Knitting Hat and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It is Wednesday and we are halfway through the week now. It has been a busy week so far, but its been good. I am continuing to knit the Rock Cap by Veronica Wilson. I knitted the rim of the hat so far. It looks narrow, but hoping it fits comfortably when I am done. I did add more stitches than the amount called for since it was looking really small with the 80 stitches required. Next I will be switching to slightly larger needles to knit up the rest of the hat.

I am still reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster and almost done. I have picked up Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid a few times, but I will be able to devote more time to reading it soon once finished Expecting Better. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope you are having a good week. 

Weekend Family time and Relaxing

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend flew by and I really enjoyed it. I went with Liam to visit some friends on Friday night, then Saturday I spent a lot of quality time at home. On Sunday, my family visited and spent time with us and Millie. It was a great weekend and went by too quickly as usual. Here are some photos from the weekend of Millie.

She loves sitting in bags and I haven't seen her go into boxes, but she did this weekend it was so cute.

When my family came over, my dad threw a blanket over Millie and then she was cozy so she stayed all wrapped up like a burrito. 

After my family left, Millie was napping for hours and this is her finally waking up and cleaning.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I hope that you had a great weekend too. 

Have a great day!

Spring Friday Favorites - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am so happy it is the weekend now and I have some time today to relax. It is a rainy day here in Toronto so I will just stay in do some only window shopping. I missed posting yesterday and bringing this post to you now. I hope that you enjoy some ideas below, and I know I usually get a lot of inspiration from these posts and hope that you do too!

This Hello Spring welcome mat from MonkeyFlyMemories on Etsy is so cute and perfect for the start of Spring to add some fun to your doorstep. 

Photo source

These cactus stitch markers from SaltWaterKnittingNL on Etsy are so cute and perfect to add a bit of greenery to knitting projects this Spring. I love the assortment of colorful pots as well. 

Photo source

These stickers from StickerFever on Etsy are so perfect for Spring and I love the floral stickers and checklists. 

Photo source

I love this yoga workout top with a woman doing yoga and cat in her lap from the Etsy store TrendonShelf. I love doing yoga and my cat Millie always is close by stretching, or lying on the mat with me. I like the pink color for Spring. 

Photo source

These are some very cute bookmarks from Opalandferndesigns on Etsy. They have a lot of different collections of bookmarks such as Winter bookmark series as well for other seasons of the year. It would be fun to have a collection to use all year round for each season.

Photo source

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you enjoyed these finds for Spring. I am happy it is Spring now and I look forward to the warm weather. It always feels so refreshing when Spring arrives after the long Winter.

Have a great day!

Knitting Rock Cap and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This week has been going by a bit slow, but we are getting to Thursday tomorrow. Today we celebrated Liam's birthday, we both worked today so we had breakfast from Tim Horton's this morning and we ordered on the Uber app, then tonight we got Il Fornello for dinner delivered. I got a delicious mushroom pasta. We then had a dufflet cake afterwards. He also opened some gifts. It was a nice day and hope that he felt as special as he is.

I am continuing to knit the Rock Cap by Veronica Wilson on Ravelry. I am almost done the rim of the hat. It looks narrow but it is stretchy, so I think it will fit nice and snug but still be comfortable. I took the photo with my knitting bag I really like from Fringe Supply Co. I have been using it lately for my projects and like that I can keep my essentials inside so I can just grab it and I have everything I need. I want to get more pins for it soon, I love the ones I have so far they are all knitting related and so cute. 

I am continuing to read Expecting Better by Emily Oster and I am learning a lot. I am also continuing to read Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today! What are you working on this week?

Finished Knitting the Copycat Cowl and Michaels Haul

 Hello Friends, 

I hope you are doing well. This weekend was so nice to relax and also get things done around my home. I finished knitting the Copycat cowl by Verna Glass after I bought more yarn at Michaels and will share more about my Michael's haul below. I was happy to finally finish the cowl and have it ready for Winter next year because it is getting warmer that it is now Spring here. I am so happy about that. 

Pattern Notes

Pattern: Copycat cowl by Verna Glass on Ravelry.

Needles: US 8 /6 mm & US 7 /4.5 mm circular needles

Yarn:  Lion Brand  Heartland , colorway Carlsbad Caverns

Notes: My notes on Ravelry lneedlesandwool

This weekend I did a curbside pickup at Michaels to pick up some yarn I needed to finish the cowl and yarn and tools for other projects. I also got knitting needles and planner stickers. Below is a photo of the whole haul of things I bought this trip.

I bought this pretty yarn this weekend by the brand Truboo which is yarn made out of rayon from bamboo. It is DK yarn in colorway mauve. I am planning to knit a top using this yarn soon.

I bought more of the Lion Brand Heartland yarn in colorway Carlsbad Caverns. I used only a little bit to finish off the copy cat cowl.

I bought double pointed needles in size us 2, 2.75 mm Loops & Threads. I got these Happy Planner stickers the theme girl with goals. I like all the motivational quote stickers and the pack has a lot of checklist stickers which I wanted more of.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! How was your weekend? I hope that you have a good week ahead!

