A taste of summer

Friday Night Musings

So it's Friday night.  The working week is over and the weekend sprawls before me full of opportunities and chores.   I am in the sitting room on the sofa, feet up in front of a roaring fire.  I have a glass of chilled fino sherry on the side table and I can hear my husband pottering in the kitchen preparing dinner (did I mention before about being spoilt?).   Friday night is couch potato night, always a treat after a busy week.   But what of tomorrow.   As usual, I have a list of things I mean to do this weekend that, if I actually attempted them all would take at least a month to actually achieve.

This is my major fault, I over-commit.   There are so many things I want to do and then there are all the things I have to do.   But this weekend will be different I tell myself.   I will set realistic goals, I will prioritise must do over want to do.   I will not convince myself it is possible to learn Italian in a weekend whilst carrying out a new keep fit/lose weight program and at the same time tidy the garden, do the washing/ironing, hang the new photographs, make some cards, sort and scan all my old photographs, figure out how to put a play list on my blog, do my piano practice and write the lyrics for the band's new song that I have been struggling with for three weeks.  (More about the band another day).

This weekend I will ....  not make a list of things I will do this weekend.

A convert!

No time to post properly today, but go here  to see Lucy's first ATC! 

Art in your Pocket

Today I am feeling creative, but today like most days, I don't really have time. (In fact I shouldn't even be blogging, I am supposed to be working). Do you ever get that urge to make/create something but daily life intrudes and there is no time to work on that project that has been down the side of the sofa for 6 months? Well I do and one of the ways I satisfy that need is by paper crafting, I dabble in card making (often featuring my photography - so I get a double creative hit), scrapbooking (but not as often as I would like) along with various other handicrafts. But there is one papercrafting activity that can really give you a creativity hit without making a big mess or taking much time. ATCs or Artists Trading Cards are little miniature works of art that you can make out of pretty much anything. This link will take you to the original ATC site in Switzerland, set up when the form was first established in 1997. Above you will see one of my efforts (in fact the first I ever made). The key thing to know about ATCs is that they must not be any bigger than a playing card and they must be exchanged not sold. Other than that there are no rules.

This link will tell you the more about the history of how this art form developed and has a gallery of contributors from all over the world.

So next time you get the urge, but only have 10 minutes to spare, give it a try.

Everything deserves a closer look.

Freezer Lottery

To be clear from the start - yes I am spoilt.  I have a wonderful husband who loves to cook, the only time I have to cook is at Christmas (his day off) and when he is away on business.   So tonight is one of those nights.  Having berated him over the phone for the lack of food in the house, I was directed by him to the freezer, where, I was assured there was some bolognese or chilli, but probably both, which he had frozen when he made a big batch.   

Did you know that they both look exactly the same when frozen?   So mystery dinner it is.  I take the red frozen lump from the freezer and place in the microwave to defrost.   Magically, when defrosted, the red kidney beans become obvious and you wonder why you couldn't see them when frozen.   Chilli it is then, bubbling away in the pan and smelling wonderful.  Just have to read the instructions on the 2 minute rice and 'Dinner is Served'.  

But I have discovered, Chilli doesn't smell as good when you smell it alone.

Is there anybody out there?

Well - no matter if there isn't.   So here is my official inaugural  blog and I hope whoever is out there will think well of it.   Why have I started a blog I hear you ask, does the world need another blog?  Well probably not, but what the heck, I'm enjoying myself.  

This all started about a month ago, when I had to spend some time at home with the lurgy (official scientific term for chest infection).  This gave me the opportunity to finally figure out the finer intricacies of my new macbook and to discover the joys of tweeting.   Within 24 hours I was hooked and after the initial rush of searching for famous folk just because I could, I then started to look for interesting folk instead.   At some point I came across a young lady in Brisbane and was immediately engaged by her easy and amusing style and by her fairly prodigious output, not only on Twitter, but also on You Tube and Daily Booth.   (If you want to get to know her too, follow the CreativeMachine link in the sidebar).

Then, a couple of nights ago, Lucy, for that is she, published a list of 40 things she wants to achieve and I was transfixed.   Excluding the technology references (for I am ancient and we did not have macbooks when I was 19) this could have been my list 30+ years ago.   I realised that I was looking into my past and her future.

So, Lucy, with the benefit of hindsight I can tell you that you will never tick off everything on your list because your list will always get longer, it is in your nature, as it is in mine.   I can still make a list of 40 things I want to do (and that may be the subject of another post) and I am sure on my deathbed I will be cursing the chap in the black hoodie carrying a scythe because I still have a bunch of stuff I need to do!   But never stop making the lists and never stop striving for the next thing and the next...  

But you can put a tick against number 38 on the list, because you are already doing that.

Until next time...