Secrets of a Butterfly

Angel of Peace

May an angel bless your heart and your home this new year,with peace,health and happiness for 2008,love kat x

Love and Wishes

Christmas Day was great and i really enjoyed so much about it,i can only share a taste of it but hope these pictures bring out how we spent our day at our house. this is me opening some presents downstairs on the sofa in the morning. My mam did a beautiful dinner in her new cath kidston apron!this photo shows the 4 candles i put out likeTracy in Norway,as its their tradition,they are lit for our heart's wish,hope,happiness and peace. i thought it a lovely idea and found enough matching tealight holders to do it too. Next the bunnies and their presents from Emily and Bella .Jasper here investigating the wrapping... 

And here along with Whisper tucking in to their dinner and a few extra treats.Thankyou Em for thinking of them and they send you their cuddles.

   Later we saw my brother Neill and his girlfriend Debbie and opened presents...it was a quiet evening of tv to follow,we watched Oliver. My grandparents came the next day for tea. i had iced some biscuits on christmas eve which were amongst what we had to eat... .Not long to go now till the end of 2007 and the start of a new year. i was in a reflective mood the past few days and feeling very grateful for whats happened over the course of my year.It does make everything seem so much better doesnt it,when you can feel thankfulness that deeply,like your heart is beaming. obviously thats easier at certain times than at others. I watched Love Actually last night and this picture was from one of my favourite scenes in it. Its now put me in a wistful romantic mood and so i'm thinking ahead into the new year and further, wondering what good things will be in store.

You know how precious it is to be able to do that.Once you have increasing health and fitness,how that enables everything to seem more possible. Even if the future is frightening too, because of the unknown, i can remind myself now that sometimes that unknown can simply mean good things that are waiting for you. It doesnt have to all be bad like i'd come to experience in years gone by. Everything changes and evolves and that makes change a good thing overall,and a necessary thing for life of course.

So here i am on the doorstep of a new year and embracing change just as i did all last year, and not forgetting to give myself some praise for doing so and some love too for all that i've done.My christmas gift to myself is to continue to love myself even with the imperfect things i do or feel still there,not waiting till i feel they're sorted and so i'm ok.(because to fix it all we'd wait forever to accept ourselves) 

A page from my discovery journal last night.I hope and wish for precious moments and good things for you all too this coming year..love kat x

A Merry Christmas to you

To All my blogging friends,thankyou for a wonderful year of sharing,reading,and writing,straight from the heart. Its been such a happy thing to do and i'm so glad i discovered it this year! Without you it wouldnt be possible,so thanks for listening and replying, you're a star. I look forward to getting to know more about you next year as we share in one anothers Journey. And to my penfriends old and new,thanks goes to you for your great kindness sent in the mail,you add magic to my christmas,always have and i hope always will. A merry Christmas to you and may you always have an angel by your side not just at christmas but all the year through...

With Love  Kat x

A surprise in amongst the christmas post!

Alot of post came in one go today, i think they've been storing it up! The surprise was the brand new Laura Ashley catalogue which has never arrived pre christmas before. So like Jane and her copy of the radio times i have been flicking through it all morning more or less. Theres one or two new papers which is handy as mam wants to choose one for the back room when its done later next year... here's the green floral design we like.. .there's some beautiful room settings as always and plenty inspiration from them, i liked the freshness of this room,the fabric of the curtains is new and had what looks like white hydrangea flower heads on a duck egg background.. .isnt it beautiful,the room size and light reminds me of Hazel's rooms in her Nova Scotia home.Mandy if you need any new accessories for your extention when the time for decorating comes, they have some lovely cream candle holders and hurricanne lamps among other things.

There are some lovely trinkets and treasures in the accessories pages.plenty of butterflies this year which as you'll guess i'm happy about!with wishes Kat 

Merry and Bright,by the tree tonight...

