Friendly Nettle
Friendly Nettle is a community site for crafters of all sorts offering free project ideas, patterns for knitting, sewing and crocheting.
We have moved!!! Our new website ends with .co.uk instead of .com and to access simply go to www.friendlynettle.co.uk. For now we are keeping this website with projects online, but eventually we will move it all over and this website will be converted so that any existing links to the .com domain automatically redirect to the relevant page on the .co.uk domain.
Thank you for your support, things are getting exciting!!!
Rasa xoxo
Well well well, this has probably been our best kept secret (ok, longest kept secret) for over a year and a half! And the secret was (some of you may have guessed it, or may have been told) that we are opening a cafe here in Shortstown where we live! I am also back to blogging (sort of) as I promised myself back in March that I will have a break from it while I prepare for this venture. I think it’s like having a new baby, nothing can really prepare you for this. As I collected the keys yesterday, I am still overwhelmed with the things we need to get done even before starting the fit out works. There is a lot that needs doing. We are taking this property on as a completely bare shell as you can see from the pictures below. No windows, floor, plumbing, or electrical wiring. Eeek, but I think it will be worth it in the end!
Now for those who are reading this blog for the first time here is where you can read more about us (I updated our About us page just for you). Hope you will find it interesting ;-).
Our plans as you can see here are basic, there is still many things to refine, like what food to serve, what hours to open, how many staff to employ and so much more. I expect I will do quite a few surveys involving those living locally very soon. Fun stuff is coming up ;-). Obviously if you have any suggestions already then please give us a shout!
You may have plenty of questions right now, please do not hesitate to ask! For now I will answer the questions that people (who I told about the cafe already) tend to ask most.
Hope you are as excited as we are :-)
Rasa xoxo
I usually set my new year goals on New Years eve (or even before), but this time I waited… I was worried, because I was still not sure if the new venture is going to work out. What if it did not and then I would need to cross that goal off? I realised the unexpected often happens and even when you think all the goals you set are achievable, sometimes things just don’t work out in the end. I realised the simple truth that goals are there to guide you and keep you focused, not some commandments set in stone. So have you set your goals yet? I hope you are finding your 2019 planner very useful!
I have five goals this year, just like last year! However I can only share three of my goals. My first goal is to do with my new venture; I have been planning all last year, but can’t share it due to the fact it’s not signed off. My fifth goal is too personal to share. Here are the three goals I am sharing:
1. Upgrade Friendly Nettle website goal was on my mind for five years. In fact I just copied this over from last year’s bullet journal! Hopefully this is the year I achieve this.
2. Keep on gardening my goal is a follow up from my last years “Create child friendly garden” goal. I enjoyed gardening in the summer so much that I decided to keep on doing it this year!
3. Find a new personal style this goal is a totally new goal in my books. It’s born due to huge changes in my life (kids and loosing some weight) where my style just did not follow. This is why I thought I need to find a new one ;-).
Hope I am not too late to say Happy New Year again!!!
Rasa xoxo
As I sit here and reflect on the past year, I am actually panicking due to the many tasks I still need to complete. It has been a busy year indeed! I think I need to accept that some of the goals I planned were not achieved. But that’s ok, right? Having set goals does not mean you have to achieve them all, but have them as a guideline to keep you focused. And I definitely felt focused this year. Therefore I decided today to reflect on what I have achieved so I can set new goals for the next year instead. Sounds fair? I think so!
1. This year I have created more art, thanks to my watercolour challenge. Not only has it been lot’s of fun, but also taught me a new few tricks for handwriting and definitely created more wall art that I can hang on our wall. 
2. I really enjoyed the gardening, thanks to my goal to create a child friendly garden. We were very lucky with the green house and very hot summer. Gardening has been the most enjoyable goal so far! I think I will carry on gardening next year as well!! 
3. We have had the most enjoyable holidays. Although we did not plan most of it, the trip to France with friends made my year!
4. I enjoyed more walks this year, discovered our local forest and a new forest school for kids too! We have even started sharing one car to reduce costs and motivate me to do more walking. Hope to walk even more this year as we start doing school runs.
