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!

Knitting Hat and Reading Updates

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well and enjoying your weekend so far. I have had a busy couple weeks at work, I volunteered to take on another task for a couple weeks so I have been preoccupied with that.  I did not get much knitting and reading done during this time as I was planning for meetings and thinking of ideas for those. I have also started getting into wedding planning and looking for a venue and it is coming together now so I am getting more excited for the big day. 

I knit quite a bit of the Michele hat at one point and almost to the point of finishing it, then I realized I was not happy with the part of the hat with the slip stitches pattern, I had knitted a bit too much and missed some slip stitches, so it was not raised on one of the sides of the hat. So I frogged it to start over because I knew I wouldn't be happy with it as it was. I have started again with the pattern and I am on round 11 out of 29.

Pattern: Michele

I decided to take a break from reading Thinking Fast and Slow and I am now continuing to read A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult and started reading Quiet by Susan Cain. A Spark of Light is good so far, I find the first bit a little confusing to figure out who each character was. I feel a bit more like I understand the set up now and feel like I will get more into it now that I passed the first bit. I started reading Quiet years ago and never finished it, so I am looking forward to reading it again during my morning routine.

Books I am reading

It is getting warmer out now and I am getting excited and hopeful for Spring to come soon. It has been more enjoyable walking outside lately to the gym, and it is nice not freezing when stepping outside. It was snowing a bit more today and chilly, but I am hopeful that it will stop snowing soon and warm up. The first day of Spring is this coming Wednesday on March 20th, so it should be a lot warmer.

What are you working on and reading this week?

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope to see you again soon!

Hat Knitting Progress and Resolutions Updates

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. It was another snow day today and I was able to work from home. I am so grateful to be working in a job now that I can work from home, I enjoy it so much and can avoid going out in bad weather.

As some of you had reassured me that the hat would indeed turn out okay and fit, I am happy to say you were right and it does fit! I am glad I decided to go with the number of stitches that the pattern called for. they say to cast on in the pattern as it just makes following a pattern easier for me. I am loving how this hat is turning out so far and like how the slip stitch every other row and every 6 stitches creates the vertical lines along the hat. I am following the pattern 'Michele' by Sarah Punderson on Ravelry. I also love how the yarn looks in this pattern with the white and the speckles of purple. The yarn is from Fleece Artist and the yarn is Blue Face Leicester DK yarn. I am noticing that I am so drawn to white yarn with speckles of color.

I have been thinking of my resolutions that I made in January. I have been making progress slowly on each of the goals I made. Monday night I was grocery shopping and was glad I brought my reusable bags and also my produce mesh bags I bought at the Superstore. I also almost picked up a plastic bag with baby carrots as a habit because I love having them with hummus as a snack, but I picked up a a few carrots tied together with an elastic band instead to use less plastic. I will take some time today to chop them into small pieces and put them into a container to bring to work. As for knitting a shawl, I have been keeping this goal in mind and will be looking out on Ravelry for a fun pattern. In my reading goal, I have read 3/15 books so far for this year and am currently reading two which are A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult and Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. According to Goodreads I am one book ahead of schedule for my goal of reading 15 books, so that feels good.  For my knitting goal of knitting 12 projects, I am on project 3 now so I feel like I am in a good position to meet my goal for knitting and plan to knit a lot this year. It is always fun to knit some smaller projects as well as one larger one which will be the shawl. I have been looking at some venues for the wedding and there is one we really like so I will probably have that resolution completed soon. We are getting married next Spring so we need to secure one soon. For weight loss, I have been working out a lot and eating cleaner, but I can definitely work harder on both. I haven't weighed myself in a few weeks but have been feeling slimmer. My personal trainer tells me to just focus on how clothes fit more than the number on the scale so maybe its a good thing I haven't replaced the battery in the scale yet.

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

Thank you for visiting my blog and I hope that you have a great day!

Knitting a One Size Fits All Hat and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. This weekend my sister came by to visit and we had a great time catching up having dinner, a sleepover, and an all-you-can-eat sushi lunch today. It is fun when she visits me in Toronto and we make a whole weekend hang out of it. She left now and the rest of the day I plan to work on writing in my planner to plan for the week, knitting, doing laundry, and meal planning for the week.

 I started knitting a hat using the pattern called "Michele" by Sarah Punderson from Ravelry. So far I have cast on 100 stitches as directed as it is a one size fits all pattern. I am using the yarn by Fleece Artist and using size 4.50 mm needles so far as my smallest needles to obtain the correct gauge. I really like how the hat brim is looking so far and hope it fits properly. I will let you know on Tuesday how it is turning out and if the 100 stitches were enough to fit my head.

