Crafting to Come

 

If there's one good thing that has come out of this long lockdown and self-isolation for me is to remind me that I actually quite enjoy crafting.  Due to that, I've decided to add some more little crafting projects to my to do list, including one that I've been thinking about doing for years.  Of course, the main problem is that once you start thinking about one project you want to do many more come forward, but here are the few I'm starting with.

1860's Sontag

So, I'm a big period drama watcher and I've been wanting to make one of these for a while now, but it doesn't look like just a standard shawl and I was struggling to find a pattern for this until I stubbled across this website, Ragged Soldier Sutlery and Vintage Volumes, which not only had the original pattern, but a modern translation of the pattern.  

At the moment I'm knitting this with a yarn I got from a charity shop and which is 100% acrylic.  It's not the nicest wool to knit with, but it should be quite hard-wearing and the plan is to make this Sontag with this wool as a trial of the pattern and how much wear I get out of it.  Then I'll make it again with some more natural and more comfortable wools. I'm also making this as part of Voolenvine's History Make-Along, #HistoryMAL, which is about making projects  either from or in an ode to pre-1950s clothing, styles, and fabrics.  I have a few more projects in the line for this one as well.

Culottes

Almost 20 years ago I got this beautiful fabric as a gift from a friend in Africa to make into some clothing, but I haven't really known what to make and, if I'm honest, I was a bit nervous about using it.  But I've decided that it's time to just use it and there's enough fabric that it doesn't matter too much if this time it doesn't quite work out.  With that in mind I've decided to make some culottes using the information made available on this video by Global Fashion Workshop.

I know that I should probably make a pattern first and then a test piece, but I've decided to do what I normally do with this sort of thing and sort of wing it a little.  That being said, I'll probably write a post about it if it works out in case anyone else wants to wing their culottes. 😂

1930s Cardigan

A couple of years ago I brought this book called Knit Vintage (by Madeline Weston and Rita Taylor) with patterns based on original vintage knitwear from the 30s, 40s, and 50s.  I've been wanting to make one of these patterns but never really had a reason to.  However, I actually need a new cardigan at the moment and realised that the cost of buying the wool would basically be the same as buying a new cardigan (though obviously not pre-loved one) and this way I'd be able to get the specific style I wanted.  

I wasn't able to get the wool that was suggested in the pattern, but I did get some beautiful blue Viking by Norway Nordlys wool (in colour 927) which is meant to be inspired by the Northern Lights.  I got this from the Love Crafts website, which I have to admit has now become somewhere I spent a ridiculously large amount of time.

Christmas Cards

For the last few years I've been sewing most of my Christmas cards, if not all, and this year I decided to do the same.  I've actually already finished sewing all the cross stitch parts of the cards (joys of lockdown) and was thinking that this year, instead of mounting them on a card, I'd sew them onto fabric so that they can be hung up instead - maybe even used as a Christmas tree decoration.  I've already got the fabric for it so all I need to do is sew them onto it and then back them.  Should be pretty quick and easy, hopefully.

I do have one other, larger Christmas card to sew for my partner, but I can give it a month or so before I start that.

A Shawl

I still haven't quite decided on the pattern or wool for this project yet, but I have an event happening next year and wanted to knit myself a shawl for it to add a personal touch.  There's not much more to say about this one right now, but I'll probably be adding updates about it (as with everything else) on my Instagram, @greeninggeorgie.

Lord of the Rings Cross-stitch

This one is for way, way into the future, but, when doing the dangerous browse of Etsy, I found some cross-stitch patterns with a Lord of the Rings theme from Country Magic Stitch.  I couldn't resist and did something I shouldn't have, which is buy them even though I knew I won't get round to them for a while yet.  So there they are sitting in a folder, ready to be made once I've finished absolutely everything else on my list.

And that's it, those are my crafting plans for now.  I'm sure more will come along and I definitely want to make more clothes for myself in the future, including getting pre-loved items and altering them to fit me, so be prepared to hear more about this in the future.

Paperless Productivity - Toodledo

 

I think I've had a little too much of productivity apps right now so I'm not sure I've been able to give Toodledo as much of a trial as it probably should have had and.  However, I did use it for a few weeks to try and get it a good idea on how to use it so hopefully, I can write something useful here.  I should probably start by saying that I think this is another one that would be good if you're someone who wants a little use a digital form of a bullet diary.

