Celebrating January

As I did this time last year, I am trying my very best to embrace and celebrate the month of January. It can feel like a long, dark month during which all we seem to do is recover from the excesses of December, both physically and financially, and that seems like a waste of a month to me.

The more I think about it, the more I have come to treasure and relish January as a time stay at home, stay local, savour small pleasures, work quietly through to-do lists and make plans for the year ahead. Last year I had a lot of fun finding one good thing a day to celebrate throughout the month but this year, now that I am at work every day, that's just not achievable. Some days this week have been so full to the brim that I can barely tell you what month it is, never mind what was good about it. But I still like the principle. 

So, here are some things that have brought me happiness this January:

:: The shapes of the bare trees against in the sky, even in the mist.

:: Bunches of daffodils on sale everywhere, especially these pale ones. They seem like the right shade of yellow for January somehow.

:: Buying oranges for marmalade.

:: Starting new books. (Also - note the cough syrup. January is also, sadly a month of germs and illness.)

:: Favourite winter woolens, old ones, new ones and handmade ones.

:: Making things for the house.

:: Green shoots, inside and out.

:: Working on old WIPS, like never-ending blankets.

:: Planning new WIPS, like warm pink mittens.

There is one thing I haven't managed to do so much this month and that is get outside. The best days, the really ice-cold, crystal clear ones, have sadly fallen on week days when all I can do is look longingly at the sky from the window. and make sure I really take in the sunsets as I leave work in the afternoons (and isn't it getting lighter and lighter each day? I can really feel the difference.) Sometimes the weekends are just so full. Never mind, there will be lots more opportunities for walks before this winter is over. 

I hope January is being kind to you.

Make, Bake, Sew, Grow

Two weeks into January and it's as if the Christmas holidays never happened. Nothing dramatic, but it's just a head-down, get on with it kind of month. John is working three late shifts a week throughout January and I'm feeling the impact at home, dealing with all the after school clubs, tea time, bed time etc on my own. I'm not feeling sorry for my self exactly, or particularly anxious, just really, really tired. 

Work is good. I like my job very much, to the point where I look forward to going, and I am very thankful for that. Home life muddles along quite happily - weekends over the next few months are filling up rapidly with plans to see friends near and far. We are talking to builders about knocking down walls and looking at kitchens, doing sums and making plans.

Now seems like a good time to revisit my Make Bake Sew Grow posts, my way of cherishing my home comforts when life gets very busy, as it inevitably does. 

{ Make }

I was given a gorgeous little mid-century coffee table, all clean lines and tapered legs, by a colleague. It was found in her garage and kindly passed our way. It's a little stained but fundamentally sound, and it's now in our garage, where I am sanding and varnishing it. 

Just try really hard to look at the table and nothing else in this photo please. Thank you. 

{ Bake }

So much kitchen activity lately! I bought a reduced panettone from Waitrose after Christmas. It was soft, gooey and buttery like brioche. Most of it was sliced and eaten with a cup of coffee or tea and the rest was baked with a creamy custard to make a panettone bread and butter pudding. No photos but trust me, it was good.

New cookery books have been perused, new recipes have been bookmarked. From Simply Nigella we made Sweet Potato Macaroni Cheese.

It's just a really good macaroni cheese made thicker and richer with the addition of mashed sweet potatoes which sounds wrong but is completely delicious. It was a huge hit with the kids too.

There was also Massaman Beef Curry. A bit of a faff initially, as it's supposed to be cooked the day before you eat it and left in the fridge so that the flavours develop, and that's asking an awful lot of organisation and pre-planning from us, let me tell you. Then you add potatoes and heat it again until they are cooked, then stir in loads of coriander. It's not a typical thick-sauced Indian style curry, as the coconut milk base is more Thai, but more of a spicy, fragrant stew which is warming and nourishing.

And there was marmalade cake.

This much-used recipe is from the first Kitchen Diaries book by Nigel Slater. I love to make it every January. 

{ Sew }

I have five things on the go at the moment but all attention is firmly focused on a baby blanket for a friend at school who is due to give birth in the next few weeks.

Simple, classic granny squares edged in white, with a colour combination that is hopefully aimed at either sex.

