Getting Organized, Planning Knitting Projects, and Reading On

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Right now unfortunately I don't have any knitting I am working on. I still haven't found my pattern for the socks that was on the yarn sleeve. I have plans to knit my husband a scarf he asked for one. Today I looked up a pattern and ordered yarn for that project and hoping I have some progress to share with you next week! I also added a skein of yarn to knit myself a hat afterwards and want to knit Evan something after those two projects are complete. It has been slow around here lately and was just so cold this past week in Toronto. I have been busy with Evan playing, doing painting and colouring, and preparing his snacks and meals. It has been cold so mostly staying in with him lately and once it warms up a bit we can resume our outdoor walks. We went on one this past weekend it was so nice to go out as a family on a walk outside to the mall.

I have been continuing to read It Starts with us by Colleen Hoover and almost done. I have been enjoying reading about the character's lives and relationships continuing on from It Ends with Us. I have also been reading the Whole- Brain child by Daniel Siegel and Tina Bryson. It is so informative and there are some really good tips on working through issues with your child and encouraging them to communicate their thoughts and feelings. Something I want to learn about for when Evan is older and to help him work through emotional and tough times.

I have been feeling like decluttering lately and getting some new furniture and baskets to organize Evan's toys. I bought a big basket from Loblaws in their Life at Home collection. It is a good open rope basket we can throw his toys in to tidy up and he likes looking into it to find toys. I had a smaller one that is beside it in the photo and use it for stuffed animals now. He got a lot of toys for Christmas and also as his toy collection grows I just want to be ready to store them.

For my knitting I have been on the fence about getting a 3 tier cart. I think it would be perfect to store my yarn and knitting projects and knitting bags. There is one at Michaels and found one on Amazon. I will probably buy it soon. I have my knitting scattered everywhere right now it used to live mostly in the second bedroom that is now Evan's room. Now it is in bags and my knitting is in a few spots. I think a shelf would also be good. 

Photo source

Millie and Evan have been good. Evan is 14 months old tomorrow and he is so fun and so busy. He is a toddler now walking a lot and babbling.  He keeps us on our toes. Millie is busy too and wants to play a lot once Evan is down for bedtime and naptime.

I have been trying to work on my puzzle again and Millie keeps jumping up onto the table with me and attacking the pieces. I have decided to do the puzzle when she is napping or busy somewhere else. This puzzle I started when I was at the end of my pregnancy with Evan and I did the middle parts before the edges were done so the pieces just got everywhere and I have a roll up mat that doesn't keep the pieces together very well. So the other day I decided to take apart the middle pieces and just work on the edges. I should be in better shape with the puzzle soon and it will stay together better.

I hope you are doing well and thank you for visiting my blog today! What are you working on and reading this week?

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!

Blogmas Day 18 - Friday Favourites - Preparing for the New Year

 Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. For today's post, I put together a list of some products that would help us to get ready for a fresh and productive New Year. This year was tough, and I am already looking forward to a New Year fresh of possibilities and hope. I was looking through Etsy to get all of these fun ideas.  Please see below for my favourites for making 2021 a happy, organized, and productive year!

This weight loss and fitness planner looks so good! It is from WEAREINSPIRA on Etsy. 

Photo source

These drawer organizers look so useful and great for organization. I would like to get more organized in the New Year, so I might have to order some of these for my sock drawer. These are offered by jeremymassiesh on Etsy.

Photo source

This cross stitch kit looks great from DianaWattersHandmade from Etsy. I've included this on this list, because I always think it would be fun to learn how to cross stitch and what better time than the new year to pick up new hobbies?

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This mug is so funny! I had to share it just for fun. From DiokiLLC on Etsy. I agree, going forward, let's just not talk about this past year.

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I love these candles from Fleuretbois on Etsy. It would be a nice tradition to light a candle to end the year, and then light the new candle to welcome the New Year.

Photo source

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I always have fun putting these Friday Favourite posts together. I hope you found something to start your year off right. I got a lot of ideas and I am looking forward to a New Year. 

Please click here to read my other posts from Blogmas 2020.

Have a great day!

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!

Happy New Year 2019!

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. Happy New Year! Liam and I had our sisters over with their partners last night. We played games, ate lots of chips and appetizers, and of course we watched Dick Clark's Rockin' Eve. It was wonderful welcoming the New Year in great company and having a fun time.

