recently it has became more apparent of a change that has been taking place within me. And I am very grateful for this change, I hope it continues to grow. It is something that has always been with me, or it has always been one of those things that is with me from a distance, if you know what I mean?

I'll be more specific. Basically, I can feel myself returning to nature, maybe it is the spring, maybe it isn't. I am not sure. But I can definitely feel myself turning into it. I stop just to take in the beauty of nature, be that walking more slowly, noting the little things around or just admiring the colours of the leaves. I have always loved animals and to some extent plants. Nevertheless, there was always the segregation in my mind. There is me. There is nature. The two of us exist, I guess to even go as far as coexist... But now, I feel it is as though we are merging into one being. Yeah, I know how this sounds, like I am pagan or a hippy, or whatever, but in all honesty I'd rather have this realisation to what is around and learn to get what I need from plants and seasons then feel I need to answer to a higher power than nature itself or go through my life ignorant and unaware. Of course, if you fall into the other two categories, I do not judge, especially if you are happy with who you are and where you are mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually. I think this now is, my spiritual journey. 

A path, where does it lead?

A cute little lake in the Botanical Gardens in Lund

Leaves!!

So if we actually call this my spiritual journey, maybe I should try and pinpoint a start? Last Easter, not the one that just happened, the one in 2013, I went through a bad patch. And it took the best part of a month to come out of it and in part of that 'leaving the negativity' I looked into paganism, yeah I know what I said earlier, and I found what it said to me very interesting. There are multiple forms of paganism and wicca... The lines are often blurred and confused, so I won't go into it in crazy amounts of detail because I do not know enough. Not in the slightest. But there are three main principles that apply to apparently all of these different forms of paganism; these are:

1. Love for and Kinship with Nature. Reverence for the life force and its ever-renewing cycles of life and death.
2. A Positive morality, in which the individual is responsible for the discovery and development of their true nature in harmony with the outer world and community. This is often expressed as: 'Do what you will, as long as it harms none.'
3. Recognition of the Divine, which transcends gender, acknowledging both the female and male aspects of Deity.

 Source: 'What is Paganism?' leaflet, The Pagan Federation, 2000. Though I collected from here.

The small stone circle near one of the university buildings. My aim before I leave is to do yoga in the circle and give my respect to the five elements: fire, water, earth, air & spirit.

It was nothing more than a brief look into paganism, as the bad patch was pushed to one side and thus paganism as an idea was almost pretty much forgotten. (It turned again a few months later and lasted a long time... I can still feel remnants of it now). Back to nature talk! Last summer, I went travelling around the UK. We hit the natural parks & Stonehenge, the latter was something I hadn't done, and thought I should because, well, I hadn't been before and I still wanted to reconnect with the Earth. The nature parks weren't so much my idea, which is something I really want to talk about.

Sports and fitness have never been my forte. I can be clumsy and awkward. So going walking is fine, I enjoy walking, but I always disliked going up hills and due to being a little unstable I worry falling, slipping or just generally turning myself on the  muddy, rocky areas that these kinds of places have. Regardless, my fear of falling or walking up these steep hills is fading. I know my fitness level is improving, slowly, but still improving. I know that with a good pair of shoes I should be fine. I am learning, that if I am careful, even if I fall I'll be fine. And I think this is the main breakthrough with my spirituality.

Here! Post-gym pic... *cringe*

How you may be asking yourself? What have you been doing? And the answer to that is not yoga! However much I love yoga I stopped doing it for a long time, and my more weedy arms couldn't really stand the full session so I realised I needed to do some other things. I need to work on my strength and do cardio, so I started spinning. I also eat healthy now. I am definitely improving who I am that way. And thus, it makes accessing nature more accessible, which of course is an achievement!

There is more though! I have developed an appreciate for rain. I've lived in Sweden for around the last nine months, and though I am in Southern Sweden, which the natives let me it is very wet and rainy down here *lies*, I have missed the rain. I was walking back from the gym a few days ago. The rain was pouring, probably one of the heaviest showers we have had here, and it lasted ages. I only had a light hoodie on, with three quarter length sleeves. I was dripping. But it was nice. To feel the rain. I think the worse thing about it is that my trainers have a hole and all my winter/autumn stuff I took home (UK) at the start of May. But it was nice to hear the rain, to feel it again on my skin, to come inside, boil the kettle, have some tea, shower and just be in the warmth. Still able to hear it, to see it.

Not Grizedale... But in my hometown is somewhere in Lancashire.
Look at that! 18days in November, December & January. [1]

Not Copenhagen, but Southern Sweden is pretty much Denmark, so okay.
Look! The lowest is 9days... we get more than that in MAY! [2]

So if you look at the Northwest of the UK, you will see, much wetter than Southern Sweden.[3]

I never thought rain would be something that I would miss, but apparently the Brit in me has learnt to like it haha! I guess this should have happened sooner, I have some fond memories of rainfall, be that inside or outside. Plus! When I was in nursery, 3 years of age, my favourite instrument was the rain maker, that said, I also loved the May Day festival where we had a May King & Queen and Maypole Dancing... 

This is just the start of this journey of self discovery. It feels like it has always been there, with hindsight little hints shine through. But now I am awakening it. What fun! Nature, you truly are all around me. 

My knitting Journey.

I am back! Well, I am back knitting. I learnt how to knit when I was about 13. I think. My Grandma taught me how to knit by giving me two giant skeins of yarn. A creamy colour and then a blue which I am not too sure how to describe. And a pair of chunky needles, probably about 8 or 10mm. All she taught me was how to knit. Literally, just knit stitch. This meant I couldn't start or finish my own pieces without help. Naturally this frustrated me, so my mum, who is also a knitter but only knows when she picks up her needles and plays about for awhile... taught me how to cast on, bind off and how to purl.

