holidays – Page 4

Holiday blur

December 15, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

December photo project #… Oh whatever. It can’t possibly be the middle of December already, can it? Please tell me it isn’t so! This whole month has been a blur! I’m having a hard time keeping things straight – holiday parties and foods that need made for them, gifts that still need purchased and wrapped, cards that still need mailed… so much to do! And I’m quickly running out of time – eek!

Today I finally took some time to work on my holiday treats. Just some chocolate covered Oreo cookies for now. I’m finding myself too distracted for any major baking this year, so I’m keeping it easy. I just don’t have it in me to do a whole lot of baking right now.

Despite everything, this whole season has been turning out to be so very fantastic. There’s nothing outwardly distinguishing about it, but my heart is full and I’m happier than I’ve been in the last few holiday seasons. I’m doing everything I can to just enjoy and take in this feeling. ♡

December

December 1, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

snowflake

Things are looking merry and bright around our house now that Thanksgiving has come and gone. Thanksgiving itself was a stressful ordeal, as it always is when I host, so I’m thankful to have a whole long weekend to recuperate and settle in for the next holiday. For the most part we’ve stayed tucked in our home, knitting and putting together our winter puzzle and watching more TV than I care to admit!

Friday is almost always my “decorating” day – the day I dig out the tree and put everything up. It’s not perfect, and there are things I would like to change about it – mostly, the ornaments. There are a lot of ornaments I purchased 10+ years ago that I don’t love, purchased before I really figured out my tastes in decor and whatnot, but it seems wasteful to buy new when these work just fine and haven’t broken yet. Some years I’ll buy a few new ones to add to the tree, but that felt wasteful this year, too. Make do or do without, you know? Some days that mantra doesn’t work for me, but this weekend it certainly did.

After everything was up I had the Mr help me play with some photos. I wanted to achieve that big blurry circle look with the tree up, so he showed me what to adjust on the DSLR to get it. The snowflake and reindeer are our stocking holders, which we just used as something to photograph since I didn’t have other ideas. Then, of course, I had to play with pictures of the pup. She did not want to sit still for her photo! She, instead, thought that it was play time since I was on the floor on her level. Silly pup. I managed a few good ones, but not a lot!

Celebrating Spring

March 31, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

I know, for a lot of people, Easter Sunday is a big deal. I grew up in church. I grew up with having a new dress each year, with egg hunts and baskets of candy and toys. I know why my family celebrate the day. But it’s never felt… important to me. At least not in the same way it does to my family.

Instead, I choose to celebrate Spring. I choose to celebrate the return of the sun and its warmth and the return of the flower blooms and the birds. I choose to celebrate Spring because it’s the only thing that feels right to me. And it’s a bit of a compromise – I still attend Easter dinner, even though our personal beliefs differ, and while my family prays over the food and thanks Jesus I quietly reflect on all the amazing things that happen during this season. It keeps the peace.

I know.

February 14, 2013 Marie Leave a Comment

Happy Love Day, loves! I’ve been couchbound yesterday and today as it appears I’ve managed to catch some sort of virus. Fever, sore throat, aching all over… you know the kind. So laziness abounds around here, of course. Knitting, copious amounts of tea, marathon Netflix watching (World Without End), furry snuggles, etc.

Apparently being home means I’ve ruined the Mr’s plan for today – which was to surprise me and take me out to lunch at work – but instead he brought home lunch along with some dark chocolate, some cute knee-high socks, and some Doctor Who valentines that he turned into a card for me. The other one is the card I ordered for him from Sarah. She even added in two little stickers to the package: one red heart, and one red Rebel Alliance symbol. How cute is that?! \

(And, yes, I have finished the shawl and moved on to a pair of socks!)

Goodbye, 2012.

December 31, 2012 Marie Leave a Comment

So I’ve been working on the Life Less Bullshit Why Wait? workbook the last few days. I’m not done with it yet because I’m procrastinating, but I have made my “Eff Yeah 2012” list of all the awesome things I’ve done in 2012. Which, really, is a fantastic process because I spend far too much of my time dwelling on the negatives – the things I didn’t do, the things that went wrong, the things that I failed at, etc – and not nearly enough time thinking about just what all I accomplished with my precious 8,760 hours of 2012.

Highlights from my 2012 list:

– 38 projects (knitting, spinning, and sewing) made in 2012 (39 if I can manage to get the sleeves sewn and the neck edging knit on my Elemental Boatneck by midnight tonight!). I’ve never tallied up the things I’ve made before, and I always like to think that I never get enough time to do what I love, but quite clearly I have more than enough time to focus on my hobbies.

– Trained and ran my first 5k!

– Took a really awesome (and proper) vacation for our anniversary.

– Snapped a few really cool pictures of wildlife around our area (especially that deer we tracked in the state park!)

– Met some really cool people up in Michigan at a knitting meet-up.

– Built a raised bed, installed wire for trellising, and planted clematis, thereby checking off one long-awaited project from our home to-do list.

– Spent quality time with my niece at the local maple syrup festival, and then again when she stayed the entire week with us over my birthday.

Looking toward 2013… I’m not making resolutions, I’m making goals. Resolutions seem so “pie in the sky”… so… unobtainable. Goals? Goals come with a plan of action. Hard, concrete ideas and rules and guidelines to follow to make sure I achieve what I set out to accomplish.

So here’s what 2013 will find me doing:

Taking charge of my health and wellness

– I’ll be doing 13 5k races in 2013

– I’ll be exercising at least 2x a week by taking a class at the local YMCA to start, then as it warms back up I’ll get back to running outdoors 2-3x/week to improve my running time for those races. If both of those fail, I’ll work on my 100 push-ups, 200 sit-ups, 200 squats or use the Yoga app on my phone.

-I’ll be making an honest effort to eat healthy foods – planning ahead to pack lunches, have proper meals for dinners, etc so as to not be tempted to get fast food out of laziness.

Increasing my productivity overall

– I’ll be limiting my social media exposure by removing the apps from my smart phone, not logging into Google while at work, paring down my Google Reader feed, and only catching up with those people/websites I care to catch up with in the evenings.

– If I start feeling the need for distraction, I’ll get up, walk away from the computer, and take a 5 minute break to refocus.

– I’ll be re-committing my Mondays to my design work that I’ve been ignoring.

– I’ll embrace the idea that doing the small things now means less ‘big’ things at the end of Procrastination Avenue. You know what I’m talking about – you put off the 5 minutes it would take to grab a basket of clothes and throw them in the washer until that 5 minutes of work turns into much more because you have a mountain of clothes to tackle instead of a single basket. That kind of thing.