Long time no see...

I know, I've been gone for a long time now.
But that doesn't mean I haven't been busy!
Instead, it has been a little chaotic around here.
I started homeschooling the girls and that takes the most of my time... obviously!
But also, the homeschooling and having my kids at home made our little family more intense and close to eachother. It gave us something that is very rare to find in this society: rest, peace and love. We all calmed down and started living again... in our own way and our own rhythm.

The big change wasn't only good for the girls, but it also made me breath again. Like there is some weight off my shoulders now. Everything turned out better than we could ever hoped for.
Time to change other things too!

I started thinking about what I wanted to do with my life, how I wanted to manage it all.
Offcourse the kids and their education got first place immediately, above everything else. But what with the webshop? Am I capable of running a busy webshop with homeschooling 3 kids? Is this what I really want to keep doing? Or do I need some changes too, just like the girls did? And so yes, what do I want?

I decided to stop sewing babycarriers, I enjoyed making them, but it took most of my crafting time and it was just too much. I'm letting someone else making them in my place as we're speaking. More information about that in the next weeks/months.

Cotton diapers. I had some great ideas about them and it's time to start with that! I want to make them more unique, more art-like, not just cotton diapers.
Also, more information later.

But what I really want to do, is to design more. Designing patterns, creating real things with a meaning behind it or just because they are beautiful. Knitwear most of the time... offcourse. But I don't want to be bound by anything. I always loved the designing from scratch: take some wool, fabric, dyes, other materials and just start designing something without a plan, without boundaries, using whatever I feel like using. I think that's the way I want to go... just find myself again in what I'm doing.

Another thing I started to do, is writing childrensbooks. Creating them... and that comes with knitwork too ;o)
Can't say too much about that yet, but I'm having the time of my life. Combining art with my family, the two things I love the most. It's just great...

And above all of that, I'm trying to create myself again. The people who really know me, know that this is a big step forward, cause I'm not the kind off person that loves spending time on herself, but still... some things were in order, I was hitting a wall there, over and over again.
I started playing the guitar (thanks to my oldest daughter, who was the cause of it, because she wanted to learn playing it but is too young for the music-academy) and that changed a lot. Music was my first love and it will be my last... it sounds very cliche but it's nothing but the truth.
I also changed my clothingpattern into more "me". More indierock-like, I don't think that is a style, but you probably know what I mean.
And then... an old dream popped up again. A dream that I wanted 10 years ago, in the time that my parents still had a say in me, which also explains why I never made that dream come true. But now... it was the right time for it. So, I googled and found. And since 7 days, I have dreadlocks in my hair. I'm so in love with them! It feels like I'm finally me... that's the only way to explain it.
My family loves them too... pfew!

We're not there yet, I know. But this small family is taking steps in the good direction... and we're enjoying every single second of it!

I think it's time to start blogging again... Thanks for all the sweet mails and messages I received in my absence, it was nice to read all of them!