Yoga poses with a purpose

Tags

crafts, exercise, fitness, intention, link love, wednesday workout

Yoga for weavers

Yoga videos for knitters

Hand exercises

Shoulder mobility

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My famous exercise regime

Tags

exercise, fitness, life, relax

It’s been 2 years since I began working and reporting on this. By early summer last year I was getting quite a bit stronger, and although I wasn’t losing any additional weight, I got perhaps a little too enthusiastic and had to take a long break because of pains in my pelvic area. This seemed to be resolved as the new year approached, but only a couple of weeks into a gentler program, it’s now back! Taking it ultraslow while losing my new resting pulse of 70 (instead of 100) is actually quite stressful, I just want to get back in the game. Like, now, pls. I never did manage to finish the last room renovation either.

So in a way it’s convenient that weather sucks so badly this time of year, I’m not as tempted to try to go jogging and wreck myself. And I’ve been advised to stay off the elliptical since the movements may be all wrong for me.

Status in other words is, I still “need” to lose 10 kilos and I’m trying to get back into the strength training habit. No machines, just myself, a mat and perhaps some tiny dumbbells. I have some yoga links I’m aiming at trying and I joined an online group where you get new exercises every week, starting very slow and building up over a year, not aiming at fitness but rather pain free movement.

Stretching before crafting – source unknown

2019

Tags

crafts, intention, weather, winter

You don’t know it, but I’ve actually started writing you a number of times, planned photoshoots of what I was up to but then abandoned it all mid-project because I felt it was just more of the usual stuff and so not very exciting? Does it have to be exciting? After all, it’s what we do most of the time, more of the same, and we still keep at it. Ok, and I had a chronic headache most of December and January.

There was a failed ink project, in the sense that I got a nice chocolate brown ink, but from a berry that was traditionally used to make sap green. I didn’t pick the berries myself, so I can’t really say what went wrong, and the experiment was never concluded = blog post unfinished.

I finally made myself read a pattern for turning heels and worked through it, so I’ve been knitting socks and lost my distaste for that. Now I’m on a mission to find the perfect nylon-free fiber blend which does not grow holes in 2 days and can also be machine washed, but like most of the things I think of, no guarantee it will get further than the drawing board. I will try to report on my findings and link to other people who are working on tuff socks projects.

His and hers – with my poorly selfinvented heel on the latter

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I’m doing my best to become/stay organised, I’m re”programming” my workbook, collecting all my various notes and we’ll see how many weeks that system lasts… 😉 I’ve tried just putting everything in my bullet journal, summing up undones once in a while, I’ve tried having one notebook for each topic which works REALLY badly because I can never find that specific book when I have an idea on something. I’ve also on multiple occasions decided to make ta-da! lists to show myself I’m not completely inactive, but I usually get bored within a week and then forget.

We’re having a green winter again, but it feels pretty miserable all the same, 95% humidity, wind and just above 0 makes me want to not go outdoors ever again, it just goes right to the bones in a way frost never does. So I rotate by the fireplace trying to will myself into the studio, but even a mad dash through the stables is enough to make me shiver again, in fact, the very thought of it is! But uniting the two buildings would be a massive investment and require a permit.

There’s already another hour of daylight in the afternoon it seems, so very soon it will all be forgotten and perhaps I’ll have more to show you?

October

Tags

autumn, country life, landscape, seasons, weather

Foggy morning season (warm days, cold nights) is coming to an end and it’s just allround chilly. The woodstove AND sometimes the studio space heater are running most of the day, I’m remembering that summer should have been the season for knitting more woolen socks.

I was gifted completely new flooring for the upstairs, much needed as replacement for dingy old carpets. Problem: I now have to paint the walls first or it wouldn’t make any sense. I can’t believe yet again I put myself in a position of less studio time! I do the work in tiny little bits, but much sitting time is required as a result. Room one nearly done, two to go – with much shuffling of stuff in between since hauling everything downstairs on bendy stairs and then living in the piles for weeks would also be exhausting.

Interlude

Passion and income

Tags

inner conviction, intention, life

I’m guessing from the usual underwhelming number of poll participants that my readers A: don’t enjoy surveys and B: I still need to find a different way of financing my interests. Duly noted! 😁 😂 🙄

Lake pigments continued

Tags

closetohome, colour, crafts, DIY, mordant, nature, plants, primitivepaints, scruffyartsupplies

SURVEY at the bottom of this post, please cast your vote! If you are using Firefox on a desktoip computer, you may not see the polls if you have tracking protection enabled under security settings. Click the shield icon in front of the URL and choose disable protection for this site. (if you wish obviously)

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Now that I have a small first collection of pigments to play with before new plants can be tested next summer (I do have some old dried things I can try too), there are multiple ways to use them. They need some kind of binder, although I suppose you could just soak them in water. Alcohol? But even watercolours have binders added to add intensity to the colour as well as make it stick to your paper.

Winding down

Tags

autumn, nature, seasons, video, weather

Rainy grey day today, a reminder that soon, soon, I’ll want to stay indoors for days on end, playing rotisserie in front of the wood stove, rushing through and not around the outside of the barn to get to my studio upstairs. Thinking in muted tones and drinking buckets of tea, layering up in wool sweaters and socks.

Only a week ago I was in the hammock on a beautiful warm, quiet day with that certain something in the air that is no longer summer – not the least an unusual gathering of birdies doing acrobatics over the garden. It took me a long while to realize that I had brought my phone for a change and that it does in fact make videos (because forget taking a still photo of the little speedsters).

More on local art supplies

Tags

close to home, colour, country life, crafts, DIY, dyeing, mordant, nature, plants

During an investigation into using dry pigments and beeswax for painting rather than oilpaints, which I’m not enjoying, I’d been reading about making lake pigments and thought it would be fun to give it a try. These are pigments from plants as opposed to rock/earth/metal based colours, and since I already had some remedies as well as dried plant materials for dyeing wool, it wasn’t too much trouble to give it a try.

Constant focus change

Tags

art, creativity, determination, inspiration, intention, procrastination, reading, res

Wax on Wood

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Last week I mentioned the absurdity of a health challenged person embarking on time consuming physical tasks such as gathering natural malerials, making paper, prepping and studying new branches of the art tree, and it surprised me that nobody mentioned “productive procrastination” aka Resistance. (dah-dah-DAAAAA)