Friday, January 31, 2014

Seeing my way clear


My word for this year (having sadly rejected potatoes, which would be a very enjoyable theme I think, but probably wouldn't be a good idea) is CLEAR.

I have been decluttering. I've sorted out several of the drawers in the bedroom. I replaced all the drawer liners, tidied everything up and threw out a lot of old uncomfortable socks now that I have lovely new ones that I was given for Christmas. I put away my huge novelty Christmas sock collection (huge collection, not huge socks!) and several very pretty and slightly too small bras that I am determined will fit me again soon. I decluttered a whole bag of old clothes to the recycling bin at the tip. I have two bags of bits and pieces to take to the charity shop at the weekend.  I have some Christmas and birthday money for new clothes, but will be throwing out more than I buy. The end result I am hoping for is to have far less clothes, but more clothes that I actually like and feel good in. 

I've also been working getting all of our household information together in one folder, and my personal lists, projects, plans etc into another.  I currently have piles of notebooks and lists on the coffee table waiting for me to organise it all. I'm hoping to get to it in the next few days. 

I have many unfinished projects, knitting, embroidery, cross stitch and I am planning to work my way through them this year. I also have  supplies for many projects I have not  started, so those are on the list too, along with some charity knitting to use up some of my yarn stash. Hopefully I'll have some photographs to share with you soon. 

Many people I know on this here internet choose a word as a focus
for their year. I like this idea and have done it in the past, with varying degrees of success (mainly due to wandering off in search of the next shiny thing and forgetting my word altogether), so this year I am choosing a word again, with renewed determination.  

My word for this year is CLEAR. 

Clear the clutter, clear the huge and never ending to do list, clear the unfinished projects and the yarn stash, clear my mind. See my way clear.

By the end of 2014 everything should be a lot clearer. I'm looking forward to it.

Wednesday, January 01, 2014

Happy New Year!

.....and Happy Birthday to me!


I hope you all had a good Christmas, ours was lovely. We had dinner at home just the three of us, then visited my parents for a family get together in the evening. We've had a pretty lazy week, including a couple of pyjama days, which I love. It's been really nice to have the Prof home from work over the holidays and I'm sad to say he goes back to work tomorrow. All over again for another year. 

I'm pleased to say I managed to finish my Christmas hat in time for Christmas Day. Here I am in a very silly pic with my lovely boy. 




Now that Christmas is past, I can reveal what I've been knitting. I forgot to take photos so I need to do that still and write up my Ravelry notes, but I can tell you that I made the Purl Ridge cowl for the Young Philosopher,  a hot water bottle cover for my Mum, a scarf for my Dad and a scarf for the Prof only he got left until last, poor thing, and I'm still working on it! Fortunately I had bought him several other presents to open, so he wasn't too hard done by. 

I've just finished reading Knitting for Good by Betsy Greer, as I did some charity knitting in 2013 and would like to do more this year. I've been looking into some projects I'd like to get involved in. 

I am quite excited about the prospect of a  brand new year, and in the next day or two I'll be working through some goals and plans for the months ahead, and deciding on my word for 2014. This is my third or fourth year of choosing one word as my focus for the year. Some years I've been more successful with it than others, I'm drawing a veil over last year's word as I can't even remember it.  

I will leave you with this photograph. One gift that was under my parents' tree this Christmas inspired much intrigue in the days before Christmas as it was rather large and addressed to me, the Prof, my brother and the Young Philosopher.......




Joining Ginny for Yarn Along