Happy 2025!

Goodness, 2025!

I hope you are all well and enjoyed the festive season?  Or, enjoyed a little rest or peace and quiet if you don't celebrate the festival itself?  I had a lovely one in the end, despite a bit of a rocky road leading up to those slightly chaotic then deliciously chilled days.

I did vlogmas again this season but only managed five videos this time.  Once my baby girl was back home from uni things got a little busier and Bertie boy (our dachshund) came down with some kind of bug (we think) and was in quite a bad way for a while which de-railed things a bit.  Thankfully he started to rally by Christmas day so that was a relief.  We also had some human sickness in the run up and I think we all had at least some sniffles over the season.  But isn't it always the way?

Luckily though most of the trials and tribulations were more or less out of the way in time for the big day (which was just as well as we were catering this year) and it all seemed to go off very smoothly.  Eerily so in fact, we kept wondering what we had forgotten!  But in turns out everything was as it should be, we must have just been actually organised this year.  Something of a first!

I often find myself looking forward to the post Christmas days more than the day itself these days.  A symptom of having an older child now I guess.  It's always nice to get to those quieter days of relaxation and coziness.  Being as lazy as I can and eating left overs for dinner.  I also generally feel myself getting a little reflective as the end of the year approaches and this one was no different.  I start to look back at what has happened over the year.  What has changed and what has been achieved, or not achieved.

Big Changes

This year we moved house, and as that happened at the very beginning of the year, I've been thinking about the fact our first year in this new place is nearly over.  After living at our old place for so very long, it feels like a very big change and it's strange how quickly we've felt at home here.  I think because we now have a little more space and we had craved that for so long, it now feels like we 'fit' here so well.  It's less surprising how quickly the time has passed, as that always seems to race by these days.  But it's good to know that we have already made some changes and started to make the place look the way we would like.  A flurry of small changes early on to suit our immediate needs helped a lot, some visually inconsequential but necessary changes in the garden,  then the renovation of Millie's bedroom and Gary's office makes it feel like we accomplished a good amount.

Going Places

As it was a 'big birthday' year for me, we had some fabulous holidays in 2024.  Iceland in April was such a massive highlight.  I've wanted to go there for a long time and we absolutely loved it.  New England in summer was another trip on the wish list and that was special too.  I never did get around to putting a video together for that one though.  I also got to do some very exciting yarn related trips.  Visiting Kelly and Nick at Lay Family Yarns and dyeing up my own yarn colour was just the best fun and I'm so grateful to them for letting me do that.  Then there was my first yarn festival visit since pre-covid days!  I went with my yarn bestie, Sam (Betsy Makes) to Unravel in Autumn and it was so nice to spend a day with her pouring over gorgeous yarns!

Keeping Track

Then there are the crafty endeavours.  Maybe it's a little strange but I've always kept track of how many yards I've knitting or crocheted in a year and this year is no different.  I managed a (for me) quite modest 19, 815 yards.  My best year ever was apparently 2017 when I used a whopping 36,991 yards, I can only assume that must have been a big blanket making year!  Apparently I also only managed a total of 10 yarny projects this year, which is lower than my usual, but it seems I did more sewing this year instead, which is good as sewing more was one of my aims for 2024!  

The other thing I like to do is keep track of my yarn stash.  I've always been one of those types that like to keep everything catalogued on ravelry and I also like to compare how much yarn I use up each year compared to how much I buy!  This started many years ago now after my stash started growing too quickly and I feel like I've been redressing the balance ever since.  My goal for the last ten years or more has been to use up more than I buy and despite succeeding to do just that for more years than not, I still have a serious stash surplus!

This year I did quite well until I went to the yarn show, where (predictably) I fell off the wagon somewhat.  I still managed to come out ahead of the game though and despite increasing my stash by a substantial 4,195 grams, I managed to use up a whopping 6,636 grams!  A good positive outcome in my book, but to be honest, I could do with whittling my reserves down quite a bit more so maybe I should be a little more ambitious in my goals for 2025 and plan on using up twice the amount I bring in?  If I managed that a little more regularly then I might start to get somewhere!

Thinking Ahead

I've been doing a little bit of bullet journalling again and started making a few plans and goals, or vague notions of directions of travel at least, for 2025.  I don't always do the things I set out too but I like having a few guiding principles in place for the year.  More on that next time!

 

My best of 2024

(According to Instagram)

S x

♥

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