Taking Stock: January

This has become a bit of a tradition, started over at www.meetmeatmikes.com by the lovely Pip.

Making : a "happy" bright pullover for me for kindy (much brighter than I would normally wear as a way of warding off the winter blues!)

Cooking : corn and bacon fritters

Drinking : pear cider (my new favourite Summer drink) and too many cups of coffee
Reading: Oh MY!!! "The Distant Hours" by Kate Morton. So good. Seriously good modern goth! I adored it and think I need it for my very own.

Wanting: January to end. Quite frankly it has been CRAPPY
Looking: Forward to February
Playing: Skipbo with my kiddos
Deciding: To spend more time with friends this year. To make the time.
Wishing: We lived in a world where only very old, very sick people died.
Enjoying: Downton Abbey season 5
Waiting: For Downton Abbery season 6 (and for cricket and tennis to end so that I can have my Better Homes and Gardens back on Friday nights)
Liking: Our cleaner (than it was) house
Wondering: If I could go through Maddie's clothes before school starts tomorrow
Pondering: The unfairness and the randomness
Considering: whether I could make park run a habit
Watching: The bunny amble outside the loungeroom window, the old dog sleeping by the door, the garden leaping forth in green and flowery verdant
Hoping: For a really good rest of the year
Marvelling: That my baby (MY BABY!?!?) starts school tomorrow!
Needing: Hugs and reassurance and lots of chocolate
Smelling: Roses (and taking the time too!)
Wearing: Comfy summer dresses
Following: too many conversations on ravelry and facebook
Noticing: that writing my "one sentence a day" is making me want to write more
Knowing: Children grow up way too quickly
Thinking: I wish they wouldn't LOL
Admiring: my friend Nae who has managed to take up running and enjoy it!
Sorting: Clothes, material, my sewing table
Buying: School clothes, ingredients for green smoothies
Getting: Anxious about first day back at school
Bookmarking: lots of crochet patterns on pinterest, and a plum cake recipe too
Disliking: the feeling that comes with knowing the holidays are over and term time is about to start
Opening: yet another packet of rice crackers
Giggling: over the antics of my kids
Feeling: sniffly and emotional
Snacking: on too many pecan nuts
Coveting: chocolate biscuits and endless wool stashes
Helping: organise memorial cards, and photo displays
Hearing: the chitter chatter of my children as they play Minecraft in the front room, the gentle hum of the fish bubbler, the slightest breeze outside

Spinning: A colourway called "happy" in a lovely merino blend

Sewing: a charity quilt for the bushfire victims

Scrapping: Briony's memorial album

Weaving: a scarf for my nephew

Knitting: a shawl called willow wind, and a second sock

Loving: My kiddos and my hubby just that little bit harder and tighter and longer knowing that other families are not so lucky

Bring on the rest of the year - lets put January behind us!

Crafty Things

A cowl - crocheted for the sheer joy of using up an odd ball and making something I love for myself.  Cowls are much more practical for me - no scarf ends to get caught in doors, or dipped in paint, or caught up in my hair.  Ages ago I used some favourite wool/silk handspun to make this:

 I didn't really have a pattern. It was just an experiment but it turned out to be the perfect cowl for me, so this weekend, when I had a bit of spare time and new Downton episodes to watch I sat down and nutted it out and wrote the pattern down on my rav project page for next time.  You can find it here:http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nelliebligh/perfect-for-me-crochet-cowl and my new cowl looks like this:

I also knitted a new In Threes (this pattern http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/in-threes-a-baby-cardigan ) I love this pattern so much and I think this is about my 5th one!  This time the handspun Bfl/kid mohair was navaho plied and I used 5mm needles to make it big enough for my 10 year old.  She claimed it before it was even off the needles!  The best part about this pattern is it is quick.  I cast on one day and cast off the next.

There has also been some more knitting on my orange shawl.  Have I mentioned how much I love the school holidays?!?

Life long Learner

I fully believe that we should all be life long learners, and that every person you meet can teach you something.  I like to talk to people. I like to learn.  Because this is part of my life philosophy I tend to pick up friends like wildflowers -and they are an eclectic bunch of assorted dear characters; some with lots in common and some with nothing in common.  Anyhoo, I digress.. For a long time I have wanted to learn how to link my rav projects to my blog so I asked a few questions among rav friends and I think I now have it figured out.  Which is my way of saying, this post is really just to test that I know what I am doing; and to show you a Stitchnerd pattern that I am knitting away on at the moment.http://www.ravelry.com/projects/nelliebligh/wavy-bias

Hope it works!

Oh January I love You So!

What's not to love about January?  This has been the longest and laziest of Januarys (in the very best possible way!)  I love the way January days are generally warm and summery.  I love that they are not bound by dates and times and deadlines and who needs to be where when.  A few times I have not only not known what date it is, I have actually had to think what day it is!  Our January has been full of fresh, organic nectarines picked from the tree, salads thrown together with whatever is on hand, crafting (lots of crafting), swimming, even quite a few sleep-ins and reading in bed until the urge for coffee lures me out.  There has been a special weekend away with a great group of friends.  There has been time spent at the beach house with the Grandies.  There has been catch ups with friends that we rarely see in term time.  There has been lots of dreaming and planning and thinking about the year ahead.

I am not making resolutions this year - they are always the same and I never keep them.
I am not picking a word.
I am not even making a list.

This year I am conscious that I want to find balance, and make time, and enjoy the good things, the simple things, the little things.  The things that really matter in this one extraordinary life that I have been given.

Happy January!