Some People Take A Self-Care Day, I Take 2 Self-Care Years

Wow, it's been over two years since my last blog post! 😅 I've had plenty of exciting crafty adventures in the meantime and have lots to post about, so I'll start with some quick updates to get things going.

Back in 2019 I was asked to drop in and chat on the Culture+ podcast Women Know Your Place. I resisted posting about this when it first came out because:

1. Fear of hearing the sound of my own voice in a recording (I know you know what I mean)

2. I thought I would come across negatively for talking about personal stuff (sharing is hard and doesn't always pay off)

However, having reviewed the recording last week I have decided that those fears were completely unfounded so I'm sharing it now! In a nutshell, I talk about a few of the projects I had been working on at the time and then go on to reveal the reason why I have fallen off the radar a bit. SPOILER: I suffer from a thyroid related chronic illness that I don't talk about very often - if you don't know what a thyroid does, it controls your metabolism and energy levels and when it breaks it totally effs both of them up. Wanna know how it breaks? STRESS! Stress does serious and lasting damage to your physical and mental health if you let it. So don't do that. I decided to consciously slow things down to try and heal some of that and find some balance in life.

Anyway, you can listen to the podcast here - I recommend listening to the whole thing but if you only want to hear my part then I stroll in (literally) at about 18:30.

I also haven't written about a pretty big project that I undertook earlier in 2019 when I was awarded a bursary to work alongside carnival / performance artists in creating two giant puppets for the Amesbury and Devizes Carnivals. If you have been following my blog for a while, you will know that I have previously been involved in some Carnival Capers, so it was really nice to be invited by DOCA to be a part of this exciting project. It was hard work and included a lot of travelling, but I met some really interesting and kind people who were very patient with my learning curve! When you usually work in a small scale it is fun to go BIG every once in a while!

Mammoth puppet by 'And Now', photograph by Steve Appleton

I won't go into to more detail because you can read about it by going here, including a day-by-day diary of what I got up to. I'm also in the process of updating my website with photos so you can check those out too.

On the theme of updating, I have been working on adding lots of new goodies to my Etsy shop, so if you haven't been on there in a while I urge you to go and take a look at all the fabulous things available to buy! This includes greetings cards, badges, bags, stickers, accessories and more - and if you're local to me I may even hand deliver your order in person!

Just one of the many fabulous things available in my Etsy shop

That's it for now but I will try to update more regularly from now on! Byeee