I’m not going to lie I am pleased that things are getting back to normal – routine wise. I never been a “fly by the seat of your pants” sort of person, I like to know what I’m doing and when to do it. The school holidays always throw that off balance and each day comes with a barrage of “what am I doing today Mummy?”

Now she is happily back at nursery and probably having way more fun than she does here I am trying to get myself organised. So much easier when I have the house to myself and it is blissfully quiet!

I’ve even got out a new notebook. Tell me I’m not the only one who struggles to write in a brand new notebook though?? I always find it hard to crack the spine and write those first few notes! I’m currently at the obsessive level of writing lists. I have a monthly list, then a weekly, then a day-by-day. It has positive and negatives to this, it’s certainly fun crossing 3 things off a list (albeit the same thing), it keeps me focused on what I need to do, otherwise I find myself a little lost and just moving things around into piles until it’s time to do the school pick-up and then I feel like I have wasted time! The negative though is it can feel overwhelming, especially as I always expect more of myself than what is feasible or realistic, which means when I don’t achieve everything on the list I feel disappointed and like I have under-achieved.

I have my fabric and threads ready for the The Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery newest SAL Animal Almanac SAL and I’m itching to start, but I am trying to behave and finish my Nutcracker Parade SAL first! Just the border to go, I know if I don’t finish it now I never will. Tempting as it is to put it to one side to stitch Month 1 of the new pattern!

At the start of last year I started putting all my snips of floss and 12wt thread in a little jar! It always seems a shame to throw them away! I am pleased with my full little jar, although a painful reminder of all the unpicking I had to do on a certain project that you may remember reading about here. Unfortunately I think the majority of what was on that 12wt red reel is now in the jar! :(

I also keep the empty spools of cotton I used. These are all what I finished last year! After the third 50wt White I thought I’d be better off buying a cone! The orange 50wt spool in particular are good for wrapping binding around. I love the wooden spool that the 80wt comes on, my most used colour is #2309 – Silver White; it blends with so many colours and becomes invisible. I wish more threads came on wooden spools, it looks so vintage!

I can’t wait to fire up the sewing machine again and get back to some regular sewing! It is always so painful having to pack it away over Christmas so we have a usable dining table. Equally I am excited to share with you what I am working on, I have some gorgeous fabrics on my cutting mat at the moment. Here’s a sneaky peek of some..

This is Elea Lutz’s newest line Milk and Honey and features the sweetest metallic!!