January 2022

Hello!

It's now the Year of the Tiger (Feb 1st 2022 to Jan 31st 2023). How has your Tiger year been?

I think I'm starting the year well. Firstly, right after Chinese New Year, I went to the dentist. Yes, voluntarily. Thanks to the pandemic I haven't visited the dentist for the past 2 years. Yikes! TMI? This year, I decided I wasn't going to live my life constantly fearful of Covid. Not that I intend to live carelessly. But it's been 2 years and I shouldn't avoid doing necessary stuff that requires me to be unmasked like getting my teeth cleaned and checked out. Just to be on the safe side, I opted for an xray as well. Thankfully, I do not have any tooth decay. I was so grateful I almost cried. 

Another thing I did was get my blood test done. My doctor sneakily scheduled my appointment for after Chinese New Year to catch any pigging out. I'll get my results soon and it'll be clear if I ate rubbish. <I did, a bit. Okay, a lot.>

Due to Covid-19 restrictions, our Chinese New Year was very quiet. My mother who's 93 decided to be super safe and cancelled Chinese New Year. My family stayed home and played mahjong. On the second day of Chinese New Year, we went swimming. We didn't even buy mandarin oranges this year. Hubs, son and I are quite reclusive so a quiet CNY is no big deal but my daughter is the complete opposite of us and ranted about the lack of visiting and traditions in our family. So I think maybe this year, I'll try and do better as a mother and start celebrating all the festivals. I'll google them later. 

It seems the current strain of Covid-19 going around now is very infectious. Our cases keep going up but I'm numb to it now. Our death rate isn't high so that's a good thing. Life in Singapore is still pretty restrictive. Everywhere we go, we have to check in, check out with our Trace Together app. Eating out and visitors is kept at 5 people. And of course, outside our homes, we need to wear masks. Our lives have gone on. And honestly we can go on this way indefinitely. But I really look forward to the day when our government stop testing for Covid-19 and remove all restrictions. Will it happen this year? I doubt it but one can only hope.

Do you guys suffer from stress? I'm constantly putting myself in situations where I end up worrying incessantly. It's killing my stomach and worsening my gastric. I wish humans have a button to allow a  do-over. I'd like to rewire my brain so that I don't keep doing stupid shit like over think and worry about the wrong things. I feel like I'm trapped in this endless overthinking/worrying cycle. This year, I'd like to try worrying about the right things. Any tips? 

Creatively, I thought I was on a roll. I wasn't. I have a goal this year of making textile art using scrap fabric and I have so many ideas. Too many actually. As a result, some of  my creations weren't executed the way I had pictured in my head. 

Scrap fabric project no. 1 - this is a cheat really as it's very small and involved only a few pieces of scrap. But I like the overall effect. I would love to do this same thing on a bigger piece but hand sewing is very hard on the hands. I'm going to be kind to my hands and not do it.

Scrap fabric project no. 2. I do like the aesthetic of this apple as it's closest to how I picture applique in my head. But it's unfinished, still waiting for the rest of the alphabets.

Scrap fabric project no. 3. It started with what I thought was a great idea. Marimekko inspired flowers. Yikes. So poorly executed. I must never look at this piece again. Shudder. Vomit.

Scrap fabric project no. 4. This quilt was such a struggle. I wanted to give up and throw it in the bin many times and maybe I should have. It started with bad batting. Too thick and heavy. I wanted to machine quilt but it didn't work out so I ended up hand quilting. Very bad idea. My fingers hurt! I don't even like the end result. 

Scrap fabric project no. 5 was just for fun. I turned a drawing my daughter drew of her dad when she was little into an applique piece. I think her Dad must have done something really uncool to have prompted her drawing and defense.

That's it for January. Adios. (a favourite word I use to start wordle) 

p.s. have you played squabble.me? it's like wordle with other players and a race against time.