Where I’ve been

Sometimes a rest, reset and change is needed. I needed a break from social media and my blog with everything that was going on and thought I should post here so you know where I’ve been. 

[Start of image description for image above: a photo of autumn leaves and flower petals. On top is a white rectangle with the words “Hi friends”. Under the photo is a sage green rectangle with two white stripes and the words “Where I’ve been”. End of image description.]

Some of those thing are: 

🌈 I found out I’m autistic which makes so much sense and explains a lot of things I do eg. Why I find eye contact hard, my social awkwardness, my hyper focus on things. 

🌈IG limiting my account when all I can think of was that I shared inspirational quotes from others.

🌈Online bullying (both on my personal pages and business pages). Some of these were people I thought were my friends and I struggled with loosing these friendships at the time. Which I also think may have why my account was being limited as well. I couldn’t share my own or others posts, posts weren’t getting seen etc. 

🌈A strict lockdown that lasted 3 months and other things that happened. 

🌈Trying to teach school with the master crafters having learning disabilities. 

🌈My sponsored therapy sessions ran out and my therapist tried to find me another sponsor after mine randomly stopped paying and answering calls. It was tough.

🌈 I had become hyper focused on my business (hyper focus is when you become so focused on something you loose track of time and also find it hard to stop and I’ll just do this little thing then hours later your still doing things). 

🌈 My health worsening - new tests, new symptoms and no answers for it all. 

As you can tell it was a lot and was a lot to deal with.

Out of the above has come the following:

🌈A decision to permanently homeschool the master crafters.

🌈A decision to start our own little homestead.  

🌈New friendships that have meant so much. 

🌈I’m now back having therapy sessions every 2nd week with my life coach and I’m feeling better since starting my first session. 

🌈New changes for all of my business pages and changes on the website here too. 

[Start of image description: a photo of fallen red, orange and brown leaves on the ground down by Arjaye’s feet. Her nails are painted coral and purple, she is wearing blue pants with peach flowers on them. End of Image description.]

Changes

Change meant it was time to clean and tidy up my studio where I knit, design, write and usually spend quite a bit of time. Lately I’d spent time in here to open/shut the window/curtain, dump things in here while sorting out other things eg. old clothes, things to donate, things I needed to put away, things to sell etc. Aside from that and telling the master crafters to put their craft supplies away I hadnt been in there at all. 

That changes it got cleaned up, tidied and things re-arranged. Along with a bit of a makeover too.  

Most recently there was more changes mostly personal ones, and with those changes came an unexpected change that resulted in moving studios, I’m thankful because the new studio has more space for everything without it being crammed in. I was upset after just sorting it out again. It’s also meant it was a crazy busy time trying to sort everything, moving and then unpacking. 

Also during this time Mischief became unwell and we feared her kidneys were packing up due to the blood in her urine and her age now 15years old. We took her to the vet and the cause was a urine infection caused by stress with us moving studios. The rest of her health, was good, she was given meds and has been doing well since thankfully. Her fave spot once again is the studio chair with my knitted throw on it and her cat basket well she still refuses to use it no matter what. 

[Start of image description: a photo of Arjaye standing next to the tree smiling. She is wearing a denim jacket and her orange chunky autumn leaves scarf. End of image description.]

While the unpacking is done now and the studio looks amazing, there’s been no internet due to a fault and writing blog posts with limited internet hasn’t been easy so they are written ready to add.  I’ve been using phone data to post on social media unfortunately my website doesn’t work too well on mobile though I can still check your comments and reply to those easily. If you don’t have social media or just feel like leaving me a message here I check these as often as I’m able to. On mobile editing etc is a lot harder and I have to go to the library to make a blog post or to use the internet if my data hour runs out and I still need to do things. Of course going to the library is dependant in my health. 

Health

Amongst all of that my health declined again, as usual I have no answers waiting on tests to rule out things though we know it’s likely endometriosis and some issues caused by things that happened during surgery that shouldn’t have. Pain got worse, new symptoms, more hospital and specialist visits and rapid decline in my weight so I’m now on formula - it’s going about as well as it can with a body that tolerates very little these days. So far I gained 1kg back in 3months which is good but with endo belly (inflamed stomach) that makes me look 5-6months pregnant the inflamation contributes to the weight gain.  I’m doing what I do best, staying positive and keeping on doing what I can. 

Posts I’ll be back soon along with changes coming that I’m working on behind the scenes - hopefully I’ll have internet at the studio soon till then you can find posts over on my social media accounts on Facebook and Instagram.

[Start of image description: a photo of Arjaye sitting out on the garden holding a bunch of cream and peach daisies. She is smiling and the hair on her wig is down and is curled. She is wearing a navy top, coral hoody and blue pants in peach fliers on them. She is outside sitting next to a rose bush. End of image description.]

Change is messy, necessary and sometimes needed after a reset.

[Start of image description: grass with yellow flowers and a good stool. On the left side is a basket with blue, pink and cream with a pair of bamboo needles. Next to the basket is a hedgehog and on the right is a black cat playing in the grass. In the centre is the word “Arjaye” next to it is a blue feather pen. End of image description.]

If your not sure where to find me here’s the list:

🌈Knitting with some Cottage life (decor, recipes, homestead, Homeschool etc) sprinkled in  - CozyWoodlandCottageKnits on Instagram and CozyWoodlandCottageKnits.nz on Facebook (our old page was hacked).

🌈MysteriousCalligrapher on Instagram and Facebook. 

🌈ArjayesJourney on Instagram.