I'm Back

Long time no blog..

Guess I'm just not the type of person who can do all the stuff that Christmas, New Year and Birthdays (all at the same time) requires AND fit in time to create, blog and post. It just didn't happen for me this year. Hence the long absence!

This means that if I had actually built up a following they (you!) would have all given up checking in for new posts by now and deleted me from their (your) frequent visitor list of blogs. I have about 100 blogs that I check every day, and some days I only get as far as M.. so you are all forgiven for having thought that I must have surely fallen off the top of a mountain somewhere and would never post again..

So, anyway, in other news, I have finally had my Internet connection fixed at home (yay!), so I can't blame that for lack of posts in the future (insert sheepish look).

I would love to say that whilst I wasn't blogging I was busy, busy, busy creating lots of cards and photographing them all to post in a continual stream that makes me look really good. I didn't. I haven't been anywhere near anything remotely crafty since the beginning of December.

(Here come the excuses..)

You see, every time I read all the great blogs out there, in between all the household chores and the kids being sick and the general hum-drum of life that goes on in all our busy lives, more often than not you will read something along the lines of... " was able to lock myself away in my craft room " or "the craft room was a mess but..." or even " my craft area needed me" or some such (craft room) musings..

Well, I don't have a craft room (insert wistful/pitiful look) ::sniff, sniff:: I had a desk once, and a printer and a computer.. Then suddenly I had a teenage daughter. (Aha! I hear you all cry - say no more).

For those of you who have ever had to share anything with their teenage daughter - shoes (when did her feet become the same size as mine?). Clothes (although I take offence to them being called the 'vintage look'). Well, you get the drift..

Try sharing your space with her. I mean, she's ALWAYS doing her homework!! For crying out loud, when I was her age, I was out doing 'stuff' - granted to get out of the way of my parents, but still!.. At this rate she'll qualify for NASA's training programme before she hits 16. We're talking solving equations that have more symbols in them than the highway code! I struggle to split the restaurant bill into two - know what I'm saying..? Is there really any need? Where did she even get this studious temperament from? Not me! (OK, maybe a little bit from me, the "have to do it again if it's not perfect" she might have got from me, I'm not totally sure.. and I can't even help her with any (OK I wasn't talking about the maths side of things, for obvious reasons!) because it's all in Spanish anyway.. Super hard. I can help with the English homework (as long as the words aren't TOO difficult - thank God for the dictionary and thesaurus - woo-hoo).. Anyway I digress.. (did ya notice??)

So, I can't get to the space that we 'share' together because she's been on school holidays for Christmas and instead of doing what any normal teenager would do, and leave it till the last minute and then study like mad, instead she decided to pace herself and study a bit each day. Unfortunately it always seemed to coincide with the exact moment I would have had half an hour to start on a card.. and anyone who has had a teenager tilt their head, scrunch their brow and say "Oh mum??" (only omitting the stamping of the foot to complete the picture), knows that it is not worth the time or energy it would take to argue with the teenager.

No point in saying that they could actually read the book somewhere else or connect to the Internet on one of the other two computers in the house.. Totally not worth it aggro wise... And even if I spot the desk empty with no signs of any homework type tools anywhere in sight, as soon as I sit down and get the glue box out - poof! as if by magic - the teenager appears demanding to know how long I'll be. Then she will check back every three minutes to see if I've "finished yet?" I've come to the conclusion that this is, in fact, a tactic to annoy me (which cunningly works) so that after the first two interruptions in the space of ten minutes, I am lead to think it's just totally not worth it, and I'll just come back later. As a testament to this, I have been trying to come back later since the beginning of December.. To add insult to injury, when I then check back in on said teenager later to see if they are nearing the end of their homework so that I can sneak back in for 10 minutes, I find her checking out all the latest on You Tube, and "No sorry - not finished yet". Then just when I think to myself, 'll get in there later, after dinner & the dishes, for 20 minutes before Grey's Anatomy starts that's when I get the "Going to bed early - growing kids need their sleep".. I mean what teenager doesn't like to goof off, stay up late and generally be a teenager? Not mine. Hence the non-blogging since the beginning of December..

Before you all start feeling sorry for me (you know you do deep down..) I have an eleven year old son, and i totally know he won't let me down. He is totally going to goof off, stay up late and ignore ALL his homework. I know this because, a) he is a boy and b) he's already doing it and I don't think being a teenager is suddenly going to change him for the better..

So do ya feel sorry for me yet? Do ya? Do ya? Do ya? Didn't think so..

Anyways.. this year I have decided to get more organised. I actually think I'm already pretty organised, but I'm still going to try and take it to the next level. There's always room for improvement right? I'm also not going to worry so much about not getting stuff done, as I've discovered that this is probably what stresses me out the most. Having a concept of what I think should be happening and then being disappointed (stressed ..ahem..) that it doesn't.. If it happens it happens, if it doesn't, no biggie (deep breath), which leads me onto the whole point of this post (I know, I know you thought this was just RANDOM blathering!!), Nooooooo, it's short story long blathering..

This year, I am going to give myself a break and post when I have the time. I started this blog to share what I love to do, but it all got very stressful when I checked out other blogs and realised people were blogging and creating EVERYDAY! Yikes.. Something inside of me (the competitive me, not the normal me) decided that I had to try and keep up, if not with the blogging, with the creating at least! Well the normal me is taking a stand and telling the competitive me that I just can't do it. For the moment the normal me is winning and the competitive me is sulking.

By the way - you guys realised there are not really two of me right??

So check back later, and see if the competitive me managed to get her way and post anything..