A 7th Week of Happiness...

It's obviously going to take me longer than a year to get through this as some weeks I don't feel well enough to blog, but I don't think that really matters - its about changing the way you think, its about looking for things that make you smile, even if they are small things and sometimes even in the face of adversity!  I think those are the times when it's even more important to find something positive to be thankful for.

This week, it's been pretty easy to find things to be happy about - it was my birthday a few days ago and I've been overwhelmed by the kindness of others, especially as I haven't been very good at keeping track of other peoples birthdays over the past few years, which is something I really need to work on.  The two shelves above my television are crowded with beautiful birthday cards which make me smile every time I look at them, they are a reminder that I am fortunate to have some wonderful friends and family.  :)

On my birthday I had lunch with two friends I've known since I was 8 years old, we went to a lovely little cafe in an ex-coastguard station perched on top of the cliffs in the village where we grew up.  It was pretty cold and blustery so I took a photo of our view across the English Channel through the window from the comfort of our table in the tearoom...

I've noticed that every few years, I go down to the Bay on my birthday, so here is a photo from this year's visit...

It's the first time I've been out with my "big camera" for ages and it actually felt pretty good to be taking proper photos again  :)

I've completed my bear for January thanks to a small piece of pale green sheer fabric from one of my friends which I used for one side of the wings.  The bear is going in an exhibition at my local library next week which is being put on by the craft club I attend there once a fortnight.  Being a library based group we took some of our inspiration from books and this little bear is my take on Tinkerbell from Peter Pan...

Yesterday, I went to a morning workshop on making fused glass jewellery.  It's a shame that I can't find any cool courses like this locally but this one took place in the town where my sister lives so it was a great opportunity to spend some time with family.  It was a long and tiring day but absolutely wonderful and I don't even care that I can barely move today!

Years ago, I used to enjoy making things from stained glass until my hands started playing up to much, but was pleased to discover yesterday that I remembered how to cut glass successfully and as I've found with my bear-making, cutting small pieces is a lot easier.  It'll probably be a few weeks before I get my finished pieces back as firing glass takes too long to have got our pieces back the same day so I'm waiting very impatiently and with great excitement to see what the finished result will look like.

The photo above shows one of the pieces I'm most excited about.  The tutor told us that pieces of copper turn a beautiful deep burnished red when sandwiched between two pieces of glass.  I wanted to try this and chose a piece of white glass for the background, with a piece of "fracture and streamer" glass on top.  I thought the top piece I cut reminded me of reeds or tall grasses so I cut some tiny leaf shapes from the copper.  I'll post more pictures once I get my finished pieces back.

Resolutions

I don't usually make resolutions because I'm not very good at keeping them, but this year so many of my friends were making 14 resolutions for 2014 that I thought I would have a go at making some too.

I wanted to use a Dungeness photo here and this was the only one I could find on my computer, it's not the most exciting photo of the place, which is beautiful, desolate and surreal, but maybe appropriate for today's theme of looking back and looking forward...

Now we're nearly a month into the New Year, I thought I'd share my list and how I'm doing so far...

1. Try to make at least one bear a month - I don't know about you but I've been feeling really flat this month and struggling to get going with my crafting after the big push to complete Christmas presents in time, but I may just manage to finish my current bear by the end of the month so I might be on track for this one  :)
2. Rehome the last of Sue's things - it will soon be a year since my friend died but I still have a couple of things to deliver.  I just need to recontact the people concerned and make a bit more effort on this one.
3. Visit Wildwood - a proper visit this time, and I promise to take my camera and share some photos with you.  It's such a special place, well worth a visit  :)
4. A photo day in Dungeness - another great place to visit, I've been promising myself a return visit for about two years, so it's about time I got around to it!
5. Stop lending (giving) son money!  This is a hard one as he's one of the most disorganised people on the planet, but he needs to learn to stand on his own two feet and keep helping him out isn't doing much for my finances.  Tough love is VERY hard and I've broken this one already, but I'm slowly getting better at it.
6. Try to go to the pool more often - I was never a confident swimmer and these days I can rarely even bring myself to let go of the rail!  I go to a very warm pool just a few miles away when I do go, but haven't been well enough so far this year, so complete fail on this one so far  :(
7. Be more organised - I've managed on the whole to keep on top of a couple of target tasks, so I'm going to count this one as a success  :)
8. Try a new craft - hopefully this will be another success as I'm booked on a one morning workshop this weekend  :)
9. Tackle the paperwork pile - well I've started, and even taken a bag full of shredded paper for recycling so another success  :)
10. Declutter - I've done a bit of decluttering recently with the help of Freegle, so I'm going to count this one as a success.  :)
11. Go to bed earlier and try to get up earlier - hmmm... I've been sleeping so badly that I think I'll call this one a work in progress.
12. Make more effort to keep in touch with family and friends - I think this will have to count as a work in progress too as I've already missed sending a couple of birthday cards  :/
13. Join in a craft blog swap - I'm actually working on this one!  I'm registered with a swap, I have a swap partner and I've even gathered together some items I've made so this one should be a success!  :)
14. Eat more healthily - this is obviously a long term goal and ignoring today's rather haphazard diet, I have been working on this one.  It's my birthday this week so I'm not going to get stressed if friends or family feed me a chocolate muffin or a Crunchie bar (guilty on both counts) but on the whole I've been doing quite well at cutting down on unhealthy snacks and have so far lost around 6 lbs  :)

So on the whole I've been doing quite well I think so I don't think my resolutions are going to be a complete disaster.  Maybe this year I've been more realistic with my tasks?  Looking at the list, I seem to have set a range of long and short-term goals, some of which I don't need to tackle straight away and I'm not giving myself a hard time over any slips.  It will be interesting to take another look at the list at the end of the year to see how I feel about my list then.  I wonder if I'll be able to say I succeeded with all my tasks?