When you first download the app it asks you a couple of questions to help find out how to set it up specifically for your needs - which is a nice touch, as long as you know what the terms mean.

Then you need to log in so that it can sync your information with the website version which is a bit more full-on and that you do actually have to use sometimes because the phone app doesn't allow you to do everything (more on that later).

When the tasks page first comes up you get a whole lot of information on how to use the app and you can go through each part to get a real feel for it - also a nice little touch.

The main menu (on the left) allows you to navigate through each section of tasks (also brokendown in sub-sections so you can navigate to a specific task quickly), notes, outlines (I really didn't use this section at all), habits, and lists.

So let's start with tasks.  These are pretty simple to add and follow what is now a pretty familiar pattern.  You click on the cross button at the bottom right.

Then you type in the name of the task and add any notes you feel you need to keep with the task.

You can then add this task to a folder and add context to it (I used this to say if the task was for work, blog, home etc).  This is one part where I found I had to use my laptop instead of just being able to use my phone.  You can add a folder or context to your task on your phone if one exists, but to create them you have to log in using your computer.

Then you add a start date if you want and due date, and you can also select what priority the task needs to be.  Click on the tick at the top right and you're done.

You can see what tasks are overdue or coming up over a specific time by picking 'Due-Date' from the menu.

Or have a look at the tasks you have in each category using the 'Context' section and these are probably the two parts that I used the most.

The tasks themselves are ordered in importance, which seems to be partly based on the importance you give them when you created them but are mostly due to the due date they have.

I would mostly use the note section for writing up quick shopping lists and which I only really did here to test it out as I normally use the notes app on my phone.  However, if you were wanting to integrate notes with tasks for a project you have going this would probably be perfect as you can add the notes to a specific folder.  As with adding a task note adding it pretty simple and you just click on the cross, type in the name of the note, what folder you want to add it to and then type away.  Clicking on the tick at the top right then saves it.

The next section is Habits (I'm glossing over Outlines because I really didn't look into it) and I used this also as much as the tasks part.  Rather than a number or rating I kept all my tasks as a checkbox as I just prefer that.  The good things about this habit tracker is the chain chain underneath the habits name.  The reason for this is that every time you complete the task it makes the corresponding link in the chain dark and this allows you to see how many many times you have managed to complete this task in the last few days.  I will admit that it is quite satisfying.

Adding is the same as before.  Click on the cross at the bottom right.  Write in the name of the habit and click how you want to show you've completed the task.

Add a start date (though this isn't necessary if you're starting from the day you've added it), how often you want to do the habit and if you want to be reminded.  Then it's just 'Start Habit' and you're off.

If you put in number instead of checkbox then there is this pretty cool thing where you can add the amount of time you have completed the habit in a day and then this progress is then shown on a graph to let you see this progress.  I didn't really feel that it would mean anything to the habits I was wanting to track, but if you were doing something like push-ups or swearing less then this would probably be a good tracker.

The last section is Lists.  I already have lists elsewhere and didn't want to duplicate them here, but I did have a little play around.  

It's actually quite a nice little section and already has a whole lot of list templates already made up for you. 

Like Migraine Log - something I probably should have been tracking a few years ago.  But there's also bucket lists, recipes, reading list, weight tracking, etc and you can creat your own with a little bit of work.

And that's the layout of the app.  I'm not going to lie, it did feel a little bit clunky trying to get around this software on my phone and is probably a lot easier to use on you computer instead.  I would say that the best way to use it is to actually predominantly use the website when you're at home and just use the phone app for when you are on the go.  Which is absolutely fine, but I want something much simpler that I can use directly off my phone.  There was also an issue with it trying to sync from my phone to the website and I kept getting messages that this wasn't happening, but I wasn't too bothered about that.  However, if you are using it in that integrated way then that might be an issue.  I also noticed that I didn't get the reminders coming up on my phone as I did with Memorigi and Tick Tick, and I actually quite liked those.

One little aspect that I liked was the way you could add things to the tasks from another app using the share function.  A couple of times I found webpages I wanted to read but didn't have time right then and easy enough to add it as a task by clicking share and then selecting Task with the Toodledo logo, and there it was.

