Finished Knitting the Blustery Day In Berkley Scarf

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. My weekend was good and as always went by too fast. I visited with my nephew, sister, and brother-in-law on Sunday. Quality time with my nephew is priceless and I love to see how he is growing and learning new things. It is fun to make him laugh, play with him, and make fun memories. 

I finished knitting the Blustery day in Berkley scarf this weekend. It was a quick and fun scarf to knit. I used two skeins then needed a bit more so I bought a third and used some of the third skein to add more length. I wanted this scarf to be long and it ended up measuring the suggested 76 inches long. I am looking forward to wearing this scarf out on my walks.

Pattern Notes:

Pattern: Blustery day in Berkley by Bridget Dean

Needles: US 10 6mm needles

Yarn: Loops and Threads  eco-luxe yarn in the colorway blush blend. (2.5 skeins)

Measurements: 5" wide and 76" long 

Ravelry notes: lneedlesandwool notes

Thank you for visiting my blog today, I hope that you had a good weekend and that you have a good week! 

Friday Focus: Restarting The Miracle Morning

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! For today's Friday Focus I would like to focus in on something very special to me that keeps me feeling on track with my goals and taking care of myself. I am talking about my morning routine. Last year my routine was different every day, I would sleep in late sometimes and then only have 30 minutes before work so I would quickly journal or read or meditate, but I didn't prioritize my routine. Towards the end of the year, I made it more of a priority by spending more time reading and meditating. At the end of the year I was deciding I wanted to read The Miracle Morning again as shared in my books I want to read in 2022. The miracle morning was developed by author, success coach, and keynote speaker Hal Elrod. It is basically doing 6 activities each morning to start off your day on a positive note. The 6 SAVERS are Silence, Affirmations, Visualization, Exercise, Reading, and Scribing. I am currently on day 4 of the miracle morning 30 day challenge. I am tracking my progress using the Miracle Morning app. It helps me to see the list of savers and check them off each morning. I will share below what I have been doing for each of the savers daily.

Silence: 

I looked back at my first post on the miracle morning, and I see that I started using Insight Timer because of my researching the miracle morning when I first started. I found a vlog on the miracle morning routine, and the vlogger shared that she used this app. Ever since it has been such an important tool for me in my mediations. I love how there are so many guided mediations as well and live events and I just participated in a few so far this year and love those. You can also just use the timer if you want to sit in silence and clear your mind. I use the guided ones mostly. 

Here are some of my go to meditations:

5 Minute meditation - Hugh Byrne - I love this teacher's calming voice and always feel so at peace with this short meditation. 

Five Minutes of Self Compassion - Lisa Abramson. Very helpful message and to be kind to yourself.

Be Happy Morning Meditation - Amanda Sellers - I just listened to this one yesterday morning and it really made me feel so positive. I will be adding this one to my rotation.

Affirmations

I listened to Hal Elrod's podcast called Achieve your goals with Hal Elrod and he spoke about affirmations and how we often do them wrong. We say a phrase to ourselves repeatedly that we don't truly believe and expect to feel them when our brains are telling us no we aren't or its not true. He suggested saying or writing "I am committed to..." I have started writing this in my 5 minute journal in the affirmations section and it has been making a difference because I am thinking of what I am committing myself to doing or focusing on for the day. 

Visualization

For this saver I just close my eyes and ask myself what to I want to see for myself in the future, and I imagine the things I dream about and my goals playing out in my mind like short video clips. It brings me a lot of joy to see these things and makes me feel closer to my goals and reminds me of my purpose and what I am working towards.

Exercise

I have been only doing the savers for 4 consecutive days now, and I kept failing and having to restart because of the exercise saver. The reason is because doing exercise in the morning seems like more of a chore than the rest of the savers to me. I figured out how to fit it into my routine. I found a really good YouTube morning exercise video that I can do the workout and it is short and more of a stretch than an exercise jumping around. It is Standing Morning Workout - Beginner Friendly by MonikaFit. I am sure there are many more videos like this one on YouTube and online if you want to get started with a quick workout. I look forward to trying out more exercises.

Reading

I have been reading my two books The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson and Expecting Better by Emily Oster. I have been switching between the two. It is nice to have a fiction and non-fiction book on the go to swap between the two depending on what I am interested in reading and my mood. I would also like to get more self improvement type books this year to incorporate into my morning routine for some inspiration in the mornings.

