100 days of creativity - week 5.

days 29-35 saw me working on that little green beanie a bit more, and finishing it! as well as making a start on a new crochet project for work, a little more swatching, and lots of work on the baby blanket...



as well as a finish on the baby blanket, in this photo, there was still lots of ends to be sewn in, but they're all done now. the blankie has also had a block, and is all packaged up ready to be delivered to a sweet little newborn.
i also made a start on another beanie... not for the beanie festival this time, but as a birthday/thank you gift for a friend.

what are you creating this week? anything coming off your needles?

meal planning monday.

totally fell off the miracle morning bandwagon last week, as well as the meal planning one too. we ate so much takeaway!!
i'm feeling a little bit better after a sunshiny weekend though, i think the wintery weather during the week last week definitely had me feeling less motivated.



anywho, meal plan time!
tonight, i'm going to put together a big pot of pumpkin soup. i'm on my own for the next couple of nights, as bb is interstate for work.

tomorrow night, i think i'll be having soup too! bit boring, but i'm sure i'll still have plenty of soup to eat! i might cook up some vegetables to have with it too though... last week there were not many vegetables eaten, so i have some catching up to do this week!

wednesday, i think i'll fry up some fritters. with lots of veggies in them, and maybe served with some salad. ALL OF THE VEGETABLES!

thursday, bb will be home! i'll grab something from the butcher in my lunch break and cook up a simple dinner of meat and veggies. i'm sure bb will need it after a few nights away!

friday night, i'm working late. i might pop satay chicken in the slow cooker. it's been a while since we've had that one!

saturday, i'm working, so i'll leave bb in charge of organising dinner.

and sunday, well at this stage, i don't have any plans! maybe a roast chicken? followed by an overnight stock pot? well that sounds like a plan!

what are you eating this week? do you struggle with motivation once the weather turns wintery?

100 days of creativity - week 4

days 22-28 saw me finishing off a swatch or two, and getting in a bit of knitting on the green beanie and purple baby blanket that i've been working on...



i really need to get moving on that baby blanket as the baby that i planned it for has already been born. power knitting needed!

what are you creating at the moment? any cute squishy babies in your world at the moment?

miracle morning.

last month, angie wrote a super interesting post on the concept of a miracle morning. the basic concept being that by following a little routine first thing in the morning, following a number of steps, you can get your days off to a fantastic start, as well as achieve greater goals by having less to think about in a day and being focused on what it is you truly want to achieve.

the concept simmered in my brain for a little while and i decided this past monday to give it a go...
i broke down the 6 tasks; meditation, goal setting, affirmations, scribing, reading and exercise, and had a little think as to what those things mean for me, and what i would want to achieve from them.
for me, reading and scribing are all to do with blogging. i find i never have enough time to read all the blog posts that i want to, let alone all of those that are in my blog reader, so i'm devoting my 10 minutes of reading to that. and well, the only writing i really do is for this here blog... and there's never enough time to do that either! with these two tasks, i should be able to pretty much stay up to date, which is something i've been getting a little down about falling behind in.



for the exercise prompt, i've found a quick and easy 10 minute yoga video, which i find just challenging enough to keep things interesting, but not so hard i can't walk the next day.
for goal setting, i've been grabbing out calendars, one for my blogging schedule, one for all the outdoor garden-y stuff, and there's my day-to-day diary. there are a couple of big goals i want to achieve this year (hello wedding) so breaking things down into little chunks and essentially making little to-do lists is exactly what needs to happen!



the two tasks that i've taken the most liberties with, are the affirmations and meditations. affirmations i'm taking to be a little bit of self-love, so i'm using that time slot to make myself breakfast and eat it. uninterrupted and completely focused on the task.
a bit of a stretch, but i figure it's the best thing i can do for myself in the mornings, make sure i've got some energy under my belt to keep me going throughout the morning.
for me, the most meditative thing i can do, is a wee bit of knitting. so that's what i've been doing for that 10 minute slot. 10 minutes of uninterrupted knitting, again, completely focused on the task.

i think a lot of what a miracle morning allows me to achieve is focus. i am ALWAYS multi-tasking, flitting here and there to try and do everything, and it's nice and probably really good for my brain, to just concentrate on one task at a time.

i'm interested to see how i go with this concept moving forward, particularly as the mornings are getting colder and darker...