I am half way through and making good progress, while watching the completely gripping and superb Making a Murderer.

{ Grow }

The bulbs (daffodils, I think) I planted in October are up already, and much too soon. What's going to give me colour in the garden in March if they're up already?

Unimpeded by frost, my geraniums are, amazingly, still growing and flowering. 

But if this current cold snap continues - and I hope it does, I am relishing the cold, clear skies after so much rain - they will need to be covered. Which I'll probably forget to do and then they will die and I'll probably buy some more in the spring. Such is the circle of life in my back garden.

Warming

Cold mornings, but not cold enough to be frosty. Pancakes for breakfast, fluffy and golden. Pottering with the pots on the mantel. Bright green shoots, pussy willow and dried billy button flowers. Soup for lunch, hot and aromatic, full of ginger and star anise. Lighting the fire in the afternoon. The sound of rain blowing against the windows. Homemade pizza in front of a Scandinavian crime drama on TV. An extra blanket on the bed. Morning coffee in the gloom. A grey garden. Hail storms. Bacon and egg sandwiches on thick cut white bread, with ketchup. Recycling the Christmas tree. A trip to a new yarn shop and the start of a baby blanket for a friend. Winter things. Warming things. 

 .

A Year of Making

It's Friday. We made it through the first week back at school and work intact. Well done us! Thank you all for your lovely comments on Polly and Alfie, you are very kind. Alfie is getting a little bobbly due to over-cuddling and I fear I may have to sew an arm back on soon as he is dragged everywhere by his paw, but otherwise they're intact. 

Now I know New Year feels like an age ago already, but I wanted to do one of those posts where I gather together everything I made over a year and look at it. It interests me to see the changes in the kinds of things I want to make, my use of colour, the way crafting is less something the children and I do together, and more something I do for myself. A lot of my makes last year were for the home which is no surprise really, when you think that we moved house last year. Making is my way of putting my stamp on something. Also, there was a lot of crochet last year. I think that's partly down to my increased confidence with tackling harder patterns and wanting to push myself to try new things, but also because - now that my crafting time is largely limited to the evenings - it's much easier to crochet than hand-sew in electric light when you are tired. Likewise, projects that involve paintbrush or sewing machine are less appealing now that I'm at work, when I just want to sit on the sofa and pick up yarn and hook when I have any free time.

{ January, February, March }

January

V-Stitch Scarf

Granny Squares Blanket

February

String Shopping Bag

Appliqued Wall Hanging

March

Shawl

Stool Cover

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{ April, May, June }

April

Ombre Wall Hanging

Stool Cover

May

Copper Sprayed Jars

June

Cushion Cover

Painted Dressing Table

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{ July, August, September }

July

Face Cloths

Ironing Board Cover

August

Two String Bags

September

Two Small Rugs

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{ October, November, December }

October

Poncho

November

Rainbow Chevron Blanket

Circular Rug

December

A Polar Bear and Dog

Tin Can Tealight Holders

Creatively, I'm not sure what 2016 holds yet. I have two blankets and one embroidery to finish, but when has an ongoing project ever stopped anyone from starting a new one? I'd like to make a blanket for Angus's bed. I'd like to cross stitch and embroider more. I'd like to paint more furniture and continue to work on the house. I keep saying I want to start an English Paper Piecing hexies quilt, and I have a huge stash of yarn scraps just sitting there...I just need to start it, and stop talking about starting it. 

But making things with my hands continues to make me ridiculously happy and I can't imagine a time in my life when I wont be sewing, crocheting or painting something. It calms me when I am anxious and soothes me when I am irritable or tired. But I also love the fizz of excitement at the start of a new project, and that exhilarating feeling of pulling off something I didn't know I could do, of learning to do something well. And the feeling of triumph and satisfaction at the end of a long project when you think, yes, it was all worth it, I'm glad I worked so hard on that. It's good for me.

If you're interested, you can look back on previous crafty round-ups below.

