jadesfire

1. I had forgotten the sheer pleasure of stomping around in New Shoes. My boots are, indeed, awesome, and I feel like I can do anything while I'm wearing them.

2. snowflake_challenge PEOPLE. I have gathered together all the challenges that people posted for Day 14 into one handy-dandy spreadsheet, which you can find here. I assembled it last night, when I got home too exhausted to think but knowing I needed to stay up for a few hours to avoid totally messing with my sleep schedule.

The 'Type' column is only approximate. I just wanted to find a way to roughly divide it. Most of them should be self-explanatory! I stumbled across some I'd missed while putting it together, which was fun, so hopefully you will too.

Feel free to share the link around! The more snowflakes, the better.

3. My new journal still isn't here, so I've decided that I'll set it up through this week, and begin my new year properly on Monday. January has been good for shaking my brain up, but I feel like cloudy water at the moment, and need some time for everything to settle again. I remember setting goals and making lists, but as usual, my brain has mistaken "making a list of things to do" for "having done the thing", and I think I need to spend some time gathering everything together again.

4. So far, ironically, I haven't felt much inclined to engage with any of my fic, podfic or even source material. I think it's just January blues, but hopefully revisiting the lists and plans will help. My Fannish mood feels very dull and grey like the weather today, which is making me grumpy. I think I just need to rewatch stuff, reread my WsIP (which I've convinced myself suck) and get recording some podfic again.

When I get like this, it always has to be a two-stage approach to getting out of it again. The first stage is being kind to myself, and reminding myself that it's fine not to do things if I don't want to. But at a certain point, some moods just don't lift. Then, I just have to do. Something. Anything. For five minutes. Just...turn it on. And do that six or seven times over until it sticks. It's definitely the hard way of doing things, but it's better than waiting to feel better, because that can take a very long time.

5. In that spirit, let me show you my first finished crochet object of the year, elegantly modelled by Teddy, who was a Christmas present and has a heat pack in his tummy :)

My Mother-in-Law wanted a hat, but I was unimpressed by the ones we could get within our present price limit. I also couldn't find a pattern I thought she'd like, so I made one up. I meant to write it all down before I handed it over, but, of course, I forgot, so I'll just have to steal it back in the summer to reverse engineer it, because I rather want one for myself!

teddy bear wearing a red beret

5a. One of the things I did in December as part of committing myself to posting more was upgrade to a paid account, pretty much entirely for the number of icon slots. No regrets, because while I mostly still use my gerbera, I'd forgotten how much fun icon selection can be!

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From:

thisbluespirit

The hat is gorgeous! I'm very impressed.

But at a certain point, some moods just don't lift. Then, I just have to do. Something. Anything. For five minutes. Just...turn it on. And do that six or seven times over until it sticks. It's definitely the hard way of doing things, but it's better than waiting to feel better, because that can take a very long time.

*nods*

jadesfire

Thanks! It's fairly simple to make, but not simple enough that I can just remember how ;)

It's so tricky knowing when I need to wait to be in the right frame of mind to do things, and when I need to just get on with things because that frame of mind isn't going to arrive. That's definitely still a work in progress!

misbegotten

I love the hat so much.

but it's better than waiting to feel better, because that can take a very long time.

Yes indeed. Good luck to you.

alithea

Love the hat! I really must actually cast on the one I promised Hubby I'd knit for him - once I've started I'm sure I'll soon get it done but I do need to actually start...

Thank you! I was very pleased with the hat, now I just need to get it written down :)

The sun has come out and it's now lunchtime, so things are definitely looking up!

I find getting the 'activation energy' to get going is by far the hardest part. Once I'm going, it's much easier to stay that way, but getting there? Really tough!

Yeah, to get started I need to find the pattern and needles which are in a box with a load of stuff on top of it and remind myself how to cast on (it's been a while!) but once I'm going I just need to sit and do mostly stocking stitch in the round - even I can do that while watching TV or reading on my kindle!