With Love

Just passing through and wishing love to everyone this weekend. You are all wonderful. Especially my mum.

And also especially my man for dealing with me this past weekend. Whilst I had a good birthday, I was feeling pretty down in the dumps and he kept me hanging on in there.

Sorry to everyone else for being so blah. I'll try and do better next time I come home.

The year is passing so quickly, it seems that the more the years pass, the quicker they fly by. I want to try and do more with my time and my life. I just need to stop being so exhausted and start getting on with things. I'll try to start that tomorrow.

101 things in 1001 days

It's my birthday. Yay. 24 years old. Because I feel that maybe I need some goals to carry on, I decided to set up a 101 things in 1001 days. Some will be easy, some will be things to work towards. Either way, I think they are all reasonable ones that could be feasible.

I'll leave you with the list and be back later to actually make a post of some description that has some content.

Challenge: 101 Things in 1001 Days
Started: August 29, 2011

1 Read all the books I own, but haven't read
2 Visit Munich
3 Read 100 books
4 Learn German
5 See the Northern Lights
6 Send a secret to PostSecret
7 Complete a coloring book
8 Spend a rainy day watching films in my pyjamas
9 Host a dinner party
10 Complete all Keri Smith books!
11 Make a quilt
12 Learn to play the ukulele
13 Host a tea party
14 Start my own Christmas traditions
15 Make homemade jam
16 Buy a new bike
17 Make pasta
18 Own a DSLR camera
19 Build a blanket fort
20 Take a yoga class
21 Knit a hat
22 Build a teepee
23 See a musical
24 Buy an iPhone
25 Make chocolates
26 Learn the basics of a martial art
27 Watch 100 movies I've never seen before
28 give 5 "I saw this and thought of you" gifts
29 Restart my savings accounts
30 Eat at a nice resturant
31 Learn to sew with a sewing machine
32 Get a new job
33 Start the 100 Strangers Project
34 Go to a spa
35 Go a week without buying anything
36 Read all of Discworld
37 Learn to make different pastries
38 Mosaic the LACK table
39 Try five different kinds of tea
40 Go to the Globe Theatre
41 Take Pip on a Picnic
42 Keep a change jar for a year
43 Learn basic HTML
44 Learn to crochet
45 Visit a country I haven’t been to yet
46 Cook 100 new recipies
47 Attend a craft fair.
48 Don't buy anything unnecessary for two weeks
49 Create a budget and stick to it
50 Go to a flea market
51 Have a Star Wars marathon
52 Make a will.
53 Cook 3 things from every cookbook I own.
54 Send 12 cards or letters for no reason at all.
55 Save £1.00 for ever task I complete
56 Read seven books in seven days
57 Get a polaroid camera
58 Go to a concert
59 Play mini golf
60 Go on a camping trip
61 Exercise three times a week (at least 3 months!)
62 Enter a photography competition
63 Send 10 Postcards via PostCrossing
64 Have a photo taken in a photobooth
65 Finish a video game
66 Complete a photo scavenger hunt
67 Spend a whole day reading
68 Update my blog with every completed task
69 Try a new hairstyle
70 Go ice skating
71 Leave an inspirational note inside a book
72 Finish the knitted blanket
73 Visit the Black Forest GERMANY
74 Meet an online friend in person
75 Play a new board game
76 Have a board game night
77 Sell something I've created myself
78 Buy a vintage camera
79 Sew myself a dress
80 Shoot and develop ten rolls of film photos
81 Spend an afternoon reading at the park
82 Get hardcopies of all important pictures
83 Send a handwritten letter
84 Learn a new word every day for a month
85 Attend the midnight premiere of a movie
86 Comment on 50 random blogs
87 Organize my bookmarks
88 Keep a spending diary
89 Document a "day in my life" in photographs
90 Plant a window box herb garden
91 Brew my own beer, cider or wine
92 Take Alfie to Alton Towers/Thorpe Park
93 send a "just because" care package to a friend
94 Go to a book signing
95 Visit Hay-on-Wye
96 Participate in Operation Beautiful (http://operationbeautiful.com)
97 Establish an emergency fund
98 Organise old bills/receipts
99 Complete the Couch-to-5-K Running Plan
100 Photograph the sunset for 1 month
101 Take 1 bath a month to unwind

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Silent Sunday

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Wordless(ish) Wednesday

Sorry for the lack of posts. Having issues forming thoughts. I am shattered and cannot wait until Friday night when I can go home and see my Mummy.