A few decor items I got for our party

Liam and I ringing in the New Year with a party hat

 In knitting, I am still working on a gift for my mom. It got a bit busy and I did not finish knitting her some fingerless mitts. I will be working on these up to the New Year and trying to finish them to gift them to her. For this year, I would like to focus on knitting a shawl. I will search Ravelry for a pattern I like, then purchase the yarn early on in the New Year to get started. I also still have to sew up the seams on the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top I finished knitting last year, I will be getting onto that this month.

I received two Happy Planners for Christmas. I got a regular-sized planner and a mini planner and will be using the regular size at home and I will take the mini planner to work with me in my bag. I am excited to use both and see how that goes. I wanted one that was easier to carry with me to record notes and throw into a bag and refer to when I am out and about. I am thinking of using the mini planner for mostly work related notes and reminders to keep me organized and focused and inspired at work and home and the larger one for personal goals and more related to home, blogging, knitting, and other interests of mine. Did you also get a Happy Planner for the New Year?

Two planners this year 

In reading, I am still reading Inner Life of Animals by Peter Wohlleben and also started reading Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty which I received for Christmas. I have been reading it a lot lately and I am so excited to be reading a book that really interests and excites me again. I love those books you just can't put down and it has been awhile since I felt that way. I received a few other books for Christmas that I am excited about reading which I will share with you soon.  I will be really focusing a lot more on reading in the new year and I have a goal to read 15 books in 2019. In 2018, I enjoyed the selection of books I read and was discovering so many amazing books to read and adding them to my to-read list. I will focus more on reading as many as I can in 2019.

I shared with you all my resolutions for 2019 in a blogmas post. I am a big believer in resolutions and have always made them, whether it be choosing a word or a few to focus on for your year ahead, or choosing goals to focus on for the year. I think that it is has a similar power to creating and saying affirmations to ourselves like I am going to have the best year yet because I am going to do all of these wonderful things for myself and others. I like to start the year off with that intention and it usually inspires me throughout the year as I refer back to my list.

Thank you for visiting my blog today! I will be returning to my regular posting schedule of posting entries on knitting and reading updates early in the week(Tuesdays or Wednesdays). I will make an effort to try to post twice each week. I really enjoyed posting more during Blogmas and will make an effort to post more often in the New Year.

Have a great day!

New Year's Resolutions and Getting Back on Track

Hello Friends,

I hope you are all doing well. The past couple days I have been working on getting on track for the new year. My boyfriend and I had a great time at a friend's place on New Year's Eve and welcomed the new year with some great people. I hope you all had a wonderful New Year's Eve night and New Year's day. I took down the ornaments off the Christmas tree yesterday and then we threw out the tree last night.  This is always kind of a bittersweet moment because it is accepting that it is not Christmas anymore, but also a sign of a new year with new possibilities. I still have some Christmas decorations to put away today.

I was happy to do a bit of knitting on the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top yesterday and get back into working on my personal knitting projects. Today I will be working on knitting the front piece again and making some more progress. I will also be looking up patterns to use for some new yarn I purchased recently.

Progress on WAG Farrah Billie Jean top

I have been filling out the Q&A a day book and the first question I answered on January 1st was "what is your mission?" I was stumped on that question for awhile then thought of my answer. I flipped through the rest of the questions to see if they were all difficult to answer, but some are also easier to answer such as "what is the last restaurant you went to?". I am really enjoying answering the questions and look forward to seeing how my answers differ from year to year.

I got my planner organized yesterday and today by adding the inserts and filling in what I ate in the fitness insert and my exercise. I am loving the home planner insert, I think it will really come in handy to keep track of cleaning, to-do lists, and my budget. I feel more ready to start the new year now and excited for the possibilities of 2018. Because I just started adding stickers to the page today it is pretty bare and I did not do too much on New Year's day anyway except sleep and relax off the night before.

First page of my new Happy Planner so far

I am still reading Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed and have added a couple more books to the list since Christmas because I can never seem to only read one book at a time haha. I started reading Stuff Every Vegetarian Should Know by Katherine Mcguire and The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur. I was gifted both of these books for Christmas and I was excited to start reading them. I am hoping to finish Wild soon so I can focus more on the books I received for Christmas.

