Lead {SheLoves}

Two blog posts in two days, something must be going on! How about a manic month ending with a week off just in time before I’ve completely missed the boat?! September’s SheLoves link up has been on the theme: LEAD. Somehow I’ve really struggled to connect this month. Maybe because I’ve overcommitted on cross-stitching (see previous post) maybe I’ve been a bit under the weather. More likely it’s just a tricky topic for me to relate to openly. Even now, on the last day of September there is so much buzzing around my head about leadership, but nothing that I feel comfortable putting into words. Read some other takes on it here.

Here is the truth: We are all leaders. Every single one of us. Everything we do impacts upon those around us, causes them to live in response to us. Here are some examples:

Last Christmas my car very sadly drove it’s final few miles to the scrap heap. We’ve managed almost a year as a one-car household, and as a consequence I am much fitter as my bicycle frequently carries me to work instead! I have a colleague who recently took advantage of the cycle to work scheme we are offered and over the summer she chose to cycle the 10 miles each way to work and back twice a week, even though she had a fully functional car at home. She’ll openly say she never considered that a possibility until I started to do it.

I have started taking my cross-stitch into work and managing about 10 minutes on it over lunch time, in an attempt to hurry along progress. Now there are two or three craft projects on the go around the dining table.

A friend of mine invited me to an orchestra one time and now I’m a (semi) regular attendee of play days, when previously I hadn’t picked up my violin for 8 years!

Now I am NOT one of those bubbly, always centre-of-attention people. Actually I hate being the centre of attention, that’s why I’ve struggled to write about my “official” leadership positions. But I have changed people’s lifestyles (in these cases, by accident!) But I will happily lead by my life. Just by being myself, I can give others permission to be themselves.

What can / do you do that is a little off-beat, but allows others to be themselves?

Cross Stitching Overload

So… I may have over-committed.

At the end of August so pleased was I with my “30for30crafting” exploits that I decided to take on a cross-stitch for a friend’s baby who had just been born. It was a Dr Who themed affair, quite large but with a good amount of empty space so I figured it was fairly doable.

The weekend after I’d bought the pattern and all of the threads was another friend’s baby’s christening, and we were to become God parents. It may surprise some parents to know that neither of us are from God-parenting church backgrounds, so we were somewhat underprepared for the situation in terms of gifts, and a friend staying with us that weekend persuaded me that another cross-stitch would be the perfect, thoughtful gift, and wouldn’t need to be ready before Christmas. So I scoured the internet and found a ‘Noah’s Ark’ kit (I really wanted to do this Bothy Threads one but it’s MASSIVE and very intricate… I was trying to be sensible!) which arrived shortly afterwards.

Well, this is the volume of Aida I have to fill:

Eek! Noah’s ark is about twice as big as I expected, and I’m losing the plot a little. Godson’s birthday is in March so I think he may have to wait until then. In the meantime (and in the two weeks since I started this post and never managed to finish it) I’ve made some headway with Dr Who. As a consequence I have lots of blue and black ORTS:

Maybe there is hope for me yet! No chance of using the beautiful wool my parents bought me from Scotland when they went last month though. All new projects are frozen until at least one of these is complete!

Isn’t it beautiful? That’s just what colour the sheep are, no dye has been used.

EDIT: Forgot to include the link for the TUSAL. See more jars of thread here!