That was January

I did a thing on Canva because I couldn't think of a picture to take and I need the practice. I'm useless when it comes to anything pictures.

For the first time, I'm looking back on a month with a somewhat critical eye. I've missed writing down a few spends, and I've let the lists slip a little. However I'm going to keep going with both. I'm not going to let a stumble stop me. 

I've submitted a couple of things to anthologies and I'm happy that I've done that. I'm starting to look at my writing in a more critical way. I've listed blankets on eBay which I've been putting off for months, and I've been just a little more proactive. I still haven't planted the chilli seeds, but I'm confident that will happen in the next day or two. 

My mental health has improved and I don't know why. I don't like putting too much doom and gloom on here, but I'm usually pretty close to needing professional intervention and I have been all my adult life. Suddenly things are just a little better and I'm hopeful that I can start slowly improving physical and mental health. It all feels very odd. It's nice, but it's still odd and unfamiliar, though long may it continue!

All in all, there have been lots of very tiny steps in the right direction. It's not been a miracle, but it's like the first shoots of the bulbs and the first buds on the trees. I just need to keep going. I'll be honest, February is usually the lowest time of year for me, so if I can manage the smallest efforts, I'll be thrilled. 

So I would take January as a win. I think I'll try and set some more goals for February and see how I go. 

And as I hadn't taken a pic of anything useful today, here's the blanket I've continued to work on until I decide what to do about the scarf with the new yarn. It's very nearly finished so perhaps I can list it this week as well.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Willpower Continues Not Found

It's been a funny sort of day. DH has been poorly. It's a sore throat at the moment, but I'm keeping an eye on him. Time to keep him warm and fussed. He works from home, so at least he didn't have to do a journey, but I'm a little worried about him. I may nip out and pick up some fresh ginger for him to have with lemon and honey. 

One of my favourite romance authors released a book today - Alina Jacobs The Art of Marrying Your Enemy. It was a lot spicier than I expected, and even though I'm heading rapidly towards sixty, I'm not sure I'm old enough to read books like that, but it was pleasantly bonkers with a self indulgently hysterical heroine and a self destructive dark hero. It's on Kindle Unlimited, which I'm sure that I'm abusing with the amount I read, so dove straight in. 

I also listed four hand knitted blankets on eBay. I don't know if they'll sell, but I thought that I'd try it. I'd been putting it off for a bit, so I was pleased to have done it as I found taking the pics tricky. That's when my willpower broke and I decided to give in to the yarn.

I was good last night. I diligently worked on the blanket and it's making good progress, but I couldn't resist the call of new yarn anymore so I started knitting.

It's a 'cast on 100 stitches, increase into every stitch, repeat' scarf with inserted rows of twisted drop stitch. I could have perhaps finished it tonight, but my eyes are tired. Besides, I've found a pattern for a similar effect that doesn't end up with 800 stitches on the needle so I may rip this out and try again. 

I still haven't planted the chilli seeds. I'll have to get to that tomorrow. 

Dinner worked really well tonight. It was just a jar of curry sauce, with chicken and a load of frozen veggies added and served with rice, but the men really enjoyed it and that's a win for me. I'm not keen on the jar sauces, but it helps and I comfort myself that I always make sure that there's plenty more than just the jar sauce in the casserole. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Has Anyone Seen my Willpower?

I'm sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was meaning to post, and I had stuff planned for the day that I could post about and take pictures of, but then... Further details in writing stuff.

The Temu order with the extra plant pots arrived and with it came some yarn that I failed to resist.

It just called to me. I'm now looking at the blanket that I am so near to finishing, and the fancy stitch scarf that I've started and is so calming, and I must not start something new with this yarn. I am also considering taking bets on how long I can hold out.

With all the writing stuff, plus meeting a friend for conversation when I'm not used to talking, I feel like I've been thrown into a cement mixer and it doesn't help me keep my resolve. 

I now plan to sit down and watch High Potential on Disney Channel because I've been looking forward to it all day and while I'm watching I'm going to knit the damned blanket!

Writing stuff - I subscribe to Duotrope which is a site that has listings of publishers, agents and calls for submissions from places like magazines and anthologies. I'm trying to get more purposeful with writing, so I'm hoping to manage something small as a submission once every couple of weeks. Normally I ignore any listings that are near closing date, and I'm usually looking for clear guidelines or themes so I can write a small piece to order. I sort of ambushed myself Tuesday night and I found myself reading the submissions guide and something called to me. It wasn't for anything particularly defined, but the description of preferences was just so much fun. The closing deadline was today. Earlier this evening, I emailed in 3900 words of fantasy writing which I am hoping will be acceptable. Between spotting the listing and emailing it in, there was a lot of writing, thinking, rewriting, research (can't help it), more writing, not much sleep, and the dreaded formatting. 

