February Happiness Project

I was hoping to get this blog post up before I went to Northern Ireland/Ireland and not over half way through March - but I was so busy before I went away that I just didn't get chance to, so here it is! If you missed January's Happiness Project or are new to the game, check out my early post to find out about it and read my January happiness goals here.

My main theme for February was:

"Stay busy & be creative"

My motivation here was that I don't get a lot of time to do the things that I enjoy as I'm always so busy with uni work, appointments and other commitments, but at the same time I do spend a lot of time just crashed out, daydreaming or mindlessly scrolling through social media. When I was younger (probably before social media was really a 'thing' and before smartphones existed, back in the days when using the internet meant running half way round the house to plug in the very extended telephone cable) I had loads of hobbies. Before I was ill, I loved playing sports (especially basketball) and my go to activity was always drawing or colouring or creating something. When I became ill I really took creativity seriously because it was something I could do from my bed, where I spent all of my time and I didn't and couldn't do anything else. I went through loads of sketch pads and I found them all in boxes when we moved into the new house in November. I also hand made a lot of jewellery, sewed, glued, made cards and cross-stitched. Since I started work and college again I haven't done any of those things and I felt that if I spent less time sitting around doing nothing then I would have time to do the things I enjoyed again. A few of the themes for my monthly happiness projects are around picking up old hobbies and doing things for me, that I enjoy doing again. 

Moving onto my mini-goals. I feel like I've achieved some of them and to be honest I don't really feel like I had much chance to sit around in February as I was super busy so this restricted a bit the individual goals but a lot of my commitments through February were really exciting, voluntary and creative in themselves so I still feel that I achieved my overall goal even if the individual goals weren't met exactly as I intended. I am going to make a list at the end of each monthly happiness project of the goals that I haven't quite achieved and roll them over and I will cross them off when I eventually achieve them at the end of a monthly happiness project. But first, February's goals:

• Don't sit and do nothing - Definitely achieved. Towards the end of February I was ill with the flu and that is the only time where I did sit and do nothing, but I am not going to hold that against myself. I spent a lot of February writing which is creative, I did two blog posts for Attitude is Everything (one for their website which you can read here and another one as a task for my interview) and I also wrote a record amount of blog posts on here (3 or 4, which is good for me!). I did a lot of brainstorming for job/career inspiration and wrote out multiple personal statements for individual job applications. Some of it was stressful, but in the end I was writing about the things I was passionate about for each and every one of those things and so it wasn't too much of a chore.
• Draw - I did a lot of this in January but less in February. I did do a little bit of drawing for some cards that I made for my pen-pals and Post Pals so I'm going to call this one a yes/pass.
• Paint - I haven't managed to get my paint brushes out at all in February which is a shame. So this one has to be a no for February but I did do a couple in January so I'm going to at least say that I have achieved it this year. Here are a couple that I did in January:

Inspiration from Formby beach

Love the colours in this one which you can't avoid if you decide to paint Bowie. I'm a big Bowie fan and I did this one I think a couple of days after he passed away.

• Take photos - Since I failed project 365 (three times, due to forgetting to take pictures!) I haven't really taken too many pictures. I got into the habit of trying to enjoy things rather than getting my phone out all the time. But I have definitely been making more effort trying to capture things this year and this month, especially since I got a new phone in January which has a better camera on it. Here are some of my favourite photos from February.

This picture ties in well with another of my Feb goals - 'take walks'. This is a lovely field not far from me that I love walking through on a sunny day. There are great views of the hills in the distance and if you go later at night, the distant towns light up. I took this one on Valentines day when I was out on a walk with Sam.

I went to the Tate Liverpool with Laura in February and this one was taken out of the window on the top floor. Liverpool looks quite pretty from this little pane, especially on a sunny day.

Technically, I didn't take this because I'm in it but this is a February favourite of me and my wonderful Gran at Amy's hen night.

I didn't eat any food on the hen night, but I did indulge in some Parma Violets that were on the table and matched the table decorations and props.

Sam's sister Emily brought this beautiful little darling into the world on 23rd February. Charlotte Natasha - only a few hours old here. This is definitely my picture of the month.

• Take walks - I absolutely love walking. This is pretty much what I use all my physical energy on. I took a lot of walks with Irwin, especially late night walks which I find lovely before bed and really wind me down for the day. This one is a definite yes. I think I went on a walk nearly every day in February with the exception of my flu week.
• Read - Uni work - yes, and I've also treated myself to a few magazines which I haven't done for a while. I think my intention for this point was to make time to pleasure read. I haven't actually picked up an actual reading book throughout February because I haven't had time, but I'll count my magazines as reading for pleasure and since it's not something I often treat myself to that's a good change. I think I only really read the magazines on trains and in waiting rooms but some of my favourite bands did some good interviews in Q and NME in Feb (including, The Vaccines, obviously) so that's why I bought them.
•  Sew - I really wanted to get my sewing machine fixed for this month so that I could start contributing towards Team Tubey orders again. I found a really good deal for a new machine on Groupon but I just can't afford it. I was quoted £70 to have it repaired but I can't afford that either. I'm really sad about it. I used to sew pretty much every day and I haven't been at a machine in the longest time. Nada has been hammering away keeping on top of all the orders solo, but I have had to turn belt requests away which is really disappointing. I've been trying to help out on the page sorting through orders and keeping up with the page but that is about as much as I can do right now. I'll roll this one over and hopefully at some point this year I will be able to afford a new sewing machine or get mine repaired.
• Learn something new - I've been actively learning an awful lot more about accessibility through February and I've definitely learnt a lot on my degree. I was sort of hoping to pick up a new skill or hobby or something. I've definitely not completely failed this one as I learned a lot of new things in February but I'm going to roll this one over as well.

That's all my goals for February! I'm not too disappointed with how it went. As with last month, I'm going to end this months Happiness Project with the theme for next month, but not the smaller goals. Then I'll list my roll-overs from January and February. Next months theme is "Be happy" which I suppose is pretty much the theme of the whole project, but it made sense to have this as an early monthly goal.

Roll-over goals

January - "Be healthy - look after your body"

• Be strict - Ticking this one off in February, I've had my moments but I've been super restrained this month.
• Exercise - Since I took so many walks in February, I'm ticking this one off as well.
• Rest.
• Take tablets - Mastered this one now. Not taking medication is now an exception rather than a rule, usually if I don't feel well enough to hold them down. I've started some new meds for my kidneys that have to go down my jejunal tube for absorption reasons. I've been really strict with them and actually noticed a big improvement for the first time ever since starting them. They've also helped me get into a better routine of taking all of my medication on time.
• Be honest - Whilst in Northern Ireland I threw up monumentally in the Titanic Museum toilets. It's because I ate a whole share bag of kettle crisps #confession. This goal was about admitting where I was going wrong. Admitting where you're going wrong helps you not to make the same mistakes again.

February - "Stay busy - be creative"

• Sew.
• Learn something new

I'm going to update on my trip to Northern Ireland and Ireland hopefully in the next few days and it will be time to do my March Happiness Project before too long since uploading this one happened so late. I'm all finished for Easter now and it's set to be a busy one with plenty of assignments and dissertation work to keep me busy. If you're just breaking up from uni for Easter, then enjoy yourselves - you earned it!