5. Have been more experimental with baking thanks to all the birthday cakes I baked for both of my kids!
6. And finally we have completed our kitchen renovations! Although I thought we would have completed it earlier this year, we took a little longer then expected. We have however have something exciting coming up next year, so bear with us ;-).
Happy New Year everyone!
Rasa xoxo
If you been following my feed on Instagram/Facebook/Twitter you probably heard that we had massive issues with our website all last week, but thankfully we are back. Phew! Hopefully you can continue enjoying it without further disruptions ;-).
It all started with the spring cleaning (or a detox as I would like to call it). We were removing all the unused elements of the website. You know, all those bits that are no longer used or no longer serve their original purpose. Because of new privacy laws in Europe(GDPR) we mostly removed all the member areas such as forum and the profile parts. This is where all went wrong, when updating some plug-ins it broke everything which meant even we could not access the website. Of course it is fixed now which is why I am able to write this post. Yey!
So why did we have a member area on our site to begin with? All because of our dream to build a community site that would be a place to meet and share about crafts of all sorts. Sadly this did not quite work out. Mostly because we are not very good with website building and not crazy rich to pay someone to build it. Instead it became more like a personal blog and I would like to continue doing it as I love love doing it (totally honest here). So here we go, instead of figuring out how to comply with new laws it was much more easier (almost) just to remove these data collecting forms and remove all the members at the same time (about 35K in total).
So if you were signed up then do not worry, we no longer keep your details. You don’t need to take any further steps. Hope this did not disappoint you, I don’t think it should have as all the website content is available to you freely anyways.
Of course there is so much more to fix on this website, but I think this is a good start. Hope you have a lovely week everyone!
Rasa xoxo
Last month I said I would ditch my phone for a month (well… almost) and here we are I did it and now I am back to tell you all about it (if you care to listen). It was indeed what I was expecting, freedom like you could not believe! Even now when I am back using social media I started thinking how to minimalise the use of it (and I am not even back on Facebook properly!!)
I started my little experiment when we were on our do-nothing-all-day-every-day holiday in the Dominican Republic. I removed the most distracting apps from my phone such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest and WhatsApp and instantly I did not know what to do with myself. I still kept checking my phone although there was nothing to browse other than s few text messages that I occasionally get. I started reading more and only after few weeks I realised that I stopped checking my phone so much. I originally wanted to switch my smart phone completely to a basic phone, but I soon realised there is no need and besides there were a few complications around doing that (such as a transfer of contacts from one phone to another). I also really really needed my map app as I would really get lost without it.
As soon as we were back from our holidays I threw myself into preparations for Tomas birthday and DIY projects to make progress with our new kitchen. It was a breath of fresh air not to be distracted by any notifications from my phone. Although there were a few occasions where I needed certain information and I had to go into Facebook messenger just to get the right address or to get a recipe from Pinterest. And there was one time when I misplaced my phone when I was about to leave the house and I knew I needed to keep in contact with Joni that day (so it was quite panicky). But other than that it was a very productive month. 
I was hoping because of my phone free month that I will spend more quality time with my kids, but to be honest I was too busy getting things done (sadly). I did however occasionally involve Lukas in home decorating such as covering ugly plastered wall with this lovely painting (he is still so proud of it when he sees it hanging on the wall!). 
On the final days of the month things got little challenging. Tomas got ill straight after his birthday party, but that does not stop me from saying that February was productive and clear in focus just because I was less distracted by my phone. I started reading my bible and even started thinking more about opening my dream cafe earlier then expected…
However I have one advice to anyone thinking of ditching their phone for a month. Do let everybody know that you are doing this. You would be surprised to know how many people tried to contact me through iMessage or WhatsApp. Even though I posted here about my intensions, this obviously did not reach everybody.
Hope I inspired you and I hope you will enjoy your phone free month if you are going for it some time this year.
Rasa xoxo.
