2013 Not Really Resolutions - The Conclusion

I very nearly didn't do this post.

My absolute shame at my performance in 2013 is overwhelming.

It is not going to be one of those "Oh look at me and how great I am".

This is going to be one of those "Well I don't call them Resolutions anyway so it doesn't matter that I basically didn't do any of them."

Prepare yourself for some class A excuses...

1. Get behind the wheel of a car again - Completed! This resolution was invaluable as it has meant that when I have had access to a car I've been able to get out and about, something which is impossible to do when living in the middle of nowhere. I've been able to hire cars to make long journeys rather than depend on the UK's expensive and unreliable rail service (and it does pain me to say that, having been a rail traveller for so long). There is definitely a post I want to write about being a first time driver on the roads - it was a bit of a baptism of fire for me. My first drive on a motorway was a 3.5 hour stint down the M5 to Tavistock which was all kinds of intense. But I'm pleased I've got this one under my belt - you can read about my refresher lessons and my experiences driving my sister's Tank.

2. Project 365 - Failed. I don't really know what happened here because it was actually going pretty well but then I just....stopped. I think I got busy with the impending move in the flat when The Person was moving here and just forgot to take photos. Plus I really didn't do anything and taking photos every day was a bit of a literal reminder of that. I'm amazing I made it through half of the year to be honest. Still, I did do Project 365 in 2011 so I'm not a complete failure (I tell myself).

3. Read 12 Classics - 9/12 - FAILED! I know! First year that I have ever ever failed this Not Really Resolution in all the years that I've been doing it. My downfall was finally picking up a Classic and a half in the shape of Vanity Fair. That is quite the tome you know. I have had a tendency sometimes to play it safe with my Classics and pick up slimmer volumes or easy volumes (for instance, one of my Classics this year was 101 Dalmatians...) so whilst I do feel sad that I didn't complete this one, I feel proud that I took on the challenge of Vanity Fair and conquered it.

1. North & South, Elizabeth Gaskell

2. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

3. Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger

4. The Pursuit of Love, Nancy Mitford

5. The Woman in White, Wilkie Collins

6. The Chrysalids, John Wyndham

7. The Edible Woman, Margaret Atwood (a review of which can be found HERE)

8. The One Hundred and One Dalmatians, Dodie Smith

9. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

4. Crochet an Elmer Blanket - Abandoned! You may remember that I abandoned this Not Really Resolution back in April as I decided I want to make a Tetris blanket. The Tetris Blanket is currently ongoing...

5. Learn to Knit - Failed! It just....never happened. Nothing more or less to it!

6. Bake once a month - Failed! It was just too hard, living in someone else's house for half the year isn't really conducive to taking over the kitchen randomly and I spent most of those weekends travelling to Preston to see The Person which meant I didn't have much time left for baking.

Jokes. I just bought cakes and ate them rather than making them.

7. Go abroad - Done! I went to Corfu with The Americans and The Person in July and it was amezzing and beautiful and I loved it and I didn't want to leave. It was made even better by the fact that the day before flying to Corfu, The Americans became Engaged Americans which made me giddy beyond belief.

That's what it looked like. Damn. Now I want to go back immediately.

8. Makeover a chest of drawers - Failed. HA. We moved into an unfurnished flat in August and let me tell you, furniture is expensive, even when shopping for cheap stuff. We still don't have a bed in the spare bedroom so we can have guests over, I am far from having the time, willingness and energy to makeover a piece of furniture I already own.

9. Cross stitch a big picture/item just for me - Failed. In the same way that 2012 was the Year of the Cross Stitch, 2013 was the Year of the Amigurumi and I have crocheted my fingers off. I have barely done any cross stitch at all.

10. Only buy 12 books throughout the year - HA! As if. In 2012 I managed to go a whole year without buying books so this should have been easy but it seems that with me, it's either all or nothing, and looking at the state of my to-be-read bookshelves I may need to implement a ban in 2014.

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So there we go. TWO out of TEN Not Really Resolutions completed.

You are totally allowed to sit back and feel pretty damn good about yourself right now.

Hey, at least 2014 is going to be better....right?!

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Take a look back at my past attempts...
Not Really Resolutions 2011
Not Really Resolutions 2012

2013 Crochet Review: The Year of Amigurumi

I can't lie to you, I have not managed to complete my Not Really Resolution of crocheting my Tetris blanket. I mean, not even close.

Actually, I should probably tell you now that I haven't really done any of my Not Really Resolutions.

Like really not done any.

I haven't even learned to knit.

Damn.

But I can redeem myself. Because whilst this may not have been the Year of Tetris Crochet, and certainly wasn't the Year of Not Really Resolutions, it was the Year of Amigurumi.

I have latched on to this like a crazy person. Ever since I did my zebra and elephant earlier in the year I've been taken over by the bug and whilst my hook hasn't done much resting, I just haven't had much time to devote to crocheting blankets.

