That is this month's prompt for the 10 on the 10th by Marsha in the Middle, and it's a difficult one for me.
I could just go the easy way and say I want to remember everything that was good and forget everything that was bad, but it doesn't really work that way, does it?
Another reason is that, the older I get, the blurrier the years seem to get. Was this last week, last month, last year? Whenever I watch "12 Angry Men" and they talk about alibis and not remembering a movie one of them has seen not long ago, I try to remember details of something not that far back and I fail regularly. I would make an absolutely terrible witness in court, and if I were the defendant, I would probably march straight to jail, innocent or not.
Ask me details from one of my vivid dreams, however, or my favorite song lyrics from the 80s, I'm your woman.
Lastly, my life is quite uneventful and quiet, others would probably even say it's boring.
Let's see what I can still get together from last year, in completely random order.
1. Happy Anniversary to my kidney. In November, we celebrated incredible 21 years together, not something anyone had anticipated after a very rocky start. In the USA it would be allowed to drink legally now 😉 I'm immensely grateful and hope we'll be having a bit more time together.
2. Speaking of health, I would like to forget all the little and big problems some of which have become worse last year, such as my arthritic thumb joint I keep whining about. One spot stops hurting for a bit, but no worries, the next one will be with you in a moment. It can really get exhausting, also mentally, especially if it messes with my creative ventures which are usually my way to escape.
It also means I don't get out much because I tire easily, so don't expect any travel posts from me.
3. Starting a new craft. After two short and bad experiences way in the past, I started embroidering after all. I had been fascinated by pictures of goldwork for quite a while and couldn't resist getting a goldwork kit which is probably a bit of a weird choice for a first piece. I had it lying around forever, too afraid to start, and then two ladies from Instagram convinced me to finally give it a go. I was very proud of my little goldwork fox as I hadn't been too sure it would ever get finished.
4. Online classes and talks. For last year's crafty advent calendar, I had found a few perfect items, but I really struggled to get through the video tutorials which has nothing to do with the quality, I'm just notoriously bad at watching anything on the computer that is longer than five minutes. However, working from home seems to have taught me to get better at it if I'm really, really interested in something.
I very spontaneously bought a self-paced embroidery online course from the Royal School of Needlework. Again, it took me a bit to muster the courage to get started, but then I really enjoyed it, and now I have another course waiting for me to muster the courage to get that one started (there's a lot of counting involved and we all know I even have problems to count to three sometimes 😉). The courses include kits, but unfortunately the RSN stopped shipping to the EU right before the goldwork course I wanted to do so badly finally became available again. I don't know if they are going to pick up shipping again eventually, if so, I will definitely do more.
I also found that there are actually online talks I enjoy.
5. World politics and world matters. I'm not going to go into detail, but there are several things I would quite like to forget, but unfortunately they are our future.
6. Life has thrown me a surprising curveball this year. The outcome of this particular one is not clear yet, it might be a good one, it might be a bad one, but as a natural born pessimist I won't be able not to overthink it until I actually know.
7. Blogging. I hadn't blogged a lot in the last few years, half of my posts were made up for the advent calendars.
A lot of it has to do with the limits I set for myself when I started blogging. My family doesn't want to be put out there which I understand only too well as I don't want to put too much of myself out there. I have been extremely camera-shy since I was a teenager and it hasn't become better with age. Not that many pictures exist of me at all, I hardly have any selfies, and those that I have usually have a cat in there as well, ideally hiding part of me.
This blog is mainly a crafty blog, but I don't do tutorials or instructions. When I craft, I craft and don't write down individual steps or take photos which often means I don't even remember myself how I did something (one reason why I'm not a fan of making earrings).
There has been a time when you wouldn't have found me without fiddling with wire or beads. That's not happening anymore. First Zibbet, where I had my shop, disappeared off the web, then came the pandemic and I couldn't ship stuff overseas anymore for months, then the postal service changed rules about the annual minimum shipping, so now I have to pay the private rates, that (once again) led to the question how much sense it even made to still make and try to sell jewelry. I often say that I have always been a very small fry, but how small do you have to become to finally give up? Anyhow, this and my thumb were not very good for my motivation this year. No crafting, no blogging.
I didn't want to give that up completely, though. Surely there was a way to find something to write about? That reminded me of my nostalgia posts and how I always enjoyed doing the research for them. Also I (very) slowly started connecting with other bloggers and joined in one or the other activity with them like "Comfy Cozy Cinema" and "Comfy Cozy Christmas", well, and the "10 on the 10th". No idea where and how this will be going, but I'm trying to get back on track and maybe surprise myself.
8. New shop. That may sound like something good to remember, but yeah, actually not. I thought I'd give a German platform a try, probably mostly to convince myself to keep going, but after giving it some time, I decided it was not worth for me putting any more money in.
9. The year of dying appliances.
My TV decided it would get rid of the V part. Sound yes, picture no. Thankfully I still had a smaller TV that could jump in because I haven't found a replacement yet. TV is important for me because I like to have background noise when crafting. Audiobooks are not my thing and music doesn't work as well as TV shows because it relaxes me right into sleep which is a tad counterproductive.
My furnace decided it's time for us to say goodbye. It's still working which is a nice move on its part, but only until there will be a new one if I don't wait too long. And it insists on making noises until then to make sure I really won't be waiting too long.
I think both of them have been talking to my fridge, too. It's still in the decision-making process and wants to call its union representative about retirement options.
I told the cats to look for jobs, but they refused and told me that I shouldn't dare cut snack rations or else ...
10. Cats. Of course. Can't do without cats.
Der Dekan hasn't changed much, he's still Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde which can be highly entertaining, highly annoying or just downright adorable.
Gundel, on the other hand, has changed a bit over the last year. As she came to me as a stray, I don't know her age, if my vet's estimate is right, she would be around 11 now. After we lost Ponder, shortly before the pandemic started, she became a bit lazy. We were alone, I waited on her paw and foot, and she enjoyed snuggling up and sleeping, watching me work from home - something that was new to her, having the human around all day - and very much becoming the Queen of the house.
After a while, the Queen didn't want to share my pillow anymore, but granted audience graciously when she felt like it, snuggling up against my leg. She also stopped fetching balls, probably that wasn't dignified enough for her.
That was before der Dekan moved in, but with him around she appreciated her own pillow even more and often retreated quickly when he jumped at her. In such a retreat from the top of the wardrobe she hurt her first knee and when that had got better, the lady went and hurt the other knee (both on her hind legs). That one was worse, she limped badly and practically left her pillow only to go the box. Yes, I spoilt her even rottener than before (I know that isn't a word). It took months for it to get really good again although now I'm not so sure anymore if she faked part of it because she enjoyed being pampered.
Just now I can hear her kick a ball around. I remember how surprised I was to hear such a sound at night some time this year. My girl had started playing again! Not with me that much, she prefers play sessions on her own at night. Actually she got more active again in general - the Christmas tree could tell one or the other story about that - and obviously der Dekan taught her not to be quite such a lady anymore because she doesn't just try to stare me awake for breakfast now, instead she pulls on my hair and she's not holding back! She even started talking more again.
The highlight, however, was on Valentine's Day. Gundel is not a lap cat, but on that day, completely out of the blue, she sat on my chest and then lay down on me and stayed for two hours. There are special moments with my animals which I really treasure, and this is one of them. She had never done that in almost seven years.
And guess what, when I had finished this post and shut the laptop, she came up and sat on my chest for 15 minutes to be petted. Think she knew what I had been writing about?
Wow, I really made it to ten.
Sorry that the post is so long, I hadn't thought it would be. Thank you if you made it all the way through!
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