Two Years of the Covid-19 Pandemic - Friday Focus

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! I am so happy it is the weekend soon. I am on my lunch break as I edit this post and looking forward to 5 pm now.  This week I was reading through some old posts I wrote back in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic when I realized that two years ago this week, the pandemic started. You can read my early pandemic blog posts here. I spoke about how there was no toilet paper left on shelves and this was the first week of the pandemic. My work place told us to go to a temporary work from home situation while we waited to find out what to do next. All of a sudden things escalated and the cases started rising. I was fearful of this invisible virus that could kill people. I stayed inside and all stores and restaurants and theatres were closed. It was a shock to me. I also was going to get married on May 2nd,2020 and was still hopeful that the situation would be better by then. I was very sad and disappointed when my worst fear came true that we couldn't get married in May like planned. I ended up postponing my wedding four times and then had a wonderful wedding in September 2021. 

In the first post I wrote about the pandemic, I wrote that I hope to go back to the office and have a normal work week. It now feels so normal to work from home. At that time there was so much fear and uncertainty. Now that we are so used to this new normal or way of life, I take all the safety protocols and feel more confident that I can avoid Covid. But at the time I thought you could get it easily in the air or touching a surface at a store. Now that the milder versions of Covid that are more like a cold to those vaccinated, it gives me peace of mind that if I did get it, it wouldn't be so bad and feel like a cold. Even with Omicron surging in mid December, we kept distance from large groups to be safe and the rapid tests were so hard to get our hands on before a large gathering and we felt safer keeping our distance and not furthering the spread.

 We are still not done with this pandemic, and there are cases climbing in China now. So we will have to see if this new variant affects us the same way or spreads this way. This comes at a time when they are lifting the mask requirement indoors in most places in Ontario. I know I will keep wearing mine for some time until I feel more comfortable since we have gotten so used to wearing them now.

We have become more used to this way of life. Wearing a mask, washing hands and sanitizing after touching anything, keeping distance from others. I was so used to going to the office four days each week (I worked from home one day each week) going to the gym each week, seeing friends and family more often, going shopping, seeing movies, attending events and craft fairs and the list goes on. Now life is so different and it is the new normal. I feel that I will take a long time to adjust back to our life that we had previously. I wonder what that will look like. 

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope that you have a great day and weekend. Stay safe!

Knitting Hat and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This week is going by quickly and I can't believe it is Thursday already tomorrow. So far this week work has been busy and I have spent a couple of nights watching the Bachelor finale. It was really dramatic this time around and it was interesting. I was knitting while I was watching last night, except not as much as I planned to since there was always something going on that I wanted to pay attention to. I made some progress since last week on the Rock Cap by Veronica Wilson on Ravelry. The pattern is relaxing so far just kn1,p1 for the rim of the hat. 

I am still planning on finishing the copy cat cowl. I plan to do a Michael's run this weekend to get more of the yarn to finish it up. I also feel like it has been way too long since I have gone shopping at Michaels. I might just make a day of it and go shopping to a few stores I haven't done that in so long with the pandemic. Speaking of, it seems to be getting better here and they are lifting mask restrictions by the end of the month. I don't think I will stop wearing the mask just yet. It seems soon to do that in my opinion. Millie also agrees it is still good to cover up your face just in case.

I am still reading Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and enjoying the character introductions so far and the start of the story. I am also reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster and enjoying reading about pregnancy and prenatal testing. The book is very informative with facts and also going into the perceptions of what to do when pregnant and testing out the myths regarding what to do when pregnant. 

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting today and I hope you are having a good week so far! 

Have a great day!

Weekend Baking, Reading and Thoughts

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend went by fast and I enjoyed visiting with family and having some time to relax. On Saturday I baked banana bread using the "best banana bread recipe" from the website Mom on Timeout. It was so delicious and fun to bake again and the whole house always smells so good with baking bread in our home.

I visited my sister on Sunday, it was nice spending time with her and seeing my nephew. He is getting big! He is 10 months old now and it is so fun to hang out with him. I visited my mom and dad afterwards and spent time with the cats as well. Moo snuggled with me it was so nice spending time with them again too.

I was reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster. It was a very informative book and it is so interesting reading more and more about pregnancy and trends. I am also reading Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid and getting more into the story.

I have been watching the invasion of Russia to Ukraine lately, and it is so upsetting seeing what is going on and it needs to stop. I really hope there is an end to this war and it doesn't escalate and get worse and spread to other countries. It really is creating fear and uneasiness. I really feel so sorry for Ukrainians and hope that this ends for them soon in the best outcome. My work is matching donations to the Red Cross and I am donating towards this cause to help in a way that I can.

Thank you for visiting my blog today,  I hope that you have a great weekend and good start to your week!

Work From Home Day in My Life- Friday Focus

 Hello Friends, 

I hope you are doing well. The day is finally here, Friday! It has been a long week working and I am so glad the weekend is here now.  For today I thought it would be fun to take you through a typical day in my life while I am working from home. I started the day off doing my morning routine, affirmations, visualization, meditation, exercise, and then read in bed for a bit and had coffee. Today I was on a late shift at work, so I had more time in the morning today to relax. I read more of Expecting Better by Emily Oster.

