welcomes and wood stoves

I'm staying at my mother's house for a few days.

Being here means that I get to do all the chores she wishes she could do in a day, but can't because she has to work. So I just put a meatloaf in the oven. In an hour I'm going to try and make some vegetable fried rice and my own sweet and sour sauce. I'm not entirely sure if I can, but it's worth a shot!

Two summers ago I spent the loneliest four months of my life here. My mother moved to this tiny town in the same weekend that I moved to the city for university.As such, I don't know a single soul here, aside from Mom, Barry (her boyfriend) and the cat. In my free time I gained a new appreciation for all sorts of arts and crafts, and it's stuck with me since.

The only problem is that when I'm not at mother's I'm distracted by friends, a boyfriend, and three needy and  affectionate cats that take up all my spare time. Not that those are bad things, they're absolutely fantastic. But sometimes it takes going back to mom's house to get me back into the swing of crafty things.

Today, for example, I've hardly spoken to a single soul outside of a text message. My day has been spent in the basement, watching The Lord of the Rings, and crocheting a baby blanket for my niece, who should be arriving in the world next month :)

You'll see pictures of that, soon. Probably tomorrow! The basement in my mom's house, despite the fact that it's really quite warm outside, was freezing. For the first time in three years, I got the wood stove to stay lit today!

I built the fire all by myself, and it's kept up for about three hours now! :D I'm so proud. I honestly don't know how many times I've tried and failed to do this, but it's been a lot.

Now, I've decided to share all the random crafts and recipes that I try. I like a lot of things. I like arts, crafts, cats, drawing, music, video games, books, movies, cooking, boys, tea, embroidery, crochetings, cross stitching, and quilting. I like my nieces and my family and my wizard pipe and not wearing socks.

I like my friend Rebecca who is essentially my soul mate in life. Her blog has given me the motivation to start this one, and to actually try and keep it. You can find her in my blogroll!

I like all of these things, and I like you, whoever you are. I'm hoping that I can develop a strong base of followers who are not only readers, but friends. I like having fun, and I like sharing that fun, so I plan on sharing it here. This blog will be for reviews, tutorials, thoughts, and every other possible thing I can feasibly put here.

After all, the only criteria is that I like it :)