2014

Wow to think half of this year has gone by! Have had so many great sporting events this year, the winter olympics, Wimbledon, World cup, Glastonbury and the tour de france (which passed through cambridge and London this year :D)

I can’t believe the winter olympics happened so long ago! I loved the British commentary from Ed Leigh and Tim Warwood from the extreme park. The presenters were hilarious; here are a few of my favourite comments by them:

“When you go to the zoo you don’t want to see the sleeping lions, you want to go see the penguins first, that’s were all the fun is”

“It’s like two doormen bearing down on a drunk patron”

“I can feel my pulse in my lower intestine”

“She’s got a face that could help bread rise”

The world cup was so crazy! So many shockers from Brazil losing 7-1 to Germany to Suarez biting a player for the third time! Even with all the controversy the games were very enjoyable and showed some great sportsmanship from some of the teams. I loved watching the underdogs do their best and I thought Australia did amazing considering they were the lowest rank.

I myself have done a lot this year hence why I have been slow to update a post. Actually the biggest thing which has taken the most time has been sorting out temporary withdrawal from my course at uni. Now with that all sorted I have the rest of the year to look to the future and focus on Ethereal Workshop.

I have a few posts prepared to update you all on the last 7 months were I will include things I’ve done, recipes I’ve perfected and my return to sewing. Also I’m going too Amsterdam in 2 months so am looking forward to that :3

Thank you to those who have followed my blog and I hope you will continue to stay with me along my journey!

 

Chocolate cake recipe :)

Finally the first video is up. Here it is for you all to see. Thanks to Jehuty2ndrunner for the help!

Youtube channel launch on it’s way and Awards!!!!

I’m sorry it’s been a while since I last posted. It’s not that I’ve not had anything to post, in fact a lot has happened since my last post. This post has been a long time coming and I’m happy to finally be able to write it.

I have being doing a lot of crochet recently so I’ve got lots of posts lined up and some new releases for my shop, so make sure to keep updated! I have also been busy making videos for my new youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/user/EtherealWorkshop. There are no videos uploaded at the moment as I am still making edits, however I’m hoping to have the first one up some time next week 😀 I’m very excited!!!

And that’s not the only good news. I was also nominated for two awards :3 !!!!!!

The first award was the Liebster Award by MonsterYarns. This really brightened up my day (thank you MonsterYarns!).

If you don’t know what the Liebster Award is (like I didn’t) I did a little bit of research and found out it’s a bit like a chain letter for blogs that aren’t that well known (under 3’000 followers). After you’ve received it you then pass it on to others and you get a neat badge too :).

The person who gave it to you asks questions about you. You answer them and when you pass it on you ask questions to the people you nominated.

These are the questions I was asked and answers:

1. Knitting or Crochet and why?

Crochet because I like being able to make cute things like Amigurumi 🙂 however I would like to learn to knit.

2. Cats or Dogs and why?

Both, I can’t decide. I’d like in the future to have both as pets and other animals too (especially reptiles).

3. Three items you couldn’t be without on a Desert Island.

My Bible, (solar powered) Laptop and my arts and crafts supplies.

4. Do you have brothers/sisters or are you an only child?

I have an older brother and sister and two younger brothers.

5. Why blog?

I wanted to be able to express myself through my blog and to enjoy other people’s blogs. I love being part of the blogging community and have found some really great blogs to follow.

6. Are you a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full person?

It depends on how I’m feeling but when I feel half-empty I think well lets go fill up.

7. Should a man turn the toilet seat down or do you not care?

DOWN!!! I hate when men leave the toilet seat up.

8. Do you still hand-write letters?

Yes I do 🙂

Once again, a huge thank you MonsterYarns, it’s a huge honour to know a blog I follow is actually interested in my blog! So really a huge thanks!

Now here is a list of the people I want to nominate:

1. For the Knit of it

2. Sew in Love

3. Crayons and milk

4. The Green Dragonfly

5.homemademagnolia

and here are my questions:

1.  What does blogging mean to you?

2. What is your favourite course, Starter, Main or Dessert?

The next day I logged on to find that I had received another award: The wonderful team member award 😀 from tinkerbellknits!Thank you so much tinkerbellknits! I really am grateful 🙂

For this award you have to nominate 14 other blogs, so here are my 14 and the page you can put on your blog if I nominated you:

1. Lyricinnovations

2. “Teacher… what?”