Zebra herd

The best thing about it is just the speed at which you can turn something out. Crochet, and especially the Tetris blanket, can be a bit of a long game sometimes and you can work and work and work without seeing huge gains. But not with amigurumi, you only have to be hooking for a couple of hours and you can already see the shapes forming. The fact that they are made in separate pieces means that you can literally watch your creation building up and, as with all things, the more you do, the faster you become. I am easily twice as fast as I was when I first started now.

My giraffe that had an incredibly wobbly neck

My first zebra took weeks and weeks to crochet and make - I made one last week which took me a total of 3 nights to knock up.

Best of all? This amigurumi craze has been a little earner for me. The first zebra and the giraffe were made as presents for two friends who were expecting, but pretty much everything else since then has been made for someone and has brought me some money in.

Penguin - one of the funniest things I've crocheted

I'm never going to be millionaire and obviously you can never really charge for the amount of time you spend on them, if any hand-crafty person did that then no-one would be able to afford any goods ever, but hey, I'm sitting in front of the TV anyway, I might as well be making some money doing it.

One of the best things I've made has been this bunny dolly, a pattern from a crochet magazine, that I made for my niece for her birthday. She was the most complicated thing I've made so far but the details are what makes her. Her little pink cheeks and her hair are the best parts. And she has the cutest little bunny tail that I haven't got a picture of, to my immense annoyance.

Since making her, I've made another two that have been sold to people at work and she is so incredibly cute that I can't help but think that I'll be making more in the future.

The lovely thing about amigurumi is that even if you're making something that you've made before, and you're following exactly the same pattern and more than likely using the same yarn, each item you produce will come out looking ever so slightly different. So much relies on expression that just the one little different move of your needle or one iota of difference to an eye placement means that the finished article has a completely different personality.

Bunny dolly to the power of three

So yeah, this year has been the Year of Amigurumi. It's satisfying, it's quick to make, it's fun and it's making me a little pile of cash which I keep separate from all my other money to make sure it doesn't get swallowed in the day to day. So far I've put it to good use and have bought pyjamas, books and bath salts with it.

I know how to live the high life.

But as we were drawing to the end of the year I decided to get selfish and make a little something for myself. I had bought a new book and hadn't flipped all the way through it, so I was terribly excited when I got home and realised that there were some Christmas designs at the back of the book.

So I would like you to meet Ralph.

He may just be my favourite. It's hard to let every item go but if I really had to give Ralph away I really think I would struggle. From the tip of his antlers, to the bottom of his stripy legs and even including his little red nose, I love every inch of him. And although it will be difficult to pack him away at the end of Christmas, I know how over excited I will be to get him out again each year.

So here's to the Year of Amigurumi.

And not completing your Not Really Resolutions.

From L-R: Elephant, Giraffe, Zebra, Goat, Zebra, Bunny Dolly, Zebra, Penguin, Reindeer

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All creations are from this book and this book apart from the bunny dolly who is a pattern from Inside Crochet magazine (September 2013). 

Behind the wheel

One of this year's Not Really Resolutions was to get behind the wheel of a car again. I passed my test when I was 17 and have never driven again so lessons were a must. This was a not really resolution that I thought would be nice, but upon moving to my current home has become a must. I've been able to get away without driving for so long because I have been living in cities with public transport links. Now I live in what to me is the middle of nowhere and I cannot get anywhere without my sister giving me a lift.

So I plucked up the courage, got my license renewed, asked around and found a local instructor. As the day drew near, the fear began to grow. There's a reason you learn to drive when you're 17. You are fearless and excited to be a grown-up and you can sense freedom isn't far away. When you're learning to drive when you're 30 you are all too aware you're in a machine of death and that the streets and roads are paved with lunatics hellbent on getting in your way.

"Oh it's just like riding a bike" people would say. Really? Tell me this then - would you rather I hit you with a bike I hadn't pedalled on in 12 years or a car I haven't driven in for 12 years? Exactly. Metal death traps.

Funnily enough it is like riding a bike and after a quick re-familiarisation I was off, actually driving in an actual car on the actual road! I remembered how to change gear! I remembered to check my mirrors! I remembered everything, apart from the art of gentle braking.

You see, I just don't trust the car to actually stop. I start off ok, I gently press down and the car responds and begins to slow. It goes slower and slower and slower and then I am overcome with panic that this car, which is now travelling at 3mph is somehow going to career out of control and destroy everything, so I slam my foot down on the already overly sensitive brake, bringing the car to an almighty standstill. Did you know you can do an emergency stop when the car is going that slowly? Well you can.

I was euphoric after my first lesson though. I could do this! I was a whizz! I'd be on the motorway in no time! I vainly reckoned it would be about 5 lessons and I'd be road ready. This week I will have my first lesson and we will be practicing, in my instructor's own words, "stopping and starting." So yeah...probably more than five lessons.

