Stitched Up

Hey so here's an non-secret for you all, I do cross stitch. That's right, it's not just reserved for those over 60.

You can see most of my stuff on my Instagram, (click, go see. I post cat pictures and selfies too).

It's really not the greatest hobby for someone with bad eyesight and tendonitis - double check - but in all other respects, it's pretty awesome.

It requires patience, concentration, discipline and you end up with something cool at the end which you can share with friends and family, or display in your house.

I've known how to cross stitch since I was probably around aged five, thanks to my Mum, even my city slicker sister can do it, she's just too cool. It's really easy. There's no 'proper' way of doing it so long as the front carries the same result. I have my way and I try to keep the back as neat as possible because yknow OCD and not to mention makes it easier sticking to cards, for instance.

Recently, I took it up again as a personal way to make cards for friends (Christmas wasn't exactly a rich time of year for me) ...

...and continue to do it because it gives me something to do and I like it but also, it really helps if you're having a bad day or over thinking what you said to that one person about 13 days ago... or something like that.

Living in an age where all of those could be done in seconds by a machine, it's a great way to keep something like it going. Not to mention people around the world are doing crazy cross stitching projects of all kinds - photographic style portraits of The Hobbit characters is one particular one that stands out. It's hugely impressive.

It may be time consuming but what else would I do with my time? 

Oo that's nice!

It's been so long since my last bloody blog post it's a whole new year. 

Firstly before pressing on with the real matters here's a little update as to why.

I blogged about gut feelings way back in April and hey, it turns out my gut was right. So in September things went kinda belly up however, I have learnt a bucket load and I mainly learned the importance of being nice. 

This right here is the main point. Told you it was a little update. 

Nice is a word that often gets scoffed at. Being described as nice or having nice as a personal quality isn't always deemed to be a good thing and is quite frequently said with a sneer of sarcasm and derision. 

In primary school a teacher told my class to try not to use nice as a describing word - that whole year any creative piece of writing sounds like it's written by a little pompous twerp with a ludicrous and grandiose vision on the world. She would have loved that sentence.

Is being nice really a bad thing though? Nice, the place, looks pretty fantastic. Nice biscuits are alright, bit of a marmite biscuit if I'm honest.

To me, being nice is a huge, huge deal. Nice guys finish last is just bollocks. Well, okay, maybe they will finish last but they will finish with a bunch of people urging them on, without a bad word being said about them and will leave this world with a lifetime filled with love and support and happy memories. 

Did I ever mention for a little time I was an agent's assistant? I was, it was pretty damned awesome. 

Anyway, when telling people who they could work with, a writer, for example, we would happily describe all their past achievements - who they'd worked for: 'yes they wrote for them too, small world eh?', yet the added sentence 'and you know what? they're a really lovely, genuine nice guy' often sealed the deal.

People don't want to work with or for assholes. We've all done those summer jobs that aren't great pay and always seem to have the boss from hell. 

People don't want to be friends with nasty people: 'Hey this is my friend, he's a great guitarist, complete dickhead though.'

I'd be thrilled to be described by anyone as a nice person. If that was someone's lasting impression of me then I have done something right in this world. 

It's really easy to not give a damn, comment not compliment, not smile on the bus etc and somedays it's harder than others to find something nice to say about someone and even more so yourself. Give it a try though. It's 2014, still new into the year so why not try and find something nice to say about yourself and then a friend?

Nice might be overused sometimes. It may not be said with much esteem. I like trying being nice, it's a fucking excellent quality to possess and true nice people seem to be becoming fewer and far between.

After all, when have you heard someone say 'let's have a simply superb, wonderfully blended cup of tea?'