Hi everyone on this late Friday evening. It’s too late for coffee for my liking, but I’m joining #WeekendCoffeeShare regardless. I’m pretty sure there are still some soft drinks in the fridge, so if you’d like a drink, you can have one of those. Or you can just have water. Let’s have a drink and let’s catch up.
If we were having coffee, I’d ask you about your weather. The weather here has been truly beautiful all week. Yesterday, the temperature rose to about 16°C. Today, it was slightly cooler, but still about 14°C and mostly sunny. Over the weekend, we’re supposed to get slightly cloudier weather and we may get rain on Monday and Tuesday. Oh well, I guess that’s a welcome change for the farmers.
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you all about the new creative projects I’ve been busy with lately. First, early in the week, I finished yet another polymer clay unicorn. This one, for those who can’t see, is teal with purple legs, tail, mane and ears. The purple color is the color I’d been mixing myself a few weeks ago. Its horn is Pacific blue and the unicorn stands on a heart-shaped surface of the same color as its horn.
I’ve also been creating a mobile for my sister’s new baby. The baby isn’t due until May, but I don’t want to put myself under pressure.
Finally, I’ve had a bunch of ideas in my head. I got a lot of rings similar to the one I put my polymer clay owl on. One is for the mobile, but I want to use one for an Easter bunny too and maybe I can think of others too. I also thought of combining a slice of wood from a tree with polymer clay and my staff gave me a slice. I really look forward to crafting with all of this material!
If we were having coffee, I’d tell you that I’ve also been loving experimenting with photography and photo editing. Of course, my staff does most of the work in this case, but I tell them what I want them to do and I suggest ways of improving the pictures based on the tips I get on photography blogs. For example, when I took Wednesday’s flower pic, I didn’t realize it might look burned out due to excess sunlight. Then when I went out to take some more pictures on Thursday, I made sure to take them later in the day and to make shade with my body while my staff took the picture.
At the suggestion of one of my staff, I also downloaded an app that is really cool for collage making and such.
If we were having coffee, I’d share that I had a haircut this morning. I had my hair cut in layers, so that my wavy hair comes out even more than it normally does.
If we were having coffee, lastly I’d tell you that the dietitian came by this morning too. We did an exercise in mindful eating. It was really quite interesting. We got a slice of a tangerine and had to listen to a story and, midway through, we had to look at the slice (my staff at least) and describe it without saying what it was. Then we could feel it, smell it, lay it on our lips and finally take a tiny bite, all the while describing the sensations without mentioning what we were eating. We then chewed onto the tiny bite as long as we could and then, once we’d swallowed it, had to wait until the taste disappeared. The idea is that, if I want a treat, such as a piece of licorice, I can do the same (well, except for taking tiny bites) and not take another one until the taste has truly left my mouth. I have been trying with licorice, but not been successful yet.
How have you been?
A Multitude of Musings 
I like that mindful eating exercise! It sounds good! The unicorn sounds so pretty. We’re in for a rainy weekend. I don’t mind, I’ll be staying home. I am feeling awful. xx
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Yes, the mindful eating exercise was really intriguing.
I’m so sorry you’re feeling awful. Do you know what caused it?
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☕️☕️☕️
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Hi Astrid.
Nice job on the clay work. I know I could not make something that looks that good.
Weather here has been very cold at night and almost too hot by mid-afternoon.
It’s still Friday here but I’m taking part of the day off because I’m almost maxed out on vacation days. Hope you’re still having a great week.
Blessings.
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Thanks so much for the compliment on my unicorn, that really means a lot. Yes, it’s cold here at night too, but I make sure not to get out during the early morning. Oh, you used up your vacation already and it’s March?
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Hi Astrid,
No. I wasn’t clear enough.
We accrue vacation days each week we work but once we hit a limit, it stops so if we don’t take time off we lose it. I’m often close to the limit so I take a few hours here and there so I don’t lose them.
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Oh, I understand now, I think, though it does sound kind of complicated. Is it like, if you don’t make use of your time off, it’s gone and you’ll not be able to make use of it later? Like here in the Netherlands employees have to use up all their days off by the end of the year or they’re gone? Or am I still misunderstanding it?
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You’re looking good Astrid with the new haircut. The unicorn is so cute.
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Thanks so much for the compliments on my haircut and my unicorn.
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You’re welcome
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Astrid, You did a great job making your polymer clay unicorn. Your haircut looks very nice, too. Thank you for your #weekendcoffeeshare.
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Thank you so very much for complimenting me on my unicorn. I needed to hear that right now! I’m also glad you liked my hair.
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Love your unicorn how cute! Love your selfie too, your hair really suits you.
Have a lovely week ahead Astrid. 😊
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Thank you so much. I am so happy you liked my unicorn and my hair too.
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I love your unicorn and your owl is really cute as well. Nice job. Way to go venturing into photography and editing. That is so fun! I love playing with photos. I love your hair. I always do mine in layers because it’s so heavy and it it weighs down the curls if it is all one length. I have a couple ebooks on mindful eating, but I haven’t read them yet. I downloaded them because a friend of mine had been posting about it so I was curious.
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Thank you so much for stopping by. I think mindful eating doesn’t require any extensive eBooks, honestly. It’s just eating while being very aware of the sensations of the food in your mouth. I’m pretty sure you’re talking about intuitive eating, which is like mindful eating but much more complicated. I’ve looked into that but struggle with it given that I’m a very picky eater and also I get my meals delivered to the care facility, so I have no way of cooking them myself usually.
Thanks for the compliment on my unicorn! As for my hair, I have wavy hair, not curly, but I also feel that my waviness shows more now that I had my hair cut in layers.
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