Thursday 31 December 2009

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! GELUKKIG NIEW JAAR!!!

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
This passing on from one year to the next is HUGELY important to us, to me as it's part of one of my dad's sayings: een goed begin is het halve werk. This means make a good start at something and all will finish well as half of your work is already done.
And growing up in the Netherlands we celebrated the New Year's Eve in style with many friends and special food and fireworks.
Tonight I will try to recreate some of these foods and I will share this with you next week!
Meanwhile we also do ''goal setting'' and resolutions of a kind although we call them ''plans'' and we all do a visual poster of the things we dream of or wish to do or achieve in 2010. We have reviewed our 2009 posters- the kids and I : and overall we did pretty well! Some things exceeded expectations and some didn't quite come off but despite several unexpected set backs we had a really gooooood year.

Too many words already, let's see:

I have made a cover for my 2010 diary- a simple one from the market with a boooring navy cover....I will share the pattern with you TOMORROW as my first 2010 contribution. It stretches very snugly over a standard A5 size diary or notebook.....

And back...

And the insides....

And all manky looking when one half had been stretched but not the other....Inside. And outside.
I have never had the patience before to change colour on EVERY row- think of all the ends to sew in uuugh!-but I am love luv loooving the look of this! The 2 very different sides of double crochet really show up and make for such interesting colourplay!

Made just after Christmas and here you can still SEE all those ends....
6 Colours of DK yarn and a 4mm hook, en enterprising spirit a darning needle and patience is all that are needed! Of course you can use more colours and it'll be an ideal STASHBUSTER project!!!
Now I'm afraid it's going to get a bit boring, so feel free to leave me : please have a FABULOUS evening/night and wishing ALL THE VERY BEST for a
GLORIOUSLY HAPPY AND JOYFUL AND EXCITING 2010!!!!

A LOOK BACK AT 2009 FOR OUR FAMILY and my bits of it...
I got back into SEWING and am loving this! Really exciting and VERY SATISFYING.
Huge THANKS to my mum for helping me to buy this replacement sewing machine! I am feeling very blessed to get back to sewing, machine embroidery and all sorts of textile arts.
In the November I started the STITCHED TEXTILES course and I am still a bit fearful and stressed about it but also VERY excited and will learn( NB NOTE I did NOT write ''try'') to do all the experimenting and playing that is an essential part of it.

In January Miss E and myslef started to learn to play the piano and many happy hours have now been spent in lessons and practice and my hero husband found us a piano to learn on!
I know it looks rather worn and I WAS going to make a colourful crochet cover for it, but actually I rather like it now. It has history...
CROCHET continued to play a big part of daily life, possibly bigger than before and I have learned many new techniques and stitches from books, magazines and the internet.
A Thank you to RAVELRY, CROCHETVILLE , all at any video crochet site and of course last but not least ATTIC 24 which is a blog I discovered through Simply Knitting magazine in late February 2009. Many projects were actually completed ( as well as quite a few WIPS) and tis is the largest of them: pure wool ripple blanket started in March and completed in September.
In winter it graces the sofa to be cuddled by the children but here it's on the beloved swing !
Apart from the sewing machine and the piano, this was possibly one of the BEST buys of 2009. VERY PEACEFUL. Many enjoyable hours were spent crocheting,reading,cuddling or sleeping.
From bad things GOOD things have been born: JJ's crash helped him decide to start up his own business and the ''almost passed'' 11 plus was Appealed in the January and I WON the case!!!
From redundancy in July : my freedom from tediousness and an extremely ''petty'' office environment was secured and I have loved being a full time mum for the last 6 months or so.
Daily walks at Cuttlebrook and elsewhere in the Chilterns have brought much wonder and joy.In fact I have toyed with the idea of a daily photographic portrait of Cuttlebrook through the year....
Amazing how much it changes day to day. Ther has been a FABULOUS holiday in Yorkshire.

Walking the Leyburn Shawl.

Giggly ''BOND'' girls. Even JJ relaxed and chilled out totally!
Miss E was confirmed in the June.
And started at grammar school in September: huge changes in routine for us all and with it she started a growth spurt that will make her much taller than me very soon and we are wondering whether she''ll be as tall or taller than her dad?
BUT of all the things that happened in 2009: ONE EVENT WAS THE BEST MOST AMAAAAAZING EVER!!!( Apart from having my own babies of course!!!)

Pippa had her litter of 3 puppies on 28 February and we spent 6-9 happy weeks with them and then the remaining months with a 2 dog/ 1 dog 1 puppy family extension!!!
These are a quick snapshot: there's much more in the March and April Archives!
AAAAAAAH.
Pippa on 27 February: such a very very BIG tummy....
Pippa turned out to be a PERFECT mum, feeding them, washing them and generally caring so beautifully even though she'd suffered a Caesarian and a very difficult whelping night.

WOW what a year that was!
RESOLUTIONS:

To contribute and help more and find new ways in which to do it.
Daily: dogwalks(2), piano playing, TR excercises,JM affirmations,draw for 15 mintes,try to fit in some crochet,cuddles/hugs with both girls and JJ!
Give thanks and remember / count all blessings
Try out even more new recipes than in 2009.
Perform to pass or merit standard in the Windsor course
Learn to DRAW
Get a crochet book published
Start giving crochet lessons/classes
Explore other training/teaching opportunities: will probably need training to do this.
Teach/supervise BOTH children to sew and /or crochet
Find enjoyable gainful employment to help pay the bills or start a franchise or own business to do the same.
Be happy on a daily basis and ensure that the girls,JJ, the dogs and friends and family are happy too.
And as TR would say: LIVE WITH PASSION!!!!


WISHING YOU ALL A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!
xxx and God Bless SMK




















No comments:

Post a Comment