Knitting and Reading

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been busy with work and getting wedding preparations done. I finally got my invitations to our wedding sent out on Monday this week. That was big on my to do list for quite awhile, so I am happy to have gotten that done. There are still quite a few things to do like get our marriage license and decide on the music at the reception and types of photos we want captured. Weddings are like a big life project and mine is coming due soon. I got to keep working on getting tasks done.  I have also been working away on knitting the shawl. I knitted some rows this week and really loving how it looks so far. I am using the casual lace knit shawl pattern by Purl Avenue. 

I am reading Good Morning, Good Life by Amy Schmittauer Landino. It is positive and motivating so far. The idea of the book is that working on things you want to do in the mornings will help you to accomplish more. I look forward to reading more of this book. I finished reading the Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod this week and I thought it was pretty good, but I enjoyed reading the Miracle Morning more and could apply his tips to my life.

That is all for today, I hope that you enjoy your weekend! and I will be back with another post this coming week. 

Joining along with Crafting On and Unraveled Wednesday 

See you soon,

Life right now

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I haven't been posting much lately because I have been continuing to be busy with work and working more hours lately overtime. This past weekend was a long weekend for me. We had Family Day on Monday and it was so helpful and relaxing to have the day off to get things done at home. I had my sister over this weekend and we had some pancakes and treats for breakfast on the Sunday morning. I enjoyed making the pancakes, I haven't made pancakes in a long time and I used to make them more often on weekends for my family. I also grabbed some of the Timbits and treats from work on the Friday as there was so much left from our Valentine's day spread. I didn't really touch those much because I am still on a diet leading up to the wedding. It is so easy to get off track and I did this past weekend with more dinners out and treats, but now I feel like I am getting back on track.

My shawl is coming along slowly but surely. I am still working on the Casual Lace Knit Shawl by Purl Avenue. I have really been enjoying this pattern it is fun and also easy so I can get familiar with the pattern and watch YouTube videos and TV at the same time. 

My bamboo plant is thriving in my kitchen right now. It is the only plant I have that is doing so well. I like bamboo plants because it is easy to know when to water them when the water is down and they do well in low light which is good when you are in a basement apartment.

I am still reading The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. Will be finishing it up soon. Listing to the audio book of The Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney.  I love audio books for my car rides home from work. They help me to be more patient while driving because I am enjoying listening and learning and am not wasting time stuck in traffic.

 I visited my parents a couple weekends ago and on the Sunday morning, I walked in the family room to see both Moo and Roo snuggled up on the couch. They looked so adorable together. Moo, the black and white cat in the photo below is eyeing the door already to see if he can run out of the room. When I closed the door, he got up to get some pets. He doesn't ever stay put when I walk in and comes to greet me. Roo, on the other hand will only get up for my dad as he adores him and they have a special bond.

 The wedding is fast approaching and this weekend I got a lot more done. My sister and I had a planning session while she was over. She is so good at helping me to put tasks in my planner so I can keep on track with wedding plans. I ordered invitations on Monday and thank you cards for the Bridal shower. We also finalized the gift registry online.

How is life going for you? I like these overview type posts and will try to share more often about what I am up to. I will be more present on here going forward because I really love this community and the support and kindness shared.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Have a great day!

Getting Things Done

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Is it just me or did January fly by so quickly? It feels like just yesterday it was Christmas and New Years, and now we are making our way into the year and are in February. I didn't post nearly the amount I wanted to in January. It was a busy month for me, I got trained on answering phone calls as part of my role and its been going way better than expected, but with it comes more responsibility and more time and less time to do the other tasks I still need to do. Its been busy learning to manage my time and get more adjusted to taking on more duties. Its been busy but it also excites me to be busy and have more expectations and I feel great when I can meet them.

This morning I will also be working on some wedding related planning, the wedding is 84 days away so it is getting real now. I still want to plan wedding favors, transportation, look at invitations and order them today to send next week, and more little things to plan. I am very excited for the wedding day and as it gets closer there are so many fun events planned leading up to it. I know once we have all the little details planned out and covered, I will feel so much more prepared and I am hoping to work on those details today and tomorrow before another busy week at work begins.

I have been continuing to knit the casual lace knit shawl. I haven't made all that much progress since my last post as I have been so tired after work and just being lazy.  I knitted a bit this morning again and it felt great to pick up the needles again after such a busy week working overtime and not finding as much "me time" as before.