This appears to be my major problem at the moment. I'm Mrs Cool when I'm driving, as in literally driving on the roads - the second I have to stop at a junction, or some traffic lights, or my arch nemesis, the roundabout, and all hell breaks loose in my head. I can't remember if I'm lifting my foot off the brake or the clutch first, what direction I'm supposed to be going in or what I'm supposed to be doing with that stick in my left hand.

I shouldn't be so harsh on myself, I am basically learning to drive and obviously that takes more than five lessons, but still...there's a long road to travel just yet.

May Project 365 Round-Up

"Woah. What's going on here then? You can't post a round up of May's Project 365 photos before May's even finished!"

Well yes I bloody can. It's my blog and I'll do what I want to. Especially when I have blogged every. single. day in May and am feeling fatigued and need an easy post.

If today and tomorrow's photos are really amazing, I'll give them a post all of their own, I promise.

May

Clockwise L-R: Blackpool baby yeah; Rosie on a wall; crocheted elephant; Coke bottle with my name on it; Lily cat; Hull 10km that wasn't

26th May - Oh I do like to be beside the seaside! Especially when it involves eating fish and chips, gawping at people, getting accidentally burned, freezing my feet in the Irish Sea and drinking a bucket of gin. Read all about it here.

1st May - Rosie is a funny old one. She doesn't really enjoy being on four legs you know. She can always be found up on her hind legs at the kitchen counters, up on her hind legs asking for a hug, and here, up on her hind legs on the wall that overlooks the castle when I took her for a walk.

13th May - I crocheted an elephant everyone! Aren't I a clever monkey. Not the people who wrote the pattern they're not clever at all, but I am the clever one for following it correctly and producing an elephant. That doesn't stand....but let's not dwell on that.

8th May - "Oooh look at me, I'm all sneery and so sick of seeing Coke bottles with people's names on them" - is something you will hear me say never. I think it was a great idea and it makes me smile and I don't even feel bad about it. Instead I feel bad for the souls who cannot find the joy in anything in life. The one drawback to Coca Cola's idea? People like me who are a bit weird and now can't buy the bottle unless it has either my name on it or someone who is connected to me's name on it. I don't want to drink Amy's bottle of Coke, that's just weird.

18th May - It is hard to get a photo of Lily where she doesn't look either deranged, massively overweight or as if she's descended from bats. It turns out the secret is to take a picture of only head, from side on so you can't see the size of her ears or her crazed eyes. I like to think this is how they take pictures of Kate Moss too - I bet she looks deranged from certain angles too.

19th May - How could I not include this photo? Let us all revel in the delight that was the Hull 10km that actually wasn't a 10km. I've pretty much given up complaining about it now, mostly because I've run out of people that haven't heard the story. However this t-shirt is wonderful - it's a good size it's a nice colour and doesn't make me feel all gross when I run. I'll take my good t-shirt with lies written all over it and go and run a 10km somewhere else thank you very much.

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This is quite the achievement. Not only have I got to the end of May and managed to blog every day - I've also managed to make it 5 months taking photos every day when I actually haven't got a life at the moment. 

High five!

All Project 365 photos can be found here on Flickr. Don't let the new layout throw you out and give you a headache like it did to me.

Cakey cakey cake cake - BEDM Day 14

Today's BEDM topic is Food Glorious Food so I thought it would be a good opportunity to do a bit of an update on my Not Really Resolutions, one of which was to bake once a month.

It's safe to say the first quarter of the year hasn't been a massive success and there's no way that Mary, Delia or Nigella need to be quaking in their boots just yet. In fact, a small child armed only with a fork could probably have had more spectacular results...

Gingerbread cookies

Some of you are going to go mental when I tell you how I made these. I made these from a ready-made dough that you can pick up from Tesco.

Hahahahaha. Guess what? I don't care.

I had to roll out the dough and cut the shapes and put it in the oven and bake them. Therefore it counts as baking.

And do you know what? They tasted really really good. I can't lie. There was the perfect amount of ginger in them, they cooked well and were the right side of chewy and best of all, there was no bloody mess making them. No 12 million bowls used. No spoons all over the shop. No light coating of flour over everything in the kitchen. Marvellous.

I'm not even sorry. I'd do it again.

Cookie Monster Cupcakes

We don't really need to talk about this again do we? Read this post and don't make me re-live the hell again.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Cookies

Aah I had such high hopes for these cookies from the Hummingbird Baking recipe book. But it just wasn't successful. People who write recipe books must assume that the people who are reading them are like me - basically an idiot. So you need to tell me everything. And that includes giving me just a tiny cue as to how much dough I'm supposed to be splatting on my baking sheet. Just a hint would be lovely.

Which is why I ended up with gigantanormous cookies because I was putting way too much dough on the sheet.

This would have been fine if I hadn't made my second mistake which was to be afraid that they were too squishy and leave them in a few minutes too long. So I basically had really massive and really hard to eat cookies. Well done me.

The dark chocolate in them was horrible too. You can take your 80% cocoa and go whistle down the wind - I should have just used el cheapo milk chocolate and I'd have probably been a happier bunnier. Although still at risk of losing a tooth.

