Happy New Year!

 Hello Friends,

Happy New Year!  We are one week into 2024 now I can't believe how time flies by. I wanted to share with you a few things I received for Christmas to get me started on the New Year and also some more updates. 

I was gifted the Happy Planner and stickers this year from my Mom and Dad. I love planning and didn't get into it too much last year because I was so busy with having Evan in November then the last year was a busy time trying to find time to plan. This year I have been using the new planner more already. I started on New Year's Eve to put some stickers on the pages and plan a bit and have added to this year week. It is the dashboard style and it is for moms and I think I will like this style for being more busy with Evan. I like the cover that says "find joy in simplicity". There is so much joy and love in our home with Liam, Evan, and Millie. I feel like my life is simpler that before, but so full.

I also received the mindfulness self care calendar from Liam and I have been looking at the quotes daily and they are bringing me joy and some positive words to the start of the year. 

I was gifted the mug below from my sister and love the quote "So much yarn so little time". I have it pictured here below with the project I will be picking up again soon! I was knitting these socks before I had Evan and took a break to knit some baby items. I had the pattern on the yarn sleeve and I have to find it again lol then I will be continuing on.  I also hope to look up some new patterns soon and buy more yarn (so much yarn!) to knit a new project. 

I was gifted the book below Tom Lake by Ann Patchett. I read some good reviews for the book and look forward to reading it as well this year. I have been enjoying the book I was also gifted the Whole-Brain Child that I started reading on Boxing Day. It will be so informative and noticed today it is around 130 pages so will be a faster read. It is good so I can start applying what I read sooner with Evan.

I hope that you have had a good start to the year! This year will be full of more firsts with Evan and I will be going back to work in the Spring. This will be an adjustment and I am also looking forward to it. I will be transitioning back to work and also transitioning Evan to daycare. It will be a busy and emotional time I am sure. I am also so excited to see all the things Evan learns this year. It has been amazing watching him grow this past year and our relationship with his blossom and this year will have a lot in store for us as well. 

Have a great day!

Friday Focus- Inspiration for the New Year

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! When I was thinking about what to call my Friday posts, I thought of Focus Fridays or Friday Focus. The reason for the title is because I want to focus on a topic on Friday posts that are not necessarily knitting related. I like to post on other topics as well. Since it is the beginning of the new year, I thought having a Friday focus on inspiration for the New Year would be fun and maybe helpful. I will be sharing some of the videos, podcasts, meditations, and books I have been enjoying to start the new year. 

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Podcasts

Happier podcast with Gretchen Rubin -  I have listened to a couple of the podcasts to start the year. The first one that inspired me was "choose your one word theme for 2022" . I listened to the word theme podcast on New Year's Eve. It made me think of a word I would choose for the year. It is grow. The other one I listened to on Wednesday was "we reveal our 2022 lists. Gretchen and her sister Elizabeth create a list of 22 goals for 2022 and discuss their goals. I wrote a list of 22 goals as well, and I look forward to checking the list throughout the year to see how I am doing with my goals.

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On Purpose with Jay Shetty - I was recommended this podcast by my sister and I am glad I visited his podcast on Apple podcasts. I listened to the interview with Gwyneth Paltrow titled: Gwyneth Paltrow Interviews Jay Shetty ON: Daily Actions to Build Life-Changing Habits & Training Your Mind to Break Old Patterns. I was so inspired by Jay's words and will be listening to his podcasts this year. One take away from this podcast was that we are all inspired by someone, and we use this interest to motivate us to find ourselves and what we want to become. He also discusses his story and how he became a monk and the importance of meditation.

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Meditation

Setting Intentions for the New Year by Maryam Aishah on the Insight timer App. I enjoyed this meditation to start the new year. I liked her words of inspiration and it was very calming. She focuses on setting intentions for the year and thinking about how you would like to feel. 

Live event - New Year, New You-est you: Your Highest Vision and Dreams by Julie Reisler. It was the first time I attended a live event on the Insight Timer app. I really enjoyed the meditation which was a visualization meditation. Also the community aspect was nice as well. I will try to join more of these events this year. You can access more of Julie's mediations on the app and also on her own podcast the youest you podcast.

