I am back! After a wonderful break, I am refreshed and renewed. For those who are new, each year our family does what we call a 'tech detox'. This is where we travel down to a nature reserve, and we stay for four to five days. The kids get NO screens and NO technology other than a camera, and hubby and I also stay off all screens. We spend the time re-connecting with nature, slowing down, and just taking the time to appreciate all there is in the world. It's also a great opportunity to talk about and decide what we want to do with ourselves in the next 12+ months.

This trip was a bit different. We had to skip last years one due to the house fire that required our attention throughout the rebuild. The world changed a LOT in that time. Australia has been my home for the better part of 27 years, but I've always had connection here through family even before moving here, I am afterall 50% Australian. I've been here longer than my birthplace, I've had children and made a family and a life here. But Australia is fast squeezing the life out of us. Property has become unaffordable for us, but most concerningly, our children. And our kids know it. Sitting amoung the trees roasting marshmallows my son lamented how he loved it here, but he'll never afford even a bushblock. My son is not even 18 yet. He isn't wrong. But more than that, rentals have also become unaffordable. Sharehouses are seeing people pay what you would a whole house not so long ago. So where do we belong? Where can we see a bright future for our kids and ourselves? We aren't sure. I have never felt uncertain about where I'll end up. It has always been Australia. It has always been the West. As much as interstate think of us as boring, I like that boring slow easy way of life. 

This trip has afforded us the room to think about where we might end up. A think some travel is going to be on the cards as we hunt for what the future looks like. Of course, nothing sudden, but it is exciting to contemplate the future and adventures we might have in the search for our 'forever'! 

I also reflected on Unconventional X Stitch. In my early days, I was a casual pattern maker, that then went full time, who made patterns, and then needle minders. The needle minders started off crude but evolved into refined pieces of art, and then came the kits which also evolved as I refined and learned and added. The fire took it all away, all but the patterns. I did for a brief period bring back needle minders, the landscape was not forgiving though. Rules tightened around needle minder transport, and internationally I found a less global trade situation and more a billion rules that were hard to keep up with. So, I folded that up. Kits thankfully did not return because I would have bankrupted myself if I had done that and then had to pull back. So, I have gone full circle really. From patterns to a mix back to my roots of patterns. I do sometimes miss making minders, but I've also enjoyed the slower pace and more freedom in being pattern only. I don't know what the future holds in terms of offerings, but I do hope I'll be here for many more decades charting away the days! 

I thought a lot on the pattern making process. Working on a piece, as a designer, I get to know that artwork intimately. I often feel, I get to know this work, much deeper than the observer. I go deep into a piece, and in doing so, I see the minute details that you would otherwise miss. To see the brush stroke. The pen lines. The perfectly imperfect. I'll see those first strokes that formed the idea, and then layered upon to create the dream come reality. The tiny splatters of paint, placed intentionally. I can see the formation, the story unfold. 

I don't take this privledge for granted, the trust to not only hold a high resolution file of the original, which one must protect vigerously, but also, to know the art. To see the art. In a way many don't get to see. 

In many ways, I feel as if I am a part of this, as I replace paint, parchment, paper, pencils and pen with threads. Each detail equally important. It is in and of itself an art form. One I have learned and crafted and refined over decades of experience. On that note, I think I'll get back to launching a new Miss Holly work!