New Year's Resolutions

1. To exercise 3 times a week.
2. To finish watching Mad Men

Not too hard there. I have been keeping up with the exercise since the new year started but no progress made on the Mad Men. I belong to a gym which is literally at the end of my road, about 3 mins walk away. The gym also has a pool so I have been using those liberally. I also have rediscovered Dance Central on the Kinect. It is amazing how sweaty you can get just jumping around in your living room. 

My newest exercise motivator is the NHS Coach to 5k podcast. They have a very calming woman telling you to walk and run in 60 and 90 second intervals (well the first week does anyway) and the music could be much more annoying. 

The Day to Day

I have just finished reading The Happiness Project . It is a brilliant book about how to make your life happier without changing your life. It focuses each month on making resolutions to do with one area of life such as Work or Family. It is a really personal account from one women who is definitively not perfect and lives her real life as she goes through the book. It is really inspiring as she is not unhappy and is just working towards making herself happier on a daily basis. My desktop background is a quote from her "What you do EVERY DAY matters more than what you do ONCE IN A WHILE'. This really appeals to me as I feel what makes me happy and makes a big improvement of my quality of life is what I do everyday, the small things like the food I eat and the people I talk to regularly. It isn't the big things like holidays or moving house. It is the small things like stroking the cat or having a great cup of coffee. 

I would really recommend the book to anyone. She is an intelligent, well read, fun woman talking simply about her life. I am just starting on her next book about being happy at home. We will see if it is as good. 

Baby Blanket Number 2

So this is the blanket I made for a very special Canadian/Libyan/Welsh/Mancunian baby who was born this summer. It is the 2nd ripple blanket I have made and it was much better than my first one. Sorry Baby number 1!

This is it while making. I absolutely loved the process of making this blanket. It took about 30 mins a row and I made it bigger than the 1st too after seeing how quickly babies really grow. I can't give specifics I am afraid as this actually got goven away in the middle of the summer when the baby was born. Sorry!

It is made with Special DK again and has very similar colours that Lucy at Attic24 and Heather at Little Tin Bird use. I am massively inspired by these 2 women who use colour beautifully and create lovely, snuggly things. Looking at it now it could really have done with some kind of border. I learn every time I make something. 

Ooopps!

I have been away...for longer than I wanted. I have a new job which has been taking some serious training, pushing me in all my "stretch" areas. I haven't had any time or motivation to make anything above dinner. It doesn't make me happy.


What does make me happy:

1. Receiving a cushion I won from Alice at JustAThought. It is brilliant and looks great in my craft room. My plan for today is to tidy that room so I can take some photos for her.
2. Making more delicious veggie recipes from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. Last night was a pilaf made with slow cooked onions, sweet spices and loads of herbs. Every recipe from this book has been a great success. 
3. Discovering a new beauty blog. Beauty's Bad Habit is brilliant. She has loads of great looks and as she is student they are all doen with bargain products. She is local to me too!
4. Finding a great food shop just down the road from my new job in Liverpool. Mattas is full of bargain spices, interesting chocolates and unusual veg. 

That actually makes me feel a lot more positive about what is going on at the moment. It has felt like the job is taking over everything. I am enjoying it but it is a lot of hard work!

Frivolous fun

So I saw this trim about 6 months ago on Lucy's brilliant Attic 24 blog. I genuinely thought "I'll never be able to make that. It looks so complicated and there are so many different stitches". 


After finishing a baby blanket (yet another ripple, more on that in the next post) I wanted something quick and easy that I could finish in an evening after a stressful day at work.  I remembered the lovely little trim for going round a jar. So I started and it was great! It was hard enough to be able to concentrate all the way through but not too hard to make me feel like I couldn't do it.
So ta da....

I am completely in love with it. I have had it burning with a little, green, fresh smelling tea light. I can see this being Christmas presents for people this year. Just need to start collecting more salsa jars. 

Rocket Garden

So I got a Rocket Garden for Christmas from The Boy's mum. Basically it is a box full of baby plants all ready to go into your garden/pots/planters. It arrived on Thursday and today has been the first chance I have had to get them in. Coincidentally it has also been the first nice day we have had in ages here in rainy Manchester. There were so many plants I have had to put some int random plastic pots from the shed. I have:

• Mizuna, 3 types of lettuce, rocket, spinach and chard in planters.
• Strawberries in hanging baskets.
• Peas, runner beans, french beans and courgettes in the raised bed at the end of my garden.

It doesn't look much typed like that but it has taken me about 3 hours to do it all. I am going to take loads of photos tomorrow when my camera is charged. My back is killing me but I have definitely earned the beer I am now having. 

The gym has been going brilliantly. I have been 3 times and it has gone really well. It has been hard but I come out feeling strong and like I have worked. Plan is to go for a swim tomorrow as I don't think my back is going to let me go to the gym!

Baby blanket number 2 is going great. A ripple bunch of rainbow goodness. 

New year fun and games

So it is now a new year, well for me at least. I turned 29 on the 2nd of May and was spoilt rotten. I got an amazing new food processor and a 4 day trip to London full of musicals, family, amazing hotel views, friends and HARRY POTTER! We went to the new studio tour which was amazing and a complete surprise. I may have been a little emotional at various times. I am such a cry baby when I am happy!


The yarn arrived for the first of the baby blankets which is looking beautiful. The ripples are going well and the edges are almost even! A little wonk is part of the homemade charm I think.


Day off tomorrow with a gym induction. We shall see how my very unfit body copes!