Raspberry Bakewell Cake

Technically this should have been April's bake. But it wasn't. I made it in May instead. Now the keen eyed among you may go "But hang on a minute, she said she would bake once a month, what a weaselly cheat!" and to those people I say, "Shut up". I'll bake twice in May to make up for it alright?!

God. Some people.

This cake has turned out the best out of all the bakes so far, although that doesn't seem difficult given what it's up against. I got to use my sister's fancy Kitchen Aid which I couldn't work and which sent flour flying all over the room - I'm yet to fall under the Kitchen Aid spell.

The mixture is very thick. You put half the mixture in the tin, then add the raspberries and then it says to "dollop the remaining cake mixture on top and roughly spread - you might find this easier to do with your fingers."

They are not kidding. It is not a pouring cake and I had to splat the mixture on and then smear it around. Sounds gross but it turned out ok, apart from the fact that it burned around the edges a little. I'd probably chuck in a bit of almond essence for good measure if I made it again - I couldn't have done with more of a kick of almond.

Recipe here

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So I think we can say that it hasn't gone well. But that's cool, you know I only do these things so badly to make you feel better, right? That's what it is.

April Project 365 Round-Up

It was a good old month April you know - lots going on, like Turning 30 and Easter Read-a-thons and all kinds of fun things.

April

Clockwise L-R: The view from Cloud 23, an old horse in a playground, my crocheted zebra, blue skies! Blinky full of hatred, Riverside Walk in Preston

4th April - I did a 30! Woohoo. Well done me, and I didn't turn into stone or melt or anything. How lovely. I went to Manchester for the day with The Person and we had a cream tea up in Cloud 23. Oh I won't tell you any more about it - click on the link above and read about it yourself you lazy so and so.

13th April - There is a small patch of grass literally around the corner from my sister's house and in all the years they've been living here I've never actually walked round to see it. I took Rosie out for a little run around and went there and found this little fella - he's one of those bouncy springy jobs that you sit on, you know? I don't know when he was put there but I get the feeling he's seen some things. I perched on him for a  while and I hope that made him feel loved.

28th April - Hahahaha I crocheted a thing! A zebra. Happy happy happy, look at his funny little face. I totally did that you know. You can read all about him here.

26th April - Blue skies people, blue skies. Let us all take a moment and look at March's Project 365 Round-Up, specifically at the photo of the snow. Totally unintentionally these photos are exactly one month apart - look at the difference. These are the kinds of things that make me glad I do Project 365.

1st April - There will never be a time when I don't find the look on Blinky's face hilarious. At least she doesn't try to hide her total and utter contempt for us all.

20th April - The Person and I did a walk in Preston. Lovely job. You see this is why it's good that you blog because instead of writing lines and lines about what we did and where we went, I can distract you all with this jazzy link and cleverly get off with saying nothing really at all. I. am. smart.

So there we go. A third of the way through already. That's not a thought that makes me feel ill at all.

As always, all of my Project 365 photos can be found here.

Not Really Resolutions 2013: Q1 update

After last year's terrible performance when it came to updating everyone on my Not Really Resolutions (number of update posts in 2012 - none) I figured I should probably make more of an effort this year, if only to make sure I stay on track and actually try to get things done.

Seeing as we're nearly at the end of April with well over a quarter of the year gone *starts hyperventilating* I thought it seemed an appropriate time to update.

1. Get behind the wheel of a car again
I have an official license again! After pretty much over a year of procrastination I sent off for my license to be re-newed. After expecting a letter to come back saying "No you need to re-new it and replace it" or some such other nonsense, I was very surprised when after 3 weeks a brand new license flopped through the door with no questions asked.

So no more excuses - time to book some refresher lessons...

2. Project 365
This is ticking over quite nicely and has been much aided by the fact that I have a new phone which has a really good camera. I haven't even used my actual camera in goodness knows when, and because my phone is a Windows phone, everything is very handily backed up to my Skydrive, meaning that when I switch my computer on I just need to log in and download the photos and put them on Flickr. Easy peasy lemon squeezey.

I've been surprised that I've lasted this long because I'm living in the back end of nowhere with basically no friends, but I've managed. Ok, these photos are not going to set your world on fire, but guess what? My life wouldn't set your world on fire, rendering my Project 365 an accurate representation of my life.

The monthly round-ups are fun to do (see January, February and March) and the only thing I am bad at doing is actually uploading the photos to my photostream, which tends to easily be a week or two behind in time. Just like my blogging activities!

3. Read 12 Classics
It's been a good start to the year with my Classics and there hasn't been one I've read so far that I haven't really, genuinely enjoyed.

So far I've read;
North and South - Elizabeth Gaskill (probably the least easiest read out of the lot)

To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (can't believe I haven't read this before, I usually think children are made to read inappropriate Classics at school, therefore putting them off for life, but anyone who gets to read this at school I think is genuinely lucky. It was brilliant - not difficult and yet not condescending - it should be a must for all children to read this.)

Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger (probably the only one that's made me raise an eyebrow and wonder if I've really understand what I've read and the one that's made me go "Really? This is a Classic?" but a good read nonetheless and one that I think would make a good Book Group read as there could be plenty of interpretations to be made.)

The Pursuit of Love - Nancy Mitford (hilarious. I have no other words. The only one so far that I insist you go out and read immediately.)

4. Crochet an Elmer Blanket
As you may have guessed, this has been put on hold now that I have the Tetris blanket firmly within my sights and underway. I do still want to crochet an Elmer Blanket but mostly I wanted to make a blanket just for me and the Tetris Blanket is definitely fulfilling that need at the moment.


5. Learn to knit
No progress on this one as of yet.


6. Bake once a month
This has been ticking along quietly (why do I always forget to blog about things?!) although I think it's safe to say that Mary Berry has nothing to fear at the moment. In fact I haven't been impressed with anything I've made so far this year. Here's hoping that April gives me my first triumph...

Gingerbread biscuits; The infamous Cookie Monster cupcakes; Chocolate & Peanut butter cookies 

7. Go abroad
Very exciting news on this one. American Girl and American Boy are coming over from the USA in July and seeing as they're here and seeing as we all turned 30 this year (with the exception of The Person who will be almost 31 by the time they get here. Ha. OLD.) we decided to take a little trip to another part of Europe and will be spending the first week of July in Corfu. In sunshine. Sun and The Americans? I don't think my brain can take the excitement.

8. Makeover a chest of drawers
No progress on this one yet.

9. Cross stitch a big picture just for me
No progress on this one yet either. I think my brain can only take one craft per year. 2012 was the Year of the Stitching and it's looking like 2013 might be the Year of the Crochet...


10. Only buy 12 books throughout the year.
HA. If I stick to this I will be shocked and amazed at my willpower. I will be able to do anything.

Unfortunately I think it's unlikely I'm going to stick to it. I am trying, I swear it, but after a year of not buying books, I have a lot of pent-up book buying going on in my system and I am finding it tricky to succumb, especially when in charity shops and faced with such cheapness. I am being very good and tracking what I buy though so I can't cheat and "forget" about a book that has made its way on to my shelves. The current total stands at 6 and we're not even at the end of the April.

And I'm not even counting the three books that I bought with a voucher for my birthday because that wasn't my money and those books don't count.

I love loopholes.

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So there we have it. Have just realised there isn't an awful lot on there that can be ticked off the list easily and that's a shame because there's nothing like crossing things off a list to make you feel like you're getting somewhere, but I shall keep on plugging away.

See you at the end of June for the Q2 update...

March Project 365 Round-up

I can hear the groans.

"Oh god didn't we just have one of these?" I hear you cry. Well yes, yes you did, but that's because there was nothing in January and February and now we are nicely caught up. You won't have to feast your eyes on another of these until the end of April.

 

March

Clockwise L-R: The castle, Lily's close up, a wintry scene, sheepy sheepy sheep sheep, the Tetris blanket grows, SNAKE

2nd March - I live near a ruined castle and it's brilliant. It doesn't look that impressive but you can actually go up to the top of one of the towers, as long as you don't mind heights or narrow stone spiral staircases. If I walk into work (instead of getting a lift from my sister) I walk past it and it never. gets. old.

9th March - I went back to Hull for Mother's Day and Best Friend's birthday. This is a close up of Lily. You're welcome.

26th March - Oh hai snow, you're here again, aren't you fun? No actually you're not you total twat. Although you do make for lovely wintry scene photographs of churchyards. 

18th March - These sheep lived outside our Manor when I was away for my Bloggers Weekend and I was a woman possessed trying to get a good photo of them. Persistence paid off in the end and I got them all lined up and looking at me. Winner.

19th March - The Tetris blanket is veeeeeeery slowly taking form and it is exciting.

23rd March - Every time I go back to Preston, The Person and I take a mooch around Pets at Home because it's opposite the flat. We look at the rabbits and guinea pigs and try and stroke random dogs and it's awesome. Going in every time I'm over sometimes makes me feel like a loser but it paid off because today we went in and there was a man there with many creepy crawlies including a SNAKE and I totally got to hold it. What do snakes feel like? Well, they feel like a handbag actually. Not slimy and actually nice and smooth. This old gal mostly felt heavy, she was about 4 stone.

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March was a good month you know, I struggled to pick just 6 photos and thought about adding more but then figured that I'm struggling to hold your attention as it is and probably shouldn't make it worse.

Let's be having you April.

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If you were interested - all the other photos from Project 365 can be found on my photostream HERE

January and February Project 365 round up

Yay I love being late with posts like this.

But really what do you expect, it took me until mid-February to post about my Not Really Resolutions.

I liked doing these round-up posts last time I did Project 365 - they were nice for me to look back at each month and also means that I post about the stuff that I forgot to post about. I don't understand how I ever posted more frequently, I think I'm doing amazingly and back on my blogging track and then I look and realise that I have posted 4 times in March - what? Worst blogger ever.