Here is our family christmas tree its a nordman fir and we've used the gold decorations mixed in with some vintage style silver ones new this year. i hope you enjoy seeing it. its been so nice seeing everyone elses i thought i better get this one posted before we run out of days!

me adding the butterflies

 

My friend Jenny came and it was great to see her as always. She and i use the same therapy in our recovery so we have plenty in common and can encourage each other on. Its so important within using the process(called LP) to not compare your progress with anyone else or you can get down about it not being as good. But its ony natural that sometimes you do and thats when you need your friend to remind you how far you've come...

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words."

Jenny (above in grey jumper with me)and i both know how far the other has come and what its taken and how precious being able to do what we can is to us both,each in our own ways. its quite something to share looking back at our photos from this year together. She, like i mentioned in the previous post too is a diamond of a friend. Hugs J!

Speaking of friends, look at these two arent they just cute as a button! they are from Nicky at her etsy shop The vintage magpie. She does the most adorable ranges, with bunnies as well as bears.They were listed individually but i thought of them as friends and so wanted them to stay together. After i ordered them on etsy they arrived the next day beautifully packaged and are settling into their new home really well. Its amazing how much soul handmade softies have isnt it,like their proper little people. I marvel at how their makers can bare to part with them. So i always like to do a post to reassure them they've found a good home and are safe and sound. As these two are on my bed (meeting the little cotton rabbits at present and still finding their feet)they are nice and warm and snug too. their arrival brought me many smiles,thankyou Nicky, kat x

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

Wishes to a special little boy

   I'm thinking of you Luigi angel

This is my favourite photo of little Luigi,one of my closest friends, Anna's little boy, who is 2. I heard from her today that he has croup and is very very poorly, so if you'd like, please join me in saying a little prayer that he feels better very soon.And that they both come through into brighter days very soon. Anna is part italian hence luigi's beautiful eyes. I'm always saying he should do modeling! but its not easy when they live in Wales and anna is in recovery from ME also.

I'm hoping they both can still have a great christmas, if he is feeling more stable by then.lets keep our fingers crossed for them. 2 is just the age when they begin to take in alot more of what its all about. But at the moment that is not the concern its much more important that he simply improves and doesnt need to go into hospital. Above is a cute picture that Anna sent on her phone, exchanging photos this way is how we keep in touch and how i can see Luigi growing up. He's like a nephew to me so its very special to see these. And i met him when he was 4 months old, at that time(feb 06) i was still too ill to be able to leave my bed so he came in and lay next to me for a time...And here's anna and i after we both were in recovery using LP and she visited me here in October 06  We live at opposite ends of the country,i live in the northeast almost into Scotland and as i mentioned anna is just over the border into Wales. We 'met' 12 years ago, well i say met, we actually started writing then, through a scheme i ran putting people with the same illness in touch. We didnt actually meet in person or speak on the phone until some 9 years later, but that hasnt stopped the friendship growing, us supporting each other or being an important part of each others lives throughout everything since. Sometimes in the midst of what is a terrible experience of illness and when all your barriers are down you meet the most special souls, kindred spirits really and with them you share a friendship that goes beyond the need for words and any distance between you in miles, doesnt matter. I feel very very lucky that during the years i have formed a handful of these closest of friendships,they are like diamonds,sparkling and precious and priceless.

here's Anna with Luigi... and i couldnt resist another cute picture of him to share with you of him wearing the fleece i sent as part of his birthday present.

Anna's box of goodies to me for christmas actually arrived this morning...arent they gorgeous. Thankyou so so much honey.

so i had intended to do a post on the two of them about christmas,so its doubled up as a prayer and get well soon message for Luigi too as he's in my thoughts.i will of course keep you posted on how he's doing. good news hopefully will follow soon. thankyou for your christmassy comments lately i've tried to respond and thankyou but if i missed anyone then please count this as your thankyou, you're the best! love Kat        XOX to L and A

Pretty in pinks

                                                                              

These pretty flowers are from Jane Packer delivered i got them for my mam, we were very impressed with both the price and the quality. Having dealt with other flower deliveries in the past this one get top marks. There is a limited range but they have altered their pricing lately and there are some more affordable bouquets now compared to when they first began. So if you need to have flowers delivered over christmas you may want to check them out.

