Not New Year's Resolutions

I'm not a very organized or ambitious person, and I tend to meander a bit aimlessly through life, going wherever the current takes me, and mostly I'm OK with this. Life has taken me in some really interesting directions over the years. But I got to the end of 2016 and realized that I didn't have much to show for the year. I certainly went to some amazing places, for which I am grateful, but I didn't feel very stretched as a human being.

Partly this was because of pain, fatigue, and depression, but also, as Evie kindly but firmly pointed out to me, I just make excuses. I'm very good at finding reasons why I need that extra slice of cake, why I can't go outside for a short walk, why I have to sit on the couch and play Skyrim instead of [insert activity here]. There are always lots of things I want to do, but inertia is like the gravitational pull of a very large planet, and I end up mentally kicking myself because I've let another period of time elapse and haven't done the things I want to. And it's not just hard things, or virtuous things, like cutting out sugar, or exercising more, or drinking more water that I fail to do - it's fun stuff like baking and knitting and gardening. Time just slips through my fingers without me noticing.

So, instead of making a New Year's resolution, I've made a list of goals for the year. Not things that I HAVE to do - things that I WANT to do.

And. so I have a bit of accountability, I'm posting them here. One of my goals is to post 12 times in 2017. I haven't even said once a month - I might post 12 times in January (but probably not). Hopefully this will give me the best chance of actually getting them done, since I'll have a structure, but won't be putting so much pressure on myself I chicken out. I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't accomplish everything either - at least I'm making an effort.

So, in no particular order (except that I thought of them in this order) here are the 12 goals I have for 2017.

Wendy’s 12 Goals for 2017

1.     Increase the size of the garden – buy and install another 8x4 raised bed.

2.     Build up my strength so I can walk 5 miles in one go.

3.     Try 12 new recipes – and make 12 favourite recipes.

4.     Repaint one room in the house.

5.     Read 12 of my books on medieval mystics.

6.     Send 12 handwritten letters to 12 friends.

7.     Do one thing I’m afraid of.

8.     Make and attend all necessary medical/dental appointments.

9.     Post on my blog 12 times.

10.  Start and finish one knitting project using a new technique.

11.  Finish one of my half-done projects.

12.  Try out one of the crafts I’m interested in that I’ve never done before. 

Hello 2017.

Wendy

Where Did the Last Eight Months Go? And Other Pressing Questions

OK, slightly embarrassed about the gap since my last post. I'll blame it on busyness, some major knitting fails, and generally lack of gumption on my part.

So, not much knitting done since November last year. I did manage to get all my Christmas knitting done in time to hand it all out at Thanksgiving when I was in California.

The fuzzy neck-warmers for the girls were a big hit - as belts (they were very stretchy). I love the way kids repurpose things. I didn't mind, as long as they enjoyed them. The one with the pink button was Madie's and the orange was for Ally. Cedric (blue) and Lauren (grey) tried on their mustachioed neck-warmers and were adorable, although sadly I forgot to get pictures of any of them. I need to start wearing my camera around my neck so I don't forget it's there.  Anyway, everyone seemed to like their gifts.

Since then, I got all the pieces of Evie's coat knitted in January but when I came to sew it up none of them seemed to match each other. I'm afraid I stuffed the whole thing into a bag and then into the closet until I can steel myself to rip out the sleeves and reknit them.

But that's not the worst. I had a Citron shawl, in the lovely pink/white/green Zauberball wool I bought with my birthday money last year, about 3/4 done, and I left it on a train in Egypt. I wonder what whoever found it made of it - probably shrugged and threw it out the window. Tragedy!  At the Cairo airport on the way home I started a pair of soft red socks for David, to help console me for my loss - by the time I had turned the heel I realized I wasn't going to have enough of the first ball to finish the foot - so it has been languishing until I have the nerve to rip it out and start again.

In the meantime, since the weather has improved, I've started doing some things around the house. Firstly I've been getting things organized. When we moved we dumped all the boxes into the basement and slowly unpacked and put things away. However, we still have about 30 boxes full of mostly books and magazines to put away, and not enough bookcases to put them into. Over the past few months, every time we've needed a book that hadn't been unpacked yet we'd have to rummage through the boxes in the basement to try and find it so after a while we had books stacked (and sometimes not stacked) all over the floor and every flat surface. A couple of weeks ago I took a Sunday afternoon and tried to restore some order down there.  I've also been organizing my workroom - I love that we have a house big enough for each of us to have a home office/workroom, as well as a spare bedroom. If you come to visit us there will be no more sleeping on a mattress on the living room floor.

One of the benefits of clearing up the basement was finding things like framed pictures which had been packed with the books. I've finally managed to get some of them up on the walls and it makes things feel much more homey.  I decided I wanted to have all my St George's (I collect pictures of St George, weird I know) in the same color frames - previously they were in whatever frames I had to hand or could buy cheaply, so I have spraypainted most of them glossy black so they have a more unified look. I just have to decide where to put them now.

The ones on the right are postcards I've picked up here and there, the one on the left is a poster (about 18x24) I got at the Vatican Museum in Rome. I'm particularly fond of that one. I still have four or five postcards to get framed and once they are all up I'll get a picture of them together.

I've been doing a lot of shopping at the local thrift stores. I love them, although I do miss the atmosphere of the charity shops in England, with their little old lady volunteers, and the eclectic mix of shiny new stuff in the window graduating to the really weird old stuff at the very back.  I have bought several lamps for very good prices, since very few rooms in our new house have overhead lighting - it seems to be the trend in decorating at the moment. One lamp only needed a new shade, a couple of them needed some cosmetic work.  This one was an ugly mottled grey pewterish color, so I gave it a coat of Rustoleum's Heirloom White (the darling of DIYers on the web) and then, inspired by a lamp I saw on someone's blog (sorry I can't remember which one) I cut strips of a cheesecloth like fabric I had in my stash and laid them over the shade, tying it all together with a long strip. I like the way it's turned out (very shabby-chic) and have it on my nightstand now.

I got this little footstool at one of the thrift stores to use in the kitchen. It should be against the law for anyone over 6 feet tall to design kitchens meant for people 5'5" tall. I was going to paint it but after I'd sanded it I really liked the way it looked so I've just set it in the kitchen as it is. I'll probably paint it eventually but at the moment I'll give it a coat of something, polyurethane or finishing wax just to protect it and enjoy its rustic charm.

I've got all sorts of plans for decorating and refinishing furniture over the next few months so I'll try and keep the blog updated with my progress.  I've been stalking craft/decor/thrifting blogs over the last couple of months and they are incredibly inspirational.

The Universe is Laughing at Me

After having blithely declared I would post every day this month, our internet connection promptly quit on us.

However, we are now ensconced in a Comfort Inn in Maryland (with free wireless) to spend a week in meetings and looking at houses so I'll be blogging about snow and house-hunting for a few days.

Now, I'm off to church, for the first time in over a year. Woohoo!

Fecund February

Fecund: Adjective: Producing or capable of producing an abundance of offspring or new growth; fertile. 


I've decided that to kick-start my blogging I'm going to post every day for a month.  As February is the next month, and is fortuitously also the shortest, I'm going to start tomorrow (well actually today, but you know what I mean).

A lot's been going on the past few months, but it has mostly involved boring, routine stuff.  My creative juices have been dry (or frozen, it's been so cold) - I haven't even been knitting much.  I'm hoping that by forcing myself to write something every day some of that creativity will start flowing, like the sap rising in spring (hence the title).