Scribing

I have been writing in my 5 minute journal app for scribing. This is a habit I have been doing for two years now, mostly daily. I am able to stick with it because it is so fast to go through what I am grateful for, what I would do today to make it a great day, and affirmations. Then I review at the end of the day what the highlights of my day were, and what I would do differently if I could go back. Hal Elrod also uses the 5 minute journal he mentioned in his podcast.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I am looking forward to spending the next 26 days doing the miracle morning to complete the 30 day challenge. I have been enjoying restarting the routine again and already feel more on top of my goals and feel more focused on myself and good habits. I will be sharing what I have learn, my thoughts, and what I accomplish in these 30 days in a Friday Focus post at the end of February. 

Link to past posts about my miracle morning here

Have a great day!

Knitting scarf, New Project, and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This week has been going well at work and I am happy it is Thursday tomorrow and getting close to the weekend. I have been working more on keeping to my goals and also enjoying posting blog posts three times each week. It is nice checking in more often on here compared to once each week last year.

I picked up the project Blustery day in Berkley scarf again by Bridget Dean. I am close to finishing it now and will share the finished project soon. I am using the eco-luxe yarn by loops & threads in the colorway blush blend. I am using US 10 6 mm needles. Millie is always interested in what I am doing and started chewing on the needles.

I casted on a new project last night. I am going to be working on Copycat cowl by Verna Glass. I am using left over yarn from my twisted headband last year, Lion Brand Heartland Carlsbad Cavern. I am knitting it on circular needles size US 8 5mm.

I am continuing to read Expecting Better by Emily Oster and Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. I have been working on reading a bit each day at least 10 minutes and making more progress to finishing these books.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I am happy to be almost finishing the scarf and look forward to wearing it soon to keep me warm in this colder weather. I am also looking forward to knitting more of the cowl. I hope you are all staying safe and having a good week so far.

Have a great day!

Weekend in Quarantine

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend I mostly stayed at home. In Toronto there is still not too much open like movie theatres, stores, and restaurants due to the pandemic. I got groceries and got food for Millie. I use these weekends to get things done around our home and to work on some of my goals. I worked more on the puzzle today that my sister got me for Christmas from Indigo. It is such a cute puzzle, I love the plants, the cat in the window, bookshelf, and how it is a cozy scene.

I read more of The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. I also read a lot of the book Expecting Better by Emily Oster this weekend. There is a lot of good information and it is interesting to read right now.

Millie had a relaxing weekend too and we had a lot of cuddles together. She is such a sweet presence when she is curled up on the couch beside me as I watch TV or work on my computer.

Last night I was working on planning for the week. Here is my weekly spread of stickers set up before wrote down some of my plans. I really enjoy planning on Sundays for the week ahead and just seeing my week and to dos to mentally prepare. I consult my planner throughout the week and it keeps me on track with my goals and things I want to do.

I starting knitting another chunky basket by Angie Cruise because I just wanted a fun knit to make while watching TV this weekend. I have plans for socks soon once I get the right needles I need which are smaller double pointed needles than I own.

I hope you had a good weekend! I like these weekends with no plans as well to just stay home and get things done. I know we will be back to normal or hope to be soon but for now, I just have my weekends with my little family. I hope that you have a great start to your week!

Have a great day!

Friday Favourites

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! Today I am sharing a Friday favourites of things I have been liking lately and would would like to buy. I like these posts for my own inspiration of things to improve my life and I hope that the ideas below give you some ideas as well. 

Ideas from Urban Outfitters:

I have been enjoying scrolling though the Urban Outfitters website lately when I get emails and just want to browse. Some things that caught my eye lately are:

Colorblock sherpa Iphone case - I love the texture and the colors of this phone case.

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Ceramic snail photo stand - these are so cute for small photos to display.

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This elago charing hub from Urban Outfitters is great if you have many apple products. I have the phone, watch, and air pods so I could really use this to charge everything at the same time. I could really see myself ordering one of these soon.

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Ideas from Etsy:

I love this laundry sign by WoodFinds on Etsy. I will order this one for my laundry room project. I have a small space at the top floor for my laundry area and want to make it more of a laundry nook area with cute signs and baskets. I bought some nice laundry baskets for the detergent and dryer sheets etc. and will add the signs and some other nice furnishings to make it a cozy place to be. I will share the laundry room make over looks when it is done.