As I said before, I probably didn't give this app as much of a test as it deserved and could probably do with a little break from these at the moment.  It would be a really good app if you were someone who likes using a bullet journal to organise all your project, thoughts, and tasks, and maybe in the future I'll come back to it if I ever need that amount of organisation.  If that's what you're looking for definitely give this a go, however, I don't really feel I need anything that complicated and so this app didn't really work for me.

I'm going to take a little break from these, but then I'm going to test Habitica.  I've heard a lot of good things about this one.

Cleaning Up My Diet.....again :)

 

I made the decision to 'go healthy' again after lock-down a little while ago.  In fact, I wrote about it on this blog last month, but, as usual, I dragged my feet because........well why won't you when you have this excuse for eating badly.  This will be a pretty quick blog as I don't want to be repeating what I've already written about here many times before, but trying to eat healthily is a constant effort for me (especially as I have to be so much more strict due to the PCOS) and I don't think it'll ever become just a habit.

I should probably start by saying that, at a general look, my diet looks pretty healthy with lots of vegetables.  It's just that the portions are definitely too big for my size and the additional food, normally known as snacks, are probably more of the problem.

Starting with the easiest bit, I need to reduce my portion sizes to the amount I should actually be eating for my size, and probably ignore the little bit of hunger I will be feeling at the beginning.  I now have more control over the food being made at the moment, so I also want to make fresher meals with one being a large mixed salad and the other full of fresh vegetables.  I'm also having gluten-free toast for my breakfast, but I'm finding I'm getting hungry pretty quickly in the mornings now so it would probably be a good idea to go back to overnight oats or porridge.

Now for the more difficult bit, snacking.  Like pretty much everyone else, I tend to snack on things I really shouldn't, like biscuits, crisps, chocolate, sugar, sugar, sugar.  It probably doesn't help that I used to get allergic reactions to pretty much every fruit out there, bar the fiddly oranges, making it difficult to choose that option.  However, that does seem to be reducing at the moment so maybe I should probably give them all another try.  Having to walk to the shops to get unhealthy food doesn't seem to be much of a hindrance to me either, so what I really need to do is make the healthy snacks much more accessible and easy.  The fruit should cover the sugar cravings and the nuts should add the crunch I like to have.  I'm still going to let myself have 'unhealthy' snacks now and then, probably once or twice a week, as going too extreme tends to lead to people falling off the bandwagon in a strong way.

Hopefully, if I can make these changes over the next few weeks my health should improve considerably, including the reduction in my allergies which usually gets worse when I have too much-processed sugar.  Which should then be enough of an incentive to keep going.  My arse might also stop expanding in the way it's doing right now as well. 😂

De-cluttering - Quarantine version

 

As I've been self-isolating at my parents house it seemed like a good time to go through the things I had stored in their attic to see if there was anything else that I could get rid of.  It didn't go quite as successfully as I had hoped as there's still quite a few boxes to take to my next home, but I did manage to get rid quite a few things.  The biggest issue this time round is that I'm not certain what the future is going to bring or even what work I'm going to be doing so I'm not sure what items I should keep and what things I can get rid of.

With that in mind I've kept all my outdoor/work gear as, even if I'm no longer working outside, I'll still be going outdoors as a hobby, all my warm gear, and all the kitchen stuff I've acummilated and which survived the last purge. 

The easiest thing to get rid of was all the books I'd read in the digital form during my lockdown in New Zealand and just needed to pull out of the box and put into the charity bag.

Clothes were also pretty easy as I'd gone through most of my items whilst I was in New Zealand and there were just a few that I had left here and either didn't miss or knew I wasn't ever going to use again.  I also added a hoody and an outer fleece to this pile after I had taken the photo.  There's some fabric I'm never going to use and an outer casing for a wheeled suitcase I don't even own.

I'd already gone through all of my make-up brushes and gotten rid of the ones I knew I wasn't going to use but I completely forgot about these eye curlers.  I compared what my mascared eye lashes looked like after using and not using the curlers and noticed absolutely no difference.  I also can't be bothered to do this extra step, so they're heading off.

There were also a few pieces of jewellery that I either haven't worn in years or am bored of wearing now.

There's a few bags which are either falling apart or that I've tried but just haven't liked using.

