Alison Waller

2012 was quite a successful crafty Christmas. 

I made these elephant bean bags for my little nephew. He likes to throw things.

And a lovely denim bucket, made from an old pair of jeans, to put them in.

[This comes from a great tutorial here]

For bigger people, I made these clever things.

They are long tubes filled with rice and lavender. You warm them up in the microwave for a few minutes and then use them like a hot water bottle, for aches and pains or cold places.

On the baking front, I made this yule log for a Christmas Eve lunch with some young visitors. I’ve never made a cake requiring rolling up before, so I was quite pleased with my achievement.

With Christmas now well and truly behind us, all that remains is to think about some crafty resolutions for the New Year.

I came across this post, in celebration of a successfully completed 2012 resolution at Peas and Needles. The author set herself the challenge of finishing an ongoing project or creating something new every week in 2012 - the Fifty 2 Project. What a fantastic achievement to have finished 52 things in a year. Somewhat optimistically, as my #1 resolution for 2013, I’m going to attempt the same for 2013.

Qualifying projects could be cooked, baked or preserved, grown, photographed, sewn, knitted, crocheted, or otherwise made, improved upon or upcycled in some way. I would love to add drawn to the list, but sadly learning how to draw goes down as a 2012 failure. I’ve started a new Pinterest board to record ideas and inspiration.

First and foremost on the list is the renewal of one of last year’s goals, the still-not-yet finished Africa Blanket. Poor old Africa Blanket, always gets neglected when things get busy. Never forgotten though!

Another inspiring blogger of 2012 is my friend Emilia Bird, who resolved this time last year to make by hand all of her clothes. I am in awe of her talents and I have decided I would love to attempt this myself - my own skills however are sadly lacking at present. So, resolution #2 is to work towards being able to take on such a big challenge one day. To start things off, I’ve signed up for another course at The Sewing Lounge this time in making alterations which seems like a good place to begin. It is really thanks to the owner/teacher Kat that I am able to sew at all, so I’m happy to be going back for more expert tuition!

I’ll be posting updates on these challenges soon. Wish me luck!

Adventures on a pre-WW2 whaling ship in the Antarctic from a 1938 diary. First entry, from October 21st of that year.

thewhalinglog:

Friday October 21, 1938

At long last the whalers are on their way to the Antarctic again and I am starting on my second great adventure as “sparks” on a whale catcher.  Strangely enough I am looking forward to it with no less anticipation than last year, although this time I have some idea of what I am going to.  Yes indeed, I have been anxiously awaiting this day for 3 or 4 months and consider myself very fortunate in finding myself on board the old factory ship Sourabaya, bound from Liverpool to South Georgia.  Perhaps I should say that my haste to be away from dear old Edinburgh has been somewhat subdued latterly by “interests of the heart” or whatever you may like to call it. However, one must eat, and this is my chosen means of earning my living, so other matters will just have to suffer a temporary postponement; the duration of which I hope will be approximately six months. 

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I guess I won’t be under the five suns so much as under the many clouds but I’ve lost my enthusiasm for packing suitcases. If I learnt one thing in Italy it’s that there really really is more to life than good weather.

If I’m going to be an English teacher and stay in England, my existing CELTA isn’t going to be enough.

My course starts on September 20th, which is less than a month away!