Learn a new skill in 2012

First and foremost I would like to wish you a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

My daughter writes for a local community magazine and last year she decided to encourage people to make a list of 12 aspirations for the year ahead rather than making resolutions that soon got broken and were soon forgotten. Thinking up her twelve ideas really focused her on what she would like to achieve/do/enjoy in the new year and were all potentially achievable. In December she reviewed her aspirations and had managed to complete 10 out of the 12, pretty good I think and better than one all encompassing woolly resolution!

Thinking about this made me wonder about encouraging people to learn a new skill in 2012, and having a teaching background I’ve decided to launch my own sewing workshops combining my own skills, enthusiams and passions, details can be found in my section on Events and Workshops should you decide to add designing and sewing to your list.

Taking my daughter’s lead I’ve decided to give the list of aspirations a go, some will relate to work, leisure, family, education; some of them will only be simple things like practising my pilates twice a week, trying out a new recipe at least once a week, setting up a shop on Etsy, but I intend to include learning a new skill.

After my failed attempt at spinning sugar to decorate the lovely lemon and rosemary possets with  rosemary shortbreads I’d made for New Year’s Eve I think this will have to be one of my skills to learn in 2012. The sugar spinning did not go well, I followed the instructions in the recipe book to the letter, resisting the temptation to stir it as it started to turn golden. The ‘golden syrup’ stage came and went too quickly and my attempt to make spirals around a wooden spoon first resulted in floor, ceiling, walls, worktop and cat(if I had one) to be splatted with sticky stuff! A quick stop for a clean up was the next mistake, I thought perhaps a round squiggle on baking parchment might be easier, but no, the syrup was too thick and quickly setting into bell metal, any welder would have been proud of the weld penetration that I had managed to achieve! It was so strong that I had to spend the next hour trying to clean it off, eventually heating hot water in the pan in an attempt to melt it off. This eventually worked but I was still without a decoration for my dessert and out of time, orange segments it would have to be. I consoled myself by thinking at least it would count as one of my five a day.

So whatever new skill you decide to learn, have fun, don’t worry if you don’t succeed at first, my failure in spinning sugar has made me determined to have another go. Perhaps need to stock up on cleaning products first!