First off, thanks everyone for your kind comments on my new Faux Knit Puffy Cowl pattern.  I’ve been super inspired lately and there’s another pattern in the works now, too!  Unfortunately though, I haven’t done much in the way of knitting or crocheting in the past few days, so I don’t have much crafty stuff to share today.  The only related news is that I just ordered some KnitPro Zing straight needles (12″ versions) from www.knitproneedles.co.uk — shout out to them for shipping to the US, or else I’d have a hard time getting ahold of them!  I’ll share photos & a review when they arrive and I’ve had a chance to try them out.

At work I’ve had some ups and downs lately; I had a great opportunity but I passed it up because I’m not quite ready.  I feel relieved, like I did the right thing, but I am still a tad bit down about it.  We also are building on to our clubhouse, and the addition was completed on Thursday.  We spent all Friday moving everything over to the new side so that they can renovate the old side, so it’s going to be a bit chaotic for a couple of months.

In addition to that chaos, I’ve been off lately, emotionally speaking.  Depressed, to be honest, and anxious.  Having some personal issues.  My hormones have also been changing due to a change in types of birth control (sorry if that’s TMI), so that doesn’t help.

To combat the chaos and depression and fluctuating hormones, I’ve been working on some coping skills the past couple of weeks.  The first is just practicing mindfulness, or being in the moment.  Too much of my life has been spent worrying about the future or dwelling on the past and that’s got to change.  Chris made me some little reminders and stuck them all over the house and on my keys and in my wallet, so those reminders help me remember to “check in” and see if I’m being mindful or not (and if not, then I try to be).  That’s already helping a little with the depression and anxiety.

I’ve also started back in the mindful practice of martial arts, particularly Wing Chun Kung Fu (and the fact that it’s a bit of exercise also helps, with all those happy brain chemicals that are released).  A couple of years ago I was super into it but my friend, who was teaching me, lives about 2 hours away so it kind of fell off.  We’re reviving the lessons though, and I’m also joining a martial arts center where they have Wing Chun lessons for an hour every Saturday.  It’s expensive but it’s cheaper than therapy, and I walk away feeling much the same (albeit for different reasons; the point is, it helps a lot).  I’ve already met a couple of women there that I’ve really enjoyed working with so hopefully I’ll be making new friends, which also should help things since my support network outside of family and coworkers is almost nonexistent nowadays.  The center gave me a t-shirt to wear for lessons:

I’m really excited about both the paid lessons there and the lessons with my friend; I feel like they are going to make a big difference in my life, even though it seems like a small thing to be doing.  I’ve already learned a little bit that I can practice at home by myself, and my teacher has a YouTube channel with videos he made of the forms in case I forget!

Well I guess that’s all for today.  I hope that wasn’t too boring!  I plan on crafting some today so hopefully I’ll have more crocheting/knitting related updates coming up really soon.  Thanks so much for stopping by!