Wednesday, July 06, 2011

Now We Are Six!



When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I'm as clever as clever,
So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever.

A A Milne





In 12 days time this blog will be 6 years old!  On the 18th July 2005 I started a little blog to keep in touch with my sister who had moved to the USA and my best friend who had moved to the South of France as well as a few friends in London. I was writing for a handful of people to keep them up-to-date with my life.  I never imagined at that time that 6 years later I would still be writing and that my blog would be read by people all over the world, many of whom I have never met, and many I have met because of it.

In the 6 years that I have been writing this much has changed.  I had a little baby who is now an independent, funny and sweet six year old, I had a little boy who had just started school, he is now just about to start Secondary School.  My 15 year old daughter has grown into a beautiful woman and now lives in her own home.  I started my own business, in a small way, to fit in around the children.  That too is growing (still slowly) and continues to give me great pleasure.  I am no longer blonde!

I have met so many wonderful people through my blog. This was very important to me at a time when I was at home, in rural Devon, with a small baby. The crafting and vintage community has grown and flourished and I have been so grateful to have been part of it through my website and this blog.  I have enjoyed reading each and every one of your comments and am blown away by the amount of people who come up to me and tell me that they read my blog.

So, to celebrate, I am having a giveaway.  A goodie bag of vintage fabric loveliness will be given to one lucky person. All you have to do is comment on this blog, those of you who never normally comment, now is your chance. Tell me one thing that has changed for you in the last 6 years.  I will draw a name out of the hat on my blogoversary on 18th July.  Good luck!



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39 comments:

Gloria said...

Congratulations on your achievement.

Jan May said...

Congratulations - and what a lovely blog! Ooh my goodness, what to pick from the last 6 years... perhaps the best thing - recovering some confidence in myself with the help of my new husband, and finding that I am actually capable of achieving something!

lucy said...

you've been on an enormous adventure these last 6 years, and it sounds like it's been great fun :)

six years is a long time to pick a highlight from - it covers the birth of my third child, and watching her and my other two grow and change into wonderful people and all those beautiful milestones along the way. and it also covers my decision to take my sewing from something I do just for myself, family and friends to the next level - a new adventure I'm just starting out on.

Selfsewn said...

Wow you are a true legend!!

Love the cotton reel creativity.

Clare

memmens said...

Six years in some ways doesn't seem long but like you I had a little one then and now she's much bigger! Life has changed massively for the better, with the addition of another 2 children! AND I now sew almost every day!
Well done you - here's to another 6!

Hen said...

Hi Donna,
Wow, 6 years is quite an achievement, thank you for all the pleasure you've shared through your blog. I suppose my story is a little like yours; in the last six years, I gave up a city career to stay at home and be a mummy and housewife. I rediscovered sewing and have made lots of lovely things for me and for other people (including you!) And of course, I discovered an obsession for vintage fabrics, the most beautiful of which come from your good self!
Love Hen x

Thedarkerside73 said...

Congratulations! Six years of blogging wow! I love your blog and all the gorgeous things you sell.

How has six years changed me? Well being a mummy most definately has changed me and constantly does. The challenges and the joys. Also blogging has changed me it has changed the way in which I view my world and has made me I think a lot more patient.

Here's to you and another six years.



MBB x

Unknown said...

Hi Donna, Wow six years of blogging! thats pretty amazing. I'd love the chance to enter your give away,
So, Highlight of my last 6 years....
Getting married to my knight in shinning armour, we'd been together for years but getting married was lovely, watching my children grow into strong, loving independent people. Erm.... starting Fading Grace,...and probably lot's more x
Sophie

Sally Waters said...

So many changes in the last six years - from Mum to one to a Mum to two, then from a Mrs to a Ms, from a barn to a cottage, and from a lack of confidence to a strong me who is not afraid to follow her dreams and will teach her children to do the same.
Sally X

charl said...

wow 6 years.. how lives change so quickly hey!!
over the past 6 years ive got married.. gave birth to two beautiful boys, moved house, took voluntary redundancy after 11 years, gone blonde to brunette to blonde to red to blonde again!..oh and started my blog!!!

charl
x

Country Cottage Chic said...