I went over to the boutique's the other day to give the girls their christmas gift and card. Kate gave me a mince pie heated up,it was yummy, i asked her where it was from and it was Sainsbury's taste the difference range. I don't always like every type of mince pie but this one was just right. I find that i like alot of Sainsbury's stuff,(its been better than Marksy's)since we've begun to use them with having a little local one open last January.

Here's Kates tree in Have to Love its a big one with plenty of roses and butterflies... i wasnt going to buy anything but i spotted a top that i liked and so got it to wear christmas day. Its black with some sparkly stones on the shoulders and a few down the front and it has wide short sleeves,like butterfly sleeves.

Quite alot of the stock is very party-ish there and the prices reflect that. As many people go there for special occassion wear or club wear. But Kate has all the good jeans to try out and has started to stock C&C California which do super soft jersy wear that i like.

The card i had sent her and shared with you last time was up on one of the shelves. My christmas cards have been selling well which i was both pleased and relieved about. it was my first christmas selling them so it was all new as to how well recieved they'd be. 

Our Christmas tree is finished i did it through the week so i'll post photos next time. On the drive back from the shops the sky was gorgeous i was taking photos thinking i want to share this with you as the colours were so pretty....love kat x 

Black and white memories

Hello all, just a late night chat as i felt like talking to you before going upstairs...here's a card i did recently to send my congratulations to Kate at Have to Love because she won The Drapers award for best newcomer(fashion boutique). Its a well known award ceremony within the industry and is national so she did amazing to win it!

(Kate takes my cards to sell).

My mam has been using a scanner to scan in some old family photos of my dad's which we have to give back to his sister soon. I am hoping to them make up an album on Snapfish. i thought i'd share one or two here...isnt this a cute baby snap of my auntie! let me see if i can find one of my dad... yes here's one in his high chair...and one a bit later..

they're so sweet, there's something about old black and white photos isnt there, they carry such a special-ness.i don't know why maybe its giving us that sense of our personal history and linking us to our family in the past.We don't use black and white nowadays, so in some ways you'd think nobody must think very much of that medium or hold it dear and thats why its faded from common use. Don't you think sometimes technology rushes so far ahead and we forget about the reasons why we loved the earlier ways of recording memories,in our hast to keep up to date. There's probably a place for both of course.Its a bit like how we all use digital cameras and so have our photos on the computer and never get to browse an album unless we keep remembering to get prints off.The digital way gives us so many benefits and scope to share our photos online and yet if we forget to have those photographs as hard copies like we always used to,we can lose that relaxing side of looking at them regularly in a book.

i think i'll finish with one of my dad's parents,my grandparents.they would have been aged 93(Nanna who passed in 1992)  and  98(Granda who passed this week in 1980 ) now. I miss them especially round christmas time. love at christmas to you nanna and granda love k

Jasna's so inspiring

My workspace
Originally uploaded by jasna.janekovic

Here is the lovely Jasna's work space where she makes her gorgeous fabric bags,cushions and other magical creations. Isnt it so full of light. I found jasna through flickr where this picture is and i have since been to her shop on dawanda.com
The other morning the parcel arrived and this is what was inside so neatly wrapped with care...

the things that i ordered from her little shop on dawanda which is very similar to etsy, but is european.

here is the gorgeous bag which has a charm of Mary on it upon a mother of pearl flower.and the other thing i chose was a pin cushion.

I've had flu so hence my quietness on my blog, i'm getting back to normal more now. having a gentle week wrapping presents and doing the tree. Be back soon with some more photos to share. Including an angel canvas that i sent denise, much love Kat xx