Finished Knitting Patons Spiral Socks and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finished knitting the Patons spiral socks using the spiral socks pattern by Patons found on Ravelry. I love the look of the socks and the Patons Kroy sock yarn in the colorway of coastal stripes. The self- striping yarn looks great and it is so fun to knit with to see what pattern emerges as I knit on.

 They do not have a heel in the pattern, but you can always add a heel if you prefer to have the heel. Without a heel, they look like my socks below straight swirly socks that you can pull on in any direction.

The two socks do not match exactly due to the self-striping yarn which makes them look so fun and unique.

The pattern creates zig-zag stripes up close that you can see them when you pull the socks tight. It also makes it easier to see if you are on track with the pattern and doing it correctly by checking to see that they have equal length of stitches until the next switch every 5 rows.

I will be knitting a turkey wine bottle topper soon as a gift for my fiance's mom. She received the bunny wine bottle topper last Easter from me, loved it, and wanted me to make another one for Thanksgiving. So I will be working on either finding a pattern or developing my own pattern for that soon and will be sharing the progress. I bought some small balls of Bernat cotton yarn on my last trip to Michaels and will be using them to knit the Turkey.

I have been reading the Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod, and so far it seems so much like reading The Secret. He talks about having unwavering faith and applying extraordinary effort in everything you do and these two combined will bring you success. My loan for this e-book is up at the library now so I will hopefully get it back soon. In the meantime I will be reading The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg which I borrowed from my sister. I am excited to read this book because lately I have been working on cultivating some positive daily habits to help me to be my best self and to accomplish my goals. I finished reading The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. This book was so sweet and fun and I loved the characters. I really want to read more from Jasmine Guillory I love her writing style and her attention to the little things and creating characters that you are routing for. I am also currently listening to the audio book of Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis. It is so empowering and motivating to listen to. Rachel is very passionate about her work and really helps you want to be  your best and go for your dreams.

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg

Joining along  with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!

Michaels Fall Yarn and Decor Haul

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Monday! We got through the first day back at work or first day of the work week. It has been a lot cooler outside lately and the first day of Fall is on Monday September 23rd in Canada. It's time for warmer sweaters and jackets now and  I have been wearing cozy sweaters and socks again at home and cozy-ing up with a blanket on the couch. I went to Michaels craft store this weekend with my mom and sister and I bought some Fall decor and some yarn to knit a few fall related projects. Michaels always has such lovely seasonal decor, I always look forward to shopping at Michaels for Fall and Christmas decor at the start of the season. Right now they have a good sale on all Fall decor, so it is a good time to go stock up. I really enjoy putting up the fall decorations in our place and feel like it is more cozy now with the decorations I bought. I love everything about Fall, the crisp air, the pumpkins, and the falling orange and yellow leaves. I am excited that the Fall season is here and I got my first pumpkin spice latte on the weekend. 

My Michael's Fall haul

I bought orange yarn from Impeccable yarn by Loops and Threads for knitting some pumpkins. I love knitting pumpkins at this time of the year, they are fun knits and they make great decor. I bought some Bernat cotton yarn to knit up a special gift for my fiancé's mom for Thanksgiving which I will be sharing in October.  I love the look of all of the Fall colors of yarn together in orange, brown, red, and black.

Yarn colors of Fall

I bought the picture below that says "hello Fall". There was such a good variety of pictures like this one at Michaels it was hard to choose and I wanted to take them all home. But I really love this picture and how it looks and stands up. It is perfect for the top of my shelf in the living room. The white pumpkin goes well by the picture's side.

I like the look of white pumpkins and neutral colored pumpkins are popular this season. The pumpkin I bought below is considered a "craft pumpkin" on the Michael's website, so you can decorate it as well and have fun with it. I will be leaving my pumpkin white.

Thank you for stopping by and I hope that you are enjoying Fall so far too! Please leave a comment below to say hello :)

Knitting Spiral Socks and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finished knitting the first spiral sock using the spiral socks pattern by Patons found on Ravelry. I get into the rhythm of knitting the 5 row repeat and it is such a good pattern to knit while watching TV or doing something else at the same time. It has been a great project for the Summer because it is light and easy to carry around on trips. These will be so cozy to wear this time of the year when it is getting a bit cooler out and I am reaching for warm socks again.

In my happy place

Progress

 I love how this self striping yarn looks and enjoy knitting with Patons Kroy Sock yarn in this colorway of coastal stripes.

I finished reading What to Expect While You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff. I learned a lot about how to get prepared for tying to have a baby or trying to conceive (TTC) as they used this term a lot in the book. I will keep these tips in mind when the right time comes for Liam and I. I am getting married next May and would love to start a family after I get married. I am still reading The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. It is such a fun book and was perfect for the summer. Next up on my to read list is The Miracle Equation by Hal Elrod. I have it in an ebook format from the library and I am excited to read more of it. I really enjoyed Hal Elrod's first book called The Miracle Morning and its ideas and strategies for a better life really resonated with me so I think a follow up book with even more tips will be great as well.

Joining in for Yarn Along with Ginny at her blog Small Things and Crafting On over at Frontier Dreams.

Thank you for visiting my blog! I enjoy you visiting and love reading all of your comments!

Toronto Veg Fest 2019

Hello Friends,


I hope you are doing well. Yesterday I spent the whole day at the Toronto Vegan Festival with my friend Leeanna. We have been going for three years now and the very first year I went inspired me to go vegetarian. You can read about the first trip I took to veg fest which inspired me to go veg here. I have also been very interested in going vegan and have done a month long challenge in the past. You can read about my month long vegan challenge here. I was so happy to see so many people at this year's veg fest it was so busy. I loved going to all the vendors and eating samples and talking with some of the vendors. I enjoyed attending some cooking sessions on making healthy salads with Terry Hope Romero and cooking vegan food in the instant pot with Nisha Vora. I always leave feeling so inspired and good about being vegetarian and wanting to improve in my cooking and also my networking with others.

