Nice Sunday

Well, it’s past noon and I’m still in my pyjamas and feeling good about it. I’ve skyped my mom and sister, listened to an old album that I hadn’t heard in ages, contemplated doing some embroidery and surfed the net looking at all the wonderful things people around the world have created with a bit of imagination and their bare hands.


I’m lucky enough to own this beautiful, botanically inspired piece of crockery, which was handcrafted by one of the artists at a South African company called Mustardseed & Moonshine. I’ve long admired their work and was fortunate enough to be given my sunshiney orchid cup and saucer on my last birthday.

It makes me feel good to know that there are so many out there who slow down the crazy pace of modern life to indulge in a little crafting and creating – and make a living out of it.

My husband was asking the other day where all the nice people have gone and I’m starting to think they’re tucked away in little creative pockets around the world – making things, getting involved in crafting communities and being part of the exciting resurgence of all things handmade.

I came across an illustrator on etsy.com who had been alerted by several other etsy sellers that her illustrations were appearing on clothing being sold on another website without her permission. So she managed to save her copyright from being abused simply because others were kind enough to let her know. That was nice.

I went on to my flickr site for the first time in a week and people have left so many nice comments about the last item I posted. It made me feel really good, I have to admit. And these are, essentially, complete strangers. That was nice.

I sent one or two of my projects to craft magazines recently in the hopes of being published and got really positive and encouraging responses from the editors. That was nice. And what a difference from the editors I usually deal with in my day job!

So the nice people are out there. You just have to follow the trail of thread, wool, paper, bits and bytes, beads, ink, clay… to find them.