Choose life. Life is wonderful.

Wednesday 4 January 2017

HELLO 2017

Be what you are. Give what is yours to give. Have style. Dare.
Stanley Kunitz



A new year! 

A whole lot of new plans and a lot learned from last year (especially over Christmas). To put it briefly I ended up with some problems with PTSD because I didn't look after myself properly in 2016 - I just tried to do too much and left no time for myself. I have done that before and I thought I was too smart to do it again. It has ended up causing a lot of heartache for a lot of people, especially my wonderful Peter. 

I spent last year playing 'catch-up' - never getting time to sort out my cluttered house;  never getting time to do the craft and decorating I planned; never getting enough time to keep up with friends and family; never getting time to go away in our caravan.

So goodbye to last year and Christmas (which I have chosen not to document) and hello to a restful year of creativity and a new, stronger me.

I plan to decorate my house.  I planned to do that last year but with a virtually non-existent budget I have to give myself time. Creativity needs to take the place of money. I can't afford to pay people to decorate and I can't afford new furniture so I have to find other ways of decorating.

(Much to Peter's... horror?..confusion?...bewilderment?) I plan to do my house white with a hint of Scandinavia and Christmas (Scandi-Christmas) and if it doesn't work out - nothing lost - just a bit of time and spray paint. But I am predicting it will be great. Check out my Pinterest Decorating page here.

Below is a cane side table I picked up from the side of the road in the rain just before Christmas.





Peter sprayed it white for me. (I think he is beginning to appreciate the wonders of spray paint.) It still has its Christmas decorations on it. The beads top right were beads my mother had when I was a child. I don't think she ever wore them but I loved to play with them and they come out at Christmas.

I bought these candlesticks at Vinnies for $5.


 I actually began spraying them silver before I remembered to take a photo so they already have a bit of silver around them. I will have the finished results in my next post.


I struggle with diaries and calendars. When I am standing at a counter or on the phone making an appointment I don't want to be rifling through pages or checking out electronic calendars for which I need my glasses. I want to see at a glance what appointments I have each month.

For the past six months I have been carrying a full size calendar around in my bag to keep track of Peter's and my medical appointments - the ever increasing number of  appointments you inevitably need to attend as old age creeps up and bits start wearing out. I always feel I have to explain to the receptionist why I am spreading a calendar out on the counter.

But such calendars get tatty and dog-eared and when you get to July the middle starts falling out.




Unable to buy what I wanted I decided to make my own. I went to  http://www.free-printable-calendar.com/
clicked on  January 2017 in the free Monthly Templates on the left. I clicked on the first template then saved the large calendar as an image. Then I opened a new document and inserted the image. This took up half a page. I widened the image to achieve maximum writing space in each date and saved it. I did this to all 12 months and ended up with 6 pages with 2 half page calendar months on each.



I bought a cheap A5 hardcover notebook  from my second favourite shop - Officeworks...



...and glued one month to one side of the first 12 pages. 





It has been very useful already and there are plenty of pages to add other notes and information.

 One plus is that I am entering 2017 9kg lighter than I entered 2016 and quite a bit fitter. I have been attending 'Rehability' in Mt Kembla and have specific exercises designed to help me increase my fitness, but aimed primarily at strengthening my back and knees. (One hint I can give you is don't start Zumba when you are 58. It has been all down hill all the way with my knee after that - torn meniscus (cartilage.)


This is 'Rehability' decked out for Christmas .

  
Below is a not-so-good picture of the interior.



And so 2017 begins.





Interesting sites

1.
 Converted warehouse in Sydney

Photo source
 Click here to see some beautiful pictures of a converted warehouse in Sydney.




2.
 Beautiful Beirut in the 1960's

Photo source
 Pictures of beautiful Beirut before it was hit by war in the 1970's.
 Click here to read more. 

3.

 Add water to make perfect toast

Photo source
This toaster makes perfect toast - just add water.
 Click here to read more  

4 comments:

  1. Spray paint is wonderful! I'm glad P is finding its usefulness! And yes, you really must look after yourself and watch yourself! <3

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    Replies
    1. Yes spray paint is wonderful and I plan to use a lot of it this year.

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  2. Water and toast don't sound safe, but I haven't read it yet! I look forward to catching up. Maybe our craft time can be aimed at your house. You can teach me how to do some of that recycling at the same time! ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes. I definitely plan to catch up this year. I'm not an expert at recycling - very haphazard - but it is fun!

      Delete

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