I have an old belt that was very worn around the holes and seemed to be on the verge of tearing. I was going to throw it out, but it seemed such a shame to waste the rest of it, which is quite nice. I realised I could make wrist cuffs out of it!
I found a tutorial at The Project Spot, which gave me the idea for the snap fasteners and reassured me that they weren’t too difficult to use. It took me a while to find the snaps at the shops: there’s a dearth of craft shops around here, but I found some good ones at a fabric shop and away I went!
Here’s the result!
The belt has a nice pattern on it that you can’t see in the photo from my iPhone, but it’s there. As you can see, I added some rivets to the second one, for a bit more flare.
Tomorrow holds a lunch for my husband’s grandmother’s birthday and we’re on pasta salad. I thought it would be a good chance to try making pesto again. Last time I made pesto it was okay — it dried out a bit — but I barely remember that recipe, except that it used low fat ricotta for creaminess and moisture, without the fat content that the usual oils provide.
I threw together this concoction this afternoon and hoped for the best! I haven’t put the pasta salad together yet, but the pesto tastes good!
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I have a $3 notebook from Office Works that is great! It has heavy, creamy pages, an elastic band to keep the cover closed and a pen holder that fits my fountain pen nicely. Then I have a 2012 diary that is almost great: it has a beautiful cover, lovely pages and typography, but no pen holder… I didn’t realise how much I valued a pen holder on my notebooks and diaries until I had an excellent one on my notebook and none on my diary.
So, I cut the elastic off a 2011 diary that I barely used and used a craft brad and a little glue to secure it to my 2012 diary. Problem solved!
Thanks to Twitter I caught wind of Fitarella’s 12 in 12. Not only does Jacqueline have a cool screen name, she also has a great idea for this year!
The rules for 12 in 12 are that you do something every day for each month of 2012, at the end of each month you decide whether to continue with what you have been doing and choose a new thing to do every day for the next month. The “thing” can be pretty much anything: exercise, giving up a food or activity, trying a new food or activity.
12 in 12 is a great opportunity to try new things, build new habits, practice activities that you haven’t made time to practice in the past. I like the idea because it’s a measurable goal, it’s good for developing discipline, and you can make it as easy or difficult on yourself as you like.
For January I am doing 3 sets of abdominal crunches when I get up each morning. I haven’t decided on any challenges for future months, but I have got a list of ideas. You’re welcome to draw from this list if you want to take up the challenge too!
- pushups
- squats
- lunges
- walk up & down stairs
- no coffee
- no chocolate
- dark chocolate instead of milk
- eat at least 3 greens
- cook a new recipe
- wake up earlier
- don’t take a daytime nap
- read at least 1 Christian (or topic of your choice) article
- play guitar
- play flute
- learn to play piano
- write a blog post
- write a letter
What new thing are you hoping to do this year?
I hate new year resolutions!
At least I have for quite a long time. I think they’re cliché, they’re too often setting yourself up for failure — people don’t realise that change and improvement usually don’t happen in a linear fashion — and if you really want to make a change, or want to achieve something, just do it! You don’t have to wait for new year to better yourself or achieve goals.
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