Happy 2012!

As per when I hit my college restart, it's been a while since I've last posted. It's just been so busy for us for the holidays, which turned out to be some of the best that I've had, barring the fact that I'm still trying to dig my house and kitchen out. I'd much rather spend time with my family and friends, as we all would. I have tomorrow to do it before starting the new term at college. I thought today, being a new start, I should use this space to recap the year, and to put down some pseudo-resolutions.

Recap of 2011

This has probably been the year that I have seen the most positivity that I can ever think of having. I've experienced the strengthening of friendships, renewal of old friendships, and the gaining of new friendships. This is the year that I've finally gotten brave enough to truly put myself out there, and starting this blog has made the biggest difference to me. For those that are interested in going back to my start, just follow this link.

After the downer of having to drop my college Access course in March, I restarted it again in September. It was a bit of a struggle to fit in with the new group to start with, but now I can say that I've got friends amongst them that I plan on keeping for a lifetime. I'm extremely pleased and surprised with my progress on the course. They started with a new awarding body, which makes things a little more complicated, but I feel that I'm doing a lot better than I was last year, and it feels more like I'm getting somewhere than I was last year.

I've seen a lot of changes with the Imp. We were struggling with our relationship at the beginning of the year, but she then started at an excellent nursery in May, and us having our separate time has made the hugest difference to the both of us. I have my own identity back, and my life is no longer revolving around her every move, and her personality and skills have taken dramatic leaps and grow with each day. She started there with being six months behind in her speech, and after a fortnight there, the switch finally flicked and she was speaking in complete and clear sentences. She skipped a few steps. She now makes her opinion clear, and, most of the time, when her emotions aren't getting in the way, let's me know what she wants and needs. She's become very independent, and it makes it a lot easier for us to be equals within our little family unit.

Seeing my mom, stepdad, and one of my three brothers back in May was a truly special time. I hadn't seen them since 2003, and being able to spend a fortnight with them and my now-10 year old niece that I met for the first time was amazing.

There has been the sadness, as well, with the loss of a yearmate in the beginning of the year, and the loss of friends' pets that meant a lot to me. I have had my down moments, but they've been a lot quicker to get out of than they have been in the past.

Pseudo Resolutions for 2012

I'm not in to making resolutions, because they're too easy to break. But there are a few goals that I truly want to put in place.  From the way that I'm looking at it, 2012 looks to be truly spectacular for me. It may not seem like much to some people, but that is the word that has been shouting at me, because I am truly looking forward with a lot of positivity.

• Spend more time with my friends, aka My English Family
• I've spent more time than ever with my friends this year, which has made a huge difference to me, but I think we need to do even more. My closest friends I have dubbed as my honorary siblings, so, if you look at it that way, as well as having three blood-related brothers, I also have four sisters, three brothers, the Imp's Grumpy, and the keeper of my heart. Hmm, because I'm likely to be blogging more about them, I should probably come up with alternative names for them all. You've already seen me regularly post about one, Witchy Kitty. She's changing to a new blog, but I think she can keep her same name with me :P I'll come up with names for everybody else as I go along.
• Get out of Lincoln more often. 
• I rarely leave the city. I think I can maybe think of three to five trips out for the day in the last year. I'm already planning a trip to Cardiff to visit Illustratedmum (Welshy sister), which I really should do more often.  More day trips are in the pipelines, as well as some potential weekends away.
• Finish my Access course and start University
• That's all dependent on me getting accepted to uni.  My UCAS will definitely be going out tomorrow, and I need to keep up on my course work. 
• Keep up on my blogging.
• This blog has made a huge difference to me, so I need to focus back down and post more often again. Maybe make a goal for at least once a week or fortnight, minimum, to get me back on track.
• Read more books
• I'm normally an avid reader, but I've just not had the mental focus to concentrate and read, so my stack is building up. I must try harder. 
• Do more crafting.
• I've put my cross stitch aside for the time being, because I really need to find a floor stand for my frame. I've opted for some smaller crochet projects that I can get the sense of accomplishment of actually finishing something. For holiday gifts, I managed to whip through and complete three scarves. That's a huge accomplishment for me, the way that things have been so busy. One of them was even finished in a day...that was only due to me reinjuring myself and having to force myself to actually sit down and stop. The other two took me a fair bit longer, but I still managed to finish one for Yule and one for Christmas, and I was quite pleased with myself.  One of my posts to look back on regarding projects would be this one. Another project that looks easy is from Kirsty Alsopp's program on Channel 4. She did a heart garland for across her mantle for Christmas, but it's inspired me to attempt to do something similar for each Sabbat to go across my shelf in the living room. I just need to find fabric that I fancy, and the time.
• Concentrate more on my rituals and celebrations.
• I don't mean doing anything fancy, but, as seemingly seems to be a repeating theme, I need to take more time to stop and celebrate. It's not that I don't celebrate with a thought or few every day, but I need to stop more. Nothing organised...we all know that I don't play all that well with others that try to be organised, but I feel the need to do some energy and spiritual work with others (just as long as it's not organised. Got to make that clear :P )
• Project 365
• I'm a rather snap-happy person with my mobile, so I've finally brought up the courage to start a Project365. Feel free to follow me, if you're interested, on silverswan365.blogspot.com

