Something I'm Good At - Blog Carnival

This week’s Blog Carnival post theme is “Something I’m Good At”.

I am really good at keeping things. Like too good. Like if you said, “Lizzy could you please look after this scrap of paper for me?” I would put it away safely in one of my shoeboxes and in 6 years could bring it out and say, “did you still want this?” I don’t know why but I just keep stuff. It just happens. 

Recently a dear friend of mine sent me a letter addressed to herself. It was a work of comedic gold about how her future self should and should not behave should she have a wedding. My friend sent this to me for comedy reasons, but also because she knew I could keep it and pull it out at the right moment YEARS in the future if she broke any of the rules laid out in this letter.

I am hesitant to call myself a hoarder. I don’t want to claim a label that applies to people who can’t leave their own homes due to stuff. I don’t want to be like those people who say they have OCD when what they mean is they are neat. I do not have a house filled with 10 year old newspapers and ice-cream containers. Which is probably for the best. But I am pretty good at keeping stuff.

Plus, I have a lot of the symptoms of hoarding.

I keep stuff automatically, without thinking about it.
I become very agitated if I think about getting rid of things.
I will often ignore or refuse to look at a pile of things I logically know need to go.
I get really sad when I do throw things away.

In fact, I develop such an emotional attachment to the things I “hoard” that I have been known to cry when someone mentions getting rid of them. 

I don’t keep everything, but I keep “important” things - like photos, letters, tickets, notebooks, etc. And I keep clothes. I’m not even particularly fashion conscious. I don’t even love clothes all that much. But I find it incredibly difficult to throw them away. So I have a large pile of clothes that 1. don’t fit me, 2. have holes in them or 3. I no longer like to wear. 

So that’s my “Something I’m Good At” and this is all a really round about way of saying I managed to overcome my emotional attachment to a bunch of clothes last night. I pulled every item of clothing I own and shoved it on the bed. I put a bunch of stuff I’m not particularly attached to in a bag for charity, that’s fine, I can cope with that. But then I still had a pile of things I don’t wear but I can’t let go of… because it made me sad to think about. These items I threw in a massive bucket.

I told you I had a problem

Then I started making this:

It grew:

And grew:

And grew some more: 

It is now larger than my lap...

And now I have a fancy rug, clean shelves and no regrets. PLUS I can keep this rug and see the skirt I bought in year 12, the spotty dress I wore almost every day for a whole summer, all the black shirts from shows I’ve worked on and whatever else I add to it in the coming months. It was a spectacular cure for feeling sad about letting go. 

I suppose I’m good at making circular crotchet rugs from old clothes now too. So that’s nice.

Want to make a rug? The Art Assignment will tell you all about it here, further instructions here. 

What else is happening this week at the blog carnival?

Stay tuned for links... 

Something That Scares Me - Blog Carnival

This week for the blog carnival, we’re meant to write about something that scares us. Deciding on a topic has been a struggle, NOT because nothing scares me (lol haha laughing forever) but because too damn many things scare me.

Initially, I thought I might tell you about my long-held and deep-seated phobia of roller coasters, but this didn’t quite fit the brief for me somehow. Phobias are different to fears, in that they aren’t particularly rational. People can be phobic of peanut butter or ducks, for goodness sake. I’m not taking the piss here, those things are genuinely a problem for those people, but I’m sure even they could acknowledge that they make no sense. My phobia of roller coasters is similarly irrational. It’s not even based in a bad experience, I just have a panic attack if I get too close to them/think about them too much/am peer-pressured into lining up for one. So a phobia doesn’t feel quite right, somehow, I need to write about something that scares me for good reason, I think. 

I also thought I might blog about the deep fears, the life fears, the things about growing up and living life and fucking it up. But in the end I decided to just write a list, because lists are a cop out rad.

Things that scare me at the present moment: 

• Roller coasters - see above

• The dark - don’t pretend it doesn’t scare you shitless too. It’s scary in the dark man, there could be any number of monsters coming to get you.