Congratulations on your 6 year anniversary!
It doesn't seem long but so much can change in 6 years...like you, I started a blog for fun & through that met so many like minded people online & then of course Michele & I held the first V&H Fair & the rest, as they say, is history!

Here's to the next 6 years!

Jayne
x

Corine said...

Congratulations on your 6 years!

My biggest change in the past 6 six years would be the birth of my 2 boys! But I also changed job and started my small webshop with handmade items.

- Corine

Mac n' Janet said...

In six years I've started my blog, started crafting for the first time in forever and learned to slow down and enjoy each day.

Dotty said...

5 years ago all changed when i met the man of my dreams following a horrible divorce and so followed 2 new babies, a new small business and i have never looked back . Have just discovered your blog and really enjoying xxlyareati

Tina Gilmore said...

Congratulations on six years blogging. My changes have been meeting and marrying the love of my life, finding and living my dream in opening my own gorgeous vintage, arts and gift shop here in Montgomery and arranging my first solo art exhibition! xx

Unknown said...

Congratulations thats wonderful. Its lovely to reflect back like that. So much has happened in 6 years for me that i would find it hard. But actually i started work at the local college 6 year ago and today i accepted redundancy 6 years on, so a scary move but hopefully like you starting your blog a positive move ;-)) dee x

Gerry Snape said...

I was on my way to comment on your super post when I noticed that it was a giveaway...well that's great but I mainly want to say well done on reaching SIX and keeping the home fires burning at the same time and that as I've written before ...the book on caravans always takes me back to my childhood at Ballyferris! best wishes. Geraldine Snape

Tracy said...

Wow six years blogging, mine's only very nice but hope I'm still blogging in six years - congratulations! Lovely post! Its so hard to pick on thing from my past six years....I think it would have to be becoming a mother (twice!) and realising who I am as a person, not trying to be something I'm not and accepting I don't have to be the same as everyone else - I'm an individual. xx

ruth said...

Congratulations - 6 years is a real achievement. Other than discovering what it means to be a mum in the last 6 years, the big new thing for me is having my own cake business. 6 years ago I never even imagined that I would be able to make my kids own birthday cakes, let alone wedding cakes for other people. Hopefully the next 6 years will be as exciting as the last!

Ruth x

lemonade kitty said...

Congratulations on 6 years blogging and I bet you´ve enjoyed every minute of it!! Well 5 years ago my life changed when my lovely sister was killed in a car crash, we were always inseperatable from being small girls so I´ve had to rebuild my life with out her. But on the plus side I found blogging two years ago and I love it, I don,t know what I did before but it now fills a huge void in my life thankfully. Please enter me in your fab giveaway, Lucey x

vintagerockchick said...

Well done for the last six years, and long may your blogging continue. It's funny, this blogging thing isn't it? I started the same as you, as a diary with pictures for my own benefit and never really imagined that anyone would read it. But they do, and like you, I have made friends through it, some of whom I've met, which has been lovely. Four years ago I retired from my proper job after 30 years, but after two years I found I missed the 'banter' and camaraderie, so I am now back at my old office, at my old desk, but now only two days a week as a 'civvie' and it's just perfect. So, my biggest change has been to have time to do more arty-textile-y things - although I still wonder where the time goes.
PS. I hope Lucey wins - what a terribly sad change - I have a sister and wouldn't want to imagine being without her, Gill x

Greedy Nan said...

I have been lucky enough to meet some lovely people in the last six years and one of them was you!

Janice said...

Congratulations on 6 years of blogging!! I don't know about the last 6 years, in the last 3 months I retired from work, had a flood in my sewing room and then my mum passed away 2 weeks ago. I miss her already.

Used-to-Bees said...

Wow! Six years of blogging is very impressive - congratulations and long may you continue! Thank you for running this giveaway! My last six years have mostly been spent plodding along the same path (teaching three days a week, Mummy to one growing girl, wife to a lovely man) until about two years ago when I hit upon my idea for trying to make money from what I enjoy best - sewing. Since then I have discovered blogs, then blogging, made new friends, started selling and generally discovered a different pace and purpose to life.
x

elegancemaison said...