A lot of places like Shunn Formatting, which is considered the industry standard. I fail at it. There are templates, but I can never get the first paragraph indent to behave. And if I can get paragraph indent to behave then I inevitably lose a slash somewhere on the header. I hope my effort will be acceptable.

If it doesn't get it, I'm confident that I'll be able to use it elsewhere, so I'm not going to stress about it too much. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

The Last of the Goodies

Every year I buy too much for Christmas. Every year I buy less but it's still too much. This year it looks like the goodies will be used up by the end of January. This is all that's left - some Turkish Delight, some chocolate buttons and a couple of boxes of Matchmakes. 

There are also some satsumas in the picture, but they were delivered yesterday and don't count.

We threw away some cheese because it had gone way past its best - it was the stuff that DH and bear had requested but hadn't really bothered with and it was that 'cheese with cranberries' stuff that would never keep. I think that there are a few sprouts in the freezer and that's about it. I'm feeling quite good about that. 

I'm trying to run down my stores at the moment and being quite particular about what I'm keeping in. We're low on baked beans, but we don't eat so many anyway these days, and I could probably add a tin of sweetcorn to the next order, but I am still concerned about using up what's in. 

Talking about using stuff up, remember the potato soup that I made that I said was awful? Well I cooked up the rest of the bacon for a sandwich and it was absolutely foul! So I think I may try something similar again, but with better bacon! 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Cold

I'm really feeling the cold today for some reason. I don't think that it's necessarily colder, just that I'm feeling it.

It's been a funny sort of bitty day. We had a delivery this morning. Morrisons were running a '8 for £10' deal that finished today and I took advantage as much as I could. There weren't many things on it that I fancied, but there were some good savings and there was a particular brand of frozen chips/fries/potato thingies that DH and bear love, so I got a few bits in. I took the opportunity to dump some stuff that had been lurking for a while. There were some flavoured bits of chicken that had been two for the price of one. We'd had the first and it had been vile and I had been putting off the second for easily over a year. I decided that it may as well go, along with some 'veg and grain' mixes that nobody liked and I couldn't eat because they had gluten in them. 

DH removed the 'n' key and dug out a handful of fluff. Things have settled down now, though I'll keep an eye out and I may need to attack other keys. He threw the fluff out before I could take a picture, but it was a substantial amount. 

He also kindly brought down a huge bag of blankets.

Some are just elderly but some are ones that I've knitted. I've been thinking of putting them on Etsy but I may stick to eBay. Etsy seems quite complicated to set up and I would rather spend my time on other things at the moment. 

Writing stuff - one of the other things I want to spend time on is writing. I'd be grateful for any opinions on this. I'm finding myself thinking how to plot out Lady Freydis' Book of Coffee and the fun that I could have with it. If I did actually manage to pull something like that together, should I republish Tales of the White Hart. It's been blogged, unblogged, published, unpublished and is currently live on Royal Road. I'm of a mind to leave it where it is, but I'd welcome opinions as Lady Freyd's Book of Coffee might look a little strange on it's own. Though I could add Mrs Tuesday's Book of Housekeeping, and I daresay I could think of a few other things.

And speaking of the White Hart - today's episode is here. 

Hugs and good health to all. 

Quiet

It's been a quiet day, with a certain quantity of knitting going on. I remembered to take pics. The fence is as good as new and I am very impressed with DH and bear's skills.

Gladys is still looking threadbare, but that's normal at this time of year.

The weather has been damp and cold. I'm bracing for next week.

Hugs and good health to all. 

Failed to Resist.

DH treated me to a knitting book. 

I cannot stress enough that I shouldn't start another project. I already have a gazillion in heaps. I resisted and resisted and resisted - then gave in. I proved that I can't be trusted with lace, even an easy one row lace pattern as my train of thought often leaves the station without me and I kept losing track. There was a nice scarf with a slip stitch pattern which I adapted to the yarn at hand and a slightly bigger needle than the band said as I think it gives a better drape. 

Appropriately, the yarn is something that I should have also resisted but it was a basic dk acrylic that's good to practice with and it was on eBay at around a penny per gram including postage, and it's hard to find that these days. 

I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow as DH and bear put the fence back up. The fence was originally put up in March 2022, as far as I can tell from looking at my blog. 

This morning we went to feed the corvids. The crows were waiting for us and the magpies gathered pretty quickly but today we were also blessed by a pair of jackdaws. Their approach to the food was so different from the crows and magpies - very hit and run. Unfortunately I forgot to get a pic of This Year's Tree. I'll try again in the week. 

Hugs and good health to all.