a creature of habit...

Timehop has just pinged on my phone and shown me my Christmas Eve Facebook status's for the last five years. We have traditions without my even noticing.

Every Christmas Eve, I count down the time until HWMBO(I) gets home from work, I watch A Muppets Christmas carol, Carols from Kings, we have fish pie, wrap presents, drink cocktails. I knew we'd done that last year but had no idea we had essentially been replaying the same day for half a decade.

I often wish I'd kept a diary. I start one fairly frequently and see it as essentially a stationery buying opportunity. Facebook has inadvertently become my diary. Its probably slightly more optimistic and positive than a diary written for personal rather than public consumption would be but I don't suppose it's any worse for that. I know it wastes an inordinate amount of time, and if you're not careful you can live in the virtual world and miss the important stuff in the real world but I love it.

I love blogs and the internet - I love this blog and writing it... must try harder.

Blink and you'll miss it...

I seem to have misplaced February, March and April... It's all going by too fast. Life is busy, there are exams to revise for and blogging, along with cleaning, leaving the house and some days getting dressed has taken something of a back seat.

I hate exams, they are a rubbish way to test my knowledge. In casual conversation I could tell you all sorts of things about standard deviation, variance, outbreak control, labelling theory and the epidemiology of e.coli but put me under exam conditions and everything I have ever known appears to fall out of my head. HWMBO(I) and Bob are being very understanding, and cope well with the random reading out of infectious diseases flashcards and occasional sobbing. HWMBO(I)* has also taken over all cleaning and ironing duties and as such we have hoovered skirting boards and an ironing pile that is no longer a danger to passing small children.

I'm trying very hard not to endlessly procrastinate because it's my own time I'm wasting** apparently, although having said that I made a tea cosy yesterday.....



* he's very good at taking on domestic duties. The obstetrician who delivered Bob told him that women who had had a section shouldn't Hoover... Luckily for me he didn't hear the "for six weeks after the birth" bit and I think Bob was about four before I vacuumed.

** although I am becoming something of an expert on American politics, thanks to re watching the West Wing, and not only the soppy Josh and Donna episodes

I’ve started, so I’ll (almost inevitably not) finish…

This poor blog. Like so many before it, begun in a flurry of enthusiasm and high expectations has experienced something of a slump. I’m not up to my eyeballs in  a Masters anymore and the real revision for the frightening next exam hasn’t started yet so I not in any great need of procrastination. As such (apart from a slightly manic crocheting session just before Christmas when I HAD TO crochet mistletoe and stars in every colour I possessed (embarrassingly many)) both the blog and crafts are neglected. I am making myself finish works in progress before I let myself start anything else, and am now bored with all of them and not doing anything.

Works in Progress

• Rainbow Quilt for Bob – I have a front, a back, wadding and I have even basted the sodding thing. Feed dogs on sewing machine stuck in down position and there is no way on earth I can bring myself to hand quilt it…

• Baby Quilt – its ready to be backed and quilted… just need a) motivation and b) someone to have a baby

• ‘French Quilt’ – enough patches made for a double bed quilt… they just need sewing together, backing, basting, quilting…

• William Morris Quilt – see above

• Rowan Wool Swing Jacket – back, fronts and ¾ of one arm done. Can’t find pattern, don’t know where I am up to. May have to frog the whole thing.

• Crochet cushion – front done, back 5/6 done. Just need sewing together.

• Crochet blanket 1. Approx. 80 granny squares done. Need crocheting together and a border. I hate crocheting granny squared together. I currently have a huge number of coasters.

• Crochet blanket 2. Large granny square for Bob. About 4 foot square. I have told myself it will be ready for its border when this last ball of yarn runs out. IT IS THE LONGEST BALL OF YARN IN THE WORLD and I don’t think it will ever run out.

These are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head (oh, no – and the English paper piecing purple monster).

I have a shopping basket full on www.woolytail.com of lovely style craft Aran just waiting for me to press go… and when I do the lovely owner, noticing it is me and I live down the road will come and deliver it and we will drink tea and talk about wool but I really should do something about the on going projects before I start a new one.

There is a business opportunity out there for someone, finishing projects I have started… honestly there is a fortune to be made.