Happy New Year Everybody!!
My favourite thing to do has always been to curl in bed or on the couch with a blanket and an audiobook and a hand project – I used to do watercolor illustrations in my bed and my sheets were constantly splattered. But now that I’ve been out of school for a few years (!!!!) and I work from home (thanks to the various online job opportunities and the high-speed internet options), those coveted quiet days are, quite frankly, just about every day!!
So I’ve decided that this year is going to be the year of exploring things that make me happy, outside of being home!
I’ve also been thinking about what things I’ve made this year that bring me the most joy, and the winner is rather a random piece of home equipment… I’ve had these wool swatches sitting around that I’ve been planning forever to use to make coasters, and I finally sat down and made them about a month ago. And what do you know, they might just be my favourite thing I’ve ever made!! I’m one of those people who always has a glass of water, a cup of tea, and possibly also a vitamin drink around me at all times when I’m home, and they just sort of get left around and litter the house as the day goes on. But now I have beautiful little squares (arguably my favourite shape for organizational reasons) under all my cups, saving my tabletops and bringing me joy. I love them so much.
This summer, I made a tee shirt sample with woven fabrics, which may seem very normal to you, but I hadn’t sewn a woven fabric in over three years!! The whole time I was sewing, and Kiara can vouch for this because it was literally all day, I was gushing over how easy it was to work with cotton, and how fun it was to press and french seam and use bias tape again… With that in mind, I’ve decided to take a bit of a break with personal lingerie sewing for the new year (although my basket is definitely not well stocked, cobbler’s children etc..). So I’m going to be making actual clothes this year!! The goal is to make one item each month, so we’ll see how well that actually goes!!
Over the last year I started knitting socks, which have been my favourite thing to knit ever!! I made four pairs last year since starting in May (holy cow who knew?!?!), and have almost finished another pair over the holidays!! As this is a hobby that does bring me a lot of joy, I’m going to make sure to keep it in my making plans. I’d love to try for the Year of Socks project, where I make one pair a month! Eek!! It’s going to be a bit more dedicated knitting than I’ve done so far, as my current pair of socks, the first sock took two months and it looks like the second one is going to take me about two weeks! But I’m optimistic, and I can do anything! haha
I got this goal planner from Ink + Volt last week, and I’m already so so excited about it. I’m going to use it to help chart out the clothes and socks I want to make over the year, as well as some personal goals! My first 30 day challenge is to keep my dishes out of the sink. It’s going… medium. But I really want to cross off all the little days, which is weirdly very incentivizing. It also means I have a better idea about what my goals and targets are – and I have a lot of them this year! The biggest goal I have is to write a book, teaching people how to sew or do different projects, I think it would be really fun! It’s quite a daunting task though because I know it’s not just the writing I’ll have to do, I’ll also have to get it approved by publishers, work on the book advertisement, design the front cover, and loads more! But, it’s going to be amazing if I can get round to doing it.
I’ll figure out what my specific sewing plans are for the upcoming year, and let you know!! I’d love to hear about your plans, and how you’re going to plan and organize your projects! Head over to my Instagram and let me know!!
Happy New Year!