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These socks from MismatchedFeet on Etsy are so cute. My love of cats and reading are displayed if I was wearing these socks. 

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Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope that you enjoyed today's Friday favourites and I always enjoy making these posts they are so much fun to look for fun items to enrich my life and hope you find some ideas through my posts. Here is a link to other Friday Favourite posts I have done in the past for more ideas. 

Have a good day!

Finished Chunky Knit Basket and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. There is still so much snow here in Toronto we got 45 centimeters of snow on Monday January 17th. I went for a walk tonight after work which was nice because I was inside for a few days and hadn't gone out not only because of the snow also just busy at lunch the past two days and then it gets dark early so I don't usually have time to go before it gets dark outside or am busy making dinner early. The sidewalks are paved now in some places so walking was better than it would have been the past few days. 

I have knitted a basket using the Chunky Knit Basket Pattern from Angie Cruise. These baskets are really fun and fast to knit up because of the chunky yarn used in the pattern. I love the basket in the gray yarn I got which is the Lion Brand Wool Ease Thick and Quick tweeds in colorway gray marble.  

The pattern calls for crocheting a macrame cord edge at the top, but because I don't know how to crochet, I saw some comments that people used the seed stitch at the top instead so I gave it a try and it makes a nice top edge of the basket. 

I put some pens in to show the height and also that it can be good storage for little things here and there. I will knit more of these and was thinking of attempting to knit covers or tops for them so I can keep Millie out of them as well. 

I am still reading The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. I am interested in reading on to find out more. It has taken me awhile to get into this storyline, but I am being patient because I can see that it is getting more interesting. I am also reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster and hope to learn more from this book on the pregnancy journey and tips on each stage of the process.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope to cast on a new project soon I just need to get the right size needles and then I am starting some socks. I haven't knitted socks in awhile so I am looking forward to starting this weekend.

Have a great day!

Snow is Falling and Reflection

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a good weekend and it always feels like it flies by. I didn't do too much, just got groceries, read, and cleaned. Liam and I watched Wonder Woman 1984 finally and it was good. Today there is a crazy blizzard outside for a Monday morning and it started last night. I am so grateful to be working from home and not have to go out in this storm. This is really the worst storm we have had so far this Winter. I am feeling happy and calm this morning looking out the window at the snow. I have always loved the feeling of being inside on a snowy day or even going out for a walk it is always quiet and the snow covers everything in such a nice white sheet of snow.

Millie watching the snow

I attended a wonderful Insight timer live event on Sunday morning with teacher Hugh Byrne. He was speaking about being present and lately I have been working on being present. It is so hard to be present and this is truly where we feel most at peace. I think this snow brings me to the present moment as I look outside in awe at the amount of snow and the speed it is falling down. I recommend his meditations on Insight Timer as he has such a calming voice and I think I will take his course where he includes poems and how to use them during meditation.

I wanted to share a few winter quote photos to start off our week under snow. I hope I can keep my power on today while working.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you had a good weekend and have a great start to your week.  I will be posting some knitting and reading updates on Wednesday hope to see you soon.

Friday Focus - What I Have Learned from 2021

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! It is my favourite day of the week and time for my Friday Focus post. Last year sure had some struggles and some things were amazing as well for our little family.  Some of the things I have learned below are more serious and some I threw in there for fun. These past years have definitely changed us as a society and I know I am forever because of it. We were living our lives a certain way before and then this pandemic stopped everything in its tracks. Last year in 2021 so many wonderful things finally happened that I was waiting for, like getting married and adopting our kitten Millie. There have been many negatives but also positives and I will share what I learned last year.

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It's okay not to wear makeup  - I don't think of my outer appearance as much as before the pandemic. I am not going into the office daily or going out as much because of Covid. Now I am used to not putting on makeup to go out and it is actually nice not to have to. No one really sees my face under the mask anyways!

Don't sweat the small stuff -  The pandemic puts things into perspective. I think anything in comparison to dealing with a pandemic seems so small and insignificant. It is human nature that we focus on the little everyday things that frustrate us. What last year taught me with the ups and downs is to be grateful for what is going right or my way. 

