meh/fug

 

Happy new year!  All in all, I'm feeling very positive about 2015 (best year of my life so far?) and mildly... ambivalent about the prospect of 2016.  That's a better stance than my usual doom-and-gloom outlook of recent years.   I'm prepared to admit 2016 could go either way, but I can't shake off that early-January fugginess and discontent.  I'm not even feeling the vibe of everybody's positive changes (or intentions) like I usually do, something that always spurs me on.  I went low-key with my own resolutions this year (1 - set the table properly for dinner each night, 2 - really try to start eating fish) and am failing in both so far.  Well, I did MAKE healthy salmon burgers last night, I just couldn't bring myself to eat them, or to eat anything else once my nostrils and mind were filled with fishiness.  (I'm assured by the fish-eaters in my household that they were nice, so here's the recipe, should you want to try them.  They were very easy to make.)  Maybe I should have set my goals for the year a little higher so that a partial failure would be closer to a partial success, if you see what I mean.  Failing at such half-hearted resolutions really amounts to nothing.  Well, I guess it's never too late to set new goals for yourself and I do have all the usual ones in mind - eat well, be active, create, sort out my house...  But mojo?  I have none.  I'm sure it will start to return as I wean myself off the booze and crisps that have been my diet for the last month.  I think a lot of my demotivated state of mind is to do with the fact I spent 11 months of last year losing weight (with considerable difficulty) and just 1 month putting nearly all of it back on (with incredible ease).  Meh!  Meh, I say!  (Only because the words "bah" and "humbug" are no longer seasonally appropriate.)

If you're reading this and have set yourself some challenges for the year ahead, do let me know.  I need someone to inspire me to make more of an effort.  Motivate me, people!

christmas number one?

Yowsers, this Christmas run-up has been the craziest I can remember.  I am not feeling organised at all (so much to do, so little time) and have been helping my friend prepare for her short-notice wedding TOMORROW too.  Busy, busy, busy.

I've warned Dulcie that her handmade gift from me will be delivered in January, if she's lucky, but fortunately her dad has managed to make his traditional Christmas single for her.  And here it is!  This year Dulcie discovers disco and it changes her life.  You can hear me singing too...so apologies!  Ha!  I found the singing much easier this year, possibly because I donned the hat and downed the amaretto from the get-go.  And, yes, I do sound inappropriately sexy at points, if I do say so myself...  Sorry, Dulcie!

If you want to hear Dulcie's Christmas tunes from 2013 and 2014 too, you can find them here.  I must get Graham to upload 2012's tune too, which featured Dulcie's alter ego/wrestling persona, Diablo.

Anyway, I'm off to write out place cards for the wedding, try to find something to wear, shave my legs and make a bird feeder for my granny, even though I've missed the last Christmas post dates already.  Thank goodness Dulcie is at her grandparents' tonight.

sunday morning (it is)

disco dulcie

 

Look, I crocheted a dress for Dulcie!  I actually started this two years ago, abandoned it, then rediscovered it and inadvertently decided to finish it.  Fortunately and inexplicably, I was making it way too big back in 2013 so it fits perfectly now.  I had no pattern or guidance of any sort for this dress, having been inspired to create it by the jumper I crocheted for Magnus, Dulcie's toy mouse.  The funny thing is, the jumper I made for the mouse didn't even fit that well, so why I ever imagined it would be as easy as simple scaling up I do not know.  But...it was.  I basically crocheted a big tube with openings for arms and head then added a couple of sleeves.  And it worked.  I have no idea how that happened.  The crochet gods must have been smiling on me, or perhaps it's just that crochet really is fail safe and fool proof.  

Yesterday was the dress's first public outing and we discovered that the rest of the world seems to love it just as much as Dulcie and I do.  So many people threw compliments Dulcie's way.  Hooray!  She looked so happy and colourful boogieing away in Paperchase.  (And how great is it for me that my four-year-old views Paperchase as a fun place to hang out? Super great!)

 As well as being perfect for disco dancing, the dress is equally good for comfy lounging about at home :)

Dulcie says she never wants to wash this dress because she plans to wear it every day, which is truly a ringing endorsement from a wannabe goth who demands she wears only black, and maybe the odd highlight of red.  More on the goth development soon...

'tis the season

 

Happy 1st December!  I'm still alive, just avoiding the computer a bit more and browsing around Pinterest when I do succumb.  That's where I got the idea for this herbal/fruit tea advent wreath that I made for my friend.  I've been doing quite a bit of making and still have a LOOOOOOONG xmas to-make list...and very little time to work on it.  But I love this time of year so much.  Back with pics of our Christmas tree soon.  Yes, it's up already!  First time I've (a) put it up in November and (b) been the first tree on the street.  Chri-i-i-i-i-i-i-istmas!

home for hogmanay #6 and #7

Drowning in Thoughts by Kathrin Honesta, found here.

Thoughts are the only thing I'm likely to drown in at the moment, that or origami stars!  Swimming has not been going so well :(  Last week I was too busy to manage more than one swim (or to do my weekly swim update on the blog) and this week I was busy and not feeling very well and didn't swim at all.

Here are my "stats" from last week and this.

Lengths swum last week: 60
Target total last week: 510

Total lengths swum: 466 (44 behind target)

Lengths swum this week: 0
Target total this week: 595

Total lengths swum: 466 (129 behind target)

As you can see, I'm way behind and, to be honest, just wanting to abandon the pool in favour of halloween/birthday/Christmas crafting, maybe pick it up again in January.  But I'll see what I can do this coming week and decide on a new plan of action then.

we're gonna make you a sta-a-a-ar!

I'm taking it easy this afternoon, reading in the park and learning to fold these origami stars at home, just what I needed after three days of hardcore (slightly soul-destroying) day-jobbing followed by evenings and long nights of Dulcie-settling.  Yawn!  I'm hoping she magically starts to sleep when she turns four.  It'll happen, right?  Anyway...  The origami stars confused me for a while, but eventually I figured out where I was going wrong.  Easy once you know how etc.  I'm going to make a whole load of these for Christmas, I think, and possibly for the wedding of a friend too (it's my just deserts for all the cranes I made everyone fold for my own wedding!) though with nicer paper, obviously.  I might try using some magazine pages etc for my own Christmas ones, then maybe string them into a garland.  Or just hang them on the Christmas tree.  Is anyone else getting excited about Christmas yet?  Anybody?  Anybody?  I'm using impending Christmas-ness to fill the void left by the wedding being over, so am loving the shops being filled with festive goodies when it's not even Halloween yet.  I'm already anxious I don't have enough time to turn all my festive plans into reality :)