 It was so busy there and such a positive energy in the air people enjoying vegan food and I was feeling so happy because I could eat everything there and enjoy the food and be with like minded people. My friend and I went to Vegan Bear stall first for lunch we got the "bear wrap" which is a vegan shawarma with seitan, veggies, tzatziki, and hot sauce in a pita. It was tasty.

Vegan Shawarma from Vegan Bear

 Next we walked around to more vendors and got lots of food samples. Then I saw people eating poutine and had to get some because I haven't had poutine for so long because of the gravy not being vegetarian. We went to Twigs & Taters next and they had this hilarious sign on their truck. 

This poutine was declious!

Photo of the CN tower

 Then I went to the Apiecalypse now! stall for dinner and got a slice of pizza. They also had a lot of other treats like cookies and pies, but I resisted. I got the BBQ buffalover pizza which was so delcious and filling. The ingredients were: buffalo not-chicken, red onion, plant-based notzzarella,  plant-based jalapeno havarti-style crumbles, ranch dressing spiral, and bbq sauce. As I was walking with it and waiting for my friend to order from my favorite vegan restaurant Fresh, I was asked twice where I got it from people who wanted to go get a slice.

I bought two shirts while at the veg fest. One is from Kinder Culture and says 'be kind to every kind'. I also got the Veg Fest t-shirt made my American Apparel which says "Live Life on the Veg" on the front and on the back it says Toronto Veg Fest. I am looking forward to wearing these shirts and working harder on spreading the positive message of living a plant based life.

Be kind

Front of shirt

Back of shirt

At night it was beautiful with the stringed-lights hanging from the trees. I was so happy to spend the whole day there with my friend catching up on life and trying out more foods because we could be there for two meals. I am still so happy that I decided to go vegetarian two years ago after attending my first veg fest. I believe in a world where no animal needs to be harmed so we can eat because we can live healthy lives without eating animals and causing them to suffer. Abstaining from meat is also better for the planet because deforestation for animal agriculture is causing harm to our planet right now and is one of the contributing factors to the amazon burning. I feel sad that this is happening to our planet and I am glad I can make a difference in my health, the lives of animals, and the environment by choosing to be vegetarian. I would like to continue living vegetarian and also start living a more vegan lifestyle by having less dairy, eggs, and fish.

Are you vegetarian or vegan and have you attended this type of festival before?

Thank you for stopping by!

Hello September! My Goals and Plans

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy September 1st! It is that time of the year again when I like to go over my goals for the year and see how I am doing and discuss how I want to spend the rest of the year. I think of September as a mini version of New Years in the sense that it is when school would usually begin and we'd go back to school shopping for clothes and supplies and feel the fresh start. Yesterday I was out and about shopping for a dress for my engagement photo shoot that I will be doing tomorrow and saw so many people out shopping looking for clothes for back to school. I used to get excited to buy new clothes and supplies to start the new year at school. I've decided to review my resolutions for the year and to make goals for this month to achieve them down below.

1. Read 15 books

I have read 5 books so far and I am currently reading two wonderful books. They are What to Expect Before You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff and The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory. I am almost finished them so I will be at seven books soon. I will need to read a lot in the next four months to meet my goal.I really love making reading goals each year because I learn a lot from reading books on different topics and also enjoy reading fictional books which interest me and make me laugh and bring me joy. I would also like to start reading more books related to career development as well and might make that more of a focus in 2020.

September: finish reading two books and start on a third

A book I am currently reading and others I would like to read this year

2. Use less plastic:
I have been thinking of this resolution lately and I have definitely cut back on using plastic this year. I would like to do even better and I have been thinking of documenting my plastic use a bit more so I can improve even more using less one time use plastic and buying more long term use items like reusable straws, containers, and reusable sandwich bags.

September: do a plastic free week or month to try even harder to cut out plastic.

3. Knit a shawl

I bought yarn to knit the shawl but the pattern I found called for very long circular needles that I could not find. I think I will either look for a different pattern or keep looking for the length of needles I need for the pattern. I will be starting a shawl very soon though and especially because this was one of my resolutions this year and there are only 4 months left!

September: start knitting a shawl


4. Complete 12 knitting projects

I have knitted 5 projects so far. I will work on finishing the spiral socks and start the shawl. I have some ideas for Christmas knits as well.
I have finished the first spiral tube sock and have started on the second one.

September: finish knitting socks and start on shawl

Making progress - almost done the first sock!

5. Find and secure a wedding venue

I found the venue we will get married in not too far from where we live and we will be having the ceremony followed by the reception at the same venue. I knew it was the right venue for us after the first tour. I have been getting into wedding planning lately and we have most of the vendors now. I just need to make the final decision on cake, hair and makeup, and flowers but I have been in contact with all three. In eight months I will be married to the perfect man for me and I can't wait to start our married life together.

September to October: secure vendors for flowers, cake, hair and makeup. Begin looking for decor items to place at the venue. Take engagement photos and send out save the date invitations.

Cute mug from Winners

6. Get to my goal weight

I am currently not at my goal weight. I have been making progress slowly over the year to losing weight and lately I have been seeing some progress. I will be trying very hard to get closer and will continue to work hard to attain this goal before my wedding next May.

September: lose 10 lbs (min), eat clean, workout 3-4 times each week

How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? Does September also motivate you on achieving your goals?

Thank you for visiting! Have a good long weekend