Anyhoo. Here's post 5 the month and a quick round-up of my best* photos of January and February.

January

Clockwise L-R: SWAN, my new home, Rowan taking over my bed, reading on the train, fancypants house, SNOW

6th January - I took a picture of a swan innit? This is a lovely wee place that we drive to to take the dogs for a walk. This swan nicely floated into view for me to take a photo, then caught sight of Rosie, hissed and scared the shit out of me.

1st January - First photo of the year and a picture of my new nest. This is the box room at my sister's that I moved into before starting work the next day. Man when I think about that I'm impressed I didn't have some kind of breakdown...

4th January - ...but how could I feel rubbish when I was now living with this person? This is Rowan, taking over my whole bed which she still regularly does and I let her because I'm a fool.

20th January - Being away from The Person properly sucks but it does mean that I get a good load of train reading in. I love being on a train, forced relaxation is the bomb.

21st January - It snowed! Ha. I thought this was such a novelty - little did I know it would still be happening in March. Less cool.

29th January  - My first big work challenge - organising a Strategy Meeting for all the Directors at work. We went to the place pictured and I flounced about like I was in Downton Abbey.

February

Clockwise L-R: Cats vs Andrew, Peeking Fred, failed Cookie Monster cupcake, very early roses for Valentine's Day, Rosie got to my Valentine's card before I did, the beginnings of the Tetris Blanket.

10th February - The Person is a funny old fellow you know. I came back to the flat to discover this little set-up - my two ceramic cats (why yes, yes they are Fred and Lily!) set up looking into the fish tank. Apparently the idea is to give them some "stimulus". Personally I reckon Andrew could take them on.

1st February - I went back to Hull for the first time since before Christmas. This means some jolly good Fred and Lily time. This is a photo of Fred peeking at me from behind a curtain. I have no idea why.

9th February - Let us never forget Cookie Monster-gate. 'Nuff said.

11th February - I got roses for Valentine's Day! Wait. But this photo says the 11th February. Oh yes, that's because The Person kind of got the delivery date wrong. Hey, he tried at least!

13th February - The Person did manage to send a Valentine's Day card in time though. Unfortunately Rosie got to it before I did...

25th February - Hey I had a great idea in February, I was going to crochet a Tetris Blanket. This involved planning to the max. Excel to the rescue!

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You see this is exactly why I've done Project 365 for another year. It helps you to remember all the daft little things. I mean who wouldn't want to remember the time they completely messed up their baking or when the dog ate your Valentine's Day card? 

Exactly.

*When I say "best" clearly I don't mean photographically brilliant, I just mean my bestest and favouritest moments.

The beginnings of an idea.

I am not a creative person.

I can do crafty things, following a chart or a pattern, or adapting something someone else has created, but on the whole, I'm not an ideas person.

My brain just isn't hardwired to come up with original ideas....until now.

As per my Not Really Resolution to make an Elmer blanket a la Little Tin Bird, I've been steadily plugging away, building up my squares. It's been a good blanket to do for my current situation - space is limited for me at the moment as I'm in my sister's box-room, so I've been bringing a ball of yarn back from Preston and hooking up 20-odd squares before bringing back another.

It has become apparent this has the potential to be a pretty big blanket, and that makes me all kinds of excited.

Yesterday, once back at my sister's, I decided to see where I was in terms of numbers and how it was looking, so I just threw all my squares into lines to see where I was. This actually prompted a bit of a breakdown because all my colours look a bit mental at the moment because I've only done a few balls of wool. In the midst of flurry of e-mails to Heather freaking out about my inability to do anything right (who needs Call the Midwife when you have me around for a Sunday drama?) I had my first ever genuine strike of inspiration.

The blocks of colours all interlocking together - what did it remind me of?

(Don't mind the bad photo, or the weird colours - this was just a practice!)

TETRIS.

I do not do computer games. I lack both the coordination and the mental stamina for anything stressful. But me and Tetris? We go way back. I am bloody brilliant at that game. I didn't have a game console growing up so my exposure to games was limited to my Dad's PC. Yeah I played Lemmings and yeah I played Sim City, but all I really wanted to play was Tetris. Whole days during the holidays would be spent playing Tetris, ringing friends to share our latest high scores. It is a game I now avoid because if I start playing it, I genuinely find it difficult to stop.

It seems only right that I should make a blanket en homage to my favourite game.

Really crochet was made for Tetris (or the other way round?). Those little Tetronimos are begging to be crocheted together in a tessellation of awesomeness.

Once the idea was in my head it became all I could think about - all day I've had to push thoughts of falling shapes out of my head whilst the theme tune has played on a loop.

As soon as I could, I sat down to plan my baby out - and let me tell you, it was harder than I thought. When you're playing Tetris it doesn't really matter if you place 2 blocks of the same colour together, different matter in crochet-land. I also started by fitting everything together perfectly until I realised that would never do. Obviously once you've made a line in Tetris, it disappears, there's no space for inaccurate crochet thank you very much.

