{"id":1756,"date":"2014-01-15T14:34:23","date_gmt":"2014-01-15T22:34:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/box5710.temp.domains\/~pippinst\/blog\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2014-01-15T14:34:23","modified_gmt":"2014-01-15T22:34:23","slug":"a-new-year-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/2014\/01\/15\/a-new-year-again\/","title":{"rendered":"A new year again"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/a>Well here I am rushing in to be the first to say Happy New Year!<\/p>\n

No?<\/p>\n

I’ve not used my blogging muscles for a bit — I really had to limber up before sitting down today so I wouldn’t sprain something — and I’m glad to be back here. \u00a0I hope you all had a chance for some nice times, and slipped into the new year feeling well.<\/p>\n

I was busy in a huge canvas-painting flurry through December, and then switched to a desperate prep runaround a few days before Christmas. \u00a0What I liked about this year was that, after dreading how I was going to get it done through a lot of the month, when I actually got there I felt quite Christmassy. \u00a0I kept finding myself humming Christmas songs. \u00a0Now, when I’m stressed out I have a habit of humming those tunes faster and faster in a sort of weird manic loop, so it’s not always a good thing, but this year I felt some mellow feelings sneaking in. \u00a0I have big kids now, very big kids actually, and that’s changed things a little. \u00a0I think sometimes when you have the choice whether to let some traditions go you end up hugging back the ones that you really love. \u00a0I had gotten away from our annual Christmas morning scones in favour of some purchased chocolate croissants that I could buy and put in the oven to rise the night before. \u00a0Yummy and easy as long as I remembered to do it, but this year there were murmurs of how nice it would be to have those homemade scones again. \u00a0And that was sort of nice, having those murmurs. \u00a0So I smiled and felt nurturing as I rolled them out Christmas morning. \u00a0\\We all enjoyed them.<\/p>\n

That’s actually not true. The poor soul who started his Christmas morning just after midnight by throwing up most of the night skipped the scones. \u00a0And the turkey dinner. \u00a0And pretty much everything that day. \u00a0But he did bounce back the next day and he also kept those throwy-uppy germs to himself, so bless his soul.<\/p>\n

My very favourite day of the year is Boxing Day, the 26th. \u00a0Nothing needing to be done. Wonderful leftovers in the fridge. \u00a0Time to pause and breathe. \u00a0I felt like I’d been in a bit of a creativity void with all of the rush so my goal for the break was just to let that side go wild for a while. \u00a0The first day my hands wanted to be busy but the rest of me didn’t want to move at all, so I pulled out some knitting and had a bit of \u00a0Downton Abbey marathon. \u00a0I’m a little late getting to that series but was hooked. \u00a0I kept casting on, knitting a few rows, then pulling it out when it wasn’t quite right. \u00a0All about the action, not the result. \u00a0I finally got on a roll but at the end of the day was about two thirds of the way through a trivet that I’ll felt once I’m done. \u00a0Oh dear. Two thirds. \u00a0Not looking good for that one. \u00a0Might have to wait a year for that urge to strike again. \u00a0\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

In the days after that the weather was cold — sorry about that, I know it was nothing compared to what a lot of you will have had — and I mostly stayed in. My sketchbook and I hung out a bunch. \u00a0It was the best thing, just drawing.\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n

I spent an evening doing a little card, with watercolour. \u00a0\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

Before Christmas I had been busy trying to finish an acrylic painting for my sister-in-law. \u00a0She was supposed to get a painting last Christmas so she was a pretty patient thing. \u00a0I also switched the subject on her. \u00a0I’ve painted this a few times and like how it turns out a little differently each time. \u00a0It looks like it turned out just a little blurry this time, but I think I can blame that on the photo and the late hour I took it! (Although maybe I had better check?)\"Image<\/a>\u00a0It stayed cold outside so I felt well justified in staying in and bundling up. \u00a0The frost on the railings looked like the hair on a dog’s back one morning.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

And what the heck was happening with this ice? \u00a0How is this possible???\"Image<\/a>It eventually warmed up, and then before it seemed possible school was starting up again. \u00a0It’s such a surreal time, between Christmas and things starting up again. \u00a0The days seem to go by in a blink. \u00a0I kept away from my office and really took a breath, and that felt good. \u00a0The day before it all started up again I met a friend down at the beach and we tried to remember what it feels like walking into that cold stuff.\"Image\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now I’ve been back at my desk for a bit but just finding my words lining up again. \u00a0I keep getting such interesting emails about different projects and ideas for Pippin. \u00a0I think it’s going to be an interesting and wonderful year and I thank you for being part of it. \u00a0Back to the balancing act!\"photo<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well here I am rushing in to be the first to say Happy New Year! No? I’ve not used my blogging muscles for a bit …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88890,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/88890"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pippinstudio.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}