7 years!

The photos in this post are a catchup of my fortnight. Building, baking (by one of my boys for school), tired feet, a night out, some lunches, screenprinting new turquoise teapots... and the exciting news, which I can finally share, I will be teaching two workshops at the Sydney Finders Keepers Markets in December!!

My popular Fabric Printing with Hand Carved stamps class will run on Friday night December 12th and on Saturday morning December 13th in the wonderful space of the Technology Park at Alexandria Its going to be fun, I can't wait to workshop in amongst all that creative buzz and surrounded by fantastic inspiration. And get some shopping in too. If that sounds like something you'd like to do too please come and join us!

The other thing that happened recently, and I'm a tad late, is my seventh blogging anniversary which was on November 11th!

Seven years, phew!

I've been thinking and talking a bit about blogging this year. Thinking and talking about my corner of the blog community. Trying to articulate what I write about and why I write it.

Its a big call but over that time I've seen the slow, handmade, creative, family-centric, sustainable, artisanal, craft and making blogs and their popularity change the world in their own little way. Yes that is a big call, but I'm making it!

Over those years I've seen the handmade, handcrafted, homegrown and heritage movements become more fashionable and more mainstream. I'm really proud to be part of that. I am a big believer in what we celebrate with these journals and I'm glad to see the best of those values catching hold.

From small beginnings online, blogging has helped like-minded souls find and support each other. Its been easier to document and share the making of our lives and homes. Now from being a small corner on the internet this movement, this documenting, has grown and thrived, along with the shared ideas, as people have seen and read and been inspired to join in.

Funnily enough I never imagined that I would be blogging so long when I started out on my first tentative posts. I thought the whole concept a bit strange. But once online I met so many like souls and quickly developed a whole new world of friends, a virtual community, the strength of which keeps me here.

So many of those first few friends I made online are still my friends today. Lovely friends, real friends, the type I could ask something of and it would arrive without question. Special people. Makers and doers mostly. Inspiring women who combine family, growing, making, art, cooking, small business, big business, writing, selling, life. Thank you friends!

This sort of sharing seems so common now when everyone mini blogs on Instagram. Social media is the theme of the times and visual diaries like ours are much more common and widely shared.

It takes a bit more time and discipline to write a real blog on top of that. For me though I find its worth it to write my blog and read those others. I like the back story - how things work, what inspired it, where the recipe is, what yarn you used, where you got that cute pattern, which tutorial you used, what that landscape is, who those people are, what you ate and most importantly, how you felt.

I love the writing and reading behind the pictures.

That said I'm probably more selective these days on which blogs I read, I used to have a million on my reader, but not any more. And I probably drop in less, though with my favourites I rarely miss a post.

Blogging has given me so much in seven years, more than I can quantify, friendships, inspiration, education, opportunities, publicity, community, swaps, my small business, laughs, tears, conversations, great recipes, patterns, techniques, motivation. So I'm going to keep on blogging a little longer. Thanks for visiting and commenting and being my friend.