Welcome to my blog

I hope you enjoy reading my posts, and please leave me a comment. I always enjoy reading them, and will try to visit you in return.

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You are welcome to copy any of my designs, as long as you do not take credit for them yourself. I am very happy for you to sell them. If I have used anyone else's design, I always try to give credit where it is due. If I have missed anything, please let me know and I will put things right.


This is intended to be mainly about my crafting stories, as a personal record of what I do. However, I interpret crafting quite widely, not just paper crafting but other things too. I have a butterfly mind and like to change from one thing to another depending on what I feel like on a given day - knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, cards, baking and several others, including my favourite right now, parchment, both traditional skills and Groovi, very relaxing and calming to do.

I have decided to put some structure into my blog so that each day will have something of a theme.
Monday- for Mindfulness; Tuesday - Tidy Up Day; Wednesday - What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday; Thursday - Technique and Tips; Friday - Finish Off Day; Saturday - Start Something New; Sunday - Anything Goes
These themes are not hard and fast and will be changed if I feel the need.

Friday 12 July 2019

Friday is for finishing off

I am taking a different path today with my finishing off.  I would love to ask everyone to finish being unpleasant and hurtful.  "The Water Babies" by Charles Kingsley has two very important characters in it.  They are two ladies by the names of Mrs Be-Done-By-As-You-Did and Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By (try typing that lot fast).

I would show you a picture of my treasured copy of this book but I might fall foul of copyright law, so, instead, I will show you a picture that I did very recently.


To give credit where it is due, this piece came about after doing the Encaustic Make and Take with Mike and Shona Bossom at the recent Clarity Open Days in Ditton.  They inspired me to get my kit out and play with it at home.  Watching them on Hochanda taught me even more, especially the show where Mike Bossom and Barbara Gray swapped their skills.  I learned how to use stamping together with hot coloured wax. I know it is not brilliant but I enjoyed playing with the equipment and learning more from that play.

To me, crafting is a way to relax and escape from problems in life, and I don't think I am alone in that.  I need to escape from sad and bitter people who think they can get their own way by shouting and bullying others.  They need to think about Mrs Be-Done-By-As-You-Did, which is probably another name for Karma.  If you constantly dish out physical and verbal bullying, at some stage it will come back to bite you.  It will, also, only serve to make you even more sad, bitter and unpleasant. No-one wants to be with someone like that.

The other lady, on the contrary, Mrs Do-As-You-Would-Be-Done-By, is a much happier person, the kind of person you enjoy being with, and her Karma brings a much better life.  If you want people to treat you kindly and help you out, then you need to treat others with kindness and respect.  If you want respect, then you have to treat others with respect.

Back to the crafting world, the same applies.  There is an unpleasant minority that is so sick that they spend all their time trying to bully others and damage other people's reputations.  I try to keep out of the angry rows that come from this.  However, when a good friend or family member is being treated so unfairly, then I will step in and say my piece.

Let's all take a deep breath, then exhale hard to get rid of bad feelings and childish behaviour.  Spend your time doing nice things for others instead of trying to make them do things for you.

P.S. How could I have forgotten to give credit for the stamp on my picture?  Of course, it is one of the lovely Clarity stamps.  

4 comments:

Sue C said...

Your words today are so true, it amazes me that people who obviously don't know Barbara very well can say such hurtful things without first checking that what they have seen, read or heard is correct. I saw the post last night shortly after it was posted but other than reporting it to the Admin team I didn't bite as that would have just made the post stay at the top of the FB page but others did. Can't believe that there has been no apology or the post taken down or closed for comments but perhaps that says what type of person they are.
Anyway back to crafting which is what we are all here for. I love your picture & have often watched people doing it at shows & on TV but have never succumbed to a purchase. I have actually done some sewing this week as I bought some material when I was in Lichfield last Friday. Haven't made anything for myself for ages but enjoyed the process & even matched the pattern when I joined the pieces so feeling chuffed.
Have a good weekend & see you next Thursday.

linda said...

Hello Margaret, very well said, I agree with your every word. I'm very busy dealing with two separate family crisises, and not getting the chance to do much but like so many people love my Groovi and everything about Barbara and the Clarity team.xx Linda William's Woodland, that's my FB name as to many people were thinking I was The Linda William's, talent extrodianaire, keep smiling 🙂

PatK said...

Very well said, Margaret. Time to let the grown-ups get back to what we love the most, crafting!

Dee French said...

Well said Maggie. I was always taught ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’. That’s how I live my life today - or try too, but some folk we meet along the way make that difficult at times. Another thing my grandma used to say if someone is bullying or bad mouthing was ‘they reap what they will sow’. Or in these days ‘what goes around comes around’ x