While nature is slowing down (and my nature really wants to as well!) life seems to be getting busier and busier. I sing with a couple of choirs and am on the committee of one. Between organising and rehearsing for an early December concert with that one and rehearsals for a concert this week with the other choir (a much larger, well-established choir - we're singing in the National Concert Hall and I'm still quite intimidated and nervous about that) as well as three performances of Messiah in December a lot more of my time is being taken up with choir related stuff than I thought would be the case.
Work has also been hectic the last few weeks with a possible big change in the works over the next few months.
To top it all off I got hit with another bad cold two weeks ago which I am still trying to get over. That's two colds in about five weeks. This happened to me last winter as well although didn't start as early. It's so frustrating that it's happening even though I've been making such a huge effort to eat properly and well. Still, only four weeks left and I will have a long weekend away and then a few weeks after that I'll be off to Florida for Christmas. I booked those flights in early summer before I started to seriously think about things like my ecological footprint. It's probably a good thing I'm so broke as I think airline travel is one of the things I'll always find most difficult to have given up. If I had the money I'd love to go and visit friends in Germany, France, Belgium etc. for the weekend - I've done it before and it can work out well. But it's definitely very wasteful to be flying somewhere just to spend a day and a half. At the moment I don't have money to be booking flights anywhere so it's not an issue I need to trouble myself with too much. It's probably one reason why I'll eventually move back to mainland Europe though.
My sister (who I'll be visiting in Florida) and her husband are both big into skydiving. I keep promising I'll do a jump (actually had wanted to do one for years before she did, just one more of those things I haven't gotten around to doing) but do want to lose some more weight first. I'm just about at the limit of what's allowed and would feel much safer knowing I'm not pushing the boundaries on that. But in a way I'm hesitant to do a jump as I don't want to end up loving it. It must surely be one of the worst hobbies from an ecological point of view.
One hobby I may take up is quilting. I was at the Knitting and Stitching Show in the RDS yesterday. Managed to resist buying stacks of wool just because it said "special offer" as the prices really weren't all that special. I did talk to the guy from the Wool Shop in Bray to find out exactly where it is and opening hours. And spoke to a couple of lovely ladies who run a website business and also have a stall at the market in Blackrock every weekend. It's handy to know there are a few more options for buying wool around. And on weekends too.
While I was there I signed up for the Japanese Folded Patchwork workshop. They said in the leaflet the workshops were for every level from complete beginner up. Well, I'd say I was the only beginner they had. The woman looked a bit dumbfounded when I asked her what she meant when she told us to sew with the material right side up. I don't think she was entirely prepared for a complete beginner. Although I was able to thread the needle all by myself. Finishing the project, which involved quilting a four inch square, took me the full hour and I didn't get to do the last bit of decorative stitching and beading but I ended up with something that's almost a perfect square (I thought it was a perfect square but when I took it out last night to look at it again realised it's a bit pointy in one corner). Am feeling very pleased with myself. It's not perfect by any means but I think it's pretty damn good for a first effort. Must borrow a digital camera from someone and post a picture here. I think this is something that I will be able to do although I can see it being a very slow process. I do like the idea of creating something over a long period of time though and have thoughts of having an entire double bed size throw by...well...maybe by my birthday in 2008.
3 comments:
Oh I'd love to go to the knitting and stitching show. Was there any felting there?
I have no idea how to do any of that. {I blame my mother for allowing me to be such a tom boy} It does sound like frustrating fun though. I am thinking about trying my hand at it when things calm down a bit around here. You willing to give me a few pointers?
Becky: there were a couple of felting workshops I think. You can probably see the list of workshops on www.twistedthread.com
I have to admit I know nothing about felting except that you're not supposed to put your dad's thermal Damart vest into the dryer!
Phelan: happy to give you any pointers I pick up put it's very early days for me. Probably my best advice at the moment would be to ask someone who knows what they're doing. :-) I get the feeling with the quilting and also with knitting that it's very easy to learn the basics and can then take years to get good! Still, I'm going to give it a go. I'm going to call into the women I met at the show who have a stall at a (fairly) local to me weekend market tomorrow. I was looking at their website today www.thisisknit.ie and it looks like they do classes for very, very, basic beginner stuff which would suit me down to the ground especially as they're very cheap too. I'm also going to start trying to collect a few bits of scrap material to try and start on a quilting project before I forget what I learned last week. This weekend I hope to put the finishing touches to what I did then. Will let you know how I get on. Feel free to ask anything you're curious about, even if I don't have a clue maybe someone else will read this who does.
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