By the light of the moon......

Everyone has their own way of working.  Being in employment brings structure and routine, working from home is more difficult.  The lines are blurred.  Where does work end and home begin?  The endless distractions of the internet, the teapot, daytime TV.  Am I an owl or a lark?  I wake early, love the still roads and birdsong of dawn, yet my most productive and creative time for work seems to be evening.  By the light of the moon.  Tonight, it's an octopus. A patchwork octopus. 
It's been a funny old week.  A cat on diazapan, a son ignoring me and a floral owl in transit to Birmingham.  My first online order!  Very exciting.  Royal Mail, don't let me down....... 
And then there was Penclawdd Produce Market.  Oh, my goodness, Penclawdd Produce Market!!!  Where were the customers?  Definitely not in Penclawdd.  But  there was the stallholder who refused to let me have the table next to her because my box contained a doorstop.  Who proceeded to pointedly ignore me for the duration of the event, throwing me the odd dirty look, and I was reminded of the school playground.  I think I'll take it as a compliment.

https://www.facebook.com/TheSherbetPatch

One......two......three......and b r e a t h e !!!

Lavender.  The perfect antidote to stress, and, as any mother of a university age son will tell you, stress is ever present!
Despite a cold that has rumbled on for a fortnight, bringing with it a dulling of taste and smell, the aromatic scent of lavender is filling the air. And it's soothing. Very soothing. Against a backdrop of student finance, two dead robins and the sewing machine, it is the perfect stress buster.
Lavender. My latest project. Delicate lavender bags have lead on to robust, colourul pyramids.  I'm thinking  rosemary now. Dried rosemary bags, to scent the rather less pleasant odour of the shoe basket.  
 As a consequence of the lavender box, Humpty Dumpty remains legless.......

 

''Yes, mum, I have my toothbrush!''

It's a funny thing, grown~up children.  No matter how big, how old, or how much facial hair they sprout, in a mother's head they are forever Peter Pan.  As I'm writing this, my now 19 year old son, Josh, is jetting back solo from Melbourne, Australia to Llanrhidian, Swansea, a journey that will take 36 hours in total.  He popped over for a week......

Funny how things turn out.  When I was 18, I volunteered on a kibbutz in Jerusalem, an experience which kickstarted a love of travel, of airports, of new places......of  Israel.  I survived, my son survives, yet I still find myself reminding him to check his belongings, his passport, his toothbrush. I worry he'll fall asleep in transit, lose his way in strange airports, miss connecting flights......the list is endless!!!  But, most of all, I am very proud of him. 

Where black is black and white is white and grey.......well, grey just doesn't exist!!!

Welcome to the insular world of JobCentre Plus...... Yesterday, I learned many things.

Number 1 )   Self Employment is practically a swear word.
Number 2 )   They love paperwork.....realms and realms and realms of it.
Number 3 )  Childminding is ''employed'' work, whereas tutoring is not.      ????????
Number 4 )  Sitting on the sofa all day, flicking the control and buying a paper is good......sitting on the sofa, sewing and building up stock, is bad.    ????????

Where is the support for self employment?  Surely, in this rocky, economic climate, with limited job opportunities, self employment should be actively encouraged?  Next stop, my local MP!!!

Red tape and Beaurocracy.......

In three hours time I shall be entering new territory - the job centre - for the first time since 1980 something, armed with a large sheaf of paperwork and a head full of misconceptions and assumptions.  I am expecting a beaurocratic nightmare. 
I remember the last time I was there.  It must have been 1987 because it was Gatwick Airport JobCentre.....1987???  Oh my goodness,  that's 24 years ago!!!  Surely I've been since then???  I'd just got back from my first forray into that very '80's travel experience,  The Kibbutz Volunteer Programme, as a teenager, and got a job at the staff restaurant to pay for my next trip.  The walls were festooned with little cards, which you took to someone on the desk or slid behind others to stop anyone else seeing them, but I'm guessing it's all push buton technology now.  I think I'd prefer the cards. 

Country Living ...........

One of the dubious pleasures of country living is that when the urge for chocolate strikes, there's a 7.30pm deadline.  On the flipside, I can track down the chocolate wearing my pyjama bottoms and nobody bats an eyelid!!!

Yes!!! I have finally mastered ''copy and paste'' .

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Sherbet-Patch/255290191161543

Project Humpty~Dumpty!

6pm on a gloomy Monday evening, and I'm sure it was only 5 when I checked a few minutes ago.  I need to get out of my (very comfortable!) chair, away from the lure of Facebook and get the Humpty Dumpty design out of my head and on to paper, as I have the ideal swirly, orange fabric for a retro 70's Humpty!!!   This will hopefully take my mind off the imminent interview at The Job Centre tomorrow, a place I haven't ventured for more than 20 years, and not a place I've ever wanted to go.  Hmmm, from what I've researched they're not overly keen on self employment and prefer to push the PAYE employment route. Dreading it.......
     23.52, and that's enough Humpty for tonight.  I have very fond memories of my own, floral Humpty Dumpty from the 70's, which my mum made.  Funny how there is always one toy that stands out, and for me, that's Humpty ~ I think he was made from curtains!!!

                                          The original Humpty-Dumpty!