Again, those are just a few goals, but nothing is set in stone. I really can't call them resolutions for the year, because they're ongoing things in my life that I'm looking forward.

I hope that all of you will be having as spectacular of a 2012 as I anticipate mine to be. Feel free to share yours in the comments, because I love seeing what everybody is looking forward to.

Mel

Joy Pockets (220811)

It's actually been a busy one for us this week, so not a lot of cross stitching done, but a lot of giggling and laughing.

• The arrival of our fluff babies! Five gorgeous quails, four girls and a boy (in two separate hutches...poor George has to wait until the next batch to get some company). I've posted a couple of photos at the bottom.
• The Imps ecstatic giggling when bouncing on the harnessed trampolines in town. One of the best £3 I've spent, just to hear her giggling like that.
• Finally winning the battle of my downstairs, and getting it to a point that it now fairly easy to keep up the tidy. 
• Being able to appease my need to rearrange furniture (there will be a post around this tomorrow or Wednesday!)
• Barbecuing on Saturday with friends. Being able to introduce people and everybody getting along together like a house on fire. We're already planning Yule, and at least one other meal before then. There was a lot of laughing going on, and I think we finally finished at around 1am.

Harriet

Gertie and Gertrude

Bounce!

Mel

Zombie Apocalypse? What About the Lost Skills?

Today I finally decided to catch up on my budget spreadsheets. I've been horrible for the past couple of months about keeping it up to date, but because I'm on a fixed income I have to watch every penny and it stresses me out more to not remember exactly what has gone in or out, or how much I will have to survive to the end of the month. So, I cracked the mental whip and balanced it all out. That's after spending all afternoon trying to figure out where £50 went (I forgot to enter a bill that had been paid....oops).

This got me thinking about some of the recent things on the 'end of the world'. From tv series such as 'The Walking Dead' to the current news headlines of the guy who predicted the apocalypse, it's something that you get the range of people...from those who don't give a flying flip to those that are already hiding in their fallout shelters.

I personally don't think that it will be zombies or anything like that. No, I feel like it will be from people taking each other out and destroying the technology, utilities, and supply chains to try to punish each other. Those caught in the crossfire will have to relearn how to survive. A lot of the traditional skills have been lost to all but a very few people. Unless people group off with at least one person who knows how to live off the land, there would be a lot of people starving because they wouldn't be able to feed themselves.  Freezing because they don't know how to build a fire. I think that it has been forgotten how to even rely on other people, to share skills.

I actually think that I'd be happier with a simpler world. Ok, so lack of fancy communications systems would be a bit heartbreaking. I admit to my mobile being borderline surgically attached to my hand (especially the new one), and Skype, Facebook, and Twitter allow me to keep in contact with my family in Indiana and Missouri. But life would go back to being simpler. Eat, sleep, protect, and provide for you and your family. But it's not monetary providing. It's identifying your food sources and knowing how to obtain and prepare them safely. There are adults in this world that I doubt would survive without the local takeaway.  It's knowing how to sew clothing and necessities.  I don't do anything fancy, but I can hand sew and I know how to use my sewing machine without electricity (my first sewing machine when I moved to the UK was an 1868 hand-cranked Singer).

I'd like to think that my friends that live nearby would join up with us, so we could share skills, take care, and protect each other.  They are my non-blood family, and I rely so much on them even now.

Ok. so nothing like another of my random posts.  I probably shouldn't have fretted so much over my spreadsheets, knowing that it would have worked it's way out. I seriously am not frivolous with spending...not even close to it, because I can't be. There are things that I want, but that gets put aside for what we need. I've now fully admonished myself for not keeping up on my spreadsheet, because I stress less when I've got it up to date and easily accessed.

Mel