What is old is new and what is new is old. We are where we started.

Look at this beaut. The texture, the colours, the stripes – love love love!

It’s a hand crocheted blanket gifted to my son from a family friend. It has one of the best stripes in my opinion – the chevron! Dynamic, bold, movement, direction. The day before I started this blog I saw a chevron pattern on a road sign next to a park – “keep out” it was shouting – yet there was no sound at all. Just visual noise, black and white contrasting loud and proud.

When I see the chevron my mind wanders to many different decades. Mostly I think of the 70’s for some reason, but also the 80’s and 00’s – times when strong memories for me were made. During the 80’s I was growing up with a great colour palette but mostly wearing hideous patterns (chevron was the saviour!), and in the 00’s I was a young adult just out of uni, trying to work out my groove in the big bad world – and chevrons made me feel more grown up, stronger, outspoken even.

But back to the blanket. Whenever I see hand made ‘anything’ I think of my mum. She is as crafty as it gets. So talented, so creative, so innovative, and so content with the process of craft, not necessarily the product. Of course she has pride in her creations, but she doesn’t shout about them (she’s no chevron!), she just does what she does because it makes her happy doing it.

You know, the phrase ‘actions speak louder than words’ is so relevant right now. As my children meet new challenges, so do I as a parent, and sometimes I don’t do so well. As I behave like a chevron with a megaphone, my children converse back to me like that, despite the words ‘no shouting, softer voice, inside voice’ – my actions are chevron. I don’t like it.

My mum never shouted at my and my sisters. How did she manage that? I think the clue is in the blanket. What I need is some craft time. I’m going to take my mum’s advice, even though she never told me out loud, I’m going to get my craft on. Actions speak louder than words.

And what my mum knew, I now know. And I am back where I started. With my mum.

Stripes and trees xxx