[ Reverb10 : Day 19 : Healing ]

This piece was written on 2nd January 2011.
Day 19. What healed you this year? Was it sudden, or a drip-by-drip revelation? How would you like to be healed in 2011?

I'm confused by this prompt. I don't feel healed at all. In fact, I feel quite the opposite right now. My back is stiff from sitting too long, my stomach is roiling because I forgot to take my Colitis medication until lunchtime, and the eczema on my hand itches and flakes. Or does the prompt mean healed psychologically? Cos I'm pretty crazy...

But no, there is something I can think of. When I got back from Europe in October, I stopped waking up at 5am. The negativity in my head lessened. I was excited about things again. I saw more. When I tried to relax, it worked. When I ventured out into the company of others, the anxiety was less. I felt centred. I hate that word, but I can't think of any other way to describe how I felt - like I was in the middle of my life.

I beg the Universe every day not to let this feeling slip back into the oblivion of my ingrained habits.

Quick Art Journalling Update

All of my art journalling supplies are still packed up in boxes. But I wasn't silly enough to pack my art journal itself away! I need to know where that baby is! In the last week I've been desperate to express myself. So I went out and bought a glue stick and grabbed some of the magazines and junk mail that have been lying around. Obviously these pages are still very much works in progress, but it felt so good just to do a bit of cutting and pasting!

I took these pictures on my balcony, and the wind kept blowing the pages over, so excuse my foot keeping them open!

The one on the top right I did after I bought a mis-colour paint pot from Bunnings. This page is a response to watching reports of the cyclones and floods on the news. The words I wrote with a whiteboard marker that I found. Phrases like "torrential rain", "severe flooding", "emergency evacuation shelters" keep appearing. I couldn't find any paint brushes so I used my finger.

In The Kitchen, Special Edition: SPAM!

Recently, I've started receiving spam comments on my blog. They're mostly ads for what seem to be dating sites or online training courses. I'm not 100% sure, because they're in Russian. Google translate is good, but you can never be completely sure. [Note: this passage refers to my Livejournal blog, where this post was originally hosted.]

I don't know if I've been bestowed this honour because I've reached a certain number of readers, or just because my blog has been around a long time. Either way, I've decided to take the bull by the horns and make lemonade. Or Spam, to be more precise.

I declared a Weekend of Spam! A Spam-aganza!

I went out and bought 3 cans of Spam for 3 meals. All varieties just happened to be on sale at my local supermarket. The only varieties I could get were these ones:

But they were more than suitable for my needs.
On Friday night, Boy and I made Pita Pizzas with sticks of Hot & Spicy Spam for the meat. Sometimes when a food is advertised as 'hot' and/or 'spicy', it ends up tasting fairly lame. But this really had some kick to it. We used half of the can. The pizzas also had capsicum, red onion and a scattering of brie:

On Saturday morning, I made Eggs Spam-edict. I used the Spam with Real Bacon. It tasted quite bacony and had a certain, slightly chewy texture. I cut the slab of meat (or should that be 'meat'?) up into 4 large slices. Here it is sizzling away nicely in the pan. I used garlic butter to give it some extra flavour.

Here is the Spam with Real Bacon assembled on the muffins with the eggs. Boy and I like our hollandaise sauce! Needless to say, we didn't really eat much for the rest of the day.

On Sunday, Boy and I had Spam Lite for lunch. See how it glistens appealingly on the board after it has slid with an satisfying slurp from the can?

I wanted to make Spam Musubi (the Hawai'ian favourite). I've never made shaped rice by hand before, so I think I did pretty well. Boy made some handrolls as well with Spam cut into sticks, and eggroll that he had made. We had a couple of rounds of rice paper in the cupboard, so I turned the meal into a smorgasbord by cooking up some noodles and making Spam Paper Rolls. I'm glad I reserved the Spam Lite for this meal, as it gave the food a fresher feel. We used up about 3/4 of the can making this Asio-Pacific Spam-tacular for Two.

Even the cat loves Spam! (We made sure only to give her some of the Lite version). Actually, I think we've created an addict. She wouldn't leave us alone the whole time we were in the kitchen. Oops.

Tonight we'll be having the left-over Hot & Spicy Spam on another round of Pita Pizzas, as we wave goodbye to our 3-day Exploration of Spam. One thing is for sure, I won't be eating Spam again for a long, long time.

[ Reverb10 : Day 18 : Try ]

Written on 2nd January 2011.
Day 18. What do you want to try next year? Is there something you wanted to try in 2010? What happened when you did/didn't go for it?

Try? I wrote about my dislike of the word 'try' just recently. To me, it smacks of failure. Perhaps it just needs a shift of perspective - to try something new, without the expectation of success or failure. Now it sounds almost exciting.

What did I try in 2010? What was new? The first thing that comes to mind is - I tried writing knitting patterns. Well, I was kind of forced into it really, due to a technical mix-up that I wrote about in this post. I found it fun and refreshing.