This means I was going to have to have at least one black square on each line and that was actually harder for me to do than it sounds. It basically leaves you with a Tetris blanket of a game that is basically bad - this blanket is not going to represent how you should play Tetris - that pains me a little if I'm honest.

So I did some experimenting and I've come up with 2 proposed layouts.

Layout 1

Layout 2

Layout 1 is the first I worked out and Layout 2 I thought was interesting because it shows the final piece falling into place to score the ultimate prize - a Tetris.

At the moment I'm leaning towards Layout 1 - but I welcome a voting situation here, please feel free to cast your vote.

The border isn't permanent - that was just me having a play. Also the colours won't be totally accurate in terms of the shades.

It has been a thrilling 24 hours since the idea came to me. I have so far avoided Googling Tetris Crochet because I know I won't be the first to have had the idea and there's probably much better out there. For now I'm living off the buzz of my very first experience of creativity. My one and only burst of inspiration that I can truly call my own.

What a thrilling life creative people must lead - this is a high I don't ever want to go away.

When baking goes wrong

So often on blogs I see beautiful pictures of beautiful things - sunsets, children, crafty output, baking - the list is endless.

I am here to buck this trend.

Let me tell you a little story that may make you feel better and realise that everyone in the blogosphere is not a perfect human being, living in a Cath Kidston quilted world with bluebirds putting up my perfectly coiffed hair whilst I embroider with silk.

I decided for one of my Not Really Resolutions this year that I would bake once a month because I miss baking. (It's once a month because my hips do not need me to bake more frequently) In February I decided I would try something a little different and attempt to make some Cookie Monster fairy cakes that I've seen hanging about on the interwebs for some time now.

Everything went very smoothly at first which gave me a false sense of security. The Person's oven has a mind of its own and baking in it should only be taken on at your own risk but, by some miracle, I had 12 happy little fairy cakes all ready to be decorated with blue icing, cookies and marshmallows.

Easy.

"Turn icing blue" should be a simple enough task but I, in a feat which only I could be capable of, managed to cock it up. All I wanted was for my icing to turn a nice bright blue colour and logic told me that I should add more food colouring until it happened. But at some point, when my icing was refusing to turn any brighter than a powder blue no matter how many extra drops I added, this logic was replaced by a crazed obsession which flew in the face of reality and before I knew it, I'd used a whole bottle of food colouring without effecting any change in the colour of the icing.

So I think we can basically call this a fail. The Cookie Monster is supposed to be bright frigging blue, but instead mine were going to look like the Cookie Monster had gone 10 rounds with a bottle of bleach.

There can be no disappointment greater than that of someone whose baking has gone wrong. All that stupid time and effort (not to mention money) and nothing very impressive to show for it. It's gutting.

But I had started and I was bloody well going to finish.

I tried to do fancy piping to make it look like fur but guess what? I can't do that either so I just slapped the icing on any old way and decided that would do. I soldiered on with my decorating until I hit the next stumbling block which came in the form of a lack of white marshmallows (I could only find bags of pink and white ones!) meaning that half my Cookie Monsters looked like they were battling a case of pink eye.

So let us recap my baking adventure:
1. Icing didn't turn blue
2. Fancy piping to look like fur didn't work
3. Ran out of white marshmallows

Don't be jealous of my life bloggers.

And so I challenge you to put up pictures of your shit baking, your crap crochet and your blurry sunsets. For we shall represent what is real and make others feel better about themselves.

Artistic representation of the colour that I wanted my icing to go

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PS I took to Twitter to lament my icing woes and the consensus is that gel colouring/paste is the way forward if I want bright colours. Noted although I don't know I have the internal strength needed to face doing this again.

Not Really Resolutions 2013

Yeah I know. It's past the middle of February. What can I say?

Nothing actually.

Let us pretend that this is the 1st January and I'm an excellent blogger who has not only thought of her Not Really Resolutions beforehand, but has also scheduled a post to go live right at the moment the New Year hits.

Now if there's one thing that 2012 taught me, it's that life can get derailed pretty quickly and the best laid plans can get thrown out of the window. With that in mind I could have just cancelled my Not Really Resolutions this year and laid low but that is just not my way.

Plus I really really like lists.

And so may I present to you: The Not Really Resolutions 2013

1. Get behind the wheel of a car again.
I talk a lot about the fact that I don't drive and it's silly really because technically technically I can drive. I passed my test the very 1st time when I was 17 years old. Unfortunately that was also the last time I was behind the wheel of a car. Yep, that would be almost 13 years ago. I would most definitely not say that I am in a position to take a car out on the road.

People always pull faces and go "Ohmygod that's crazy" and then I make them feel bad by pointing out that when I passed my test I was living with my Mum who could not afford to insure me on her car and wasn't speaking to my Dad so there was nothing doing that side. Then I went to uni in Manchester where a car was never needed because there are approximately 20,000 buses a minute down Oxford Road. Then I was too poor to afford a car and have remained the same ever since.

