Happy New Year

Well - I travelled home from Devon safely - it took just over 6 hours, with a stop, and the traffic was light (I guess that most drivers were dealing with a new Year Eve's hangover.)























Okay - Okay I can hear my mother saying is that it?  Well if you have spent all that time in a car then there is not much to say - but, as ever, I will do my best.  Today is the day that all the pundits are out talking about New Year's Resolutions.  If I have learnt one thing in my 55 years on this earth it is that I rarely keep any resolutions beyond the first week.  In fact it is a major miracle if I keep them past the end of January!  However it is a good time to reflect and take stock - perhaps of what you want to achieve in the year to come rather than looking back and wishing that things were different.  One pundit described it as driving a car - if you drive looking backwards then you will inevitably crash.  If you drive looking forward then you stand a chance of getting somewhere.  In terms of resolutions the same pundit said that we should treat it as going shopping.  if we simply say that we are going shopping then we will inevitably forget some essentials and come back with a load of goods that we don't need.  If we say we are going shopping and then plan with a list we stand a chance of, at least, remembering the essentials.  ie if, for example, we say that we want to lose weight this year then what concrete steps are we going to take to achieve this - what's on our "shopping list" that we can tick off on our way to the goal we have set ourselves.  That kind of makes sense to me.



I also like Janet Clare's approach - she doesn't make resolutions per se but she chooses a word to guide her through the year and to focus on. In 2015 her word was "Optimise" since she wanted to grow her business and made the most of every opportunity to do so.  By the way she is doing a free sew along quilt - if you want to sign up her newsletter with details of the quilt then please complete the form here.



So - this is a long way round to saying that I have made some resolutions, I will write my "shopping list" but I wont reveal the resolutions here since some of them are personal.  However my keyword of the year is REDUCE - weight, fabric, clutter etc etc!

Finally - the decorator has done a lovely job painting the bathroom and the bedroom in my absence - AND putting some lovely cup hooks up ready to hang some quilts - when they're done of course!  NOW I just need to sort through everything that is going back into these two rooms, buy some new curtains, get the carpet laid ............  Can I turn around and go back down to Devon??

PS - as I write this the film 'The Sound Of Music" is on.  I went to Salzburg 4 years ago to test my ability to go abroad on my own.  It was a lovely place (it was Easter but the weather was glorious) and, as a fan, I loved spotting all those places that you can see on the film. Oh, and yes I did "run" through the arches and walk up this steps singing Doh rei me - but I did wait for the cover of darkness he he!