The last year has made me a bit of a pro at entertaining myself at home when the weather outside is not going to plan. After awhile sitting down to a puzzle or cosying up with a rom-com just didn’t cut it anymore. So, here are some of my favourite rainy day activities to do at home. Warning: many arts and crafts incoming.
Three months into 2021 and I’ve already started doing some of the things off my ‘Manifestations for 2021‘ post. (Like knitting an Icelandic jumper!) I am so impressed at how writing down those goals and manifestations actually motivated me to get up and do it. So, here I am again with some shorter term, every day lifestyle changes I want to make this month. Calling it my “March Goals” but it could easily be called “improvements” because that’s really all I’m hoping for.
Every week, I share a newsletter called “The Watched Pot”. It’s a weekly email to share a little bit of light and love, and shed some optimism on life and the week ahead. I write a short personal essay in email style about the things I’ve been doing, the things I’ve been loving, or the ways I’ve tried to make my life and the people in it a bit happier. This month, the month of love, I wanted to bring that self-love onto the blog. So, here are some things to love this February.
Disclaimer: not material things. Consider this the anti-gift guide.
I love that they’re so innocent even when they’re bad! Example: This morning my kitten Betty got spooked when I walked into the kitchen 2 hours earlier than I normally do. And, I mean spooked. She did that cat thing where they run with their back arched high and their tail goes all bushy, terrifying predator. She, in her scramble to scare me off, knocked over two of my plants and spread wet dirt all over the kitchen.
I’d gotten up early to do yoga, and instead I spent my early hour sweeping up dirt. I didn’t love that but my god I love the teeny tiny kitten who was so afraid. It was my penance for making her so scared! She wasn’t trying to punish me. Sometimes I forget she’s just a little scaredy cat and needs me to be the gentlest version of myself.
It was still dark when I woke up this morning and I did not. Want. To. Get. Up. But I did. Only because I had a meeting, but still! Once I was up, and after Betty had calmed down, I was able to enjoy that blue-morning light that only exists in the hour before the sun comes up. It’s nice. Being up early is like having a harmless little secret that only you know. Everything is quiet. Everything is still. Your consciousness is something that you share only with you.
I had a really good hot chocolate a few days ago from Konj Cafe in Edinburgh. The owner was just the nicest person, the hot chocolate was decadent and delicious like all hot chocolate should be and I got a nice cookie. There are few small moments better than these.
Water bottles are out – jugs are in. You heard it here first.
Ok. Story time: I don’t have a water bottle that doesn’t leak. I also received a gift certificate for a fancy Nordic Design shop for my wedding, and I bought a pretty Hay jug. So, when I set up my desk, I thought “instead of my grimy Primark water bottle, I’ll just use the jug today as a treat to myself” and oh what a treat it was! The water stays SO cold! And I don’t judge myself based on how much is left in the jug, I just pour and drink a glass and enjoy it and then pour some more when I want it! Zero shame! Just cold water and a very lovely jug! Do you need a jug? Yes is the only right answer.
Maybe it’s because I’m home all the time, but I really love to look at something new on the wall. It gives me more satisfaction than it should. I’m constantly moving things around on my walls, changing prints in picture frames and adding new pictures because I love the little surprise I get when I walk into a room and see something that makes me happy. And, I love that I’ve learned that I like pictures, picture frames, and prints that have a lot of bright colours like pink, yellow, blue and purple. And anything that looks vintage – even better if it’s not in a frame! I have an old plate from my Nonna’s house – it has a clown on it and I love seeing it on my wall. Now, I’m considering hanging some of my favourite hats.
Of all the things to love this February, this is number one. I have been alllllll about the mail-surprises lately. Gift-giving via surprise mail is my very specific love language. The sheer joy I get from putting together a little box of things I know the person will love and writing a little note full of my love for them personally, my goodness. Not to mention the slow-burn of the postal system in a pandemic. When will they get it?! Who knows! Hopefully on a day they really need it.
What do you think of my things to love this February? Have any things you’re loving you’d like. toshare? Please, leave a comment! Comments should also be in my list of things to love because I really, truly do! They remind me of a simpler time of internet blogging. Alas.
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I don’t have many resolutions or goals, instead I’m manifesting 2021. To be honest, I don’t even really know what this year will look like! I’m not sure when I’ll graduate from my MA as I’m working remotely. From what I can tell, there won’t be any big trips but there might be a few big things happening. Here are the things I *hope* will happen in 2021, trusting that if they don’t it’s because it wasn’t meant to be.
A major thing I want to get done this year is transferring my Ontario license over to a U.K. license. It’s such a hassle to do because you have to mail everything in. I couldn’t do it in 2020 because I needed all my IDs to wait for my Visa to come in… all the life admin! I swear life admin runs my world. Anyways, this year everything is a bit more settled paperwork-wise.
I don’t want a fancy car, just something used and safe. There are a lot of things I never do in Scotland (like camping!) because living here always felt temporary. Getting a car felt sooooo out of reach, now that we’re planning to be here long term I can justify the cost a bit more. It means we’ll be able to drive to see family which makes visiting them a lot easier. Cannot wait to have the freedom that comes with a car!
Buying a flat is more on Angus’s “manifesting for 2021” list than mine. As both a student and an immigrant, there is no mortgage available to me so that’s on him! He wants to buy a flat and I’d quite like to be paying back a mortgage rather than paying rent. I’m looking at it as an opportunity to have a big change, which I reaaaaaaaally I’m hoping for. 2020 has felt very stagnant, I’m so ready for a change of scenery and new challenges.
