Well it’s the new year and I can’t say I’m unhappy about being back to the routine! The holidays were very fun but the kids were also crazy and I feel like they are finally settling down again. We have a ton of birthdays to celebrate in our family this month so I didn’t make any plans or goals, but I feel fairly prepared for them and I have a lot of creative energy which is a good feeling.
As for crafting, I absolutely loved the first month of The Crafter’s Box. I completed the Rya weaving wall hanging within a couple of weeks and I can’t wait for next month’s project. I’m working on my holiday minibook digitally; it’s going to be a simple format like this. It should come together quickly and I’ll share when it’s finished. I ordered Liam the Basil Fox kit because he loved the Juniper Kitty I made for Meredith, and it’s next up.
Meredith and I have also been doing some crafting together lately. She painted this cardboard M which I’m not sure what we’ll do with yet, and she was gifted a Koala Crate subscription for Christmas so we have worked on some projects from that. (Highly recommend, by the way.)
As I was taking down the Christmas decorations I took the opportunity to clean and organize those areas thoroughly. That led to me setting up a little arts & crafts station for the kids, which was so simple and cheap to do but immensely satisfying. Getting all those areas cleaned felt so good that I decided to tackle our guest room which is where I’ve been corralling all the stuff I want to get rid of. I filled my entire van up with stuff and took it to Goodwill, and I plan to have a garage sale on the next nice weekend. Then I’m going to read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up for inspiration and really do the rest of the house, and after that I want to love on our house a bit inspired by Design Mom and Lovable Livable Home.
I’ve had a lot of stuff on my mind about my own health and my family’s, about how to be content and satisfied with what I have, about how to improve my relationships, about how to be my best self while simultaneously being selfless. But it’s all simmering beneath the surface, and maybe when things have clarified I’ll come back to share.
Happy 2016!
From Nora:
I’ll definitely consider the crates for my bonus girls next birthday presents. Fabulous idea! Wish I had known about it sooner, in fact.
I really need to get my craft stuff set-up. I consider it a win that I finally have all pictures I printed in photo albums! YAY!
From Melissa:
Happy 2016! I’m so impressed by your crafting :) I’d love to do more crafts but oh there’s only so many hours in the day! We all have our little areas like this, yes?
Wishing you a very wonderful year Kathleen! xoxo
From Sarah:
I’m interested to see what you think of Kondo’s book! I read it about a month ago and enjoyed it.
From vera:
What lovely crafting! I did two Maggie Rabbits (and I already have to repair them, sigh) a couple of years ago and that was so much fun. I’ve been turning to Kondo as we begin our bedroom closet renovations, good luck!