Good Intentions and All That

I've been posting my resolutions here for a couple of years now. There's really nothing like failing abjectly out in the open or feeling as if more people read this blog than really do and everyone knows I worry about my weight, caffeine intake, etc. I laid out the 2011 resolutions here, and offered a mid-year, birthday update here. Looking at things at year's end, did I really fail abjectly? No, though I really only succeeded at two of the overly specific resolutions I started with. I did, in fact, run, ski, bike, swim, etc. 700 miles to nowhere; the final total was right around 1,005 thanks to a valiant push the last 10 days or so of the year. I also succeeded in noting something to be grateful for or otherwise appreciate each day of the year. I did this thanks to a friend who gave me a boxed set of cards, one for each day of the year. The completed set is now moving to my studio, to my shelf of precious things. The rest of the list? Fuhgedaboutit!

My thinking for 2012 was to make much more general resolutions, a difficult task for someone who has worked in the planning field with measurable goals and the like. After I inked the list I'll put below onto the obligatory piece of cardboard, I read an article that advised making only one or two resolutions and making them quantifiable. Not this year, at least not for me. Here goes.

In 2012, I shall be healthy. I will watch what I eat and drink. I will work on getting stronger, perhaps by getting back to the weightlifting that I largely dropped when I added Myo Sim karate to my practice of Myo Sim kendo. Finally, I will try to act with more mindfulness, not flying off the handle or jumping to conclusions that may or may not be valid.

In 2012, I shall produce at least one something for which I feel a sense of accomplishment in several areas. I will write something, be it a blog post or letter or story or whatever, about which I feel pride. I will take one photograph that knocks my socks off; it doesn't have to knock anyone else's off, just my own. I will create one fiber something and one other something that needed to be created and will beautify the world. Finally, I will think of one idea, just one, that amazes or otherwise delights me.

In 2012, I shall make progress in my practice of Myo Sim karate and kendo. In kendo, I will work extra hard on diagonal cuts and sparring. In karate, I will work extra hard on kicking and channeling my anger outward, away from myself.

How will I know if I am succeeding at these? I'll figure that out, I guess, as I go along. I may not recognize the piece of writing or the photograph or the other things at the time I create them, but I'm hoping that as the year wears on, I will know which ones they are. Each day, I will try to keep being healthy near the front of my thinking. Does this mean I won't occasionally eat or drink too much of the wrong thing and that I will never skip a workout? No, but I will try not to obsess about it at the same time as I will try not to let it happen too often. In six months, when I turn 56, I'll do my mid-year assessment and hopefully feel better about the preceding six months than I do now about the preceding year. Stay tuned for details!

O, Christmas Tree

I've posted here and there about our tradition of putting the Christmas Ape atop our Christmas tree. A comment on yesterday's post (the "there" one) expressed interest in seeing the whole tree. Things change somewhat from year to year because we either decide the tree looks full enough or we tire, one by one, of hanging ornaments and I decide I'd rather not finish the job myself. Here's this year's tree in its entirety. Two ornaments that always make it on the tree are the ones I showed in last year's tree post (the "here" one above), the sons in Christmas-pageant attire. As I think I said then, younger son is not quite the little angel he was then, while older son still knows what to do with a stick in his hands. We do have the odd store-bought ornament on the tree, including some given to us by the husband's now-departed mother. Most of the ornaments are homemade, though some of those were gifts from an art teacher friend. Others were stitched by my stepmother.
Others were made by the sons. And still others, I made the year we lived in the Netherlands and decorated a tree entirely with creatively handmade ornaments such as toilet paper tolls covered with electrical tape. Besides the Christmas Ape atop the tree, some stuffed animals always manage to work their way into the branches.
There are always some oddities such as the tag I took off a gift one year and started hanging as an ornament. For the first time, this year a number of "shinies," things I find and save for no reason other than I found them and think them interesting, made it onto the tree.
Finally, somewhere in the tree (you'll just have to take my word for it because I could not find it to photograph) is a set of keys that younger son found beside the road. The radio locking component is beat up to the point of suggesting the set was run over at least once. Why are they on the tree? Why not? They were sitting on a nearby shelf as we were hanging adornments, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Beanie Baby Mutations, Parts V and VI

I didn't post any photos of the fifth Beanie Baby mutation since it was a gift, and I didn't want to spoil the surprise for the intended recipient. Since it turns out that her photos of it are better than the ones I took before I sent it off, you can see an elephant with butterfly wings here. It's not clear whether it's an elefly or a butterphant, but I sort of like elefly myself.

The sixth Beanie Baby mutation doesn't have a distinct name yet, but here it is. If that photo isn't clear enough, try this one. Or this one. It's Howl the wolf wearing the clothing (well, the skin) of Fleece the sheep. And like any good wolf in sheep's clothing, this guy knows where to fit in, too. With a couple of other sheep, in the shadow of the Bearodactyl. It's still not clear just what I might do with these creatures other than probably clear them from the mantle perhaps to rest in the branches of the Christmas tree. I have decided what's coming next, though, a rhinopottamus or perhaps a hippoceros, though I think I prefer rhinopottamus.

Beanie Baby Mutations, Part IV

Being a knitter, I do like yarn, so when a friend in England suggested that it might be fun to have a sheep that could spin its own wool into yarn, who was I to argue. Crossing Hairy the spider with Ewey the sheep was actually a bit more complicated that I thought it would be, and I still have a sheep's head with which to do something, but here's what Caroline's spinning sheep might look like. I'm open to suggestions as to what it might be called.

Beanie Baby Mutations, Part III

When the idea of doing Beanie Baby mutations and meldings other than SnailPony arose, the first one that came to mind (the sons' hivemind, not my own mind) was BearODactyl. BearODactyl actually arose from the mind of The Oatmeal. I'm not including the link to the specific BearODactyl comic here because the amount of profanity (words and ideas) that it contains might offend younger readers or their parents.

BearODactyl is a combination of Swoop the pterodactyl and Cinders the black bear. After taking Swoop apart, I had some help from older son on combining Swoop parts with the body of Cinders. BearODactyl differs from the first two mutations in that the ODactyl part is actually a removable costume. The wings are simply sleeves into which the bear inserts his front legs. The head attached to the wings is tied onto the bear's head like a bowtie not really visible here. In the wake of Halloween, I'd have to say that Cinders the bear is quite pleased with the power and prestige that accompany his new alterego BearODactyl. In fact, he looks ready to cast a spell that might determine the next mutation to help clean up the library floor. Can you say "conjoined twins"? "Wolf in sheep's clothing"? "Cat of nine tails"?

Beanie Baby Mutations, Part II

Start with Spinner the spider and Congo the gorilla. Do a bit of dismemberment (no spiders were harmed in this process) and experiment a bit with pins and poses. Rearrange things a bit and sew with invisible thread. The result? SpiderMonkey! I still don't know if SpiderMonkey will go out on his own or stay around to see what evolves in Beanie Baby Mutations, Part III. I mean, I have to get the library floor cleaned up somehow.

Beanie Baby Mutations, Part I

Take one Beanie Baby Snail. Dismember it a bit. Add a Beanie Baby pony. Insert some carefully placed pins. Sew. The result? SnailPony! My friend and BKP (Best Kendo Partner--we earned our black belts together) has a Pony named Pepsi. She also has a stamp dispenser that is a plastic snail. Somewhere in the fatigue of post-workout pizza dinners, the idea of a SnailPony was born. This plush version, a true one-of-a-kind treasure, was a college graduation present. Think it can't really be ridden? Well, you just have to be the right size.