Youtube Vlogs 

Vlogs can be so inspirational and I have watched a few to start the new year off right. Below I have shared a few vloggers and videos that are my favourites for the start of this new year. 

Carter Sullivan - I recommend watching her videos Reset for 2022 with me, and January reset routine. I enjoy her videos on monthly resets and day in the life.

Rowena Tsai - Her video how to reset for 2022 . Her videos have always been so inspirational to me and her beginning of the year videos always inspire me so much to get organized with my goals. She ways inspires me in her videos on getting organized, journaling, and making goals.

Amy Landio - In her video Getting back to you in 2022, Amy focuses on how to have a good year and how to get back to doing the things that make you you after the difficult past year in 2021. Her book good morning good life inspired me and I like her vlogs for inspiration on goal setting, morning routines, and inspiration.

SarahBethYoga - I follow the 10 and 15 minute yoga workouts during the week and have done the longer 30 minute ones when I have time on the weekend. I like her videos because she explains things clearly and the workouts are fun. Adding this one to my favourites for the new year because I recommend getting a good start to a new routine or adding her videos if you are looking for yoga videos.

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Books

A Year of Positive Thinking: Daily Inspiration, Wisdom, and Courage (A Year of Daily Reflections) by Cyndie Spiegal. I started reading this book this year and so far I like the daily motivations for each day. They are short and very inspirational.

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Good Morning - 365 Positive ways to start your day by Brook Noel. I read this one in the past and was thinking of it today when I was starting the other book. I have loved reading it over the years and it is also very inspirational and a good book to read daily. These are longer daily thoughts and inspirations that the prior book. I will re-read this book as well this year.

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Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod - I had to include this book to start the new year. I want to reread this one soon as it really inspired me in the past to start my days off in a fulfilling way that inspire me so much to live my best life. 

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Thank you for visiting my blog today for my first Friday focus post of the year on the topic of inspiration for the new year. I tend to seek out these types of videos, books, podcasts, and meditations at the start of the year to shift my headspace to a place of positivity and hope. I am also feeling so inspired now to have a great year and chase after my dreams now after listening, watching, and reading the above. What are some of your favourites that you discovered to start the new year? It would be fun to share a post like this at the start of every year going forward as a new tradition on my blog. I hope that you had a good first week of the new year and have a great weekend.

Have a good day!

Happy New Year! Plans for 2022

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy New Year!  Last night Liam and I stayed in and watched Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. We had snacks and snuggled on the couch with Millie. At midnight we celebrated with our prosecco and welcomed 2022. We are so happy to be celebrating another year and we hope that this year is a good one and we are all healthy and happy. We are looking forward to some goals we have for the year like continuing to grow our family.

I have been thinking of plans for my blog this year and want to make some changes for the better. My blogging schedule will change from once a week to three times each week. There will be posts every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday this year. I will continue on with the posts I have been doing on Wednesdays and Thursdays usually concerning knitting and reading updates. Then Monday's posts will be updates from the weekend and plans for the weeks ahead, and Fridays will be a mix of topic posts and Friday Favourites. I really enjoyed writing daily for blogmas and was inspired to up my posting game this year and blog more frequently.

This year I have two planners to help keep me on track and organized. I received the new 2022 Happy Planner from my mom for Christmas. It is beautiful with flowers on front and it is written Let Love Grow on the cover. Last year I bought myself a bullet journal which is the mauve one below, to record my habits and track other goals. I make habit trackers, book trackers, and will also start writing monthly goals there and wrote out my goals for the year to keep track.

My Happy Planner layout this week and I have planned to make macaroni and cheese tonight as our yearly tradition on New Year's day.

Last year I started the year with showing you my habit tracker for the month of January. This year I have it in my bullet journal and made my own tracker. I just listed the days of the month and added drawings of each habit I wanted to track at the top. I have found that doing this really does inspire me to meet these goals and work on completed them all each day. I think this layout will also inspire me because I can see a completed line each day and if I am missing something I will be more motivated to want to complete it to fill it in. I will share how it ends up looking all filled in (hopefully) by the end of the month. So far I have colored in blog post as I am working on this post today and going to publish it.