3. spice of life

4. Vegetarian Lunchbox

5. The Ranting Panda

6. AlpacaLover

7.ariel In Kawaiiland

8. Rilakkuma Desu

9. fibersandfables

10. Recipe Adaptors

11.everyday0467

12. pillowsalamode

13.divinedebrisjewelry

14.ilyanaroseblog

Again thank you to both MonsterYarns and Tinkerbellknits 🙂 both blogs are definitely worth checking out!

Like in the movies

A few months ago I was diagnosed with depression (which had already been going on for a quite a while). I have had depression before in my life once when I was younger, but it was never this extreme. While at university I distanced myself from everyone and stopped going to lectures.

I have come home for the summer holidays which I have to say has been a terrible experience. My home life is not an easy one (I’ve experienced things people shouldn’t have to) and being able to go to university to get away was great even if my depression took a turn for the worse.

While home my depression which I was starting to defeat got worse and worse. I started to distance myself even more from people and found myself very alone. I don’t belong in this house and can’t stand being here but at the same time being around people outside makes me anxious. I feel trapped. Everything feels so hopeless.

I received lots of text messages and calls from people but would never pick up or reply. I received worried messages from friends and messages from friends I hadn’t spoken to for over a year. The other day I finally decided to reply to one of the persistent texters. I told her things weren’t good. After that I received a voice-mail from another friend. In the voice-mail he said him and the girl were worried.

Today I have again received a lot of messages from a lot of different people. Today has been another terrible day but each time I received a text message it let me know someone is out there thinking of me. And for once I didn’t feel so alone.

It made me think back to university when one day I managed to go to a lecture and how people I had spoken to a little the semester before still remembered me and came to talk to me. It made me not feel so insignificant. I thought about all the times recently that someone brightened up my day without realizing,even if it was something small like a hello, and how supportive my friends have been even when I’ve pushed them away.

Then I remembered when I was little. In movies or tv shows every time the main character was in trouble a group of people would save them. The main character would always have such great friends that would always be there for them. They would go on a journey were they would meet a great group of people, learn something that they already knew and then return home with a new found confidence. As a child I always wanted to go on an adventure like that, to have an incredible group of friends like that and to learn something even if I already knew it.

Of course I learnt life doesn’t work like that and found the older I got the further and further away those fairytale dreams of mine became. I learnt to not rely on people and that noone in life will be there to take care of you. This world is harsh and I got sick of it. Why should I exist in such a cruel world. I’d rather be dead…at least I thought.

But, as I receive another text message I scroll through all the messages I’ve been sent and I realise I was wrong. I am on my own adventure, it’s not as easy as the ones In those movies I remember as a child, but this is life. I do have an amazing group of friends around me and I have learnt something. Like in those movies its something that has always been there, something I just never noticed. Something so so simple. As corny as it sounds it’s my friendships and bonds.

So here’s the end of my long babbling; whether you are suffering from depression or not, there really is someone out there thinking of you, you are not alone and you are a significant person to someone. I know these things are hard to see but it’s true. You just cant see it. So reach out. Sometimes you might get knocked down but maybe someone is reaching out towards you too. So reach out

And to people who have a friend in need, or maybe a friend they haven’t seen in a long time, or maybe someone you saw yesterday, why not drop them a text. You might just save someone’s life.

A world for me

A picture I drew to incorporate in the ethereal workshop logo, I filled it with lot’s of things I likes 🙂 majoritly food haha. Not my greatest colouring. Look I even featured the octopus I’m selling.

Mmm…Wagamama tasties (ワガママのたべものです）

While procrastinating from my Japanese revision I came across these tasty photos from my last trip to Wag’s while flicking through my camera. If only learning Japanese was like a trip to wagamama’s; easy and tasty.

And here’s my favourite, the katsu curry：

New Etsy shop release :D Octopus Amigurumi!

My newest (and only) item in my etsy shop, there’s only one so get it while you can 🙂

Amigurumi Bear cupcake

Here is an amigurumi bear I made inspired by Amigurumi Kingdom 🙂 I mad it a long time ago, finally here is the post. Here he is just chilling in my lunchbox.

I’ve made lot’s of amigurumi recently, I love how fun it is 🙂 I’m sorry I have not posted in so long. I’ve had to do a lot of my exams so have been revising lots and lots.

Yummy display

Yummy food display from my favourite place in Oxford Chateau Gateau

Sweet treats

Macarons and toffee from my favourite cafe in Oxford