I have also been continuing to read The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod and liking the book so far. I find it a bit repetitive to his last book The Miracle Morning in the sense that he speaks of his accident again for quite awhile. I am not downplaying it, I just wanted more from this book than it is giving me I think. I still find it a more inspiring and positive read that encourages you to work hard and believe in yourself so that is never a bad thing to read more books like that. I am excited to finish this one and to move on to some of the other great books I received from Christmas.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

I plan to post more often on the blog going forward and planning more time to write and knit and I think February will be a great month for getting things done and getting back on track!

Have a great day x

Knitting the Shawl and Reading On

Hello Friends,


I hope you are doing well. It has been too long since I have been on here blogging. I missed it! I have been busy with work mostly and knitting the shawl here and there. I have knitted quite a few more rows since the last photo. The shawl was too big to take a photo on my usual white chair, so I had to move to the couch to take photos of it. I am following the casual lace knit shawl pattern by Linda Thach found on Ravelry. I like the design from doing the yarn over, and knit 2 together it adds a nice texture to the shawl.

I finished reading Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey. I started reading it on New Year's day because it borrowed it automatically from OverDrive library site. I felt like it was a sign to start reading it and working on my money goals this year. It is a great book for getting real with yourself about your financial situation. I am also continuing to read The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. It has had a bit of a slow start I am hoping there are some steps to take to live as a "miracle maven" soon. I have been doing better lately with meditation, reading, and writing in the mornings and feeling more on top of things.

This weekend I will be working on a lot of wedding planning as it is getting so much closer to the wedding now! (3 months away!) 

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday 

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great weekend

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!

Knitted Headband with a Twist and Reading On - Blogmas Day 18

Hello Friends,


I hope you are doing well. It is Blogmas day 18 today and that sounds even closer to Christmas to me. 6 more days until Christmas now! Last night I finished knitting the headband with a twist from Mirella Moments on Ravelry.  I like the finished product, it is cozy and soft and looks really nice. I am so used to wearing hats, but this headband would also be nice to wear as well to keep your ears warm. This was also a quick knit and can be a quick gift to knit up for someone on your Christmas list. It took me about two nights of knitting to complete it. Also I used a chunkier yarn so it knitted up faster. I used size US 8, 5.0 mm circular needles to knit up the headband. I am not quite sure what type of yarn I had it in my stash, it is a worsted weight yarn. I am thinking of gifting this to my sister for Christmas. This was one of the knitted gift ideas from my post called Ten Gift Ideas to Knit for Christmas. I posted on December 6th. It was definitely a quick knit and fun once I got the hang of the pattern. I enjoyed that I could knit it up while watching shows and vlogs.

The twist was made by sewing up the two ends together 

Close up of the twist

I am still currently reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Ruben and I have been making more progress lately. I started reading before bed as well so I read at night a bit and in the morning for about 10 -20 minutes each time. I did the miracle morning routine for the first time in awhile and it felt good to meditate again and journal. I didn't have time to read though, so I want to read more tonight before bed.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today for Blogmas! I will see you again tomorrow for Blogmas Day 19 when I share how my Christmas village came together.

Have a great day!

Knitting an Ornament and Reading On - Blogmas Day 10

Hello Friends,


I hope you are doing well. I have been busy and this time of year can get hectic with several things happening at once such as year end at work, Blogmas, and Christmas quickly approaching. I am so excited for Christmas and it is only 15 days away now! I am doing a daily countdown on my Instagram stories and I started yesterday. I have also been posting stories each day related to my Blogmas posts on my blog and also will be doing extra videos here and there related to Christmas.

I started knitting an ornament from Patons Merry Fair Isle Knit ornaments. It looks good so far and is very small. I used a size needle a bit lower than required I used size US 3, 3.25 mm double pointed needles so it might turn out smaller than they usually are. I haven't really knitted in fair isle for a project before, so it is a fun new challenge for me. I have practiced fair isle in the past to carry the yarn along and make a design, but never as a project. I am looking forward to seeing how it turns out! I just finished row 8 of the pattern and starting to see some of the fair isle design. Sorry for the photos they are dark because I took them this morning before work at 8 am.

I have been knitting the casual knit lace shawl pattern found on Ravelry. I had to frog some of it as I saw some errors. It is coming along, but I have been working on the Christmas ornament the past two days

I am still reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Ruben. I am really enjoying it so far and think it is a very interesting read. Habits are a really fascinating topic because we have daily habits that keep us organized and we don't really realize it sometimes. As I have become more in tune with my habits and how habits can help you go about your days, I have been working on adding in more positive habits that help me to do the things I need to do more seamlessly throughout the day. It comes more naturally without much thought which increases the chance I do these things more often that are positive in my life.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scarf Knitting Progress and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have started getting into the Christmas spirit even more now. This year I thought about Christmas a lot more and I was getting excited way earlier (September too early?). I am so happy that it is now the Christmas season. I have already gone to a Christmas parade, decorated my parent's tree, and gone to our annual Christmas shopping at a mall to get ideas and start shopping together. Last weekend we put up our Christmas tree and I have decorated our tree. I have also bought decorations and ornaments. I will share all this with you next week for Blogmas I can't wait for Blogmas, it is only 2 days away now! It is on a Sunday which is the perfect day for the start of it because it is not a work day and I can get into the spirit and work on blogging and getting ready for a busy and fun month of posts. If you are also participating are you ready for Blogmas? Leave links to your blogs below and I be sure to visit your blogs this holiday season.

