Peace.

My very first non working day of the new 9 day working pattern. What Joy.

Hubs and no 1 son are at work, no 2 son is at school. There is no background noise and all is quiet. Its bliss.

I took Junior to school ( 6th form college ) and came home and took no 1 to work, it was lovely, I love my boys and am getting to realise that time spent with them alone is getting scarcer these days.

Home for a quick tidy around, (its my non working day and non working it shall be !), and then the day was mine.

It is so nice to be able to have time to think without people around and a multitude of background noise. I haven't  even switched the TV on today. I have poddled about sorting out my stuff, namely catching up on some writing,  I'm doing the creative writing course again. I appreciate that its yet another course ontop  of my silver smithing one, but I love writing and its something I hope to do more of next year. I am even considering an Open University course in Creative writing. Not yet though, need to get rid of some more working hours .

Tonight I'm off to my silver class, I will admit I'm not feeling the love for it now.  I finished my silver heart

and love it.

Then it was onto the next project, we are guided as to what type of project as its all about learning different ways of working.

After a bit of faffing I came up with this for a  necklace

It took quite a bit of work to get those little twists done I can tell you. The next week our tutor was away and we had a stand in. It was a bit of a wasted week to be honest. I had to think of how to join them, no blooming idea that's why I am taking a class ! anyway I eventually got her attention and ended up doing something I didn't like, on her advice. Didn't like it so tried to rectify, which meant my lovely swirls are looking a bit battered. Hoping that tonight class gets me back on track. Hopefully out tutor should be back and she's fab. I did book  another course so I could continue on, but after rethinking what I have in my life, night class is not for me. I am so knackered after a long day all I want to do is go home. So I think I am going to just pick up day classes on a Saturday.  Maybe one every other month. I do love working with silver but am not sure its going to be a 'thing ' for me.. I much prefer my writing and knitting !

Talking of knitting, I am now going to go and knit for an hour before I go to pick junior up.

What a lovely day, shame I cant have more non working days.

Waving !

I'm still alive.

Life just seems to be overtaking me.

The change of office base into the city centre is nice but its making my days longer. I'm not complaining, I'm using the bus ride to read. But I leave home at 7 am and am not back until 6pm. Its a long day and I was starting to struggle. I had to really think about what I had to do, was doing and when , then prioritised what I want to do.

I bit the bullet and asked to drop to a 4 day week, I had a resounding no on that one, However when I asked why and questioned the decision, giving my rationale,  they agreed that I could do a 9 day fortnight (every other Monday off ). Tomorrow is my first non working day ! The last 2 weeks have been a bit of a stretch as I had to make the hours up before my first non day, but what a feeling.

I can't describe how much happier I feel already, It means that I am not trying to crush everything into a 2 day weekend. I get to slow down and hopefully have more time to myself. I don't really seem to have done much other than read!  Tomorrow I also get to take junior to school and no 1 son to work, not a big thing, but I rarely get to do that these days.I am becoming more aware of how grown up the boys are getting,  they are both adults now and I want to make the most of any time with them before they leave home. junior will be off to university next year !

Knitwise I have been working on my cozy memories blanket and loving it, its such a great comforting knit. I now have a whole 2 rows done. Then I cast on my Cornwallis sweater, I even swatched for it ! We're off to Cornwall for my birthday in February and I really want to wear it there ! (That's my excuse for casting on another sweater!)  I will confess I also cast on another shawl! I really shouldn't have but I wanted to knit some bright cheery yarn as its been so dark, dull and wet!  I will take pics tomorrow  and do a WIP Wednesday for you. So I have 3 projects on the needles, all of which I am enjoying knitting. The other WIPS are out of site.

And that's it really, just a normal boring predictable life, I really don't know why I blog !

I will leave you with  some street art that caught my eye on a dull day.