Viking Tea Party: personal

Matt had to work yesterday so I did something unusual and got out of the house not too long after he left and at least a little before the tourists started to flood the cathedral close. No tourists meant that I could finally take a decent photo of Mompesson House.

Mompesson was built in 1701 and I'm sure there are those who love it for it's historical value. I guess you could say I love it for it's historical value as well - just a much more recent history. If you're a big fan of Sense and Sensibility you might recognize this as Mrs. Jennings' London home which means...Alan Rickman was here.

I couldn't find a photo from the actual movie but you can see the same sign to the right of Mr. Rickman in the first photo.

We actually went inside a couple of weeks ago when Matt's dad and stepmom came to visit but we'd already been walking around quite a bit and the bump and I had had it so after taking a glance at the extensive Turnbull drinking glass collection and the album of photos taken during the shooting of Sense and Sensibility (the above photo is one of them), Matt and I sat outside while they took a tour.

Colonel Brandon is one of my favorite roles Rickman has played because it shows that he can be a good guy just as well as he can be a bad guy. Brandon is also probably my favorite Austen male character (and not because Rickman played him in the movie). I've never been a big fan of Pride and Prejudice (gasp, I know) and never really liked Mr. Darcy (double gasp) either. Colonel Brandon is where it's at.

Unfortunately, my pleasant, quiet day took a turn when I opened the front door and heard the phone ringing. My glucose test results were back and...I have gestational diabetes. Anything above 7.8 is abnormal and mine came in at 8 so I failed it by a ridiculous, maddening amount. It's not life altering or anything, thankfully, but I was still disappointed and had a rather rough rest of the day.

I can tell you right now that my problem isn't sweets but those other tasty things that break down into sugars like the baked potatoes I've been craving and that we have for dinner at least twice a week. Oh how I'm going to miss baked potatoes....

I have an appointment to talk to someone about my diet and pick up my machine on Friday and then another appointment with a midwife who isn't my regular midwife the following Tuesday but I was so thrown by the results that I honestly have no idea exactly what the midwife appointment is for. I have an appointment with my midwife (my last, unfortunately, as she's moving to Scotland) on Thursday and am really looking forward to talking to her about it.

Time to get ready for knit group where I should be able to finish up the sleeves on the tiniest cardigan ever!

January 1, 2009: I'm not going to say what my future is going to be like or make any resolutions this year - instead I'm going to take the advice of a few blogs I read and focus on a word. My word is simple, "Forward". Everything in 2009 is about moving forward. Moving forward to things that I've been waiting years, maybe all my life, to do. Big things, teeny tiny things, but all very meaningful - and this is the year I'll, hopefully, get to accomplish some of them.

The above is from my first blog entry of 2009 and I have to say that, even though I may not have consciously focused on the word "forward" as much as I could have, I certainly moved forward. I'm not sure what teeny tiny things I was thinking of but I know I accomplished the big things. Getting married and moving to England were really beyond big and we have our fingers crossed that this year will bring even more big things forward. For now, though, it's time to pick out a new word for this new year.

My word is a few days late this year because I've really been feeling a bit indecisive. The word I finally settled on, though, is the one that came to mind when I first started thinking about it.

I've been working on this post for two days now because it's incredibly hard to think about color in the dead of winter when everything is some shade of white, gray, brown or black. That said, there are two blogs - do you mind if i knit and Attic24 - that I've been following for a few months now that are a daily dose of colorful inspiration and also part of the reason I chose the word 'color' this year. When I scroll through Google Reader I almost always look first to see if they have new posts. Not only do they post beautiful (and well lit, I have to add) photos but their writing is so positive that it's hard not to feel good once you've finished reading. These two women also make me want to cover my couches in colorful granny squares.

For Matt's sake, though, I think maybe I'll just start with a cushion cover or two.

Adding color to my knitting will be a little hard since one of my new year's resolutions is to save money by using yarn from my stash as much as possible and, as Chris said, learning to "work from the yarn end, and not the pattern end of knitting." I already have a lot of green yarn because I Love Green so when I do buy yarn I'm going to go for colors I don't normally use - blues, pinks, reds, yellows and oranges...pretty much any color of the rainbow that isn't green. I'm going to do the same thing with my wardrobe - no more black and brown and maybe a little less green there, too. I was trying a bunch of things on a month or so ago and even the woman who showed me to my dressing room commented on the fact that everything I had was green.

I also want to make color a state of mind, too, and channel some of the positivity that color inspires. That's the kind of color I could really use right now while there's snow on the ground and the temperatures are in single digits. That and a handful of crocheted flowers....

In closing, a colorful palette of talented inspiration!