As the resident film fan for my friends and family, I end up the recipient of all things film related. Sometimes that’s good (like the 5 x 4 camera I time-share with my uncle) and sometimes it leaves me with stuff I don’t know what to do with.

This wee stack fell into the latter category, and so I girded my loins (because when stuff ticks so many Keep boxes: vintage, camera, family etc one has to make a particular effort) and took them off to The Real Camera Company who promised to send them to good homes.

I’m still desperately working away on my Sketchbook (due in seven days) and so this is just about the level of blogging I can handle! (I’ve got heaps of things photographed for my 365 Simplicity, just haven’t got them off the camera yet.)

So my Wednesday Wishlist for this week is:

1. An adequate quantity of sleep. Dragon’s been up more than usual in the night recently and I’m an absolute zombie because of it. We’re talking 3 month-old baby levels of wakings on his part and brain function on my part, it ain’t pretty.

2. To end up with a Sketchbook I’m happy with and the time to feel I’ve done it justice.

3. A haggis! I always forget how difficult it is to find haggi in the Southland with no preparation. That’s today’s mission…it being Burns’ Night and all.

So much so that I have squandered my morning of freedom…writing a single email, paying my tax bill and now I’m considering using up the rest of the time before I collect Dragon from nursery by making myself coffee. I really hope this doesn’t last!

Time for the annual Sketchbook Project Panic.

Books need to be postmarked by 31st January, and my cover is going to take some time to dry, so I have a little under a drawing a day to finish before it’s done.

In fact, looking at last year’s post from about the same time, it was no better last year…

I’m a curly-haired kid, and all the cool curly kids seem to be turning to oil to keep their hair lovely. So I’m steeling myself to finish off the old stuff before diving into the unctuous world of oils.

The first is trial sized toiletries…I went through a phase when I only bought those 3 for 2 pretentiously named shampoos and conditioners, and when I travelled, I bought the minis to take with me. Now that I’m old and cynical, I buy shampoo and conditioner in 5 litre jerrycans, it seems pointless to store all these wee tubes when I have plenty of refillable travel bottles to use instead.

It remains to be seen whether I’ll be able to resist the hotel mini sizes when next I encounter them…

My mum-in-law had quite the New Year adventure and managed to break her ankle, so we’re keeping her company up in Edinburgh for the week.

I can’t tell you how much we miss Edinburgh, and I’ve been going round all our old haunts and catching up with friends in between epic washing up sessions and peeling Dragon off of whatever piece of furniture, electrical equipment or musical instrument he’s decided is the toy of the moment.

It’s exhausting, but this view makes it fairly worthwhile.

Now, of course I spend my work life in leggings which have a much shorter shelf life than my old work wear. There’s nothing less appealing than baggy-kneed workout trousers, so I have to swap them about fairly frequently. These are a casualty of the semi-annual Lycra amnesty, and I’m looking forward to the invigorating snap of their replacements!

Yes, those are jars of fabric!

This packing technique can be traced back to my childhood excursions to sleep away camp (I did grow up American, remember). My mum would send tins of chocolate chip cookies or brownies (see, properly American) and the best way to get the tins home in your suitcase again was to fill them with socks.

When Dragon was born, my mum brought over a suitcase full of things for him, new things and some things of mine. I really liked having things that were mine for him, quite a few blankets, some adorable onesies (including the one we called ‘the Hefner’) and my first shoes and ballet slippers. This was in there, and as much as I desperately wanted to use it, we never did because we didn’t really do squished food and the idea of giving Dragon something with a suction cup on the bottom was just asking for trouble.

I’ve been holding on to it, trying to think of a use for it, and to be honest the most use it’s got is when Dragon found it and carried it around with him for about 10 minutes.

So if you wake up one morning and can’t decide between salted and sweet porridge, this is the bowl for you, it even fills with warm water so you never have a Three Bears moment.