I am still reading A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult and Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman. Both are good so far and I am interested in reading more of them. I will also make some time this afternoon to catch up on some reading.

Thank you for visiting and hope you have a good weekend too. Hope you have a great week!

Knitting Hearts and Reading On

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I can't believe how soon Valentine's Day is now. It is right around the corner.  I decided to knit up a small heart for Valentines Day this year just for fun. I used a pattern from Julie & the knits blog. It is a quick knit and I was thinking it would make really nice garland if you string some of these hearts together onto a long piece of yarn.

I am still reading Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty and things are getting interesting. I know I always say that in every post lately about this book, but there will be something happening soon, I can feel it and it makes me want to just read and finish the book in one sitting. I might just do that this weekend.
I am still also reading How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie during my morning routine each day and I am almost finished reading it. I have been applying the tips he suggests and already feel like I am more patient with others and empathetic than before. I look forward to revisiting the lessons by going over the points I underlined every now and then to refresh myself on the strategies on how to best get along with others and do business with them.

I got to decorating a bit for Valentine's Day today by putting out the two stuffed animals above. I received the monkey from Liam last Valentine's Day and I bought the dog with the heart when I was single. I don't usually decorate for Valentine's Day because it comes around so fast and is a quick holiday, but I saw them sitting on my chair in the office along with many others and decided to put them out on the living room chair. Do you decorate for Valentine's Day?

Joining along with Nicole at Frontier Dreams for Crafting On and Ginny at Small Things for her monthly Yarn Along.

Thank you for visiting my blog today and please leave me a comment below. I love reading your comments on my posts and really appreciate hearing from you.

Have a great day!

My Experience With The Miracle Morning

Hello Friends,

I hope you are doing well. I wanted to share my experience so far after reading The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod and including the practices into my mornings. Hal Elrod who is a writer and motivational speaker and he developed the system of incorporating the six SAVERS into your morning. The savers stand for silence, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and scribing. By doing these six tasks each morning, it does not take long before you start reaping the rewards of putting in that time each morning to focus on yourself. You can do it for an hour or even as little as 6 minutes. One morning I decided to try the shorter version, so I did each task for a couple of minutes and still felt like I got the miracle morning experience it was more like 15 minutes for me. I was thinking of incorporating knitting into my mornings soon once I buy yarn for a new project. I have really been enjoying the meditation part of my mornings and use an app on my iphone called Insight Timer. It was recommended by vlogger named Chelsea Dinean, so I gave it a try and I love the guided meditation and talks to incorporate into my mornings another good one my sister uses is called Headspace. The meditations make me feel calm, at peace, and confident.

The books I read and write in for January

I first heard of the Miracle Morning by watching a vlog on a book review for the book by Milk and Honey Life. I was fascinated after watching her vlog because she explained that it was all about working on aspects of yourself that I have wanted to focus on in more depth for years. They were always on my to do someday list like mediate, read some personal development books, exercise in the morning, and read affirmations.

I am currently doing the savers in the order of meditation, affirmations, visualization, writing in my journal, reading, and then exercise. I do it in this order because the meditation calms me and gives me clarity before I begin, then the affirmations are motivating. The visualizations follow because I can then visualize the future I want to have after the affirmations are read a few times.  Then I journal and write in my notebook about the day before or what I will be doing or focusing on the day of the entry. Then I write a list of three things I am grateful for. I will then fill out my Q&A book I have, I am on my second year of filling it out now. Last year sometimes I forgot about filling it out for days and weeks, but now I have it in my basket so I will do it every morning. Then I am onto the reading and I have been reading the book How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The time to read these types of books in the morning is wonderful because I usually put off reading in the evenings or get too tired, but now I have the energy to read them in the morning. Then I exercise for 10 -20 minutes. I have been doing yoga as my preferred workout for my miracle mornings because it continues to create a calm and peaceful morning and I enjoy stretching in the morning to wake up my body.

The Miracle Morning has already been positively affecting my life after doing the routine for 20 consecutive days, and I feel more motivated, focused, strong, and am accomplishing my goals. You can read more about it on the Miracle Morning site here.  I plan to do the 30 day challenge of doing the Miracle Morning and I am almost there.

Please let me know in the comments below what your morning routine looks like and if you have tried this routine before.

Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope you have enjoyed your weekend and have a good week ahead!