OTWO 01 OTWO-01 | Page 24

EVERYDAY IS ANOTHER CHANCE TO MAKE YOUR DREAM COME TRUE CADA DÍA NACE UNA OPORTUNIDAD PARA HACER REALIDAD TU SUEÑO Helen Fernandez The above phrase is on the cover of the book I use to record my soap recipes. But it well describes how you can make everyday count doing things that really make a difference in your life. You dream about doing something and then you keep trying ‘till you get what you want. Brian Kendall, from a little village in Wiltshire, an old friend, now gone, used to do beautiful paintings of flowers and ballerinas and ornaments made out of wrought iron. He made us this painting of a bunch of flowers picked from his own garden. My hubby admiring such skillful work, told Brian that he would never be able to do anything like his works of art. “Have you ever tried? Then, how do you know it?” Brian replied with a wink and a nudge. That was so true. No, my husband never got to do any artistic works of art, but he has tried different skills since and has become a very good carpenter, plumber, a so-so electrician…an overall excellent handyman to have around the house. I loved to sit next to my granny Lucy watching her crochet. She would follow no pattern, she had all kinds of different stitches and patterns in her head. The hook swiftly responding to her agile wrist as if it was her sixth finger, twisting and twining the fine white thread into a lovely mesh. She was also able to transform her yarn into wonderful, imaginative and useful objects, like a toothbrush holder in the form of a dress with little front pockets and a toilet roll holder in the form of a top hat, with trims and ribbons to match the colour scheme of your own ba- throom. She would ask me if I wanted to try, but I never thought I could do it. “Go on, try doing a chain, it is easy, just follow what I do”, she would say, but I still thought I couldn’t …because I never tried…I just watched. But I really wanted to do it, and now, decades later, I wish she could see all the things I have crocheted. Although none are as perfect as hers, I think she would be proud of my work. Brian Kendall and Granny Lucy lived in a world where people would make their own things instead of buying them readymade. They may have been impressed in their later years by the increasing articles constantly comercialised as necessi- ties. But they had developed skills some of us nowadays only dream of acquiring. However, unless we try we won’t know whether we can do them or not. I never thought I could crochet, bake my own bread or make my own soaps, creams and beauty products. Now I have my own little space which I call my Crafts Work Shop where “every day is another chance to make my dream come true” .  How  about you? 22 The little corner where my dreams come true. El rinconcito donde mis sueños se hacen reali- dad. OTWO 01 / AUGUST 2019