Now for the more difficult items.  Firstly, I decided that I would actually let go of all my David Attenborough and Disney DVDs.  They've survived previous purges as I'm emotionally attached to them, but I've come to the decision that I'm not really going to watch them again, especially as I haven't had a DVD player for the last few years and it's very unlikely I will have one in the future either.  So, it's time they went somewhere were someone is actually going to get some use out of them.  I also got rid of a few other DVDs that I won't watch again any time soon.  I have kept some DVDs which I'm not ready to get rid of just yet and some to watch over the next few weeks whilst I have a DVD player, but they will probably go after that as well.

Secondly, is the soft toys I've held onto, mostly because they were gifts from people and even ones that had been made for me.  I did get rid of more than these but my nieces have already headed off with a few of them.  I kept my first ever soft toy, a bear, and another older soft toy both of which I'll probably keep out, but it seemed a shame for the others to just be sitting in a box unused so they're off to where someone will give them the use they should have.

And that's it for now.  I'll probably keep getting rid of things over the next few weeks, but this is at least a start and it's funny how much easier it has become to let go of things that I only have an emotional attachment to since I started decluttering a few years ago.  I haven't regretted anything I've gotten rid of so far either.  However, this is really an on-going process and I see a lot more decluttering in my future.  I usually just have a bag which I fill up with items I find, but every now and then I'm in a situation like now where I have the chance of doing something a bit more thorough.  Definitely worth doing this as a regular thing.

Returning to the South Island, New Zealand - part 2

 

The second part of our trip predominantly took us to Fiordland, a part of New Zealand I have always wanted to go to.  We wouldn't be able to do as much walking as I had originally planned as the storms at the start of the year had damaged quite a few of them.

Our first port of call was Te Anau, but not before we took a little detour up to Glenorchy to do a little Lord of the Rings site seeing.  Unfortunately, we didn't have time to get to the two locations we were really hoping for, which were Isengard lookout and Lothlorien forest, as these were much further up the valley past Glenorchy.  

However, we did stop at Twelve Mile Delta to take a little walk to Ithilien where Frodo, Sam, and Smeagol first see the Oliphants.  Even though we didn't get to see all the sites, driving to Glenorchy was worth the detour in its own right as the valley is really beautiful and we loved Glenorchy itself.  Definitely on the list of places to return to.

We reached Te Anau in the late afternoon where we intended to just stop to buy some bag straps for me and some food for the next couple of nights.  I like Te Anau, it's a small town with everything you need in it but nothing more.  Though admittedly we were seeing it offseason and it could have a very different feel during peak season.  The drive to it was also amazing and gave us our first views of the mountains that make up Fiordland.  

The plan that night was to drive further down the road to Milford Sounds and set up camp at one of the DOC sites where we would stay for the next two nights.  However, these sites seem to be mostly designed for caravans and campervans, and the few locations we found between the trees where you could put a tent was only really suitable for smaller trekking tents rather than our larger tent.  We did also wonder a little bit about how the local Kea would take to an unguarded tent during the day and whether we would come back to find it suitably dismantled.  The long and short of it is that we drove back to Te Anau and stayed in a lovely individual room at the Lakefront Backpackers.  It had everything we needed and was a very clean hostel.

The next day was the day I was looking forward to most of all, which was a Milford Sounds Cruise with Southern Discoveries.   They usually recommend giving yourself quite a bit longer than Google maps normally recommends, probably due to the sheer amount of traffic that is normally found on that road.  We reduced that time a little bit as we were definitely not in the busy season, but we were glad that we gave ourselves a little more leeway as damage done to the roads by the flooding earlier this year meant that there were road works everywhere.  It's also a very windy road, so if you're not used to that then extra time is definitely a must.

The additional time on the road wasn't a waste though as it was a pretty amazing drive with beautiful scenery and lots of signs telling you not to stop for fear of death.  Always good.

The cruise itself was amazing and completely worth facing the cold and getting a little wet at one of the waterfalls.  We didn't get to see as much wildlife as it is sometimes possible to see, but seeing the dramatic glacier-formed landscape with trees clinging to practically nothing on sheer rock faces made up for that.  

The skipper of the boat not only sailed us around the sound but gave a running commentary as he did so which was both informative and funny.

