Shoshiplatypus

Well, what can one say about 2020? So much has been said already so I’m not going to say anything! – at least, about national and world events which I actually do have a great deal to say about, but this is not a political blog. I shall stick to my own personal year.

Creativity

UFOs

When WOYWW (“What’s On Your Workdesk (this) Wednesday,” the longest-lasting blog hop on the web) celebrated its 11th anniversary this year, the celebrations had to be of a different nature than normal because of the lockdown. Our host, Julia, suggested that we all dug out one or more of our UFOs (UnFinished Objects) and finished them! This was such a great idea. I think I may be entitled to win the prize for the largest number of UFOs and the oldest ones too… I haven’t completed them all but I’ve made major inroads, and am pleased to have got some of them out of the way. Here’s a selection.

Drawing and painting

I haven’t done as much as usual in my studio this year because I seem to have concentrated more on textile stuff – knitting, crochet and embroidery. I have done quite a bit of drawing and painting, though. I scanned my original drawings so that I could print them out and paint them at different sizes.

Celtic knot drawings

I worked on several batches of these drawings, using different treatments, including some digital.

Mandala designs

These were printed out from my original digital drawings done on the iPad with Procreate, and then hand-coloured.

Florabunda

I did a selection of small drawings from my Florabunda Zentangle book, and added colour – some old, some new.

Other drawings

I did some experimenting with freeform Celtic knotwork and incorporated some Zentangle into these drawings.

This drawing of two koi carp was adapted from a free adult colouring page.

To colour these pictures, I used a combination of Distress and Distress Oxides for backgrounds, and the set of Tombow watercolour markers that I bought this year – just gorgeous to use – on a gessoed background they flow and blend beautifully.

Cards

I used several of my small drawings, especially the Celtic knots and mandalas, to make  a few cards.

Embroidery – Tiny Carpets project

Probably my most important project of the year was three needle books with miniature Oriental rugs worked in cross stitch for the covers. This project took me several months. The first two were made by special request, and the third was offered as a giveaway for a WOYWW member to celebrate the 600th post of this amazing and enduring blog hop.

New art and craft equipment

Every year I get more equipment! No wonder my studio is so cluttered these days… New stuff this year included:

Tombow Dual Brush Pens, in a case I bought to store all my pens.

Crochet

Rather late in the day I decided to make a couple of throws for the new sitting room furniture we got recently. I had hoped to get the first one finished in time to give to my hubby for Christmas but there is still a lot to do, and I’ve had to order more yarn in order to complete the full number of squares.

The kitty throw so far.

Next in the pipeline is a large throw for the settee, using the famous Persian Tiles pattern. These are the colours I am going to use.

I have been watching a lot of crochet videos on YouTube recently, with loads of hints and tips and fun patterns. I have been crocheting for about 60 years and still have so much to learn!

WOYWW

The “What’s On Your Workdesk this Wednesday” blog hop hit a major milestone this year – its 600th post! Due to the Covid situation the normal meet-up couldn’t take place, but this suited me down to the ground because I’ve never been able to get to one of those, and this year Julia, our hostess, arranged two meetings on Zoom. We were able to “meet” some members of the group that we hadn’t met before, which was great. This blog hop is such a hub of friendship, inspiration and caring.

Pantry labels

I’ve updated my pantry jars this year and made some new labels for the ones that had been missing.

This brings us neatly on to our next subject:

Food

In June of this year we finally went 100 percent whole-food plant-based when we abandoned dairy. The reason I had taken so long over this was that I really enjoyed the natural yoghurt I used to make, and could not make a satisfactory non-dairy version. Eventually I discovered a way of making a delicious creamy natural yoghurt from soya milk, which I have been doing ever since.

Each week on my blog I have usually included a feature on food and nutrition, and choosing a recipe of the week to share. Having had gastrointestinal issues for many years, I have had a growing interest in nutrition which has blossomed since serious illness five years ago. The transition to whole-food plant-based, including fermented foods for probiotic benefit has been the final stage of the journey, and I continue to increase my knowledge by further research, and further experimentation in the kitchen – I love cooking and really enjoy exploring the exciting plant-based ingredients.

I have added to my kitchen gadgets this year, and these new machines, although not essential for this lifestyle, certainly make life easier! It is perfectly possible to live whole-food plant-based without doing a lot of cooking but I prefer to cook from scratch, from raw ingredients so that I know exactly what is going in our food, and it’s as natural as possible. The machines take a lot of the hard work out of it.