So here is a good idea, how about we ditch our smartphones for a month?! This is what I thought when somebody I follow on Instagram claimed they did it last year. Back then I thought it’s not a good timing to do it, but I was definitely interested in the freedom (I presumed) I would get. So I decided February is best and not only because it is shortest of all months. It’s because February is least eventful I suppose (minus Tomas birthday and Valentine’s Day)! And now I am getting really excited about this idea!!! And here are few good reasons why:
1. Need some time off. Can you imagine how much time I will save if I stop using my phone? Loads! I must admit I am practically living on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest and often flashing notification really distract me from doing the really important stuff. I can’t highlight enough how much time is wasted on media and because I will be stopping the use of media I decided not to blog for a month too. Because let’s admit it, it’s ok to take a break sometimes and get the other stuff done that never really gets done. Why? Because I am doing day to day jobs while still going through Instagram feed and while putting kids to sleep (please don’t judge).
2. Refocus! I am hoping while I am not constantly plugged into media, I may be able to start realising what is more important in my life. Because of screen I have been ignoring my kids sometimes. Sometimes I am so deep into reading an article that I don’t see my own child trying to get my attention. Hopefully I will get inspired not by Pinterest pictures but by images I see outside my phone screen.
3. I need to rest my eyes for a bit. Because let’s be honest, my eyesight is not getting any better. Not that they are getting worst either. What I really mean, I just need rest, a true rest.
Ok, those were my reasons and here are my terms. How else would you know if I am not cheating!
I am actually going to read my texts and answer the phone calls! I am only ditching my smart phone and instead I am going to use one of those basic phones. We got one spare in case one of our phones breaks, so it will be easy to switch.
I will read e-mails once in the while on my laptop. And I might need to switch back to my smart phone when I need directions. I will try memorise google maps as much as I can or print out directions like in good old days.
And that’s it, hope I remembered to mention everything in here.
Do you want to join me? It’s not too late and it does not have to be in February (you can pick a month most convenient to you)! Hope I inspired you ;-)
Rasa xoxo
So here we are, I am starting my very first bullet journal!! As excited as I am you should really know that it took me over a year to actually try out this organisational system. Initially I noticed my friend Jacolien journaling on the Instagram (@made2celebrate) and then I read somewhere that this system lets you do more with less??? This could not fit in my head, how pretty page layouts with beautiful fonts would save me time and make me more organised? This is when my friend Jacolien explained that these layouts are completely optional and bullet journal can be whatever you make of it! So I decided to go with the original Ryder Carroll style (who by the way created this system after all) which is very simplistic indeed. May upgrade it later if my handwriting improves in any way. I will let you know how I got on, but for now here are my goals for this year that is already included in my bullet journal.
I may not set many goals last year, I am expecting quite a lot this year. My bullet journal is pretty full for the next six months which has not happen for few years. For each goal I listed tasks to help me to achieve it, some tasks have the deadline and some have been scheduled into calendar already.
1.Upgrade Friendly Nettle website goal was on my mind for four years. I think this year will be the year when I finally do it. I I will begin in February as this is when I am thinking to take a break from blogging for a month and from then on I will schedule once a week appointment with the website. Hopefully this will do.
2.Get arty, because I forgot how to paint or draw. This is why I decided this year to replace reading books to watercolour painting (the media I like the best). Like with books I will review my artwork here on the blog.
3.Reach healthy BMI as I am seriously overweight. I reached my biggest I have ever beed and I am feeling this is effecting my health too. Luckily loosing weight is not time consuming. All I need to do is reduce my meal portions, don’t stress eat and fast once a month. I think this should do the trick.
4.Make our house beautiful, because we still doing it up. Hopefully this year the cosmetics and decorations are going to be done. I am not actually thinking it’s possible to finish all the house DIY completely. I have already set up some deadlines for some tasks, although this goal I am feeling least confident about sadly.
5.Create child friendly garden has been my dream for a while. I need to be confident that kids can play safety outside as well as growing a small patch of veg on the side. I am thinking to start in March once the preps for Tomas dedication/birthday party prep is over.
