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You know there is a part in every story where they all live happily ever after and it finishes?
Well, that's where I think I've got to with Magpie Chic.
I've come full circle really.
I began at Easter two years ago,
although it feels like about ten years worth of events have taken place since then!
It began a little bit like Lucy finding her way through the back of the wardrobe into Narnia.Instead of a snowy landscape and Mr Tumnis,
I found a whole parallel universe of kindred spirits.
Exactly what I was looking for at the time.
I didn't know that, but once I found it, I knew it instantly.
It felt like coming home.
I had found a way to process my thoughts, which at the time were bound up with a heavy burden of grief.
Amongst a world of gentle kindred spirits.
And you opened your creative lives and invited me in unconditionally, just like Mr and Mrs Beaver, Jemima Puddle Duck, Mrs Tiggywinkle and Little Grey Rabbit would have done.
I am so grateful to you all for allowing me the experience and the privilege of a glimpse into your lives.
And for allowing me to share mine with you.
Thank you for all the lovely comments, and for taking the time to care.
I will still be reading you and thinking about you, and enjoying your creative exploits, and just your world view.
Real life has taken over for me to the extent that I feel that I have said all there is to say, and made everything I'm ever going to make for a while.
But in a good way.
My real life now is a place where I am happy to be.
It's a very busy place.
I have a job where I feel as if I am making a difference. Where I feel valued as an integral part of a team.
Something I'd never experienced in nursing before, and something I never hoped to find there.
I almost gave up on it for good.
Mostly I work 10 hr days and come home exhausted. But it feels right, and I am happy to feel like that.
The other days are filled with gardens, lawns, washing, the Granny's exploits, "Mummy Lunch" once a week with "she who is proficient at separating eggs" - that kind of thing.
And it is a good life.
The grief modifies itself gradually into a way of living with itself.
When I began Magpie Chic I had just lost my brother in a heli-mustering accident, and my plan to save my son by giving him a kidney had just been knocked out of the water.
That was to happen again six months later, but this time for good.
Earlier this year he had a cerebral bleed.
High blood pressure is a common issue associated with long term dialysis.
I have had to accept that I cannot save him.
We just get on with it and he manages beautifully.
I am so proud of him.
"She who is proficient at separating eggs" continues to be proficient at everything and has just bought her first house.
I am so proud of her.
Life goes on. I feel like I am making a difference. I have endless lawns to mow, gardens to do, roses to prune, lavender hedges to cut, but what a beautiful setting in which to do it.
I feel really, really blessed.
The Granny living here has added a whole new dimension to life.
I love the fact that we so often have a house full. Three generations worth.
My kids still want to come home for the Easter Egg hunt.
I have less and less time for making things.
I always have something on the go, but they are all done in stolen moments now, so there is a long time between starting and finishing.
Way too long for gaps between blog posts.
So the time has come to say Goodbye from that point of view.
I've put a little piece of video on below my final sign off, so you can meet the members of the Magpie Chic Cast.
I will post photos of the Granny Studio when it is completed - especially for the Australian Aunties.
But apart from that, we have come full circle Blog Chics.
So it's time to say Goodbye - and thanks for all the fish!