2014

2013

2012

Meet Alfie and Polly

I like to make Bella and Angus a little something for Christmas. I tell myself it's for them but we all know it's for me as well. I will continue to do this for as long as they want toys, and after that I'll make them woolen scarves and hats to wear (and yes I realise they probably wont want to wear anything made by mum, but I'll do it anyway). Last year I made them a toy fox and doe and the year before I made Bella a rabbit and Angus a dog. All those gifts were sewn, either by hand or on a machine, and this time I wanted to try a crocheted toy and so I bought a copy of Edward's Menagerie and let them look through it and choose an animal each. If you don't know the book, it's really charming - each animal has a name and a little back story, and they are full of personality. Also, many elements of the pattern are the same (arms, legs, body) with the changes being in the faces, ears and tails, which is where all the character is, so a lot of the work involved is quite straightforward. I'd really recommend it and am considering buying her second book, the bird version, just so I can make myself a bright pink flamingo.

Bella chose the polar bear and I made this first as it came from the beginner level of the book and, this being my first attempt at amigurumi crochet, I wanted to start gently. The patterns are not difficult, but they do require patience and concentration, in particular for all the counting and the constant moving of stitch markers. 

I used Stylecraft Chunky DK in cream, leftover from Bella's blanket and a 5 mm hook as you want quite a tight crochet fabric.

Stuffing it is easy, but sewing it together felt like an effort, trying to get everything straight, in particular the ears, eyes and nose. Any wonkiness adds to character, I'm sure you'll agree...

Angus chose a Jack Russell dog which came from the advanced chapter in the book but really, apart from working with two colours in the head section, the pattern is not that much harder than the polar bear. 

I didn't have any leftover yarn for this one so bought some Boshi yarn from Hobbycraft. Five balls at £4 a ball cancelled out any savings I made using leftover yarn for Bella's polar bear, but you can totally feel the difference in the quality (and wool content) of this yarn compared to the acrylic, so as always you get what you pay for. 

I think my favourite thing about this dog is his little pointed tail.

But, although fiddly, they are lovely crochet projects. Not that I'm in a desperate hurry to make another one for some time now, I think blankets and mittens are more what I want to crochet at the moment.

Angus named his dog Alfie as my in-laws have a Jack Russell with that name and I think he thinks all Jack Russells must be called Alfie. 

Bella named her polar bear Polly. I think she does look a bit like a Polly actually.

I'm joining in with my friend Jennifer's Winter Project Link Party over at her lovely blog Thistlebear. 

Happy New Year

I've been feeling very reflective over these last few weeks, as so many conversations between John and I begin with "this time last year..." On this day last year, 2nd January, we were packing up our home in Leeds into a huge red lorry and locking the door for a final time on an empty house. We stayed with my parents for a couple of months while we looked for and bought a new place, a house that was a lot cheaper than it should've been and we were able to snap up because we'd already sold our Leeds property. Bella and Angus started their new school and I am thankful every day that they are happy there, that the transition was a positive one for them. John found a new job that was better than we could ever have hoped and, in June, I returned to work. So much good luck, yes, but also so much sheer bloody hard work. Last year was all about change, whereas this year - I hope, we never know what life will throw at us - will be about settling. Settling in to our home, to our area, to our lives. 

Yesterday we celebrated the first day of the new year with an incredibly windy walk on West Witterings beach, so windy that the dry sand from the dunes was being blown across the wet sand on the beach and it was hard to talk. I can't think of a better way to start the new year, to be honest. It was breathtakingly beautiful in a very stark, grey way, and also quite busy with families and dog walkers, but luckily it's a big beach and there was enough sand and sky for everyone. Once we were sufficiently battered by the wind we went for posh burgers and milkshakes for lunch then to the cinema to see the new Star Wars film, then home to drink tea in front of the fire. A lovely day all in all.

*

I've been looking back through my photos and chosen one from each season from 2015. They were chosen for the way they capture a moment in time but also because I remember how very happy I was at each of those times.

Spring - walking in bluebell-carpeted woods.

Summer - that glorious heatwave we had and the opportunity to go down to the beach and swim in the sea after work.

Autumn - walking in the woods again in the golden light.

Winter - our first Christmas in our new home.

Happy new year to you, lovely readers. Thank you for stopping by and reading, for your comments, support and friendship. I hope 2016 is a happy year for you and one that is filled with peace.