on being thirty-twelve*

looking at the year ahead and the year behind. i always feel like doing that on my birthday. i made a list last year of the things i wanted to do. i didn't publish it here because it felt a bit like some of the items were too frivolous and some were too serious. but i've referred to it off and on, just for myself. in a way it's a bit like the new year's resolutions that i don't really make, it's just at the beginning of a new year of the calendar of ME. i did some of the things and others, i wonder why i even put them there. but as i wrote last year, it somehow seems like the act of putting things down on paper is what matters. it helps you to envision how you want things to be. and that's surely a healthy thing to do.

this year, in the face of daily news of global economic crisis (GEC), i feel much more ready to pare down and live more simply. we really have all that we need, so there are no big purchase needs on the horizon (let's face it, i don't really NEED an 8,000DKK espresso machine). i want to be better at using all of the veggies that come in my weekly organic box. i want to eat less meat. i want us to use the car less. i'm not really ready to say we shouldn't have one at all, but we should park it more and use our bikes and the trains. (it's a bit easier to say that as the weather gets warmer and more spring-like). i don't need any more additions to my stash. i could craft for an entire year without buying anything at all and still have something left over. so, these are the things i'm going to work on during the year ahead . using what we have and not acquiring anything new. i think i'm really ready to do that this time.

*i don't really mind turning 42, so the thirty-twelve reference is just to be funny.

what i did this weekend

we realized this weekend that we now have more than 200m2 of house to use, but we spent most of it huddled together inside of about 6 of those square meters, which happen not to have electricity yet (electrician coming on thursday), making stuff by candlelight. paintings, a christmas banner (not finished yet, as my fellow crafters sort of drifted away on me), several pillows and a christmas french press cozy (for which i say a heartfelt thank you to melissa at tiny happy for her awesome tutorial).

i also spent quite a lot of time looking for my card reader so i could download pictures, but finally found it in the Wiimote basket (it has a cord on it after all, so someone threw it in there) after looking for it for 24 hours and putting all of the swear words i know together in refreshing new ways. husband said it was good for me to have delayed gratification. that made him very popular, as you might imagine.

i spent all of sunday in my pajamas, which felt like mad luxury. i love days like that.

on saturday, i scored an old kodak six-20 brownie D at the flea market for under $10. then i spent more than an hour researching ways of using 120 film in it. it did come with one old 620 film spool inside of it, so it just might be possible. fun! and more importantly, it prompted me to start my drawings of the stuff i buy already now:

saturday's fajita dinner was made entirely of things we had in the house (except for some avocados (which is what that bottom picture above is supposed to be--i don't have the drawing thing down entirely quite yet), which were essential for the guacamole)--including leftover chicken from a chicken i baked the night before. i was rather proud of myself for this, tho' we still throw away far too much food in this house. i've been thinking about it since reading about the high costs of wasting food in mankind mag.

i made the painting above. did you do anything fun this weekend?