The habits I want to track and complete daily are: read, 8 glasses of water, exercise, close rings/loops (on Apple watch), blog, tidy, meditate, and knit!

I draw the photo at the top, then have a legend at the top for reference.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I am so excited for 2022 and hope it is a good year for all of us.

  Have a great day!

Getting Back into Routine, Knitting, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It has been a slow start to the New Year, getting back into work routines and trying to get back to and start healthier habits. One I have been focusing on trying to improve is getting to bed earlier. This one is so hard for me because I like to stay up later at night, but also like to rise early around 7:30 am. I woke up today and did a yoga routine. It is the first time while being in our new condo that I have done an exercise in the morning before work. It was nice to get back into that routine.

For knitting, I am finally getting back into it and I have casted on Headband with a Twist pattern by Mirella Moments on Ravelry. I am using the Lion Brand heartland yarn in the colorway Carlsbad Caverns. I have knitted this project before and knitted it in white for my sister. Blog post on that project is here if you want to see how it looks when completed.

I am currently reading Beach Read by Emily Henry. It is such a good book, and I am enjoying the storyline. It has become so much more enjoyable to read as I continued on. I really love the depth to the characters, and how they help each other to work through their difficult pasts together. I am also reading the book Didn't See That Coming by Rachel Hollis. It seems like a guidebook to getting over big life events that are difficult. So far, Rachel has included the news of her divorce from her husband. She is tying in her own past hurdles as well and her current ones. I look forward to reading more.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! How is your New Year going? I am feeling a bit tired and trying to motivate myself lately. I always find it a bit hard after the holidays, because I look forward to Christmas so much, and then it is over. I really loved posting for Blogmas and enjoyed it so much. Thank you for joining me for those posts. In 2020, we especially needed a little bit of Christmas in our lives to feel comfort and joy. I hope that you are doing well if you are feeling this way too and giving yourself some grace during this time. 

Have a good day!

Happy New Year!

 Hello Friends,

I hope you had a good start to 2021. It was a nice New Year's Eve here with Liam. We had some buffalo chicken bites, a caesar salad, and some hors d'oeuvres for dinner. Then we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. It was a lot different this year without the large crowds and the people were standing in their zones to keep distance. It was nice that they invited the health care workers to this event to honor them. Our night was really nice and calm and a good end to a crazy year and nice start to the new Year. We had champagne at midnight and we called my family. The photo below is taken last night after midnight which I shared on my Instagram. A sleepy, but happy photo to start the New Year.

This morning, I was motivated to create a habit tracker to start the year based on what I read from Atomic Habits by James Clear. I am excited to start tracking my habits daily and do all the things I want to do daily even if for only 2 minutes each day. I just used Microsoft word and made a spread sheet with my habits listed with the numbers for days and the months at the top I can circle each month. Please see my layout below to create your own.

I saw this photo from IKEA leaning against the wall in our second bedroom as inspiration for the New Year. I love this quote it is my favourite. It motivates me to go for what I want even it is does seem impossible or a big goal. I hope that it motivates you too!

We can do it!

I haven't shared much in the way of knitting lately! I purchased this lovely yarn last year, and I will be knitting a project using it soon. It is Heartland yarn by Lion Brand in the colorway Carlsbad Caverns. I will have to visit Ravelry for some inspiration today. What will your first knitting or crochet project be for 2021?

Happy New Year! Preparation and Reflection for 2021

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well.  This morning I did some planning, journaling, reading, and reflecting. I love NewYear's Eve because I use it as a time to think of the past year and what my goals are for the upcoming year. I finished reading Atomic Habits by James Clear today. It is a great book to read to think of the habits I want to continue and start in 2021. I wrote in my Five Minute Journal on what I am grateful for, and my hopes for the day to make it a great one. I planned in my Happy planner and filled in my to do list for today. I reflected on the affirmation card below to get into the mindset today. I also did a 6 minute meditation using the Insight Timer app on my phone. I am enjoying meditation lately and it is helping me to keep calm and focused. Definitely want to meditate daily in the New Year.

I planned in my Happy Planner on Sunday this week for the week ahead. I planned out this week for New Year's spread in my new planner. I have filled most of it in at this point, but here is my before the pen layout for the week.

