Earth Mother Type

Ok, I admit it. I miss that little boogle-eyed freak. He was only here for two days but he was such a charming little soul with such bizarre ears and I grew quite fond of him.

There are a few things I like to do when feeling a bit down-in-the-dumps. One is drink a few glasses of cheap red wine (I mean, I like the good stuff more but we've got two houses to pay off here, people - let's forget our delusions of grandeur), another is take photos and another still is sew.

Doing all three together? That's my kind of weeknight de-stress session.

I don't sew to get great results, or out of frugality or because I'm an Earth Mother Goddess. I like to sew because there's nothing more therapeutic than the noise and rhythm of the machine after a hectic day. It's such a hands-on, simple pursuit after eight hours in an office, on a computer, on the phone talking and debating and rationalising and justifying and dropping your head to the desk and banging it when everything goes horribly wrong.

It's just you, your foot on a pedal and a predictable line of stitches - simple and beautiful.

If I make something decent, well, that's just a bonus. Often I just make head scarves out of scraps of colourful fabric because they're easy and they're useful and they take just about the right amount of time, patience and energy on a week night.

Tonight though, I might start on something a little more ambitious...