New Years resolutions

Its all over for another year, the decorations are in the loft, the house is clean-ish again, the Christmas food is eaten (almost, just a few mince pies left!) and I’ve written and read blog posts looking back on what happened in 2015. Phew. Time for a bit of reflection and planning, and maybe some New Years resolutions, methinks…

This Christmas we have had mild weather here in the UK but it has been very dark, grey and wet for many of the days. In Yorkshire and Lancashire and South West Scotland people have been flooded out and have had a truly miserable New Year. Its a good time to remember just how lucky I am with a dry home and a very comfortable life spent working at home and having the time to spend doing what I enjoy.

The other day it wasn’t raining first thing, for once, so I went out for a look in my garden for the first time in a couple of weeks. My winter flowering Jasmine is going strong and I tried out my serious focus feature on the new phone camera…

Pretty good for a phone camera… I was also surprised to see definite signs of spring with some very early snowdrops and the first stirrings of my rhubarb. We have had no frosts to speak of, so its busy putting out some pretty sturdy looking shoots.

Now that the Christmas tree has gone everything looks a bit bare inside so I bought some hyacinth bulbs just before Christmas and brightened up my table with the crochet mandala I finished a couple of weeks ago. [I am busy writing up the pattern for this and it will be ready very soon.]

Now to the serious business of the New Years resolutions…

You might be thinking its a bit late for New Years resolutions now, being January 4th already, but I like to spend some time in the first week of the year doing a bit of reflecting and deciding what my priorities will be for the coming year. That applies to all sorts of things – my medical writing work, my crafting, crochet and blogging activities, my own projects, my home and family and me.

The trouble is that one year on its difficult to remember what I thought about last year, so my first pre-resolution is that I’m going to record this process here on my blog in 2016. It will be a good point of reference for me to check back with and see how things change as the months go by.

I’ve been using my ipad quite a bit this last few days as its less cumbersome than my now quite old and massive laptop. I love Pinterest and I’ve been browsing through the many links to blog posts from mainly US-based bloggers about organisational tips and goal setting. Some of these have some good ideas but I have to admit, they border on the utterly ridiculous. One that I read, by someone with children aged 1 and 3, suggested that the best way to get organised for the day was to get up before the kids – so at 4.45am – and do an hour and a half of checking social media, updating blog posts, cleaning the house, etc… C.R.A.Z.Y… When my children were that age the goal in life was to sleep when they did at night to avoid being utterly exhausted and then have energy to have fun in the day. I always said I would totally clean and tidy their rooms once they grew up and left home. Errrrrrr, well still working towards that one 18 months in 🙂

The idea of having some sort of a morning routine is a good one though, as is having a late night routine. I am very guilty of staying up far too late having got into a crochet project. Going to bed at 1am is not conducive to productivity the next day… I am also very easily distracted and flit from one project to another sometimes, not achieving very much on any of them. So, the idea of developing a few better habits to help me accomplish the work and crochet project objectives that I have is quite appealing.

Today was the first Monday back at work and I admit it was tough getting back into anything. I did do quite a bit of procrastinating and faffing, choosing to spend the morning with my notebook, new fine liners I got for Christmas and a roaring fire.

The idea was to have a go at bullet journaling and write a list of everything I have on the go at the moment. I’m going to see how this goes before I post anything about it – but just know that I now have a to-do list that spans 7 pages of a notebook. I think I had a premonition of this as I had resorted to making a frothy latte with cinnamon sprinkles before I really got going…

I am not going to bore you with a photograph of the list – its very uninpsiring. But I did use a page of said notebook to sort through my ideas for my goals for this year and I came up with 10 New Years resolutions…

1. Spend more time on my blog. That goes without saying and I bet its on the list of every blogger alive! But I want to do some proper organising on the blog and turn it from being simply a hobby to more of a resourceful website for crocheters. I really enjoy doing my blog posts and I want to make them more regular…
2. Focus on new crochet designs and patterns. I’ve loved doing the tutorials and patterns I’ve done in the last year. This is definitely my favourite part of blogging and I want to get better at it and do more. I also want to expand my skills so that I can feature new and different techniques…
3. Get to grips with tapestry crochet. I loved making the first tapestry projects that I did this year with the tapestry bag for my blog and the Aztec Sun coaster pattern, now available free on Craftsy. I want to learn much more about this technique and about crocheting fair isle patterns.
4. Go Tunisian! This is another technique that I want to spend some serious time working on. I’ve only done a little but I am fascinated by the textures of the stitches you can produce.
5. Be more organised and declutter. Having lost my mum over 2 years ago now and having inherited many things that I couldn’t part with from her long and happy life, and having two children who have now left home, I really need to do the declutter part. One of the blogs that I read referenced a book that said organising is just shuffling clutter and making it look tidier. Or words to that effect. When you think about it, its so true and the author recommends that you need to look at everything you have and ask yourself if you use it. If yes, keep it. If no, donate or chuck. Or if it gives you joy and enriches your life. If it does, keep it, if not, donate or chuck. I’ve been doing a little of it this week and I found it really helpful.
6. Be more healthy. I am lucky to have very good health (touch wood) and want it to stay that way. So, my goals this year are to keep up the regular walking and do that even more regularly, to eat well and to get into a better nightime and morning routine rather than staying up until stupid o’clock…
7. Enjoy social crafting. I love the interactions I have with people from all over the world on Facebook, the Facebook groups I manage and on Instagram. I’m amazed to have so many followers who like my crochet pictures! But interacting with people on your phone or computer is not the same as sitting in a room and having a good laugh while you enjoy making your latest project or learning something new. My ideas for this year include doing some sort of a sewing class or course, joining in with Knit and natter groups, starting a local knit and natter group, running some Crafternoons (crafty workshop sessions for friends) and maybe, just maybe, doing my first crochet workshops…
8. Bust more stash. Its lovely that I have so much yarn that has been given to me over the course of the year, and of course that I’ve bought (always in the sale of course!) but I need to get on an use it!
9. Learn new skills. I’ve already mentioned the crochet skills I want to explore this year but I also want to continue doing regular jewellery days with my brother, extending my silversmithing and metalsmithing techniques. Sewing is another big area that I want to improve – and I hope that my bookbinding course will resume (wishing the tutor a rapid return to health).
10. Explore new colour combinations. Yarn manufacturers have delivered so much colour and so much choice – this year I want to try out new combos and really see those colours play together.

There never will be enough hours in the day for all that I would like to do – never mind that I still have to do the day job and sleep. But I hope 2016 will be a great crochet and crafting year here at Crafternoon Treats and hope you will join me on the journey xxxxx

If you have any thoughts on my plans or have New Years resolutions that you’d like to share please do leave a comment xxxx