So how did I got on with bullet journaling so far? I think quite ok, I understood the system after reading about it on few blogs, but the video that explain it best is on bullet journal website. There are few pros and cons that I can see so far. But what does’t have pros and cons? So far I love that this system requires you to (1) handwrite (kind of con as well), you got to have a love for stationary! I even bought myself a fountain pen that I get so much pleasure out. The bullet journal itself is (2) very easy to set up, all you need is index, future log and a monthly log. From that on you just can start scribbling simple notes that are either to-do lists or ideas. As long as all those notes are attached to the right symbol you are set to go. Besides, you can (3) customise it as much as you like! I started using my BUJO (short for bullet journal) for personal stuff such as tracking my weight loss and recording my body temperature for NFP. So these are my positives.
Things that I am still trying to work out is (1) how to organise events between our family planner and my personal journal. I end up writing the same event twice, to the journal and then to our planner, this is often confusing and sometimes I wish all those notes synchronised somehow! The other issue I have so far is that (2) the bullet journaling is not for perfectionist (at least at the beginning). I already made many mistakes that can’t be erased. I guess I just have to look at it as a journey on improving my hand writing.
Hope you started 2018 well!
Rasa xoxo
2017 is about to be over and as usual I thought I will quickly reflect on it before I get into 2018. And what a year it has been! Tomas birth made it both very very challenging and exciting at the same time. I struggled lots, had lots of back pain, got really overweight, took sleeping pills and was almost considering taking antidepressants at one point. Thankfully it is much better now and I can see how amazing Tomas is becoming. I love his little character that is coming more and more everyday. Now I can finally say “babies gives you wings” like one of the mums I follow on Instagram :-D
Now, did I achieve my 2017 goals? Mostly! Because I did not expect to achieve much this year I only had one goal. This one goal was to organise our family life. I started organising everything in May one room at the time and now I at least know where everything is. You see, we moved into our current house one month before Lukas was born and from then on we were constantly doing DIY’s and then Tomas was born as well. It was crazy two years, so for me to have the house organised is a very very big achievement. What helped me to organise is the planner, storage boxes and the big shelved wall in the spare room (also kids napping ha ha!).
To organise the toys (it seems like our toy collection is expanding all the time!!) I used the idea from loundry basket project. I used 3D fabric paint instead of embroidery because I needed a quick fix. Besides I don’t think fabric boxes will last very long with kids (lol).
Happy New Year everyone!
Rasa xoxo
And finally I have got a moment to introduce to you our new baby Pelham, Tomas. It has been hectic couple of weeks! Not only that I had to get used to looking after two kids but also Lukas got sickness bug last week (bad timing for sure). I been screaming “help” through the roof. And I did receive some help, so thank you for all those who gave advice and came round our house just to hold Tomas so I can do some laundry. Sleepless nights are still on, but strangely I feel fine although a bit depressed sometimes when I count the hours of sleep (better not). Hopefully will come out of the fog very soon and share more stories and stuff here like before.
But less about me, more about Tomas. It is his introduction after all. I am very impressed with the pics I took of him and Lukas, although it was quite a challenge to coordinate them. These are taken when Tomas was just two weeks old (today he is four weeks old and one month at the same time thanks to February being a short month). 
So I been asked a lot of questions about the birth of Tomas and how Lukas is reacting to his new baby brother. Well, I thought I will quickly answer them here.
The birth of Tomas was a quick one, 8 hours in total. 4 hours of hormone drip sadly (I just could not say no to it). He was a big boy, weighing 4.84kg and before you squint let me tell you that it was ok and did not cause any trouble. Lukas was born even bigger (5.34kg), so I guess I have been made to make big babies ;-).
Lukas seem to be interested in Tomas, sometimes strokes him not in the most gentle way. He also gets upset when he hears him cry, but not all the time. So I guess all normal.
Thanks for letting me share and I hope to do it more often (if time allows)
Rasa xx
After reflecting on 2016 I decided to make 2017 goals a bit differently this time. I made only one main goal this year which is to organise our family life. Let’s be honest, I don’t exactly expect to achieve 5-7 goals when we have so much on this year. Even one goal is big enough for me considering we have a little one coming up very soon! So I did count in three months of “cloud phase” (no firm schedule period) after new baby is born.