This is the line-up that I have to date – older ones are high speed blender and Ninja Foodi multi-cooker which I mostly use as an electric pressure cooker.

I’ve got too many pictures of dishes I have cooked this year to include any here but you can scroll back to see it all.

Kitties

Our two girlies have continued to delight and amuse us all year. They have such sweet characters – mostly very loving, towards us and each other, and with their own funny individual little ways.

I think this is one of my favourite pictures of them from the previous year – taken back in the early spring when the lockdown came in.  They are giving us a lesson in social distancing. (Not.) At the time, their favourite place was in a box of wools that I’d brought down from the studio, lying on top of lots of knobbly balls of yarn and hard cones. Eventually my hubby spoilt them by putting a blanket in there for them!

Health

Absolutely nothing has happened this year regarding getting my hernia repair done. I have a recurrent, intractable parastomal hernia which has been repaired twice. After the second repair I was seriously ill with a post-operative infection which caused the hernia repair to fail, and my surgeon referred me to Exeter to a colleague who specialises in complex repairs. It is now two years since that referral and I have twice been lost in their administrative system, the second time in the complaints department! With the advent of Covid, it looks as if this operation is never going to happen.

My bladder problems (nerve damage caused by chemotherapy in 2015) have been addressed and pretty much sorted by a physiotherapist. I have had several telephone appointments with her since the lockdown and having examined my detailed bladder diary, she gave me a regimen to follow, and things have definitely improved. I do tend to fall off the wagon because the discipline of going to the loo every 2 hours can be a bit irksome to say the least, particularly when a) I’m in the middle of something; b) it’s cold weather and I don’t want to leave the comfort of a warm sitting room and c) I’ve got at least one cat on my lap… However, I do know what to do to get myself back on track, and I know what is causing the problem.

I had another eye test this year and my cataracts are far from ready to be dealt with, and anyway the waiting list in a retirement area is ridiculously long without the added complication of Covid. New glasses have helped somewhat, and I’m going to have to grin and bear it for a few more years yet.

My ME had more or less plateaued out over the years but since going whole-food plant-based, I’ve definitely got more energy than previously, and I have fewer really bad days. I am not too good at pacing, which is really the only management technique that has any benefit, and do tend towards “boom and bust,” but it’s not as bad as it was. My sleep pattern is still appalling. Being at home most of the time anyway, unless my hubby takes me, and with the lockdown this has been pretty much 100 percent, I am probably less aware of my mobility issues than normal. My stairlift has broken down several times this year which is a pest, but the service contract I have (which costs at least 2 arms and 2 legs) means they do come out pretty quickly to repair it.

Not much chance to be out and about enjoying my super-duper new wheelchair!

Clothes

I have had some fun this year, modelling my favourite garments. Because my weight loss over the past few years has been so spectacular (5 stone in total), I am now able to get into all my old favourites again, and I’m so glad I didn’t get rid of them! I’ve also had a few new things, mostly from Ebay, and my hubby has done my fashion shoot in the garden, surrounded by all the lovely flowers he planted in the patio during lockdown. Never has the garden looked lovelier – a great backdrop!

New Year Resolutions

People often say “don’t make them, because you won’t keep them,” but I always do make them, and some of them I do actually manage to keep!

Here are last year’s ones. How did I do?

So… here are my resolutions for 2021.

1. Tomorrow I am going to stop procrastinating. Same as last year. Guaranteed success on this one.
2. Continue to complete the accounts within the first week of every month. I’ve proved this is doable.
3. Tidy up. Same as last year. I resolve to do better this year. I definitely need to have a major blitz in the studio.
4. Ditto.
5. Continue to work on my UFOs, and try not to generate too many more!
6. Once I get back in the studio, continue to try and use my cutting machine more.
7. Continue, as last year, to keep on top of my email inbox.
8. Spend more time reading and studying the Bible. This should really be Number One!!! Since Covid, the Bible study group has disbanded. It would be great to get this going again.
9. Clear some of the rubbish off my computer. It needs a good spring clean.

Most of my resolutions are the same as last year! This is probably because I didn’t manage to keep some of them very well, and the rest are good ones anyway.

My hubby should resolve not to spoil the kitties so much. They are absolutely ruined, and get away with murder!

I wish all my friends, followers and visitors a very happy, healthy, creative and successful New Year.