Hello Lovely Peeps!

Hi there, and a warm welcome to you! Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to read this, you're a star! You are reading the very first post of my blog so a big "Cheers" from me. I am going to confess straight away that I'm still not entirely sure of the direction in which this blog will take me: basically I want a platform where I can ramble, record, take delight in, share, vent, empathise and point at stuff I like. And post some pretty photos too.

So a little bit about me then: I'm a 38-year old SAH mum of two living in the West Midlands with Bloke, my husband of 11 years, and our two gorgeous chiddlies, 9-year old daughter Monkey and 5-year old son Dude. (These are not their real names, obvs, but cyber-pseudonyms for the sake of their privacy in the future; blogs never die, so it would indeed be a travesty if the kids were to come across a particularly embarrassing story about themselves once they'd grown-up, especially as I would no doubt have to fork out for their respective therapy sessions as a result.)

Me and my darlings at Penshurst Place Sept. 2014

Since becoming a mum I have worked as an administrator, a shelf-stacker, an NCT newsletter editor, a shop-assistant, a cleaner and both assistant editor AND editor of a monthly papercrafting magazine, but presently I'm doing the hugely important job of being a full-time SAH mum to my two wee ones. I could complain about the mind-numbing tedium inevitable boredom that sometimes arises from performing the same tasks day in, day out, but that's not exactly news is it? They are growing up so fast, I want to be there for them as much as I can while they still want me to. It's good to remind myself of this too, my Mission Statement if you like.

When I'm not looking after the kids, running errands, doing the school run, supermarket shopping, cooking, cleaning, paying bills or attempting to reach the summit of Mount Laundry, I love to immerse myself in a bit of crafting. I have been a papercrafter for over ten years now, and make greeting cards to give to friends and family, and scrapbook albums and decorated canvases as presents. 

My cardmaking assembly-line. The desktop doesn't always look this neat unfortunately, but that's artistic licence for you!

Watercoloured stamped image. Ain't butterflies beautiful?

So far I have yet to find another pastime that gets me sufficiently "in the flow" - it really concentrates my mind and prevents it from ruminating and rehashing things over and over, as I tend to do about almost everything. When I am blending brightly coloured inks together or smearing paint onto a canvas or colouring an intricate stamped image, everything else just falls away and time slows down; I don't have to think about anything else that might be going on in my life when I craft, so it's like a more productive and satisfying method of meditating if you like. Crafting is therapy, and I highly recommend you give it a go if you haven't already. 

(Oh, and my Mama Magpie moniker? I like sparkly, shiny things and can spot 'em at fifty paces. Plus I am a typical Virgo and therefore all about the details, so it's always been in my nature to pick out the little things and have a good long look at them.)

I must say, this feels weird, writing to an audience that doesn't even exist yet; I think that's the reason I have held back on blogging for so long, I didn't know who I was supposed to be addressing. I've since read that you can't be an Every(wo)man in your blog, that is you can't possibly "speak" to every type of person who happens to stumble across your words at some point. You've just got to be authentic, and then likeminded peeps will find you... or something like that. As I said in the intro, I've not exactly worked out all the details yet. It's like, organic, man!

So, I think I've laboured over this all-important yet not-that-important-really-as-who's-gonna-be-reading-it-anyway? first post for long enough now... I'm clicking on Publish! Yes, I am! Look, here I go, I'm doing it... Shit, no turning back now ;-)