OCTOBER UPDATE
I've been looking forward to trying out calligraphy for a while, and it's been at the top of my list of potential hobbies for as long as I can remember. Getting started, however, was all a bit of a disorganised rush, and after initially buying a terrible kit with fountain pens that didn't work from Hobbycraft I ended up on a frantic search for some sort of step-by-step guide. In my head I wanted to master traditional, fancy writing: the type you see on beautiful invitations, but finding relatively cheap equipment along with a detailed and fairly idiot-proof guide proved impossible at such short notice. Instead I looked into brush calligraphy, and after researching on a couple of blogs I downloaded and printed the entirety of this 30 Days to Better Brush Calligraphy challenge and I managed to find the recommended Tombow Dual Brushpens on Amazon prime. Finally with a plan together, I actually started...
I made sure I did around 5 letters a day - 2 pages of each - along with pages of numbers, phrases and quotes. I think I've vaguely got the hang of it but I'm still pretty wobbly, and my letters aren't half as neat as I hoped they'd be. I haven't quite mastered the art of joined up writing without a guide, and I can't write in any size other than absolutely enormous which is a little problematic! I'm not entirely sure what I'm doing wrong, but I suppose more practice wouldn't hurt - and I fully intend on practicing. I actually ended up quite liking calligraphy, and while what I was doing wasn't particularly difficult I really enjoyed being creative again, even if it is on such a small scale.
The main problem, however, is that I don't think brush lettering is particularly useful for me... While I think it looks really pretty, I could do with learning fancier looking calligraphy. At work I've ended up handwriting hundreds of names onto invitations - that's the sort of writing that I'd like to neaten up to look more professional. This 30 day challenge has been great, but I'd now like to expand my calligraphy repertoire. I'm open to any suggestions, so feel free to point me in the direction of any excellent fountain pen guides, please!
(gold stars - reading / red dots - cross-stitch / green stars - workouts / mini silver stars - film / orange dots - calligraphy)
In other news, I've started reading again, finally finishing The Rosie Project, devouring The Light Between Oceans (I loved it even if the characters continued to make increasingly frustrating decisions) and only taking 2 sittings to start and finish Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.
Then there's my cross-stitch. I'm determined to finish it off completely this month, but the border is more fiddly and complicated than all of Henry's wives combined so I think I'm being overly ambitious...
October was Film Festival month, and as a result I saw alllll the films. The best part was that they were all so brilliant I can't wait to see them again in a few months' time when they're on general release!
NOVEMBER PLANS
November's going to be a full-on and crazy month, and as such I didn't want to commit to something crafty that would require physically completing a challenge every day. I've been extremely conscious of my spending recently - specifically since my trip to America in the summer - and I'd really like to rein it in. Since I first started working I've always moved a set amount of my wages into savings, and no matter how much my salary has changed over the years I've always ensured that a portion of it is immediately transferred each month. While this is all well and good, I've been increasingly concerned that I'm spending too much of what's left over and I'm constantly thinking that I should be saving more.
November, for me, is going to be a thrifty month of no spending. I'm obviously going to allow myself to buy essentials such as petrol, food and Christmas presents (while not necessarily essential I think they're pretty important as a one-off thing during the year and I have a list I'm going to stick to!), but nothing else. Hopefully by the end of the month I'll be much better off than I am now!
So, 30 days of saving... go!
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