Hippy New Year!

Well, I for one am very glad that 2011 is over; it was a truly rubbish year for lots of reasons. Sadly the Uberhound passed away and left a very big gap in our lives….we adopted another puppy to help to fill the void, but sadly the puppy died of parvo virus four days after we brought him home.

Our holiday to the Forest of Dean was a very subdued affair, particularly as we’d chosen it because there were lots of places for doggy adventures.  

But life goes on and we went to lots of places (although we didn’t see any wild hogs like we wanted to).

We even went on an old steam train

We also visited Puzzlewood where they film Merlin – what a great place!!

The Barefoot festival that I volunteer at with a friend was as good as usual…in a new bigger location and the usual fab cabaret and fire show.

Halloween was a fun night – we dressed up and scared all the local children

The Autumn term was really manic as usual, we had an OFSTED visit, plus observations, so that pretty much took up the whole term.

The Hafla was  great although very exhausting as I’d managed to put myself in a position where I was doing 5 dances, including my very first Tribal performance! This involved four costume changes!! *lol*

Alot of my pre-Christmas time was taken up with crafting a pair of fairy wings for my friend – I was quite pleased with the results!

Christmas was great, as was New Year. I fully intend to spend alot more time crafting this year and have kicked the New Year off to the right start by organising the first Winter Hippy Swap on Craftster, so hopefully there’ll be some more creations to show you soon!

2010 an Odyssey…

Happy New Year folks! I hope your New Year got off to a great start? How could it not with such an amazing Blue Moon to herald in the New Year! It was glorious and so bright. Just as the moon was starting to rise, I was lucky enough to catch a glimpse of it and it was huge and heavy, sitting on the horizon. Sadly I didn’t have my camera on me at that time, but I managed to get a few shots in after the magic hour…

We had a great night playing Wii and seeing in the New Year.

So as always, I like to do a little recap on the past year, it helps put the year in perspective. Even the worst years have silver linings when you look hard enough. I like to remember the positive things, the successes and the achievements rather than the failures or disappointments. So what have I achieved this year? Well, the thing that  is most memorable about this year is my flying lesson! What an amazing experience and certainly one I’ll never forget!

I’m most proud of the fact that I passed my TESOL qualification and I now teach EFL for a few hours a week. This was particularly an achievement because of my stroke a year and a half ago. I also now teach full time, having got another teaching job as well this year. Sadly, my jobs are two part-time, hourly paid jobs which equate to full time hours but without full time benefits like holiday pay. Sad, but true, but I still count it as an achievement. We also managed to get a holiday in this year, the first for years. It wasn’t without it’s hiccups *cough*clutch*cough* but our visit to Cornwall was lovely and we managed to get to Eden which was great. Actually, we got two holidays if you count our weekend in Glastonbury which was so relaxing.

So what else have I done? I’ve lost almost two stone this year, bringing me back down to my pre-TESOL weight, I’ve been to see a musical in London…

I was a volunteer steward for the Barefoot Festival, a festival of dance…

I danced at two Halfas and went to Alton Towers with my Sis…

I finished my first cable project and a number of other outstanding WIPs. I did a lot of reconstruction and embellishment projects, and some jewellery projects. I cleared a large part of my garden and made a little seating area which hopefully I’m going to improve this year. There is more, but I’m not going to bore you with all the little details. You can look back over my blog for those.

So, plans for this year? Well, this week we’re finally getting our living room floor laminated. Hurray! That’s a major outstanding project. I’m going to get out and about more, and now I have Pearl to guide me (my new SatNav), there should be no problem there. I’d also like to play around more with my mini microwave kiln because I haven’t had much of a chance to do that this year. Too much work and not enough play time makes Samsara a very frustrated girlie! I’m going to go to more festivals and parties, get away more in my caravan, and hopefully get a bit fitter. I’d like to de-clutter my house a little this year. Like many crafters, I’m a terrible hoarder. I’m going to try and getter a better balance in my life, between work, creativity, social and virtual (I discovered Facebook this year and spend way, way too much time on there *lol*)

Well, that’s all I’ve got at the moment. I’m not one for making ‘Resolutions’, I just have things I’d like to do if I get the opportunity'; then I don’t beat myself up about things if I don’t manage them! So, 2010, a new year and a new beginning, another chapter in my personal odyssey. Bring it on!