• Superannuation - how does it even work? Will there really be enough to live on? Why am I thinking about this?

• Thinking about adult things like superannuation.

• Young Liberals - HOW can you be THAT conservative before you’ve even left uni? It reveals something absolutely terrifying about the human race.

• On that note, people who read and accept The Courier Mail really scare me.

• Climate Change - not enough people are scared about this in my opinion. 

• Talking to people trying to sign you up for charity donations - this possibly makes me a bad person but it’s so awkward. 

• There’s just no nice way to say “I know you are a backpacker making $6 an hour and that saving children is important but NO.

• Small, cramped places where I can’t see the way out.

• Falling pregnant/ thinking about having babies.

• Horror movies... like I know that's what they are meant to do but I really don't enjoy it. WHY AM I PAYING TO WEE MY PANTS AND CRY?

• Bugs that fly at your face. Don’t do that bugs, fly in literally any of the other air that is not right in front of my face. 

• The future in general?

• Bats.

I am... so sorry

So yeah, that about sums it up. The world is basically terrifying and we all have to live in it. I’m sure I’ve forgotten really important things to be scared of, so please, tell me about your fears so I can be like “oh yeah, that horrifying thing, why didn’t I think of that?” 

What else is happening this week in the blog carnival??

Alex is scared of the lines between spreadsheets and doing NYWF proud.

Something That Makes Me Happy - Blog Carnival

Last August, I participated in Potentially Problematic Opinions Month. Alex Neill is basically my biggest blogging inspiration, and she's really good at things, so when she tells you to write something, you probably should. Last year, she was like 'write about your controversial opinions' and not only did I enjoy it immensely, I also wrote a bunch of blogs that took little to no effort to concoct AND got a bunch of extra views (and readers maybe?). What I'm saying is, always do what Alex says.

This year, she said 'join my blog carnival it's going to be great'. So here we are - at the blog carnival.

Each week a bunch of bloggers will write to a theme, the details of which live here. The idea is basically that we'll all share and enjoy each other's blogs, encourage each other to do the thing, and maybe write some good stuff while we're at it. 

For me, I'm really aiming to write blogs that inspire my readers to do something and share it with me. You don't have to blog, but I'd love to hear about your experiences, see your photos and generally share this month with you. To facilitate this (and to make my life simple, double win), I'll probably be choosing reeeeally easy ideas for us all to get amongst.

This week's theme is "Something That Makes Me Happy" and while I could've gone with big, important things, I ended up making a bunch of muffins, and now I’m going to blog about it.

First things first (I’m the realest), I’m no food blogger. In order to be one of those I think you need a few, important things. Firstly, you need to have good food presentation skills. Next, you need a clean kitchen. Finally, you need to write your own recipes. I don’t do any of these things. In fact, I’m not even that good at cooking.

But shit man, baking makes me so damn happy.

Step 1: Put all the ingredients out in a fancy way. Step 2: Move them all again so you can actually bake.

See, this is why I'm not a food blogger.

So today I made banana choc-chip muffins. They are made of deliciousness and wholemeal flour. 

Also sugar.

I tried to pretend like this is an actually fancy, pretty process...

But in reality this is what it looks like when I'm in my happy place...

So that’s what makes me happy. What makes you happy?

If you think baking might make you happy, why not give it a go this week and share the results? I’d love to see what you guys come up with. Feel free to use one of the recipes below if you would like.

I’m not particularly adventurous; I tend to make the same things over and over. But there is a certain comfort in doing this. At the moment, I tend to cycle between making these things:

Anzac biscuits (recipe is hand-written out of my dad’s cook book, soz)

Almond meal muffins

Banana-choc wholemealmuffins (today's happiness fodder)

Banana bread and

Gluten-free bread

I ate one just before and it was amazing.

 What else is happening this week in the blog carnival???

Alex is happy about outside and sunshine.

Jessica is happy about family and travel and ancestor hate-mail.

Britt is happy about music.

Noni is happy about her life right now.