Silent (exhausted) Sunday

Worrisome worries and pointless fears

I worry about everything. Truly, everything. Right now I'm worried about a potential, not even confirmed job interview that may not even happen.

I'm worried about the fact that I emailed the person arranging it after leaving a phone message and not hearing back. Why? I don't really know. A follow up in writing is always a good idea if you didn't speak to the person yourself.

Its possibly the coffee for breakfast, the time-of-the-month hormones, or the stress of being away from home to attend a wedding of people you have never met and staying with people you have never met and your dress is damaged by a pulled thread.

It is worrying about life in general, about your crappy low paid job, about tax and council tax and how to keep going when, after a day at work, you just want to sleep and not do those fun things you want to do but are too tired to care about.

Am I alone in this? Probably not. I mean, everyone faces these things. More so those of us who have left university and found the economic world and all the promises made to us in school about the merits of further education crumbling around us. How do we claw our way out of it? Is it doomed to be my life or will I manage to get somewhere, someplace that I want to be? Who knows?

All I know is that right now I need to calm down, stop over thinking things,and just get on with life as it comes at me. Sometimes I need to be told to stop thinking, to put it away and leave it alone.

Things are out of my hands.

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The little engine that (possibly) could!

So, there she is! My new sewing machine. A heft out of my pocket, an ikea bag and I struggling home, a walk into a car, parked, with someone in it (ack, embarrassing. I thought the women might get out and yell, but I said sorry and carried on without any further injury or anything at all) and a short time later, she is set up and ready to go!

As soon as I sit down with a large cup of coffee, the instruction manual, and about 8 hours to spare that is!

Yikes. I mean, it can't be much more complicated than the other one right? They do pretty much the same things. Yet this one has about a million attachments, called things like the walking foot. What the flaming heck is a walking foot? And why would I need one?

I guess I have a lot more to learn!


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Silent Sunday Shoes

Hair and I

Saying goodbye to the old and long hair:



Saying hello to the new, short hair:



(Note: Didn't get a better photo after having it done as it was wet and windy out this morning and the product pretty much abandoned me. Will try again in the morning when I fix it up!)

Getting my hair cut is a scary experience. I took some ideas with me this time. It looks pretty much nothing like either of them. I'm not even sure how much I like it. I think I need time to get used it it. I love it off my neck, but is it too much like a bob? I have childhood trauma from that kind of cut.





See. Bad hair cuts. They got worse. There is a rather terrible photo of me some-place with a CRIMPED BOB! What was I thinking? Yikes. Must dig that one out later!

But yes, I think this one will grow on me. Probably literally. But I've found a hairdresser I like so maybe I will actually keep a style and return within a year this time.

Testing, testing, one, two, three

A test. To test this blogging app. We will see if I like it. How does one add pictures? Hmmmm.


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Wordless Wednesday

a damaged society

I'm pretty exhausted. This post won't be as long, or as coherant, as it probably deserves.

I just wanted to touch upon the riots that are spreading, rather terrifyingly, across England.

There was a single spark and, rather than peaceful protest, we have riots and looting and entire buildings and lives being destroyed. It is nothing more than thuggery and theft. These people, that some are calling disenchanted and that in having no hope in their lives are lashing out, are nothing more than criminals. They claim they have no hope, no cause. Well then, this is probably not going to help matters.


Anyone can launch a riot. Not everyone can stage a peaceful protest. But they should at least try before rampaging across their homes and their communities. That, if any recourse, should only be a last recourse.

This is a 'movement,' and I use that term in the loosest possible way, without principle, without morals, without guidance, without hope of ever achieving anything other than the degradation of our cities and of our reputation.

This is my country. This is my life. This is our day to day. This is our society they are playing in the fire with. And they will pay for that fact. And we will come together to overcome this.

I am in a minimum wage paying job. I am struggling from day to day, paying my taxes and making my way though what is, yeah, a pretty unfulfilled and sometimes sucky life. And sure, I know that I was raised by a loving family and had huge advantages in life by that fact, but you don't see me rioting do you? I have a degree, I have a huge student debt, and I have a low wage job; but you don't see me out on the streets raiding my local electronics store for a kick because I want to cause some damage for those things that are not right in my life.