New Year here

So, did we all celebrate the end of the year in style then? Things here were random as always, friends came over, alcohol was consumed (although I did stick to my limit, which was very very hard!) and the Wii was busted out. I checked with my Anti-Coag nurse on Christmas Eve whether it would be very bad to have an extra drink or two over the festive period. Hmm, how many are we talking here she asked. An extra one, or an extra two? Because an extra one every once in a blue moon won't do you any harm, but an extra two may put you in hospital and you certainly can't make a habit of it. Yikes! So I've been good. I had an extra one on Christmas Day, and I had an extra one on New years Eve, even though I could quite easily have carried on drinking, I stopped and was disappointingly sensible. However much I'd have like to get a bit drunk for a change, I really don't fancy the idea of being back in hospital, or worse. It was amusing watching the other's get drunk though. Well, K and I watched them get drunk. He's not old enough to drink yet, so we were sensible together!

G and K came round with their dog Tia, who promptly took up guard in Joe's bed, and Joe being the chicken gentleman dog that he is, let her. Tia was very grumpy because she's allowed on the sofa at her house, but not in ours.

G decided to wear the dogs festive antlers (yeah, she'd had a bit to drink before she decided that this was a good idea *lol*)

We played bowling for hours with some great music on.

G got her first strike and was duely congratulated.

The clock struck twelve and we saw the New Year in in the garden watching all the fireworks

and waving sparklers (K is happier than it seems in this photo *lol*)

Unfortunately M's celebrations in the garden caused his cold to go onto his chest and has had to go to the Doc's today for some happy pills to sort out a chest infection. Silly boy!

Craftwise, here's the mystery project all finished and assembled. It's a sunflower hair grip. I just felt like a bit of sun in my life as its midwinter here and it'll be months before we see the warm weather return! It's two layers of felt edged in glitter, then a central circle of felt which I beaded in lots of yellows, browns and oranges. One of my aims this year is to make a tribal headpiece, so I've been thinking of ways to do the flowers. I may try to get some silk ones, or I might make some from scratch.

I also finished another Meret for a friend, this one's in white and yeah, it's another stash busting project. I'm usually not a big lover of white, but this looked good on my hair as I'm a brunette. It was a nice contrast. Luckily the friend I've made it for is a brunette too.

And here's another mystery stash busting project. Those needles are 20mm! I'm using about 5 strands of yarn so it's nice and colourful. Can you guess what it it? Ah, I'm not giving anything away here, so you'll have to see when it's finished.

So it's back to work on Monday. I'm going to be trying to get some of my outstanding assignments completed over the weekend so that I have a clean slate when the TESOL new term starts again. I've also got some lesson plans to finalise for the coming term. We have lots of new intake arriving this week, so it's possible my timetable might change again.

New Years Resolutions? Well, I try not to make too many, and this year I have alot on my plate, so my main one is to pass my TESOL course, but I think I also need to lose weight/get fit (yeah, I know, everyone seems to have that on their list at this time of year), get the hang of my microwave kiln, make a new tribal headdress and costume for my belly dancing, and to get away in the caravan a few times this year. I'm also looking at a fisheye Lomo Holga camera so I might have to splash out and treat myself I have a pocket Holga, but it takes 110 film and that's hard to get hold of and even harder to process. I'm still doing my 101 in 1001 project, so many of my goals are on there anyway.

I'm not going to review my year here, it's had a lot of ups and downs and some places I don't want to go right now, but I'd like you to know that I love writing my random scribbling's here, and I read and treasure every comment made, so even if I don't reply to you directly (I wish Blogger would allow us to do that) I really value your kind words and appreciate all your visits to my crafty blog!

Right, back to the books. Have fun and may your year be a good one!

Happy New Year!

 

I wish you all a very Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year!

Happy New Year!

Well, Christmas has been and gone and with it, 2006 finally leaves us! It has had a final sting in it's tail as it left us though, as the BF was made redundant on Monday. We had been hoping that our luck would change this year, and it seemed that things were going from bad to worse. We spent the week registering with agencies and contacting various utilities companies to tell them the situation. One of the agencies set him up with an interview and the BF managed to get a job which will start on Monday. It is just 10 minutes down the road and the same hours (although less money) but thank the gods, he will be getting a paycheck in 2 weeks. All we have to do is to make it till then. the last job haven't paid him, he has had to claim some money from the government for what is owed to him, so it will probably be a month with no money. We have frozen the bank account to avoid charges, and we have made sure we have plenty of dog and cat food in. It won't hurt us to starve a little, but I'd hate to think that our babies were hungry!

Anyway, back to the crafty stuff. I have made a delivery to the gallery with some glass and listed some stuff in Ebay and Etsy. It's good to get back to business, it's been hard to be creative with everything that has been going on. I completed my goodies for the owl swap and posted them this week. My partners have come through for the Celtic Swap and the Mushroom swap so my brain is brimming with ideas for my crafty partners. I made a bracelet today for my Celtic swap partner - I really like it, but hey ho, it's for someone else!

Right, back to business! I've also been experimenting with some ATC's. Here are some of my efforts.