The Making of Miss Maggie Rabbit

In April this year I decided I wanted to make my mum a little present to brighten up her room in the home she now lives in. It makes me sad that there's nothing really of hers there, it still looks like a random, albeit nice, hotel room. 

For some reason dad won't take or send in any of mums personal things to make her room more comfortable and homely. Maybe somewhere in his mind he thinks that he'll be letting her go completely and that she'll really never be coming home if he does. I don't know the real reason but I do know that she needs to have some of her own lovely things or at least some new lovely things around her. 

As we all know, in April this year it was impossible to get your hands on anything, especially toilet rolls and pasta apparently, but as someone who is lucky enough to have a lot of 'stuff' cluttering up the house, I mean, a large array of fabrics and notions at my fingertips, I was in the lucky position of being able to take advantage of the wonderful free Miss Maggie Rabbit pattern that I'd had my eye on for an age, from the amazing Posy Gets Cozy. 

After gathering up everything I needed, I could sit quietly stitching on the bed listening to music, whist my husband worked from home downstairs. An added benefit was being able to shut my brain off whilst I concentrated on getting my stitches as neat as possible. She was a dream to make and the only thing I had to get my sewing machine out for was the dress. 

I was so happy to be able to pass my finished Miss Maggie Rabbit onto the reception at the home and looked forward to seeing a photo of it with my mum later. Sadly mum was having a difficult time that day and I never heard anything further. But at least as far as I am aware Miss Rabbit is sitting comfortably, keeping mum company, in her room. 

Blimey it's been a long, long time.

Eight and a half years! An absolutely scary amount of time. Not only has the eight years disappeared in a blink of an eye, but so much has changed in my life in that time frame. 

Ive found it quite a difficult decision whether to write here again, on my Real Life blog, or to start a new blog and move on as I have in my 'real life' I guess, but Ive decided that I don't want to give up on this blog just yet.

Why start again now? Why not throughout this year when there's truly been things to write about? I've actually been wanting to start again for a while, but lacked the equipment. For the last umpteen years I've only had my iPhone and iPad, neither of which can cope with writing or updating a blog properly. But here with a new MacBook and a new opportunity. 

Major changes since 2012?

Since my last post, my family has grown and I now have three beautiful grandsons. Two from my eldest daughter, who are now 6 and 3 and the newest addition from my younger daughter, who is nearly 9 months old and very sadly for all of us a lockdown baby.   

My mum was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2014 and I lost my amazing sister in 2016. I found myself after my sisters death having to hit the ground running becoming a part time carer to my ageing parents and still have days so full of sorrow and grief that sometimes I'm surprised life can just go on as normal. But life does go on and changes along the way, mum is now in a home and has been since February and although its good that she was settled in before lockdown, its also very sad that she no longer knows who I am through lack of contact.

It's not all doom and gloom though, I retired (very early I would point out) on the last day of February this year, so very lucky that I didn't have to worry about working when we went into the first National Lockdown. I learnt during this time to start enjoying making things again, having time to get more into art projects, pick up my crochet needles and learn new skills. I also renovated a house this year that we have had empty for some time and thankfully it has finally sold, with fingers crossed it still manages to go through early next year. 

So here I am on Boxing Day 2020, very nearly the New Year and a new start. I may add odd bits and pieces from the last few years if I feel it either warrants a mention or just simply takes my fancy and one other thing I'd like to write about this time around is getting control of my physical and mental wellbeing, hopefully writing about how things are going will be not only cathartic and also spur me on to stick to my goals.

October 2020, one last day out as a group of 6