I love this sticker that says Pop! Clink! & Fizz! I am happy I saved it for this day because it is perfect for New Year's Eve. I add the champagne glasses clinking sticker and some other star stickers as well.

I received some more planner stickers for Christmas as well as the Happy Planner pictured above from my mom. We always gift each other a planner and stickers each year. She got me two sticker packs, one note pack, and the fitness insert.

I got a lot of lovely things for Christmas. Below are a few gifts I received that will help me make this year a great one. I received the One Line A Day journal. Which has five years of space to write a line about your day. It will be great to reflect each year on the year before and to also compare years. I received the oh she glows cookbook. I am excited to try out these plant based recipes and I have two other books of hers and enjoyed them. I received these affirmation cards for women by Casey Weigand from Liam's dad and stepmom and am looking forward to incorporating these into my morning routine in the New Year.  

We were also gifted the ornament that says 2020 The year we almost got married from Liam's step sister. It is so cute and funny and we love it. I got the First Christmas in our New Home 2020 ornament on Etsy from SamanthaAnnAndCo. We love this ornament so much and we love our new home.

I also put together this plant stand from IKEA today. It is the Satsumas brand plant stand. I am happy that I now have a good home for my plants, and they will get a lot more sunlight in the New Year. I am glad I worked on this project today, and that it is now done. Liam also put together the second Malm nightstand. We are making progress in making our house more of a home.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting today! This year was at times a difficult one and also a year that we had to slow down, and live in a different way. There were also some really great times had this year. I cherish this year for the special moments we had and mostly buying our first home. I hope that you enjoy your New Year's Eve and have a Happy New Year! I hope that 2021 is a wonderful year for you, and your family. Thank you for visiting my blog this year, I am so grateful for each of you. 

Happy New Year! x

Happy New Year! Progress on Knitting the Shawl and Reading On

Hello Friends,


Happy New Year! We are in 2020 now and I am feeling very positive and excited for this year. On New Year's Eve, Liam and I went over to hang out at one of his friend's apartments and we played games and chatted. We also watched the ball drop and celebrated with champagne at midnight. It was a nice group to ring in the New Year with. So far the year has been good, I have been getting readjusted to regular life after the holidays have ended. Next week will feel long at work as it is the first full week back after the holidays. There will be new training happening soon at work and lots of change coming soon so I am anticipating that happening.

I started knitting the shawl again. This week I knitted some more rows of the Casual Lace Knit shawl found on Ravelry. I love how it is turning out so far, the details are so lovely. I really like the green color of the yarn as well. The yarn is the brand Vanna's Choice by Lion Brand in the colorway 'dusty green'. I got a few skeins of it last year when it was on sale at Michaels and thought it would be perfect for this shawl.

I finished reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Ruben and I liked the book. I really liked the tip from the book on pairing tasks to get things done. I think I will try to do that more often such as pairing going to the gym with watching a show while working out as a pairing. I think do that pairing with knitting and watching YouTube videos. There are some types of videos I only watch while knitting, a lot of the videos of vloggers just talking make me feel like I should be also knitting while watching them. So I get a lot more knitting done while watching those videos, and will wait to watch them until I have some knitting to do while watching.
I started reading The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey this week. It automatically borrowed for me on OverDrive on New Year's Day morning, so I got a jump on reading it that day. I have been following Dave Ramsey's steps to getting debt free and have paid off my student loans and still have some more to pay off from when I was in school and when I was in between jobs and changing careers. I am on baby step 2 and then the next step once debt is paid off is baby step 3 which is to start saving for 3-6 months of expenses. I am interested in reading more about his steps to keep on working towards building a positive financial future for Liam and I.  I have also started reading The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod and have been enjoying his inspirational words and hope to learn more about making my mornings more productive. I really enjoyed his first book called The Miracle Morning so I am looking forward to reading this book too. I have also been listening to the audio book called Give a Sh*t: Be Good. Live Better. Save the Planet. by Ashlee Piper. I hope to learn more about living more waste-free and helping to save the earth. So far I feel like this audio book is very motivating and I am looking forward to listening to it on my drives to and from work.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday

I hope that you had a good first week of the new year and are enjoying life getting back to normal after the busy holiday season.

Have a great day!