thinking long and hard

we moved away from surrey 18 months ago, for a change of lifestyle, and to slow down a bit. however, since we have settled in devizes I seem to be busier than ever and quite exhausted, which was not the object of the exercise. so over the past few days I have been thinking long and hard about the things that are most important to me. top of the list has to be gardening, and in particular growing organic vegetables, so that is going to be my main focus, especially now that spring is just around the corner, rog and I spent a very productive couple of hours outside in our little patch yesterday and made a good start on adding some organic matter to our rather heavy soil.
secondly comes the cards, I am still as passionate about the phoenix trading range of greetings cards and stationery as I was when I started almost 4 years ago, so now that the weather is starting to warm up and its not too unpleasant to go out I shall make more effort to deliver brochures and meet old and new customers any way I can.
thirdly I just love knitting and crocheting as a hobby. I had toyed with the idea of attempting to make it profitable, I have sold a few items on ebay over the years, but only just about covered material costs, I have opened a couple of shops on MISI and one on etsy, but I haven't sold anything, and there are lots of other professional knitters out there in what is certainly not a huge market, so I have decided to slowly withdraw from attempting to sell, and concentrate instead on designing and making one-offs as gifts for family and friends. that should leave me free to concentrate on the important things and bring back my enjoyment in the creating process. my MISI and etsy shops will stay open for a couple more months and will then be closed so if you want to take a look then now is the time to do it.
I have resolved NOT to take on anything new, I shall continue to house sit for rosemundy cottage as thats only three of four times a year, I am NOT going to do craft fairs or school fetes, as they are a lot of hard work for little return, I AM going to enjoy my time whether it be in the garden, baking bread or cooking, or knitting in front of the television, and I am NOT going to allow myself to be under pressure for anything. I am so looking forward to when rog is able to retire and we can just do things together, he is such good company and we just love being together. there is so much of this lovely county to explore, all we need is for it to rain slightly less than it has been doing since we arrived here.