blogmas 2018 :: my everyday carry

I recently bought a wallet insert for my traveler’s notebook and I love it! It’s from ThreadNPrints on Etsy. Now I have everything that I need to help me stay organized at my fingertips: wallet, bullet journal, scratchpad, planner supplies and knitting notions pouch. All in one notebook the size of a passport (although much chubbier!). It feels great to finally settle into a personal planning system that works for me, especially during the busy holiday season.

I’m making a list and checking it twice....

How are you managing to stay organized around this busy time of year?

blogmas 2018 :: yarn advent calendars

Hi friends! I hope that you are having a great start to your December. Do you have any fun plans for celebrating the season? One tradition that I love is to count the days until Christmas with a yarn advent calendar. It is so fun to mark each day with a little pretty miniskein of yarn. This year, I treated myself once again to the advent calendar from Adelaide Cottage. I also bought a Christmas frankensocks kit from Havirland (thirty -  5 gram mini’s) which I put in a little mailbox. I then pull out a mini each day until Christmas. The first picture shows Days 1-3 so far. I foresee lots of cozy knitting time ahead. Planning on making some sock ornaments as well as adding to my various scrappy blankets with all this pretty yarn.

Hoping to be back soon with some more holiday fun!

5 things on friday

Why hello there! Can't believe that it's already October, my favorite month of the year. I've been having a little case of writer's block for the past few weeks so I'm hoping to jumpstart the words by writing a list of things that are making me feel all of the good fall time vibes:

Halloween Pixel Rise socks. So gruesomely fun to knit, especially when using the frankensocks Halloween edition kit by Havirland. She's a talented indie yarn dyer based here in Maryland.

Midori Traveler's Notebook. This is the planner/ journal/ scrapbook of my dreams! Even though I love the culture & style of the hobonichi planners, it was a total fail. Mainly because all of the pages are dated (of course they are! It's a daily planner duh!) which meant that I felt pressured to write something down every day. And of course I fell behind and ended up with a lot of blank pages. Which caused more guilt and avoidance etc etc. But the neat thing about the MTN is that it has different paper inserts which you can choose to customize it to your journaling/planning style. The inserts are easily removable and you can combine several different ones in the notebook. (Mine are all non-dated). All of which is held together by a beautiful leather cover which seems to get wonderfully aged with use. It feels good to be excited about journaling again.

Rhinebeck socks. No I'm not going. But a girl can dream. And wear cute stripey fall socks while she's at it.

A new weeknight mealtime game plan. One of my favorite food bloggers has just come out with her first ebook. It is filled with easy weeknight dinner recipes paired with the perfect side dishes for each. Also includes lots of yummy desserts. I think that my two guys are even more excited about this book than I am since they gobble up everything that I've ever cooked from Mel's website.

My favorite hangout spot (trader joe's) + my favorite month = everything pumpkin.

Hope that you are finding lots of reasons to celebrate this beautiful season!

washi & such

Can't believe that another school year is coming to an end! Where does the time go? After next Tuesday, there will be lots of swimming, beachcombing and ice cream eating going on. Hopefully a couple of camping trips too. And summer knitting, of course. I've already gone through my stash and planned out some warm weather projects. However, right now my whole attention is centered around the first ever Shetland Trader MKAL:

clue one

clue two

So far so good and I am loving the combination of garter stitches and twisted stitches. The yarn is pretty dreamy to knit with. It's Jill Draper Makes Stuff Esopus in the leafy colorway. Also, did you notice my new creative catch-all/art journal?

I've had a ton of fun the last few weeks filling it with doodles, washi, photos, recipes and lists. It will also be a handy place to stick some of those yarn ball bands that have a way of piling up. It's quite exciting to come across a whole new-to-me crafty world outside of knitting. And one that is filled to the brim with cute stationary products! I am quickly amassing quite a stockpile of washi tape, stickers, markers and pens. Might have to move the hubby's clothes to the garage in order to make room for it all :)

So...are there any fun summer plans in store for you? I love having a blank slate for the next couple of months just waiting to be filled...or not. A lazy summer sounds pretty good right now, too.