What kind of a life would make this happen? What kind of motivation is there for these people to go out and do this? I don't comprehend it. I really don't.

Everyone I have spoken to today is in a state of disbelief that this is happening here.

Everyone is disgusted by it.

Everyone is worried.

Stay safe tonight wherever you are.

Mac Monday

 

Been crazy busy at work today.

So it's Mac Monday rather than anything else.

Contemplating the move away from pens in my life and missing the annual stationary purchase.

The Big Knit

 

It is that time of year.
Get your knitting needles out and make some teeny tiny hats for Innocent Smoothie's Big Knit! Help raise funds for Help the Aged in a simple and rather cute kind of way.

Whatever scraps of wool you have laying around will do just fine!

Some needles, scissors and maybe the odd pom pom or two.

Take a look over at their website for the patterns and the information, but it really could not be simpler.

Get knitting folks, for the older folks.

The trouble with sewing machines is:

They are sometimes bad. They get cranky. They get really cranky.

Or is that just me, with my sewing machine?

For graduation last year, my Mum and Dave bought me a sewing machine. My first. Since then, I have created several items on it, but have had many issues, including the feed dogs not operating as suggested in the manual, it jamming regularly, the stitch lengths being crazy, despite adjusting the tension settings etc...

One can cope with this for a while but the thread also kept fraying and snapping. Now, I'm new to this machine malarky, but really, I thought, what a waste of thread to keep stopping, unpicking, and starting again praying that it doesn't fray.

Some threads stood up better. Some didn't. For some reason, the thread kept popping through the gap between the cover and the part that the thread rests on before going into the needle guide. If I didn't catch it, boom, broken thread. I changed the thread up to super duper decent thread, I changed the needle and double changed the needle,  I changed the fabric, and I played with all the settings, but still, the thread would fray.

In frustration at it today, when I wanted to sew something up, I got Pip to take off the case and have a look. It appeared that the thread slips through the plastic and catches on the otherside where there was some sharp plastic (that little circle, really rough edge), I would think, from manufacture? The corner also had a nick on it. I assume that in the course of sewing, the thread is caught against it and frays apart, making it break.

So yes, even if it was not this, something was majorly wrong with this machine. Having just looked at the argos site, I'm not alone in having issues (although, there were mostly positive reviews.)

So, I took it back to Argos, again, and got the credit onto a gift card. They were nice about it. I mean, I have had it for 8 months and it's a little abused, but enough is enough.

I'm going to get another machine, a different one as this one is no longer stocked, and quite frankly, I am fed up with the make. I'm going to pay some extra and buy myself a, hopefully, better one. I'm currently looking at a 'Toyota Quiltmaster 226' although I have to wait for it to be in stock.

I have to hope that it will be slightly better quality and not have some weird ass issue with fraying the thread or jamming or anything. Wish me luck.

30 Day of Lists

 

So, in an endeavour to get creating again, have something to blog about, and because, well, I like lists, I have signed up to 30 days of lists over at www.30daysoflists.com

So far, it looks like September will be a lot of fun, with some great list topics coming up!

Getting myself organised early I have started my list pages:

 They need gluing, and I need to source a bulldog clip, you know, one of those huge silver ones, but other than that, I'm super duper excited!

So yeah, take a look, and maybe join in on the fun!

Melting

I'll be over here melting in this blistering humidity...


How do people cope with this?

x

Growing Up?*

 

Completely overrated we all agree yes?

We are so keen to be 16 or 18 or 21. 

It's not worth it though.

I often think.

I don't mind the getting older.

It's the rest of what comes with it that bothers me.

This is my older brother's birthday card, ready to drop into the postbox.

He'll be 27.

I'll be 24 a few weeks after.

His birthday heralding the arrival of mine.

Should I be better at 24? Will I change at all?

Another year, another number. 

Scary.

No big party, no big events planned.

I'm heading home to see my family, watch Harry Potter with my lil' bro, 

and knit little hats with my Mum.

I can't wait.

Hope it's sunny.

But being a bank holiday, I doubt it.

*This post brought to you by it turning the 1st of August, the birthday month.