Millie was keeping me company and playing with her crinkle ball. She was so funny rolling around and getting hyper playing with her ball. She likes to play on the bed with her toys as we are sitting on the bed too.

10 am  - started my work day with two homemade blueberry muffins my sister made for me, a banana, coffee, and water. I usually grab breakfast and eat it while I check emails once when I first log in to work.

1 pm - The morning was busy doing work and lunch time came fast. Today I had this Amy's Indian Mattar Panner frozen lunch. I like this meal a lot and get it as a treat once and while. Of course I grabbed a Bubly as well to have with my lunch as a daily part of my routine. For lunch I usually have an Amy's burrito with guacamole or left overs from dinner the night before or another frozen dinner. 

1:30 pm - Then I was back to work at my desk. I have two monitors set up where I do my work. It is similar to my work set up at the office with the two screens. I miss the ergonomic chair though, but we are planning on getting one for our desk space.  I have a few things there to create a productive space such as the pencil holder for pens and things, the turquoise container to put my ear buds and hand cream. I added the bamboo plant to make my desk more inviting and aesthetically pleasing I really enjoyed having a plant at the desk today. I had one like that at my office as well. 

6 pm - I am done work now! It was a long productive day and I am excited for the weekend. We ordered Jack Astor's for dinner tonight, and I had one of my favourite meals, the Buffalo Chicken sandwich and sweet potato fries. 

9 pm - Typing up this blog post and just relaxing. Most nights around this time I am just watching a TV show and knitting after a long day or working on a blog post. 

Thank you for coming along with me on a typical work day!  Working from home fulltime has its perks, like being with my little family all day long, and having my own private space to work. I like the set up I have and I hope to continue working from home as long as possible. I hope that you had a good week and have a great weekend!

Knitting New Project and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well.  This week is going by slow and looking forward to the weekend. I started knitting the pattern Rock cap by Veronica Wilson on Ravelry.  I am knitting the hat in the Lion Brand Wool-Ease yarn in the colorway Caynon Sunset. I am still working on finishing knitting the copy cat cowl and will share photos next week.

I am still reading Expecting Better by Emily Oster and Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid.

Joining along with As Kat Knits for Unraveled Wednesday.

Thank you for visiting my blog today. I hope that you are having a good week and staying safe.

Weekend Putting Things Together

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend we saw family and went out to an Italian restaurant. It was nice to go eat indoors again after so long.  Sunday was a really nice warm day and I look forward to more days like this as we get closer to Spring. I was working on some projects around the house and put together my frame for our wedding photos. We ordered the gallery frame from Amazon by the brand Songmics. I am happy with how it turned out! The frames all come separate and then you connect them and nail them together. The photos aren't very clear here but I will share some photos from our wedding soon.

We also put together the last of our chairs from IKEA. We have the Ekedalen dining room set with extendable table and the dark brown chairs to go with it. The chairs have been so hard to find as stock has been low, so I am so grateful to finally have all of our chairs.

Thank you for stopping by today. Hope you had a good weekend and have a good start to your week.

Have a great day!

Friday Favourites

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy Friday! Today I am sharing some of my favourites on Etsy. These are items that I have either bought or love and I want to buy. I hope that you enjoy the list!

Wedding photo album from InstantSnap on Etsy. Liam and I received our wedding photos back from our photographer recently and I ordered a bunch of photos from them. I found this beautiful album on Etsy, and I ordered it immediately. I love the way the names are written out with the date it is such a nice way to store our photos from our special day. It fits 200 4x6  photos. The owner, Rudloph even sent a mock up of what ours will look like shown below to confirm if we approve the design.

Photo source

A mock up of what ours will look like

Another photo album I ordered from InstantSnap on Etsy is this Instax wide photo album for 80 photos. I recently bought the Fujifilm Instax wide printer off Amazon and I wanted a place to be able to store and view my photos. I love the look of this album and can store so many photos! I will be printing so many photos off my phone that I have been just keeping there. You can add text on the front of it to personalize it if you want as well.

Photo Source

This wall art from AllCuteStudio on Etsy is adorable. I love the cozy scene with the cats lazing around.

Photo Source

This knitted You Can hanging sign from LaurenAstonDesigns on Etsy is so cute and inspires me to knit one! I love the giant wooden needle holding the piece as well. Very cute for a craft room.

Photo Source

I love this mug from SaltwaterKnittingNL on Etsy it is so cute.

Photo Source

The SaltwaterKnittingNL shop on Etsy also has these cute needle huggers I didn't know I needed until now. This is great for knitting socks and projects when you have to stop mid row or don't want the stitches to fall off of the double pointed needles. 

Photo Source

Thank you for visiting my blog today and I hope you liked my list of favourites today!  I am happy it is now the weekend since I am posting this later on Friday after work hours. It was a busy week and I am looking forward to some rest & relaxation.

Have a great day!