Sunday 10 January 2016

Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.

It's important when blogging to be really clear what your subject area is and to stick to this. Don't be jumping all over the place. Keep your focus.

With that in mind as a person who set up her blog to talk about things that I've made sewn, knitted or crocheted, today I'm going to talk about books.

Sewing books?

Nope.

Anyway I was browsing some old stuff and came across a challenge I took part in from back in 2008 to read 50 books in a year. The second time I managed 65 books but I've come no where close to this since (I tried twice after that, one I only got to four though I suspect that was because I lost interest in documenting it rather than I stopped reading).

Fair enough at that point I was a student but I was a student nurse. If I wasn't on placement I was working bank shifts or studying so I wouldn't have had more spare time than I do now. The biggest change is I've started filling my spare time with handicrafts. This got me to thinking that although I love these hobbies I miss being bookish.

So I'm taking another shot at it but in a slightly more realistic form for me. I'm scaling it down to 25 books in a year. Now as I say that it saddens me that this is all the feels realistic to me but better that than nothing and hell sometimes life happens.

So the rules still stand: the criteria is that it has to be any book that I finished in 2016, so if I start it this year but don't finish it then it won't count. On the other hand, if I started it in 2015 and finish it this year then it counts. 

Join in if you'd like. Let me know what you're reading and if we're reading the same thing I'd love to know what you think. 

Saturday 2 January 2016

Happy New Year

Hope your New Years Eve was full of friends and family and fun. I was the designated driver so woke up with a relatively clear head. I write this now in a quiet house as my parents have just left from staying with us for New Years and the fella is at the football.

Last year one of my resolutions had been to start a blog which I have and although at times there have been extended gaps I have continued it. I said last year that I had not been going at it long enough to be able to do a review. I think this year I have much more to show in terms of what I've made so I think my next post will be a review of hits and misses.

This post however I want to focus in a wider sense on resolutions for the year and what I'd like the year to be. I've come across the idea of reducing this down to a word which I think a good idea if not a little tricky to try an encompass all the things I want to look at in one word.

So I've been deliberately vague and gone with Change. Of course I realise that all resolutions when you boil them down are just the intention to change but this is what felt most appropriate to me.

I realised that last year sped by and that this was mostly as there were great chunks of time where I was just trying to drag myself through to some future point. My most common thought was 'Just got to get through today, that's all you've got to do. Get through today'. Now I realise that makes it sound like I've been quite depressed but I assure you I haven't. I do however need to have a good think about my situation and what it is that causes me to feel like this.

Of course to quote Captain Sparrow 'The problem is not the problem; the problem is your attitude about the problem.' At this time however I think some of the obstacles are too great for a positive mental attitude alone to overcome.  

So what to change? A few plans are already in motion and the irrational part of my brain can't talk about them until they're more substantial in case too much scrutiny causes them to disappear like spooked deer.

So these are the areas I'm looking to change.


    • Change the way I manage my time. If procrastination is the thief of time then I am in for some serious prison time. There are so many productive things that I should be doing however I spend an unreasonable amount of time in loops of online slide shows. There's much more I'd like to achieve this year. I just need to free myself up to do it. This includes not taking on vast amounts of activity so every task becomes a pressured chore. Do less, well rather than more, poorly. 
    • Change the way I approach the vegetable patch in the garden. So far really I've just been playing at it. Chuck a bunch of seeds in and harvest whatever if anything that turns up. I'd like for it to be a working patch that we can eat from through the year. This then puts you in touch with the change of the seasons.
    • Change my approach to my physical and mental health. Actually bother to take care of myself. Increase exercise and lower calorie intake for no other purpose than for me to feel better. I like to run and feel better when I do. Maybe switching the motivation from 'you're a tubby cow who needs to move' to ' wooooo look at me go!!!!!' may help me along with this.
    •  Change my perspective on my skills. Stop beating myself up when I make a mistake. It's ok. It really is. You're the only one who notices you perfectionist nut job.