Congratulations on six years of blogging - wow! Your blog is one of my favourites and since I started mine less than two years ago I've met lots of lovely bloggers - some even, like yourself, in real life.Before I started on Blogger I was on another site which was more interactive but it was hi-jacked by a malicious member and sadly became defunct. And the greatest joy of my last six years - becoming the grandmother of two adorable Australians!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations on 6 years Donna,here s to the next 6.Over the last 6 years I have found crafting and I guess it keeps me sane!!xxxjulie

Gill said...

Happy Blogiversary!
In my last 6 years my children have gradually grown and left home - only 1 left now!

little homebird said...

Congratulations on 6 years of blogging Donna that is quite an achievement! I only discovered blogs about 18 months ago and get much enjoyment from reading them. I have been inspired to be more creative and got myself a little sewing machine and am trying hard to learn how to make pretty things I see on all these blogs and books/mags!

So as well as looking after my children in the last 6 years and seen them starting school, trying to find my creative side has been very enjoyable indeed!

Here's to another 6 years of your blog :)
Ali

Joanne said...

In the last 6 years, the last of my 2 little girls started school, we bought an old run down barn, and have been renovating it, filling it with vintage treasures and wonderful vintage fabrics with inspiration from wonderful blogs like yours, thank you x

Trixie@ the vintage bothy said...

lovely blog Donna.
I got together with M six years ago, now that was life changing!

Niki Fretwell said...

Hi Donna,
CONGRATULATIONS!!!! 6 years is an incredible achievement. Your blog was one of the reasons I started writing mine, some 5 years ago, and I am still honoured that you were the first to comment on it when I nervously wrote my first post. I am also extremely happy to know you personally and to consider you a friend. On our first meeting I was struck by how you were exactly how I imagined you to be, because I had got to know you, it felt, so well through the posts left on your lovely blog. I'm so pleased that you are still here, that your business is flourishing and that I get to see you every now and then at the Blogger's fairs and on the odd buying trip.
Hope you're celebrating with a tipple! ;-))

Like you, there have been many changes for me over the 6 years, but my most recent one is that I've become a Granny! - I had to get that in, didn't I?!!(And I'm no longer blonde either! ;-))

Have a lovely weekend,
Niki xx

prettyshabby said...

Hi Donna, Loved reading everyone else's changes here,congratulations on your 6 year bloggyversary, wow doesn't time fly?
as for my changes, I would like to say our luck has changed but I dont want to jinx things..my weight has though..yikes!! xx

ps your in the new cool campervan book..but I bet you new that already!

Tracy x said...

congrats on the six years x
so much has happened to me in the last six years... getting my very first dog, moving to the very end of Scotland and realising that i miss England... making the move back and finding a house in the forest where i have been lucky enough to meet fellow bloggers and hope to meet lots more :)
t x

KC'sCourt! said...

six year old - that is a lovely age!
May I join in your giveaway?
Julie xxxxx

Jenny said...

I've also been blogging for 6 years! I love how my blog reflects my life, my marriage, my son and being pregnant again. Here's to another 6 years for both of us!

Little stitch and me said...

Congratulations six years is a really big achievement. My life has changed so much in the last six years the best thing being the arrival of my beautiful little boy. We now live in the country where my heart has always been surrounded by our own space and filled with roses and foxgloves my favourite plants. We have also acquired four cats and six chickens something I thought we would never have.

Jan Quigley said...

Wow 6 years, a lot changes in 6 years. For me the biggest thing was selling up & moving 1000kms to live near our dd. We've been here for just over a year & we love it.

Dotty Mays said...

I love the poem, hope I remember it when my son turns 6.
My past 6 years changed with the birth of my son. I was restless in my job and looking to change when he came along & changed it for me - all for the better, as I've been able to focus much more on my crafting hobby, selling my surplus wares at fairs etc to pay for my fabric addiction!
Good luck with the next 6+ years of motherhood, blogging & doing what you enjoy x

heartsofhampshire said...

What an inspiring blog, I came across it via henhouse who was featured in Homes and Antique magazine vintage edition!
In the last 6 years I have been to Peru ,china, Australia , Hawaii and USA -wherever I go I have to indulge my obsession with fabric!
Bring on the next 6 years!