have you ever heard of a miracle morning? is it something you've tried? do you think it would work for you?

green love.

my poor neglected garden has been doing it's own thing without me...
my idea to spend 5 minutes a day out there is just not happening at the moment, particularly now that the days are getting shorter. i'm working on a little plan to keep things ticking over out there, with a few slow burn projects that i need to keep working on to get things how i would love them to be out there.
but enough about my silly future plans, what about what's going on NOW!?



after letting all my tomatoes die back, a couple of weeks ago i ripped them out, clearing the beds for some seeds.
those little guys poking their heads up there are wee spinach seedlings, and below...



are some broad beans.
i foolishly left the bird netting OFF this vegie box, thinking it would be safe with not a whole lot growing in there, only to find that within days, the possums had stripped all of the leaves off the chilli plant i'd left in the middle of the box...



oh and within a week or two, the cat had completely dug over the bed, uprooting all my little spinach seedlings about. gah!
i'm hoping a few of them still find their way, especially now the bird netting is BACK on and STAYING on!

i also spent a little bit of time setting up some lavender propagations over the weekend, as i have visions for a whole lotta lavender growing in the front garden beds...



hopefully some of them kick on and i'll get the lavender bed i'm dreaming of.

after a pretty vicious trimming a month or so ago, my wee herb patch is absolutely thriving!



that oregano in particular... that stuff grows like a weed! anyone need any oregano?

what's growing in your patch at the moment? is there anything growing like crazy? do you propagate from cuttings too?

100 days of creativity - week 3.

days 15-21 saw me getting in some colouring (you can too here), as well as knitting a bit more on the purple baby blankie i started last week, and working on a couple of beanies.



ooh there was also a little bit of swatching for a new product that we started stocking in the yarn shop that i work now.
one of the big changes i anticipated happening this year was doing a couple of days work a week in a yarn shop! it is really just as excellent as it sounds. talking about yarn and knitting and crochet all day is an absolute dream.

what have you been creating this week? do you have a local yarn shop you frequent?

meal planning monday.

monday again! after spending almost all weekend at home (minus a couple of hours of grocery shopping and brother visiting) i'm feeling pretty relaxed and organised heading into this week.
a good place to be!



tonight, i'm home solo as bb has popped out for dinner with one of his brothers. i've got leftover soup (i made it yesterday using a pumpkin mum and i grew from seed, so exciting!) and sourdough which will do me just fine!

tuesday night, i'll heat up some butter chicken we found at costco over the weekend. easy peasy and hopefully delish.

wednesday night, i think i'll take a stroll on easy street dinner-wise, bolognaise out of the freezer. it's my first wednesday of work for a few weeks so i think i'll need that easy option ha ha!

thursday night, i'm working late. i think i'll pull a tex mex beef serve out of the freezer to pop in the slow cooker. last week, i stocked up the freezer with meat, and while i was at it, ground up all the spices and measured out all the sauces i'd need for four serves of tex mex beef and threw them in the freezer with the meat. it's one of my most favourite slow cooker meals, but is so tedious to put together! now all the hard work is done! huzzah!

friday night, i have the night off! maybe i'll convince bb to take me out for dinner? wish me luck!

saturday, i'll be spending a little bit of crafty time with some lovely ladies during the day. hopefully bb will cook us something delicious for dinner!

and sunday, mother's day, i'm hoping to head down to the country and have dinner with my mumma, and bb's mumma too! should be fabulous!

what are you eating this week? do you have mother's day plans?

may.

once again, it's the start of another month, and once again, i'm not quite dealing with just how quickly the past month went. april is over? really?
the super quick passing of time might have had something to do with me not getting my start-of-the-month post done until midway through the month... oh well!

my goals for april were pretty simple, keep up with the 100 days project on instagram (there's a wrap up of week 1 here, and week two here) and get bb and my birth certificates sorted. done and DONE! woohoo!



and now for may?
well i'd like to keep up with the 100 days project, today is day 27 so there'll be a photo every day with a little bit of creativity for the month.
as well as actually APPLYING for my passport, now that every thing is done. fingers crossed it goes through without a hitch.
there's also some wedding invitations that need designing, as well as some catering and other things that need to be locked in. getting things done!

what are your plans for this month? have you ever planned a wedding?