I often make up projects on the spot, and always regret not writing down how I made them. Recording them gave me a sense of satisfaction. I felt relieved that I had something I could refer back to easily later on. And I figured - why not clean them up and share them with other people while I'm at it? Ravelry provides a free and easy way of doing it. I just wonder if other people understand them....

I have no idea if I actually wrote them well as I have no feedback. Although a few users said they were looking forward to knitting my dishcloths, which was scarily exciting. (Or excitingly scary?)

The part I liked best was creating the PDF - editing the text, placing the photos, choosing the fonts, etc. I remember this being an enjoyable part of writing essays when I was at Uni, too. Perhaps its something I could look into finding out more about in 2011.

Conclusions for January / Actions for February

THEMES FOR 2011
CREATE....................MEDITATE....................MOVE....................DE-CLUTTER

Actions that I wanted to achieve in January were:

* Express the Themes for 2011 in my art journal.

Done and blogged!
........ DONE.

* Finish 1 craft project every week.

Hm. Well. Every action from this point onwards was affected heavily by the fact that I had to move house during this period. So please bear this in mind! I didn't finish any craft projects, however: I threw one in the bin (callous, I know, but I was being ruthless). I put two on the scrap list, two on the maybe scrap list, and I lost one. I'm not sure how that happened, but the packing became pretty frenzied after a while. By my count that's at least 4 that're gone, even if they weren't finished. So I'm counting this action as
........ DONE.

* Fulfill my exercise schedule every day this month.

I didn't do what was on my schedule, but the only reason for that was I expended all my energy in packing, hauling stuff and cleaning. I feel like I Moved more than enough for one month! Still, I'm hesitant to call this one done. It would seem like cheating.

* Go on a drawing picnic.

I didn't get time for this, for obvious reasons! But I feel that doing something relaxing is important, so I'm not going to drop it.

* Review and de-clutter my finished novels.

I think that taking over 60 books to the Op Shop during my clean-out counts!
........ DONE.

* Take previously de-cluttered items to the Op Shop.

I have to laugh at this one. Here I was, thinking that it would take all year to de-clutter my stuff, bit by bit. Yet thanks to a single piece of paper (i.e. the Notice to Vacate), I've achieved this yearly goal within the first month!! You know those large garbage bags? The really big ones about half as tall as a person and just as wide? Boy and I donated 12 of those to the Op Shop, and 19 into the rubbish. I even astound myself! I now only own things that I want to own and think that I need. So I might be forgiven for thinking that this goal/theme has been achieved. Already? Can that be possible? Sure, the physical de-cluttering is done, but what about all that unpacking? Plus I feel there's still a lot of mental and emotional de-cluttering to be done. So perhaps the emphasis just needs to change a bit. This particular action though?
........ DONE.

* Read a book on procrastination.

I read not just one, but two! I also wrote a review on them which I'll be posting soon.
........ DONE.

So there you go. I didn't achieve everything for this month, but I think I had good reason. And one action I achieved beyond my wildest dreams! Things have changed a bit, but I expected that. That's why I wanted to avoid doing something like picking a single word, or a certain set of goals for the whole year. A year is a long time after all!

Now for February's Actions:

* Unpack one box every day. (DE-CLUTTER)
* Begin Walk/Run Programme and do twice per week. (MOVE)
* Set up a portable art journalling station. (CREATE)
* Go on a drawing picnic. (CREATE / MEDITATE)

Etsy Purchase

Perhaps it's a little late to talk about the Christmas present that I bought for myself, but I love the items I bought from Sparkle Blue Faery's Artfire shop so much that I wanted to talk about my purchase anyway.

I bought a handmade journal and a zine about recycled crafts. (The exact name escapes me now, and everything is packed, so I can't check the details.) The zine has some great ideas for re-inventing ordinary household items which I'd like to try. The journal is very high quality and was obviously made with care and love. It's the second one I've bought from Karis, and I'll enjoy using it as much as I did the first. The cover is decorated beautifully: she has a great eye for colour.

She also included some free gifts - some smaller zines, ACEOs and handmade postcards. I was thrilled with these as I love to have a bookmark for each of my special books, and these will definitely fit the bill. The whole came packaged in the most gorgeous parcel, which you can see in the photo peeking out from the edges. I can't describe how excited I was when I saw it in my letterbox!

This photo was taken a few weeks ago, in my new photography light tent!
Only two days now til we move house. Then perhaps I can get on with some good, hard crafting!

Distracted ... by Embroidery

Vintage Embroidery - Duchess Set, posted by Vintage LOVE on Flickr.
The last few days I've had a really strong urge to sew, and now to embroider. Specifically doileys! (Though maybe not quite so ... horsey as the ones above.) Sadly though, all my craft supplies are packed up in boxes and waiting to be shifted to the new apartment next Saturday.

A whole week with no craft??!! How will I survive??!!

To be honest, I'll be too busy organising things, packing other items and cleaning in the next week, anyway. I knew I had a lot of books, but ... whooeee! Perhaps it's for the best that I packed the craft supplies first. Still, it makes me sigh.

Love from,
la Casa de Boxes.
xx