Good Habits

I recently read that Good Habits are as easy to pick up as Bad Habits.  Also, you can get addicted to positive behaviours.

As you have probably guessed; I have a few Bad Habits! And, a few addictions.

Rather than address my psychological issues around habits and addiction  I thought I would try using these powers for good purposes.

As any regular reader (hi mum!) will know,  I have been aiming to go to Karate class once a week.  I was quite strict about setting my initial target quite low so that I could realistically meet it.  Failing to meet my targets often results in me giving up entirely due to a somewhat all or nothing attitude towards achievement.  So while I set the bar low,  I was happy to go to Karate more than once a week if I could.  Initially, once a week was plenty, with it taking me 5 days to recover from the first class.  Then I thought I would try (just for one week) to go to a second class.  The sensei was pretty tough and caused me a whole new world of pain (and shaky limbs). However,  I’ve started to get a bit of a buzz out of this.  I came home from my first Thursday night class proud of my pain.  This probably makes me a bit of a nutter but I was inspired by the class and the sensei who is quite different to the other sensei.  I figured that the two classes compliment each other quite nicely, therefore if I can to two a week,  my Karate and fitness in general will improve. 

This week was my second week of two classes and I was somewhat disappointed when neither class caused me much pain.  I have had the urge to make myself do press-ups and practice my Karate outside of class.  I am away on training this week, so won’t be able to make the second class but have already formulated a plan for attending a different ‘second’ class that week. 

My Karate is already a little bit like smoking.  I spend time worrying about not being able to do it,  look forward to the next one, feel cranky when I can’t go and relieved/sated when I’ve been. 

I’m going to be sensible about it, and not set myself unrealistic targets that land me in a bit pit of failure at the first sniff of a missed class.  However,  I will take advantage of this opportunity to capitalise on my (slightly maladaptive) personality style!  I feel a three-class week coming on!

Crotchet Inspiration

I have been teaching my friend to Crotchet. We started in December with some snowflakes and have been contemplating our next project. I think a beginner/improver project needs to be inspiring, modular and pretty. Being ‘easy’ is probably less important.  This post is for Amalia and anyone else looking for some hooky-inspiration.

I have been inspired by this beautiful window dressing by Sandra who blogs at Cherry Heart

She calls it ‘falling rain’ but they are actually pretty little hearts.  This got me thinking; hearts are not really my style, but I love the teeny-ness of them and all the colours; they would be easy to make up and there is no reason you couldn’t replace the hearts with anything teeny-tiny and colourful!

Like these Stars, Flowers or these Flowers all from Lucy at Attic 24

Once I had started trawling pinterest and the rest of the web for ideas I got quite excited!  There are SO many pretty, colourful things you can crotchet out there,  the pinterest boards are Positively Pornographic.

Butterflies, Birdies and Bumblebees

Not to mention Strawberries, Suns and Shamrocks:

I had also thought of bunting, a bit like this:

Then I realised the Horizontal Plane opened up the Project Idea for all sorts of Chained, fabulous things:

Again with the Flowers, Flowers, Flowers:

Stars and of course… Sheep!

All (except, perhaps, Sheep) could be joined to each other or a chain in a bunting-type, decorative affair.  The possibilities are endless! For more inspiration please see my Pinterest board.

For now, I’m off to make This

Into This:

Hmmmm…

(P.S. I have tried to link the source of all images to the sites they came from; clicking the word describing each photo should take you through to the source-site.  If there are any problems please let me know!)

Happy Hooking!