Sunday 7th January - One Book to Rule Them All

This is the end of the first week of using my giant and rather hefty A4, 2 pages to a day diary. It is a chunky volume as I created it from a sketchbook with added pages. I called it the'One Book To Rule Them All' in the faint hope it might replace the piano teaching note book/register, appointments diary, prayer journal, art sketch book, gardening notebook, Commonplace Book... heigh ho, I can but dream...

I've spent quite a lot of time these past few days telling myself brightly that 'Future-me' will be so pleased if 'Now-me' gets up and goes and does so-and-so...

Childish, maybe, but it is working at the moment. And 'Now-me', with a bit of bribery in the form of a stroopwafel (we received a hamper of goodies from my brother which included a packet of mini stropwafels which I NEVER buy because they are pure sugar and fatally moreish), I tick off another task and let myself feel wonderful. 

Some of the things I am trying to do more of include drawing and painting, cross stitching, writing and playing the piano. I am rather appalled at how far backwards my piano playing has slithered over the course of 2023.

This, another childish trick, is helping somewhat to keep me motivated;

The actual grid above is miniscule; I've made a much larger grid on next week's page already!

Today I filled up the blank spaces in the double spread with some drawings of trees and bushes (copied, to get a idea of how to go about drawing 'real' trees), 

did some more writing, and then, encouraged by 'Future-me' an hour's cross stitch (reward, a pot of tea) and went on to play the piano for half an hour. 'Now-me' is very pleased with herself! 

I'm ending the week with a clean sweep of achievements for today, the complete opposite of yesterday.

I have been drawing in another small notebook as well, working through a series of 'how to draw landscapes' tutorials. I'm hoping to get out and about more once the weather is warmer, it's far too cold and damp to sit around drawing things outside at the moment!

It's going to be a little tricky to try and fit everything from now on as my term starts tomorrow. I've only seven regular piano students this year, and two occasional ones,  but that's plenty these days.