Purl, to me, at that point was hideous. It didn't make sense, so I forgot I knew it and just carried on with knit and the ability to cast on and off. My mum also helped me learn how to change colour, but only in the case of stripes, because like, probably about 80%+ of all knitters, the first 'major' project is a scarf.

I wanted to make multiple. I had all these ideas! I wanted a red and black striped scarf and then a grey and black striped scarf. I'll just add this here, I never finished either, slight lie, I went back to the grey and black yarn and did make a scarf but not how I'd envisioned, more later. And then! I decided I NEEDED a Doctor Who scarf! I think this is probably another project attempted by the geeky knitter. So I told my nan to get me lots of little balls of lots of different colours. And then I began my scarf. I stopped half why through knitting it and left it for probably about three years to which I then just binded off. It is very unlike Tom Baker's scarf. But it was close enough... At the time.

I wanted to insert a photo of me, a particularly bad photo at that too! But I can't seem to find it. Probably for the best! If I am remembering the photo correctly, I also have this jumper which has two different names from different friends. One is 'sick jumper' and the other is 'Grandad jumper'. It was from a charity shop...

I also had ideas for more complex projects. I wanted to knit a pink bunny bag, which I may do one day... And some other things. But I pretty much put my needles down until I was about 15. I only picked them up briefly. I made a miniature hat that resembled Pucca because I was... I don't fully remember, but I was talking about different dolls and Blythe dolls have cute little accessories! In hindsight I should have taken that much further. 

PUCCA! PuccaClub

After that, I left my knitting needles alone. I occasionally would pick them back up and then just put them back down. And that was a pattern until the end of my first year at uni, the start of my second year of uni. This is when I say I got into knitting properly. This is when I actually started knitting stuff and finished them. I'll do another post of them soon as I don't have access to them right now. But take a look at my ravelry for some photos (here).

But to finish this post! I took close to another year hiatus from knitting because a lot of stuff happened, some were pretty bad, some where okay, but everything was pretty tainted by the bad. I am happy to be knitting again! And improving. I am currently writing two of my own patterns! One I intent to sell the item itself, the other, I'd probably be happy to sell the pattern, assuming it turns out well.

The last thing I want to add is. this is my knitting journey, notice how there are years of gaps but it does not change the fact that I am a knitter and I love it. I have so much yarn it is crazy, but knitting is a release of negative energy, it relaxes you and helps you forget about the bad things. It can be hard to get into, but once you are there, it is great and very much worth it.

May Thoughts

I will do a creative update soon. And talk about what happened in Oslo. But I first just want to do more of a personal post. This kind of thing, hopefully, won't happen too often. This isn't where I intend to rant about random things. I have other places for doing that. Right now, I just want to write a little about myself... About some of the realisations that I have had recently.

Since the start of the new year I have been setting myself goals for the month at the start or it or just before it begins. So today is the 7th May, I will share my current thoughts:

I turn 21 this month, in about 5 days actually. So I really want to start pushing myself harder. I want to make sure that my degree counts and also start setting myself up for summer when I want to get a job & set up my first online business. Which will be fun, assuming people want to buy my stuff. Thus setting that up will take some of my time over the coming months. 

I also would very much like to continue to improve my overall fitness and this is the month that I need to get into a serious routine when it comes to exercise and food so I can just maintain it once I am back at home. Which will be made more difficult as, until September, I will be living my parents. 

GOAL: Get into a routine.

I have also been thinking a little bit more about what I want to do post-university, however I think this will end up depending on how I feel about my degree in the end. My current plans are to do as little mathematics as possible during summer break because of three reasons:

1. I want to focus on art and doing crafting things. There is a lot I want to learn or improve on with that stuff.
2. I want to have a good routine and make sure I am continuing to keep fit and healthy and maybe travel a little bit.
3. I want to miss maths. If I miss it, I will feel more 'get up and go' when I return to my studies in September. 

The only mathematics that I would chose to do would be for my end of degree project/dissertation. I am currently waiting for the guy in control to message me back to tell me what is happening with that. I would love to do a project that combines mathematics and art, so I may end up emailing a few people about that soon. We'll see how it goes!

But putting aside all of that stuff. I have been thinking about myself and how I wish to achieve my own happiness. When in Oslo I went for walks through the park to start my day. I made time to just sit and read. I know that that is something I need to do more of. I really want to be able to get up in the morning and start by day by doing yoga in the park followed by a nice breakfast of fruits, or something. Humans really need to begin tuning back into nature. Even if that just means walking to work or sitting under a tree. Because we spend far too much time plugged in. Unfortunately it is something we are so used to that the prospect of unplugging seems bizarre. And there is a sense of panic when trying to reconnect and at the idea that you will not be able to. But honestly, unplug! I am not telling you to unplug all day every day. I am saying do simple things. Occasionally take the time to walk outside without headphones in and your music. When you meet friends, put your phone in your bag, or pocket, and leave it there. You are with them now. you don't need the outside world. I can say you will honestly be surprised about how free you feel.

There is more I would like to add, but all the travelling has made me super tired, but yeah.

Oslo!

So I am about to head to Oslo for two days... I will post some stuff when I am back and talk a little bit about travelling alone.. I am trying to do videos that document my thoughts on it and stuff... We shall see how that goes. And then I am heading to the UK for a few days. Hopefully this time travelling will allow me to get some work done. Haha. We'll see.

I'll try and post something about my Insomnia piece on Friday but it will honestly depend on time.

Speak soon.