I have still been knitting the candy cane scarf. I found the pattern on Ravelry by Kristen Retigg. I used US 9 knitting needles and used Red Heart Supersaver yarn in white and red to knit up the scarf.

Modeling the scarf in progress

I haven't knitted more of the shawl because I have been busy knitting the candy cane scarf so I can finish it and enjoy wearing it during the Christmas season. I am really looking forward to getting back to it soon. I am using size US 6, 4mm circular needles and the yarn I am using is Lion Brand Vanna's Choice in the color of dusty green.

Shawl in progress

I am still reading Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin. I am loving how she focuses on the main habits that we should work on and and that improve lots of aspects of our lives.  Some important ones are getting more sleep, moving more, healthy eating and drinking, and living more cluttered-free. I have been recently working on getting more sleep and going to bed earlier in order to get more sleep during the week.

Currently reading: Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I want to wish everyone in the United States a happy Thanksgiving and hope you have a great time spent with family and friends.

Family time, Knitting, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I have been busy with work, I trained on a new task to take over for my coworker in a different role while they are away. I have been doing the task for a couple of weeks now and maybe next week for a third. It was good learning something new and challenging myself.
I went to the Santa Claus parade last weekend with my family and we had a wonderful time I love this tradition we share every year. My sister and I used to go just the two of us, then once I moved out and life got more busy, my parents also joined in and we all started going every November. We also have the tradition of decorating my parent's Christmas tree the same day and it was fun to look at all the decorations that we put up every year and they bring back fond memories. We drink eggnog and eat chocolate and cookies and listen to Christmas music. My sister and I made up funny dance moves to some Christmas songs and we laughed at ourselves. It is a wonderful time of year. I love the family time spent together most of all. As I get older, especially this year I am thinking how I don't really need gifts I just love the traditions and the time spent with my family and Liam's family and it makes it so special. As you can see our cats were also interested in the Christmas tree and Moo enjoyed going under the tree.

Moo investigating the new tree

Roo just likes to be with my dad

Santa! I know him!

I have been knitting more of the candy cane scarf the pattern is found on Ravelry. I really wanted it to be done in time to wear to the parade, but I didn't knit it up in time. I will have it ready for the rest of the year's festivities and next Christmas I can wear it to the parade. It is a fun pattern and I love how the stripes are looking and are on an angle.

I got the needles I was waiting for in the mail last week and shared it on my Instagram story as some of you might have seen. I was so excited to get them. I ordered them off of Etsy, they are ChiaoGoo brand needles and are apparently make of surgical-grade stainless steel, they sounds pretty durable and good quality to me. I started using them to knit some of the shawl again and really liked using them they are flexible and lightweight and I like the feel of them. I will really enjoy using these. I am looking forward to knitting more of the shawl now that I have the needles. I got them from the FibreArtStudio shop on Etsy. They shipped from Vancouver, British Columbia. I ordered the 40 inch, size US 6, 4mm circular needles as the pattern calls for this size, but a shorter length. I went for longer needles to accommodate bigger projects as well in the future.

ChiaoGoo needles

I am currently reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin and really like it so far. I like how she describes the different types of people when it comes to habits: the upholder, questioner, obliger, and rebel and how people fit into these four categories. So far I think I am an obliger and I am looking forward to reading more.


Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday

Thanks for joining me this week and hope you have a good day!

Blogmas 2019 Announcement!

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am excited to announce I will be doing Blogmas again this year. Blogmas is a challenge for bloggers to post daily on their blogs for most of the month of December starting the first day of December and posting everyday leading up to Christmas. Last year was my first year doing Blogmas and I had a great time coming up with topics to cover and patterns to try out for Christmas. You can read last year's posts by clicking here. I wrote about goals of mine, knitting projects, ideas,and  books I had read and plan to read in the new year. I will be including some of the same types of posts as last year, but also writing some posts on new topics and trying out some new patterns and including gifts ideas. It will be so fun and I am already excited for it.  This is both a writing challenge and a knitting challenge for me as posting daily requires you to write each day and also to come up with more creative ideas and some projects to share. I remember last year it was a bit of a challenge at times to post daily, but it was also interesting what posts and ideas come out of that daily challenge. I posted some posts such as wellbeing at Christmas and 'quick gift ideas to knit or crochet in time for Christmas' last year which I wrote on the day and were written from inspiration by participating in the challenge. I am so excited for Blogmas it is such a fun time of the year and I love sharing it with you all.

