holidays – Page 5

Exhale with relief

December 26, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

For the first time in weeks I feel like I can breathe. Gradually, as the holidays approached, I felt myself becoming more stressed each day. As though I was holding my breath.

Today, I feel a big exhale of relief. The holidays are over, and I’m the happiest I’ve been this whole month. Despite my efforts to be less grinch-like, I still found myself becoming angry. Yesterday I wanted nothing more than to stay home, but I ventured out to see family. After having my weight commented on (something I’m very sensitive about as of late) my whole day felt ruined. I just don’t enjoy the holidays, and I don’t enjoy feeling obligated to visit family that doesn’t care to visit me any other time of year. And I especially don’t enjoy making the trip in just to be insulted and made to feel like shit about how I look.

No, I don’t enjoy the holidays one bit. And I’m happy that they’re over and I can move on and forward and put them behind me. I’m happy to look forward to 2013 and what a new year might bring. I’m happy to be able to think and plan for the next year of gardening, vacationing, and everything else that makes me happy.

Solstice

December 21, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

Today I’m celebrating Solstice for the first time. Celebrating Christmas has never really resonated with me much, though I still put up a tree and participate in a lot of the traditions associated with it.

This year will be a calm, quiet celebration. Practically unnoticeable to anyone other than myself. I’ll leave the lights on overnight on the house and trees, and tonight or tomorrow I’ll be making some bird seed ornaments to hang on the outside tree for the birds. And I’m hoping to fix some mugs of hot cocoa and have a walk around the neighborhood to look at the lights.

I’ve tried to research solstice traditions and found a lot things that just… Weren’t what I’m looking for. So I’m very much trying to make this celebration my own, though it may take a few years to really nail down what works for me and gives me a good feeling each holiday.

DPP #12: Tiny Trees

December 12, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

tree_ornament I’ve made multiple attempts this holiday season to make some handmade ornaments. And I’ve been unimpressed with every single attempt. I don’t know if it’s just my usual perfectionist side coming through, or if I’m just really making horrible ornaments.

This tiny tree, however, looks promising. Well, so long as it blocks out properly and holds its shape. It curled up like crazy as I knit and crocheted the edging, so we’ll see how it holds up post-blocking. And then we’ll see about adding a few tiny beads for ornaments.

DPP #10: Gingerbread Snowflakes

December 10, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

DPP #3: Ruffles, Mail, and Somewhat Failed Ornaments

December 3, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

My house is an utter mess at the moment, with more projects going at once than I care to think about. A friend asked me a while ago to knit her a ruffle scarf and at the time I wasn’t very busy so I said “Sure!” So, naturally, Friday I find two lovely balls of yarn on my desk at the office. Lucky for me they’re a pretty quick knit!

I had some time to myself this morning, so I worked on finishing up some holiday mail – a package to a penpal I’ve been writing for the last several months, and lots of holiday cards to family and friends!

And then it was on to the holiday ornament failures. A few weeks ago I attempted to recreate something I had found online a while back. You were supposed to use air dry clay, so I bought the first air-dry thing I found at the store, which happened to be a paper clay. Things were all fine and dandy when I first made them but as they’ve dried out they’ve curled. I tried placing something heavy on top to keep them flat but they weren’t drying so I gave up.

So then I moved on to trying mittens. Little acrylic felt mittens with embroidered pretties. It turns out I’m really not great at all at embroidering on felt – it’s difficult to get the stitches close together without, instead, just making a larger hole. And my tree? Yeah, it wasn’t supposed to look all criss-crossed like that. And let’s not discuss the not-pictured snowflake I tried (and failed).

Maybe I’ll paint and hang those clay ornaments, after all.