I just wanted to thank you for popping by even though I’ve gone awol here. I’m slipping in and out of Facebook while I’m sorting out my life. It’s been one thing after another, but right now, it’s as good as the sunshine we’re having. I’m hoping things will settle down soon.
Right now I’m trying to stay focused on things I need to get done offline, but I’m still reading your blogs to keep me sane! Do pop by over to Facebook in the meantime if it takes your fancy, and like if y’like! 🙂 I’ve decided I’ll be sharing stuff that tickles me or makes me think over there, while I’m having a quieter spell here.
I’m finding that the warmer weather, and the to-ing and fro-ing around here right now, is well suited to plenty of tasty toasties 😉 There’s no better way to keep some creativity going in my life, than incorporating it into a quick bite to keep me going! I’ve also stolen some moments to knit, and finished my projects, which I want to blog about soon. What do you do to balance things when things get a bit hectic?
Sending you lots of sparkly, bubbly sunshine for the week ahead! xx
OK. If you have not thought of what to do this weekend, here’s a suggestion. How about making some music. This Incredibox webby app is great. You can’t beat box? Well, let me introduce to you some dudes that can:
Screenshot of my dudes: click through to groove to my composition!
It’s really fun, I was hooked. And if you are really proud of yourself, you can pay €0.69 to download your masterpiece. Here’s mine.
It’s been somewhat overwhelming, reading everyone else’s inspiring posts stuffed with new projects and progress planned for 2013. You all seem to have been ahead of the game, either pre-scheduling posts or mapping out the year to come well in advance. I expected a lull for at least a few days, but it turned out that many bloggers took one day off and were back online on Boxing Day with feature length posts or some even putting up multiple offerings! I decided to sit back lazily, give myself some days off over the Christmas-New Year period and just enjoy all your hard work. Well someone’s got to do it! 😉
I’ve maximised my absorption period by pinning all the ideas and images that inspired me and fumbling around on Facebook (your feedback would be most appreciated!). I’ve also been organising my life a little around the home (which I hope to share) and I’ve been eating and taking photographs of my exploits in the kitchen (which I also hope to share). I have been thoroughly enjoying the downtime and am making plans to resume my knitting as well, before the winter is over!
The end of 2012 was one of thanksgiving for me. I underwent a routine medical procedure following which I was advised, among other things, not to partake in any housework. With this instruction, needless to say, I gladly complied – thank you for your encouragement 😉 On New Year’s Eve, I was the grateful recipient of a generally positive verdict on my health. I cannot honestly say that I have used every God-given moment of 2012 to its full potential, and with a new lease of life I hope to improve on that in 2013! So without further ado, let me throw out some goals I have for the year ahead:
to live by the intention of this blog: be grateful in good times and bad.
to get my home, schedule and responsibilities in good order.
to get more creative with yarn, thread, pen, camera and food.
to give more thought and time to offline, tangible investments in my relationships.
to get into pilates. (This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a while, any tips welcome!)
Thank you for being my encouragers through the life of this blog in 2012. I am truly grateful and feel so inspired by all the hopes and seriouslyambitious goals you have shared for 2013. I’m so privileged to have your support to carry onwards and upwards with this is lemonade. Who knows what adventures and challenges this year will bring? I wish you the very best, much strength and great courage to take this year in both hands and to live it to the full! Happy New Year 🙂
Just a little photo of my 97% completed scarf #2. The colour has greyed out a little in the lighting at home.
I’ve hurt my shoulder and have been forbidden to knit until I’ve completely recovered. I need some time to decide how to finish off the ends of the scarf anyway, so I’m not complaining. I don’t like tassels too much and I’m not sure about pompoms. I’ve used a simple moss stitch along the entire scarf and it’s knitted in felted tweed, so a nice chunky wool. I’m thinking more along the lines of some sort of lacey crocheted edging. Any ideas?
It was a bit of a rubbish week last week. Although I managed to finish my first scarf by Friday and am now wearing it. I ran out of wool to make the length I wanted for a scarf… but the wool is out of stock, so instead, I sewed it up and made a cowl 🙂
I guess I have to learn to do that more often. Be prepared to change course more readily. Take action to make things better even when they don’t turn out the way I would have hoped.