When it comes to organising I find planner or basic calendar is essential. I did not find a good one to buy so I ended making one myself. Because I wanted lots of space for scheduling I decided to make the calendar weekly. I also included goals page with the to do lists, because I realised that some plans cannot be scheduled even if it is beneficial to schedule. We all know that things change so quickly and you end up just cancelling and scheduling. This is why I made the goal page which can be attached to each week! So all to-dos are planned in the specific week, but not specific time or day. Fingers crossed that works! 
Click here to upload your 2017 planner.
You can either print the page for one week as it comes and attach it on the wall or fridge. Or like me you can print all of it and tie it with the string so it can be hung as a one piece. 
Happy organised 2017 to you all xx
Rasa :)
Can you believe it? Tomorrow we are entering 2017! (I personally feel its going to be the best year ever).
But for now I would like to reflect on 2016. I must admit it was’t the easiest year, but I guess you need those type as well sometimes ;-). Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of good times such as finding out we are expecting a new baby and having own house to DIY. But if you look from the other side (more negative one) it has been very challenging. The house has been chaotic while I am gradually getting less and less energetic due to pregnancy. Having no basic bathroom for few weeks has been very hard to cope with. We went on holidays of course, but then I realised its not the same anymore when we have a baby on board. But then again, it has been a learning process. 
When reviewing my 2016 resolutions I realised that they were a little ambitious. But how do you know whats in store in the future? Things happen completely differently to what you expect sometimes!
1. I was planning to upgrade Friendly Nettle website, but who was I kidding? I was lucky to find some time to blog. Instead I was busy with Lukas helping him to discover food, playing and singing. 
2. I hoped to turn our house into home, but instead we got a chaos. Few projects in one go and doing almost everything by ourselves has never been a good idea. Well at least we got few rooms almost finished such as Lukas bedroom :). 
3. I wanted to learn to take better pictures and thankfully I did have some luck with it! I used up a lot of Lukas nap times practicing with the camera which has been very useful. Now when I take pictures I often apply the tricks I learned. 
4. I hoped to teach Lukas to swim, but yet again I failed here. Have you ever tried to go swimming pool alone when you need to get the baby and yourself dressed in a tiny dressing room? After many tries I realised we missed the window when swimming should come natural to the babies. Lukas is a toddler now! 
5. We said we would grow cucumbers as a joke, clearly this is not the most important goal :D. However, this was successful, look at those funny shape cucumbers!
So of course I am looking forward to tomorrow (as I am certainly not staying up till midnight tonight), 2017 I am ready :).
Rasa xoxo
I have been wanting to announce our news for quite a while now but we have had few challenging weeks which is why I did not find any good time to sit down and blog (and I must admit I am not the most creative on making such announcements anyways). So the announcement is….Lukas is going to have a brother!!!! :). Yey! And he is due in February, so kind of very very soon!
After our holiday in Center Parcs we were ill, started bathroom renovations, Lukas got sick while we were stuck with only one sink in the house and no bath tub. Thankfully things got better and I also found some time to perfect my photography skills! There was definitely a breakthrough when I learned about the white balance, because I had so many frustrations in the past when the camera just selects the temperature of the pic automatically. I spend hours (if not weeks if you put all the time together that I wasted) correcting the colouring of pics on Photoshop, when I could be taking perfect pictures on my camera!
So, what is this fuss about the white balance in photography? White balance is essentially a colour balance in the picture. You see, light has colour (or a temperature if you prefer) and anything to do with light transfers into pictures as well. Have you ever noticed some pictures come out blueish/greyish and some yellowish/reddish? You can often notice if the pic was taken in cloudy morning or sunny afternoon. Of course that can be corrected (thank goodness!!!) and often camera does in automatically. However it does not come out correctly all the time (you will see here). Sometimes its good to know you can change the settings.
