May 2025: What May Have Been, Mostly Probably Won't...

Remember how I said in April’s update that it felt like 2025 was trying REALLY, REALLY HARD to beat 2024 for rubbish things happening? Well, spoiler alert, May was that month!

I want to caveat this update by saying I am never this grumpy and down in the dumps. I have always been the ‘glass half full’ mentality, being the person people come to when they need picking up with buckets of positivity before going joyfully on their way.

I walk down the street and people smile at me.. I am a happy person, with a happy disposition. But that happy demeanor did leave me quite a bit this month. Let me share with you why…

Disclaimer: This is a personal blog entry and you will not learn anything from reading this other than my thoughts and feelings, which will help you to know me better! 🙂

It Started So Well…

The beginning of May was a winning week. I started off by cutting out and sewing a new top for myself, using the Linn Tee pattern which I’d bought to support another designer. They needed a cash injection due to the tariffs in the USA increasing the costs of a fabric shipment that was due to arrive.

If you read this post about how I don’t use Ai you’ll be aware that I am in no financial position to buy more than a downloadable pattern, but that I did happily, and decided I would actually make it up in a fabric I’d had stashed since last summer.

The fabric was a drapey rayon crepe with stripes and I cut the pattern a touch longer than the design was as my tummy is large right now and I wanted more coverage for it.

Lots of Art Practice

I somehow managed to draw in my sketchbooks quite a bit too, in most part because of an Illustration Patreon I am in which turned 5 years old in May, so there was a big weekend of drawing sessions as a celebration! Here are some of the drawings I did…

Some timed drawings of cats – these all took between 3 and 10 minutes to do.

Loved drawing elephants with mixed media — Loved drawing these elephants with mixed media though I wasn’t brave enough to put the baby elephant in – I was worried about messing it up!

I attemped an abstract 'painting' using my previously unused gelli plate. It was fun, but I struggled to be patient and let the layers dry! — I attempted an abstract ‘painting’ using my previously unused gelli plate. It was fun, but I struggled to be patient and let the layers dry! But how glorious are those textures?

I also like to draw people with color pencils when out and about!

Traveling to The UK

I was so excited to be heading home to see my family in May. I hadn’t been back since early January (which I wrote about in this update) and that was in part because of the costs involved but also David’s teaching schedule – the academic year here is so different to what we’re used to in the UK, and the workload and stress he has means I like to be around to support where I can.

By May though, I was desperate to meet my great-niece who I had made this newborn baby onesie for (adorable pattern is available here) and by the time I did meet her she was already 3.5 months old!

Meeting my baby great niece for the first time! And yes, you will only ever see the back of head!

It was such a joy to spend time with her and her mum who is doing a wonderful job as a first time mum. I am so proud of her, and I know her Nanny (my Mum) would be too.

But The I Got Ill Again…

I had been ill in April with suspected c-virus which had wiped me out, so I thought there was little chance of me getting ill in May.. but the morning after I arrived in the UK to spend time with family, I was struck down again.

Somehow my Dad did not catch it (he’s up to date on all his jabs) and the way I felt was very similar to the first time I had c-virus in April 2023, so I now think I had that in May and what I had in April was probably the flu.

Being ill meant that I didn’t see anyone or do anything that I planned to do while back home. I slept, I took endless meds, and I chatted with my dad during the day. It was only the final night in the UK that I felt well enough to see my younger brother and his kids for an hour.

I did manage to make some homemade bread using this recipe for my Dad though, and used the heat from the sun to help prove the dough!

Bread making in the sun — When there’s no direct sun indoors, I use the space available in my Dad’s garden to get my bread dough proved!

The Big Crash…

On my list of work things to get done was video editing. I had spent six days at the beginning of the month recording a new pattern drafting course which was supposed to be available by the beginning of June.

I also had masses of video content from a big project I completed in 2024 that needed editing ready for YouTube.

And then there was videos I’d made in April and early May for YouTube, including the DIY blind for my sewing room (below) and the double circle skirt in linen.

My plans for all of the editing went tits up when my external hard drive crashed to the floor on my train to Amsterdam. It was fine and dandy, working well. But as I removed it from the laptop, the train lurched suddenly and the hard drive fell to the floor. Chances of it happening? Probably quite unlikely. But it got me this trip.

You might wonder why was I travelling with an external hard drive… I often do. Video footage and photos are bigger in size than ever before, and my laptop just doesn’t have that kind of storage space. And with all the Ai shenanigans, I’ve been very loathe to keep everything ‘backed up’ on the ‘cloud’, as I honestly do not believe any of the big tech companies when they say they won’t use it to train their Ai… they’ve used everything I have written and photographed on this website to train their ‘models’ after all, so why would I trust them with my video content?

Everything I needed to ‘do’ the work, was on that external hard disk. I did plug it in once when seated at Amsterdam Centraal waiting for my Eurostar train. I figured it was a safer space with no chance of sudden movements but my laptop would not recognize it.

Waiting outside Amsterdam Centraal in the sun for my Eurostar train gate to 'open'! — Waiting outside Amsterdam Centraal in the sun for my Eurostar train gate to ‘open’!

As of today there are many, many, many, MANY hours of work from 2023 to 2025 potentially gone forever… And I do not have the time or the funds to recreate 90% of what I worked on and lost.

The other 10% of what I had worked on and lost, I can recreate in June. It means a delay in selling two products I had planned, but it’s only a delay, so not catastrophic.

Then there are the personal memories. Photos and videos backed up over the years from various phones and cameras. Nieces and nephews when they were little. All the trips D and I took so far in our 11 years together.. photos over the years of my Ma, Pa and brothers…

And then photos for every blog post on my website, and more to spare. I can recreate those if I need to in the future..

It’s not all lost – I have a friend with a family member specialised in data recovery who has offered their help, its just that it may take quite some time. I’m ok with that.. slow and steady often wins the race after all.

But for now, my trip back home – desperately needed and yet not at all what I’d planned – was great for forcing me to stop and get some rest. And I even managed to catch a sight of my cheekbones again! Win!

Eve in a thrifted tweed blazer — Ending the month traveling back to the Netherlands in a thrifted tweed blazer

Phew.. what a month! I have lots of plans for June – let’s hope that those work out! And I’ll report back at the end of the month with an update. Imagine, we’ll be half way through the year already by then, how bonkers is that?

As always, thank you for being here and reading this far! I appreciate you, and send big digital hugs your way!

With love,

Eve