Back home, back to work

Hello my friends! Past month is going into the history of this blog as a month with the lowest hit statistics, because I've been absent the whole month. It's insane!

At this point I realize how important it is to be present regularly, otherwise the visiting is rolling down the hill in next to no time. Blame the long vacations and the fact that I had a couple of urgent projects, and sick kids the ten days before we had to leave.

Yes I wanted to anticipate the almost two-and-a-half weeks of absence, aka holidays that we were going to spend in France, and yes, I had some post drafts almost ready to go, and wanted to prepare more, to at least appear here twice a week till the end of the month.

And then it all came together at the beginning of April with projects, orders, influenza, and the next thing I knew was that we were sitting on an aircraft, with three of us sick, my luggage jam packed with stuff to finish, and me drinking coffee three times a day to be able to see the positive side of things - the longest vacations altogether since we have kids. All I wanted to make the first days on vacation was to sleep, but I couldn't, so I drunk coffee, knitted and simply enjoyed the scenery change (a pretty significant scenery change if you compare green and bloomy atlantic coast with still snow covered west coast of Finland back then).

So back to the vacations and atlantic coast! Two-and-a-half weeks of sunshine, spring (or almost summer) going in full speed, enjoying breathtaking ocean views, playing on the beach, chilling in the sun, more playing, reading, knitting, cooking, bying new books, shopping for art supplies and fabrics. 

To top it all we went to Normandie a couple of days where we've lived for two years, and that I miss "encore et toujours". The ultimate highlight and I was just THAT happy!

I didn't do much work on vacation. My post drafts remained post drafts for days.

I've knitted, tried to read if I had occassion (which I didn't have that often), sewn a bag and that's all. 

I've bought some nice and beautifully made cook books. Yes, I've realized that I've been cooking the same handful of plates since like about a year. And even if I would say I handle them pretty well, it was time to try something new.  This one, another one, and that one!  The last one is just the one of a serie of books written by the same author, and I hope I could get some more of them sooner of later. Those books are all eye candies. Oh, and that one! So inspiring, quite simple, with great pics and interesting in-betweens. 

As I said I've also sewn a bag, photos coming soon. It was the first time I've followed the pattern from A to Z from a magazine featuring the japan couturiers. I love a lot the books about japan cloth style with simple cuts, fabrics in outworn colors, detailed drawings step-by-step and so beautifully arranged photo shootings of clothes, bags, accessories etc. 

Thanks to my mother-in-law for having a sewing machine. Otherwise I would have to wait till the end of vacation, so this bag would possibly never emerge in this case. Personally I almost never find time to make things for myself, because my work and blog are about creating stuff for and with kids, for friends, and other people. I feel somehow guilty taking time, or wasting time to make things for me. Weird, I know, but that's how I am. So I've spent a rainy afternoon sewing this guy, photos coming.

But now there's LOTS of content that I'm going to work on to share with you. Oh my, there's TONS of stuff to deal with, finish, photo shoot and blog about, so be prepared to come back next week and see more of that. All I need now is to clean the house, re-frame my mind and get back to work. Here's some peeks!