On the drive back to Te Anau we had planned to stop off at a number of viewpoints indicated on a map of the road we had gotten at an I-site.  However, it turned out that most of these were either closed due to roads works and damage done by the flooding or we didn't see any signage until it was too late to turn without causing an accident.  We did manage to get a stop at Mirror Lakes though for a two-minute walk.

The following day we had planned to walk a portion of the Kepler Trail starting just outside of Te Anau, hoping to get above the tree lines to get a view of the area, but by the time we had sorted out our gear and repacked the car (we were moving to different accommodation that night) it was much later than we had intended.  We carried out the walk as planned, but didn't get to go out of the bush.  

We were thinking that we might not have been able to get much of a view at all as the clouds were pretty low, but at one section there was an opening in the tree line and we could see above the low clouds.  It was a pretty muggy walk and, in this form, probably not worth the trip and we didn't see or even hear much wildlife in the forest, but apparently it's a pretty amazing walk one you're above the bush.

That night we carried out a large purge of all our items as were would only be able to take one bag each onto the TranzAlpine Train and needed to do some decent purging.  Unfortunately, we had to say goodbye to our trusty tent that had served us so well during our time in New Zealand, but hopefully, it can have a new life with someone else.

After dropping off some items at a charity shop we headed to Queenstown where we needed to drop off the car, but not before taking a quick detour to Arrowtown.  I would definitely recommend going to see this town if you're in the area as, the centre at least, is a little capsule of history with buildings from the 18th century gold rush.  

I had wanted to spend a little more time there if we could, but we had to be back in Queenstown for 2pm, so instead we had a little potter around the centre, some lunch, and then went to look at the Chinese settlement - which was the main reason we were there.  It's been pretty unusual to come across information about the non-European settlers in New Zealand, but this was a really good insight into the conditions that some Chinese settlers had to live in and the treatment that many of them received.

We had come to the realisation now that the chances of us seeing a Kiwi in the wild were basically non-existent, at least during this trip to New Zealand.  So, we took a trip to the Kiwi Birdlife Park in Queenstown that happened to also be having a deal on their ticket prices that day.  Not only did we finally get to see three Kiwis, with a hilarious moment were one of the females knew that the noise to her enclosure door meant that more food was coming in and rushed at an amazing speed across her enclosure to gobble it all up whilst the male remained in the back corner, but I also got to see the Tuatara lizard, had my clothes slightly manhandled by a Kea, and got a close up of our favourite bird, the Morepork.   There wasn't really much else we wanted to do in Queenstown, so we had a couple of drinks in town before heading to bed.

The next day was basically just a day driving to Greymouth in bad weather.  We had tentatively hoped to see the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers on the way up, though we knew we probably wouldn't have enough time and that turned out to be true (apart from a vague glimpse).  So they can be added to a time when we can do the trip a little more slowly next time.  Other than that, there isn't really too much more to write about when it comes to this journey.

Our last day of travel saw us spending the morning pottering around Greymouth where there doesn't seem to be too much to do except visit the museum (which was closed), sit in a cafe, and go to a gem of a secondhand book shop called Red Bookstore.  From a tourist point of view, it seems to mainly be about the TranzAlpine Train.  We quite liked it though as a possible place to reside.

When we first organised this trip we hadn't planned on going on the TranzAlpine Train due to the price, but they had put out a deal and, in probably consequence, the train was packed.  I hate to say it, but this trip wasn't as good as we were hoping.  We did get some pretty good views, but there didn't seem to be too many that you wouldn't have been able to get by driving along the road that snaked beside it for most of the journey.  

You are given headphones so that you can listen to the commentary they provide along the route and the sections about Maori inhabitants and early European settlers and explorers were interesting.  However, they did seem to be stretching it a bit to try and find information to provide and, at one point, the they were telling us about a modern building built for the dairy industry.  I guess what is interesting is a matter of opinion, but it seemed a little odd to me.

Our last couple of days were spent in Christchurch with my aunt and uncle and there isn't really anything extra to tell you about on that front.  If you want to find out what I did last time you can read it here in my previous blog.  And then, after a lot a faffing with airlines where I'm going to have a little fight on my hands to get my money back, we were off to the UK on Singapore Airlines and I have to admit they looked after us pretty well.