It’s all been coming to a head recently. Somehow things are a bit more intense and rubbish than usual. Although, let me get one thing straight right now… I’d not swap being me, for anything else. Some days I don’t even have the energy to feel depressed. But those moments bring me through to a clarity afterwards that I have to pounce on and get creative with!
I’ve been feeding off some of your incredible posts lately, and they are helping me to get some of my thoughts in order. Here’s a couple I found inspiring at just the right time – and by inspiring, I mean, they challenged me personally and helped me to take a step back and a deep breath:
Be happy in the moment, this moment is your life. The title says it all. I’m not going to get all self-help and “hippie” (quoting Sarah) on you here. I was simply reminded that now is my life. Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Right now. And I have to do something with now, or it’s going to leave me.
Morning walk on the Detmold countryside. Wendy took me on a beautiful walk through her lovely photos. It’s the kind of walk that I relish and haven’t been on for a while. She shared some of her own thoughts on life at this point in time. She ends with “Carry on…” Enough said. Life never stops, you’re either going backwards or forwards. Sometimes it’s the former, sometimes the latter… either way, we carry on for as long as we have the strength to.
Apple, by Addia
And. I have been meaning to feature this photo for some time now. It’s by the lovely Addia who was so sweet as to send me the original and allow me to feature it here. I feel happy every time I look at it. I just love the intense colour of the apple. But it’s so exposed, vulnerable, all open and half-eaten. I guess its fragility and intensity against the gritty grey surface that it is lying on is what makes it so beautiful for me.
I feel so alive when I see something so beautiful.
So here we go again, I’m rooting for you to go out there and keep on keeping on too! Have a good week.
Thank you everyone, for being so enthusiastic about the award nominations thus far. It certainly has been fun writing these posts. It has also helped me to get back into the swing of things, especially since the past few weeks have been exhausting and not all that pleasant. I’ve definitely been feeling very under the yucky weather.
Having already taken a couple of days sick leave at the beginning of the week, I sat up in bed one morning towards the end of last week, and was almost knocked backwards with a horrible dizziness and nausea. Thinking that I was perhaps very hungry, I dragged myself woozily downstairs to make some breakfast and tried to eat it. Half-way through my muesli and not feeling any better, I tried to put my head on the table. That usually works on dizziness right? Nope. I felt so ill, and yet the nausea was not the kind to make me want to throw up. It was horrible. I lugged my body back upstairs and crawled back into bed. I stayed there for another age and finally got up gradually around four in the afternoon. Actually, this time of year, I think we call that evening over here.
I hear that my symptoms were down to a bug that’s going round. I haven’t apparently been the only one to be KO’d by this monster. It took me days to get over the feeling of dizziness. I didn’t dare drive or anything. Hopefully that bug’s defeated for the winter. Hope those of you falling towards winter out there are wrapping up warm and are not inhaling germs from people who indiscriminately sneeze into others’ faces. Ugh. So inconsiderate. And disgusting. Please icky people on the Underground, smother your germs.
Aaanyway public health announcement over and, without further ado, let’s get onto the final award. The first three nominations posts are here, here and here. And the first ever, almost five months ago, is here. So feel free to check these out too for some great weekend reading, if you haven’t already done so!
The supremely creative Matt Gajdoš of Mister G Kids, in his nomination spree, put me forward for the Kreativ Blogger award which I graciously accept with thanks. More about his blog here and here! And in the spirit of all things creative, here are my three nominations:
All About Ami – Stephanie is about as sweet as her delightfully cute amigurumi creations. If you love crocheted things, you will love this site. And there will be a long awaited first addition to the family this month, how exciting!
How About Orange – Jessica, a graphic and textile designer, has a bright and fresh blog featuring craft projects, lots of inspiration for people who like to create and not a little bit of orange.
ziggyshortcrust – Last but definitively not least, the blog of my first blog friend ever. Ziggy is a friend of elves for a start, but there is so much more to discover than first meets the eye. For a start, she elfed my imaginary daughter for me. Just check this out to see what I’m talking about for yourself.
Thank you to everyone for taking your time to read and comment and like. Welcome to friends old and new! I do really appreciate your being here. Have a restful weekend.
Many apologies. I have been really busy so my thanks for playing along with my frivolous photo project. I will reveal all the subjects in a post soon but let’s have another one in the meantime.
It’s been fun reading your suggestions. I think this one is easier…but then, does it make it more difficult to be creative?
this is lemonade 