I made a list of my resolutions for the year 2018 and came up with five resolutions to focus on. I had more goals, but these will be my main focus of this year.

1. Get a job - I finished my certificate in December and now it is time to really focus on getting a job.

2. Get in shape and eat healthy - My sister's wedding is coming up this fall and I would like to feel my best for her big day. I did a Tone it Up workout yesterday and it felt great to get back into exercising again.

3. Read 20 books - I would really like to make it to 20 books read this year. I have a few on my to-read list so far and look forward to reading a lot this year.

4. Knit different projects- I would like to challenge myself to trying some new knitting projects this year. Maybe I will check out some Ravelry patterns and try out some new hat and sock patterns. I will also be knitting a tank top this year from the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean kit.

5. Try cooking new vegetarian and vegan dishes - Since my decision in September 2017 to go vegetarian, I have been experimenting with cooking a lot of vegetarian and vegan meals. I have really enjoyed the food and it would be fun to try some more that we can add to our weekly meal rotation.

What are some of your goals or resolutions for the year?

Joining along with Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and As Kat Knits for Unwraveled Wednesday. Also linked up with Ginny's Yarn Along on her blog Small Things today (January 7th), because I found out she is back with a monthly Yarn Along post!

Thank you for visiting my blog, if you would like to keep updated on when I post, please follow me through Bloglovin', Google Followers, and you can subscribe by email at the top right of the blog.

Have a great day!

Happy New Year!

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I am excited for the new year and what it may bring. This year will be a big year for my family and I because my sister's wedding is in September and I will be looking for a job at the start of the year. I have been thinking of what my resolutions will be and I have about five written out, but will share them with you in another blog post when I have them all. Before the new year, I like to reflect on the year that I have just had and then think of things I would like to improve on or try in the new year. I think 2017 was a great year of self discovery, knitting, and blogging. I hope that in the year 2018, I make just as much time, if not more towards working on knitting and the blog.

I received a new Happy Planner for Christmas and I am so excited to use it and start writing my plans in the year 2018. I might also write down my goals on one of the first pages so I could use it as a guide for 2018 to see if I am on track with my resolutions. My mom also bought me a home planner insert, a fitness insert, some more stickers, and washi tape. I am excited to use the home planner to keep track of my to do lists, meal plans, cleaning schedule, and budget. I am looking forward to using the fitness insert again this year to keep track of what I eat daily and my exercise.

Happy planner and inserts

I also have a couple of books which will be fun to read and work on in the new year. The first is this  book I bought for myself called Change Your Life One Day at a Time: The Ultimate Manual for Living a Long, Healthy and Happy Life by Dr Patricia Macnair and Dr Ilona Boniwell. I bought this at Indigo around the holidays because I was drawn to the idea of reading a little paragraph each day and hopefully learning something new in the process. The book is divided into the four seasons so the simple and practical pieces of advice will be appropriate for the time of year. I also mentioned that I got the Q&A a day book from Indigo so I am looking forward to answering a question each day this year. When I think about answering a question everyday for five years it sounds like a lot, but it will be so worth it in the end to see how I have changed or stayed the same in my views and ideas. I will have to pick a time to answer the questions, such as with my morning coffee to make it a habit.

Q&A a day and Change your life One Day at a Time

This year I will focus on knitting the Wool and the Gang Farrah Billie Jean top as one of my larger knitting projects. I will also be choosing another one to work on as well. I bought some green bulky yarn by Patons that my mom selected yesterday to knit her a hat for her birthday,  so I will be focusing on knitting the hat in then new year in time for her birthday in February. I had also purchased some lovely purple alpaca sock yarn (that I still need to detangle) to knit socks with and the speckle happy yarn from Romni Wools that I have sitting on my shelf ready to work with. Last year I decided that in the year 2017 I would be knitting a sweater and I am so happy that I accomplished that resolution. This year I am excited to see how the Wool and the Gang top looks and what other projects I take on.

Patons Bulky green yarn and the Allegria Grande "happy" speckle yarn

Thank you for visiting my blog this year! I really enjoyed visiting your blogs too and being a part of this wonderful, caring, and supportive community of knitters and crocheters. I hope that you all have a wonderful new year's celebration today and I am looking forward to reading all that you post about in 2018!

Moo and I during the holidays

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I hope you have a great day, and all the best in 2018! x