Along with buying a flat, we’ve been looking at places outside of Edinburgh. With only one income to factor into a mortgage, it’s not easy to find somewhere liveable in Edinburgh. If I’m honest, I’m also really ready to move on and find somewhere that feels a bit different. We’ll still look in Edinburgh, but we’re also looking in Glasgow and East Lothian, only time will tell what comes of it!
Like I said before, there’s a lot of stuff I used to do that I stopped doing when I moved to Scotland. Moving was supposed to be a big (temporary) adventure, a time to try new things! And then… it never ended. Looking around my teenage bedroom at Christmas reminded me of just how much I used to do, and stuff that was easy and enjoyable! I used to paint! I used to write letters! Print off all my photos and create themed photo albums! Collect art books! Sketch! Read! Up-cycle! Hike! So. Many. Things. And I stopped doing all of them. I used to still write, and I kind of started reading again but I completely lost the mentality of just doing the stuff that I like.
More of that this year. Maybe I’ll start sharing poetry on my instagram again.
I’ve gotten mega into knitting again this winter. In need of cheap, homemade Christmas gifts I turned back to knitting and I (finally) broke away from standard stocking stitch patterns. I’ve made a lot of makeup wipes, a fair few pair of mittens, a cushion and a cover, a blanket and a pair of slippers. In 2021 I bought the easy Sable jumper pattern and I want to knit that this early this year and then hopefully practice some more complicated patterns mixing colours! In a perfect world, Angus lets me move to a croft where I can raise and spin my own wool, have a big knitting machine and make a ton of pretty 100% wool products. Unlikely, but a girl can dream.
There is something really, extraordinarily satisfying of coming away from binging a TV program with a new knitted product. It’s saved my mental health during the pandemic because I feel like at least I’m doing something.
What are you manifesting in 2021?
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2020, see ya never babes!!! Don’t get me wrong, I hate to wish away time. I always catch myself whenever I’m wishing I was in the future. Wishing I’d already met my goals, wishing I was already on holiday, the list goes on. This year has been a mega challenge for that. Equally, I’ve had nothing really to look forward to, and nothing felt certain.
There were times I wished I could fast forward. I desperately wanted to skip to when I finally got a job… But I never got a job and went back to school instead. There were a few months where I wished I could fast forward to when I finally could get married. Then we had two weeks notice and it was over before we knew it! Now I feel like there were so many moments I missed for my wedding. Truly a year of highs and lows.
I switched from doing #MonthlyMemo blog posts to doing The Watched Pot enewsletter in May, and to be honest it was really because I had no life updates. Monthly Memos were always big – I got a new job! Got engaged! Went on holiday! Saw family! Fun stuff like that, and The Watched Pot was just “this is what I’ve been cooking in lockdown” – still fun, just less… big. It’s supposed to be a “the watched pot never boils” joke as in, this is what I’m doing week to week and nothing is happening. It’s pretty accurate with how this year went.
Somehow this year I got both engaged and married. I got a kitten! I went to two new countries. Angus came to Canada for the first time. We celebrated the weddings, engagements, pregnancies and new homes of friends and family.
I rang in the 2020 New Year with my family in Edinburgh, and now I’m ringing in the 2021 New Year with my family in Thunder Bay. At the very beginning of the year, I was wishing away the time until I would be done my work contract, until I would find a new job, until I would get engaged, go to Tallinn, go to Canada, and in March it all stopped.
I had finished my contract work, Tallinn had come and gone, our trip to Canada was cancelled and we didn’t know when we would be able to get married. I wished time away until I could know we would be able to stay together. It felt like less superficial wishing time away and more “I can’t wait until I know where I’m allowed to exist again.” Actually, a lot of my wishing away time this year felt like waiting to exist again.
And I am in Canada, a married woman, isolating with my parents because the pandemic has gotten out of control again. Ontario is (and everywhere else seems to be) in lockdown again. It’s fair to say this isn’t the end of the weirdness that 2020 was. But, boy oh boy it was a year of emotional growth!
I feel a lot better heading into 2021 having lived through 2020. I’m better equipped for alllll of the wonderful and horrible things life can throw at me.
Even if it doesn’t feel like it yet, if you’re reading this, you are too.
How are you feeling about the new year? Optimistic? Pessimistic? Realistic? A combination?
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Hi friends! Maybe you’re here because you want to know how to go freelance, but I’m going to say it right off the bat: I don’t know! There’s no one right way. On today’s episode of the Monthly Memo I’m talking about how and why I started freelancing. I haven’t done a Monthly Memo since April because… to be honest, there’s not a lot going on in lockdown! And my only updates sucked. They were like “I’m missing my wedding today” and “I miss my dog a lot” – not exactly fun, blog worthy material. On the other hand, since April I’ve been working away at becoming a freelancer. And here we are.
Well, this is an awkward one. I bet you thought this monthly memo would be just another life update from quarantine, but really it’s a ‘my first month as an unemployed person’ on top of that! Oh, the joys. Life is weird right now. I’m making noodles to eat while I write this because I have such a hard time wrapping my head around all the little things I need to say. Snacks make it easier. This is your 1 minute warning, if you don’t have a snack, go get one! Then, read on.