I found my white balance settings are right there under one button (so that is quite convenient). You can select exact number for the temperature but I just decided to try out preset options. These include daylight, shade, cloudy, Tungsten light (good for indoor lighting) and different Fluorescent lights. I decided to try them all out on one sunny day in the shade.
The picture above and bellow have been taken with auto WB mode. Pretty good, right? I have not edited them or used any filter.
In the picture bellow I have used shade mode. It looks much warmer then the auto mode which I prefer.
From all the pictures I have taken I think auto mode looked most similar to cloudy mode. Interesting!
Here I tried different scenario, I was taking some pics of Lukas in auto mode.
And here is in shade mode (pic bellow) that I thought is too yellow.
I think camera did a good job selecting the colour balance that is close to the pic bellow that have been taken in daylight mode. 
And here is for fun. I have taken a pic in Tungsten light mode. Its amazing how much blue you need to balance out an indoor lighting!
To check it out how would Tungsten light mode work I took few pics indoors in the evening with our room lighting. I usually avoid doing this because you get a very yellowy look. I took this first pic in auto mode.
And here it is with Tungsten light mode. Not bad! Maybe I should start taking pictures in the evenings to save time (only joking!).
Hope you found this inspiring!
Rasa xx
It’s almost 2016 and I am very excited to share my reflections on 2015 ;-). What a year it has been! In the beginning of 2015 I have created 7 new year resolutions that most have been achieved and on top of it some dreams came through that I did not imagine it would happen so soon.
Two major things have happened this year: we now are a family of three (Yes, Lukas is our new addition!) and we bought our first family house. Ok, we hoped for both to happen, but we were not sure if it would happen so we are really really happy that it did. We just need to fix that house and it will be totally great(something for the next year)!
We also had an opportunity to visit Iceland which was my dream for many years. It exceeded my expectations!
Now, back to 2015 resolutions…
1. I hoped to upgrade Friendly Nettle website. I will be honest I fail on this! I have not changed one bit about the website or learned coding. Sadly just did not find the time (hopefully in 2016 I will be able to achieve it). On the positive note I did manage to successfully run a crafty group here in Bedford! Live in Bedford? Then join us here ;-).
2. I am really pleased to say that I did create amazing new products and bakes for a new website this year! I just need to keep it coming somehow… Here it is!
3. Updating budgets comes naturally to me. I mentioned already I really like keeping our finances organised. All I need to do now is to update it again as our needs keep changing all the time (we now need to save for house upgrades and Lukas future). Here are my 5 steps to basic budgeting if this is something you are struggling with.
4. I totally nailed it and read more books this year! In fact this goal was the most enjoyable :-). In the beginning of this year I preselected 6 books to read and guess what, I finished reading all of them!
5. When it comes to taking better pics, I did not do much about it! I did not even manage to read the manual of my camera :(.
6. In the beginning of this year I did eat healthier and I think I would have carried that on if I did not become pregnant. The fact that it almost did not matter how much weight I would gain loosened up my standards a bit (if you know what I mean!).
7. Swimming is what became my fun sport (it was practically the only sport I could do)! Now I am onto teaching Lukas how to swim ;-).
Now when I had some time to reflect on 2015 I can welcome 2016 :-)
Rasa xoxo
I have been a bit silent in October. That’s because we were patiently waiting for our baby to come!
Now when the wait is over, let me introduce you to our son Lukas Futvoye Pelham :). We are so happy (and a little bit tired of course)!! 
Lukas turned out to be a big boy. To our surprise he weighed 5.34kg (11lb 12.5oz)!!! No wonder he did not fit the hat and socks I knitted for him. Anyone fancy these? Let me know and I will send it to you instead of giving them to the charity ;-). 
In terms of house renovations we decided to sort our bedroom out first. Our friend from church is finishing painting it as we speak.
It would all be good, but we came across some nicotine stains which are harder to disguise than you think! So far we tried few white paint coats and a stain block (we have high hopes for it!!). Hopefully this is the end to this problem.
Happy Autumn!
Rasa xoxo
