Welcome to Aunty Trace!

Hi All! Welcome to my blog!

This whole project is possibly one of the most exciting and most terrifying things I have ever decided to do. I don’t often open up about my battle with depression and anxiety; despite the amazing awareness and understanding that I have seen spreading throughout the world, there is still a big part of me that shies away from admitting what I go through for fear of being judged wrongly.  For the past 15 years – at least – I have worked tirelessly in trying to find a way to quiet the buzz in my head.

Craft for me is my safe place.  Getting lost amongst wool and embroidery cottons and hooks and material and books and patterns….aaaalllllll the patterns…. is how I unwind after a long day, lower my blood pressure, find a little inner peace and heal.  If someone said to me “describe your happy place” it would be in a ball pit, except that instead of those little plastic balls it would be full of balls of yarn and just like Uncle Scrooge swimming in his room of gold coins, I would dive on in and then make a wool angel once I resurfaced! It’s second nature to me to pick up some sort of craft work in my spare time – it’s almost akin to breathing, I always have at least a million different projects on the go at any one time and my hands don’t like to be idle!

It wasn’t until I was introduced to the idea of mindfulness a few years ago that I realised that I was in that state of “being in the moment” when I was creating.  I was calm, peaceful, relaxed and focused. It was effortless and I didn’t need to be mindful of being mindful, if you understand what I mean!  I now turn to my craft work not only because I love it so much, but also because it has now become what I refer to as my sanity.  I think anyone is capable of also finding that inner peace through craft work no matter what level they are at – even if they have never before given it a go.

I know that sometimes even just the idea of craft can be overwhelming – I hear a lot of comments such as “you must have so much patience!” and “oh I could never do that!”   In all honesty I believe anyone can.  My hope is that by passing on my knowledge through blogs and eventually video tutorials that I can help people get a start.  Once you do start, believe me – you won’t be able to stop!

So…welcome to Aunty Trace!  I really hope that this page will be a place where it’s safe and like a big warm Aunty hug, where you can share and learn and receive encouragement and support.  Somewhere you can bring your anxiety and blues and quiet the buzz in your head with some giggles, a few new craft tricks to help with mindfulness and a big injection of enthusiasm and purpose.  And contact…because when your head is so busy trying to destroy you, you just feel so utterly alone. I’ve come so far through the help of creativity and I want you all to see it’s possible for you too, that there is light at the end of that tunnel, even when it feels like you’ll never see sunlight again. And it can be done in such a simple way, without effort.  Sometimes it takes so much energy to just to be, just to get through a day, that in order to unwind it needs to take as little effort as possible. Give craft a go – what have you got to lose?

I can’t wait to see where this takes us!

Keep crafting,

Aunty Trace xoxox