I always try to listen to my body, but because I like to put all of my energy and enthusiasm into anything that I’m doing, my body sometimes gets forgotten and I don’t realise just how much I need a rest, until I get one!

I did get that all important rest, for a few days after the Makers Market at the V&A Dundee and what a difference it made. With my batteries recharged and my mind relaxed, I am feeling full of enthusiasm once more and ready to tackle the intensive task of filming and editing my new course – An Introduction to Creative Coil Basketry. Not only that, but I am ready to get stuck into a new project in my own creative practice, developing my patterned baskets and linking my coil work to tapestry AND a new creative play project, so that I can just have some fun exploring ideas and experimenting with materials and techniques.

I know that might sound like I’m immediately taking on too much, with too little time to rest, but I believe that life is a practice as much as anything else and I’m keen to learn from my mistakes. So as well as jumping in with both feet and bags of enthusiasm, I have made a plan for working smarter, rather than harder, with a routine that will hopefully prevent me from feeling overwhelmed and my next rest break already scheduled in, for the beginning of September.

I am also very aware that my view of everything is rather jaded, at a particular point in my monthly cycle. For a couple of days, I am completely unable to see any merit in anything that I’m doing and feel like giving it all up, but again it’s not until the dark cloud has passed that I realise it was just hormones taking over. With that in mind, I will not be making any important decisions during that delightful time and I won’t be writing or posting, because I don’t want to be sending that kind of negativity into the world.

I feel like I have turned a corner recently, not just me but my whole family. The move away from Orkney took some time to recover from, for all of us, but suddenly everyone is feeling settled and making plans and there is such a positive atmosphere. I guess it felt like life had been on hold for a while and now it’s really got started again.

I have even picked out where my workspace is going to be!

This might not seem like a big deal, but having moved four times in the past 10 years, I was finding it really hard to properly engage with settling into our new home.

Many of my clothes are still in a box and I have been working from boxes and although I tried, I just couldn’t seem to claim a space for me, even though I love the house and surrounding area and have been feeling so glad that we moved here.

So actually picking out a space where my worktable will go (when I get one!), is a really big deal and I have also found myself starting to think about how we will decorate the house. The little things that will really make it feel like our home rather than just a nice place that we’re staying in for a while.

Something that really helped me to make progress with claiming our space, was watching Joshua Charrow’s films on You Tube, about artists who have lived and worked in the same loft spaces for decades. These lofts are really an expression of themselves and their passions and I realised that I really want the chance to stay rooted somewhere and build that little nest with Matt, over the next few decades.

I went off on a bit of a ramble there didn’t I ?! But when positivity comes in the door, it starts to filter through to every corner of your life, which is rather wonderful and I hope that I can help some of it to spread out into the world too.

So getting back to baskets and that new course of mine.

I am super excited about it and have changed it completely from my original plan, which was going to be three short tutorials, each one showing how to make a particular basket or mat. I realised over the past couple of weeks that I really want to share how amazing coil basketry is and how versatile it is and how you can take a few simple skills, tools and materials and really make them your own.

So the new course will have three sections, but each one will focus on a particular skill and then show you how you might develop that, in all kinds of wonderful ways.

It’s a lot more involved than my original plan, but I think that it will be worth it and it will be suitable for complete beginners or someone who is wanting to expand on what they learned in my Cocooning Sea Treasures Course or has made simple coil baskets before.

Making has always been such a big part of my life and has brought me so much joy and I think I’m very lucky that I have always felt confident to have a go at any discipline, whether or not I have the skills or all of the tools and materials.

That was a big help to me when I started basketry, and meant that I learned so much just from the process of doing it and learning from my mistakes and successes and I discovered all kinds of things, that I wouldn’t have otherwise.

I know that finding that confidence isn’t as easy for some people and I would really like to encourage everyone to have a go and find out what is inside them, just waiting to be made.

So watch this space everyone and if your not already signed up for my newsletter, you can find the sign up on my home page, to keep up with the latest on release dates.

I’m also going to be giving the newsletter a bit of a makeover, so that it is more of a monthly catch up on what’s been happening for me with work and at home. The sort of thing that you might find in my stories on Instagram, gardening, beautiful walks, making with my family, books that I’ve enjoyed etc and of course some links to new blog posts, new baskets and the courses.

Have a great week everyone and if you’re good at remembering to make time for rest, do share your tips in the comments.