Want to join me?
If you would like to also post blog posts daily for Blogmas, let me know in the comments below. If I have enough interest I will start daily link up parties so we can share our posts. I will be hosting daily link parties where you can also post your Blogmas blog post at the bottom of my posts so we can all share our posts each day.

I am currently still knitting the candy cane scarf using the pattern from Ravelry called candy cane scarf by Kristen Retigg. I have to knit more to have the scarf ready in time for Saturday's Christmas parade! Think I can finish it? I am still waiting to get the circular needles in the mail to work on my shawl. I started reading Better than Before by Gretchen Rubin, it is so good so far I am excited to read more. 

Making more progress on the scarf!

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.


Thank you for visiting my blog today and I am so excited for December to come and to share in all the joys of the holiday season with you. Sorry the photos are so dark I had to take photos tonight to share this post!

Knitting a Candy Cane Scarf and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are all doing well. It has been getting a lot colder here in Toronto. It is also getting so dark now earlier at night after we moved the clocks back with daylight savings time on Sunday and it feels a lot later when heading home from work. Wedding plans are going well and I signed a contract for hair and makeup and will have a contract for a florist soon, then we are done signing contracts and have all of our main vendors, that is so exciting. I am really looking forward to our big day now as it gets closer.

I have started knitting a candy cane scarf by Kristen Retigg found on Ravelry. I am still going to be knitting the casual lace knit shawl, but I had to order larger needles so that is on hold for now. I was so excited to start the shawl project that I started without long enough needles and planned to buy some eventually. I picked up the needles again to knit this scarf last night to work on while I waiting for the needles and to also knit something fun for the holidays. It is knit in all garter stitch and by using some increasing and decreasing each right side row by knitting two stitches together and a knit front to back increase. This candy cane scarf is such a fun and festive knit to make and wear at Christmastime. I was thinking I can wear this scarf at the Christmas parade and markets to look and feel festive. I am knitting the scarf on US 9 needles and I am using leftover yarn Red Heart Super Saver red and white yarn from knitting last year's Santa gnome. I had a lot left over and enough to make a scarf and maybe some other fun things for Christmas.

Pattern: Candy Cane Scarf by Kristen Retigg

I just finished reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg this week and will start reading Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin. As you can probably see I am really interested in reading books in the self help and self improvement category. I am also listening to the audio book of  The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey. It has been a great companion on my drives home from work and so informative and I love the lessons I have learned so far. All the books are to promote positive habits and I am a big believer that we can really change our lives by changing our habits as all three of these books demonstrate. I have been starting some positive morning habits and weekly habits and can see how they are improving my life already.

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On, As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday and Small Things for Yarn Along (November)

Thank you for stopping by! What are you working on and reading this week?

The Shawl is Growing

Hello Friends,

I hope you are having a good week so far. We ordered the save the date cards for our wedding on Monday and now we are waiting for them to come in the mail. I will have to ask our parents for addresses then get them sent off soon. It is a big first step to getting the wedding one step closer to happening in 6 more months.

I have knitted more of the shawl and am loving the detail of the K2tog, Yarn over, then purl the other side  that I did for four rows.As you can see in the photo there is not a lot of room left on the needles to grow this shawl, so I am planning on moving the shawl to bigger needles soon. This is such a fun shawl to knit and I like the pattern a lot so far. I am using the pattern Casual Lace Knit Shawl by Purl Avenue and you can find the pattern on Ravelry. I am using size US 6 circular needles and using Lion Bran Vanna's choice yarn in the colorway 'Dusty Green'.

I am still reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. I have been listening to the audio book 168 hours by Laura Vanderkam, but I am not enjoying it that much and I'd hoped. She focuses a lot on career choice and talks about not thinking anything you do in your job is "work" unless it gets you farther in your career or you love doing it. A lot of people do work at their jobs that are not self serving for their careers so I don't agree with that. Also I was hoping it would be more focused on planning your time outside of work and it isn't so I will move on. I will instead be listening to the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey. I am looking forward to listening to this popular book and hope to learn a lot and be inspired. 

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and Unraveled Wednesday with As Kat Knits.

Thank you for visiting today and have a good day!