I love being home - I have loved so much time at home and really enjoyed last year being home the whole year  and also working from home. We got Millie in July and it has been so amazing being home with her. I always knew I loved being home most of all, but I really have embraced that I am an introvert and this has helped me during the pandemic because I love my alone time and time just doing the things I love at home like knitting and blogging.

Time with family and friends is special and more meaningful - I have found that last year and in 2020 that made me so grateful for any time I have with family and friends. Before the pandemic we could see people whenever we wanted. In 2020 there were so many times we couldn't see people we loved and even in 2021. At the end of 2021 with Omicron we were faced with decisions once again to see family and it always happens during the holidays. 

Make lemonade out of lemons - my wedding was in September last year. We had postponed multiple times and we were so happy to finally be able to have our special day. We had a smaller wedding at the chapel we wanted and we went to a restaurant afterwards. I guess in the end I was happy it was a small wedding and felt so comfortable leading up and during the event. I was in the end in love with our wedding day and realized that it was perfect just the way it was. I would have loved having more people come to the wedding, but given the circumstances that was not possible.  We were positive and grateful for our small wedding it became a more intimate gathering and our closest family and friends. Even then we wondered if we waited longer if we could have the wedding we planned, but it was the unknown and now we are facing challenges again with Omicron and so grateful that we decided to have our wedding last year when the spread wasn't as bad.

Patience - at the beginning of 2021 I thought we would get married right away in March, then that date moved twice. We were adopting Millie from a breeder we started that process beginning of the year and finally adopted her in July due to some misunderstandings with the breeder. I had to learn to be more patient than ever because we kept having to wait. I know good things come with time and in the end we ended up with our perfect Millie and perfect wedding.

It is okay to indulge- Covid 15 or 20 is real and that is okay. With gyms closed on and off it made working out a challenge and staying in and eating way too easy. I was tough on myself sometimes for the extra pounds I gained last year, but I gave myself grace for putting on weight because we were in a different situation than ever before. Our bodies do so much good for us keeping us healthy and safe from the virus, we shouldn't beat ourselves up for 10 pounds. Now I focus on eating healthy and doing yoga more often or going for walks and feeling good.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! What were some things you learned or took from 2021? I hope that you enjoyed today's post and have a good weekend.

Have a great day!

Finished Knitting My Kitten's Christmas Stocking

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I finished knitting the stocking for my kitten Millie. I hoped to be finished this past year for Christmas, but it was a bit more work that I realized. I will now have it ready for next Christmas. I used the classic Christmas stocking pattern by Betty Lai on Ravelry.  I like the size of  the stocking for our kitten, and think it would be fun to knit up some more for Liam and I in the future. I liked the pattern, it was easy to follow and fun to knit up. I used the letter chart that Betty provided on her Pinterest as a guide to knit up Millie's name on the stocking. It was fun trying out something new and I haven't knitted out letters before this project. Below Millie is posing with the finished stocking. She is bigger now, but she definitely could have fit into this stocking when we first got her.

Pattern: Classic Christmas Stocking by Betty Lai

Yarn: worsted weight yarn in white and red

Needles: US 8 5 mm

Notes: On Ravelry

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope that you are having a great week! Sorry this post was a day late! I wanted to finish the stocking for Wednesday, and was working on it this week and realized I needed more time. I hope you join me for tomorrow's Friday Focus post on what I learned from last year 2021.

Have a great day!

Weekend Family Time

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I had a good weekend and didn't do too much on Saturday mostly relaxed and did some knitting and reading. I am still working on the stocking knitted some of the foot and reading The Bookshop of Yesterdays by Amy Meyerson. On Sunday, we had my family come over to our place for my dad's birthday lunch. It was so nice spending time together. We got Thai food from a local restaurant in Toronto that was so delicious.

Liam, my Dad, my Mom, Millie and I. 

My dad with Millie

Millie and Luca were so cute together and Millie was gentle with my nephew. She went up the the baby carrier and was looking over at him. Here she is under the chair peeking over at him.

Millie was so tired after a long day of preparing for our guests and then busy time with family and baby. She slept for over four hours after everyone left.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that you also had a good weekend! It is stage two lock down in Toronto now so there are restrictions once again. The omicron cases keep rising and it is really frustrating and difficult dealing with this constantly. I am grateful for these family gatherings and time spent together. We are all being safe and I am grateful I have been working from home this whole time. I will be posting another blog post this week on Wednesday.

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!