The fact is it's never been that inconvenient that I didn't own a car, mostly because I've lived in big enough cities with a decent public transport system. However, now I'm living in the back of beyond it's a big deal that I don't have a car and means I'm pretty housebound without one. Sucky suck suck.

SO. This year I will get behind the wheel of a car again, get refresher lessons so that I can at least hire a car, if not get my own.

The first step needs to be renewing my license, which hilariously expired once it was 10 years old having never been used other than a form of ID. Brilliant.

2. Project 365
I really enjoyed Project 365 when I did it in 2011. It did inspire me to attempt to keep a real life in diary in 2012, but unfortunately that was one of the Not Really Resolutions that didn't get done last year. So I've decided to do it again this year - and it's going well so far. Especially considering that all I do is work and then come home and sleep.

Don't expect good photography skills.

Do expect a lot of pictures of cats and dogs.

I know that basically no-one uses Flickr anymore but in the absence of anywhere else to put my photos they are on my photostream where you can also find my photos from 2011.

3. Read 12 Classics.
I don't even feel bad this is on here for the 3rd year running. It was the best idea I've ever had and means that I challenge myself when it comes to my reading.

Plus, I don't think I'll ever run out of Classics to read.

4. Crochet me up an Elmer blanket a la Little Tin Bird
I could come up with an idea myself for a blanket. Or. I could just steal one that's already been done.

I vote for stealing every time.

Ever since I saw this blanket way back in February 2012 I have felt an overwhelming urge to do one for myself. In fact I even made a start before I inexplicably dropped crocheting and started cross-stitching as if my life depended on it for the whole of the year. This will be the year I make it.

It's quite a good one as well because at the moment I am separated from all my crafty things which remain in Preston (sob) but I have space for one ball of wool and a crochet hook, so I can bring a ball of wool back from my weekends in Preston and then sit and make a load of squares here, before returning for more wool.

5. Learn to knit
I have a strange knitting phobia and I'm not entirely sure why. I think it's because I have memories of very stressful weekends where my Mum would try and teach me and then announce that it was impossible because I was left handed. I hate that, left handed people are always told we can't do stuff - fuck you right handers.

Last year I went to a Sit and Knit workshop that was part of an arts festival in Preston and I totally did knit something! Kind of. Ok, it was a shapeless blob, but I definitely was getting a knack for it.

My thing. It was cool, we hung them in the trees as a little yarn bombing thing. Funzone.

Also it turns out I knit right handed which would probably have saved my Mum a lot of stress.

6. Bake once a month
I miss baking. I used to right love it and then I just stopped. I'm going to start again.

That was a good story wasn't it?

7. Go abroad
I haven't been on a proper be abroad, sit on the beach and get cancer holiday since I was 18. 18 I tell you. This is wrong. All wrong. The last time I went abroad was in 2010 when I went to my Dad's house in France. The Person has never been on an abroad holiday ever the poor soul. At the beginning of 2012 we said we were definitely definitely going away. I don't know what happened to that....oh yes, I was made redundant. No holiday. 2013 is going to be the year I go to a place that involves crossing the water that surrounds this island.

8. Makeover my chest of drawers.
Last year I was supposed to make over 2 pieces of furniture but only managed to do one. The chest of drawers from the charity shop remains looking like a chest of drawers from a charity shop. But I do that the stuff for making it over which is one hurdle cleared.

The other hurdle is that it lives in Preston and I don't. We'll figure that out hopefully.

9. Cross stitch a big picture/item just for me.
As you may know, 2012 was the Year of the Needle & Thread and I got my cross stitch on good and proper. This included doing cards which is all well and good but I also did a couple of bigger pictures as presents for people. I'm a selfish gal I want something for myself thank you very much. So this year I'm going to be a selfish stitcher at some point and make something that's mine, all mine.

10. Only buy 12 books all year
Last year I wasn't allowed to buy any books, and believe it or not I actually did it. This was good because my bookshelf of to be read books was not good and a little crazy and I managed to make a dent in it. However, it is far from being empty. In fact it doesn't look like I've made a dent in it at all, I don't know how that happened...

Anyway. I couldn't ban myself for another year for that would be cruel. So instead I'm imposing a limit. I initially said one a month but I know buying 1 book at a time is basically impossible for me so I'm averaging it out and saying 12 books altogether. This is good as it's only February and I've already bought 3.

As usual my Kindle does not apply (although I never use it and currently don't even know where it is, but it's there as a back-up) and if people buy me books or give me vouchers to spend (hint hint) then that falls outside the 12 also.

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And there we have it.

That's why I haven't done this post yet; because it takes an inordinate amount of time to write!

So here we go. You will be able to keep up with how I'm doing by taking a little click on the page at the top right that says Not Really Resolutions 2013.

As long as I actually remember to update it that is. Probably should have put that as one of my resolutions.

If you wanted to know how I've fared at my Not Really Resolutions in the past you can look here and here.