yellow

Looking back over the pictures I took in the last week, it's funny to see how yellow is the common denominator (Sewing Bee book included!). Funny too that a colleague of mine brought me a gold-dusted cheese from her local farmers' market, but I didn't get a picture of that!
Anyway it's been a funny old week altogether. I turned another year in the lowest of the low-key ways but managed to catch up at the weekend with a romantic meal in town (sans Baby, which turns out is always weird now). I had great plans for us to have a superb birthday cake, something terribly calorific a-la-Nigella, but never got round to actually doing anything. Had enough calories in my Friday night meal for a whole week anyway, so it's probably just as well.
Instead we made the most of the nice weather and took a couple of long walks (say, isn't it supposed to be the middle of winter...where is the snow, by the way?). I stuck to my plan and sewed a little bit more - I love the satisfaction of taking my patchwork pins out one by one and turning the quilt on its back to see the little alcoves appearing.
We marvelled at how amazing our baby is: she has developped the start of her own language to the rhythm of na-na-na da-da-da, she cuddles us in the evening when she is all tired after her bedtime stories, she loves playing peek-a-boo, fruity yogurts and dragging her cuddly toy along into all her daily adventures. She is simply a star. Our daughter.

new sewing project

2014, as promised, will not see me making any resolutions. And yet, I insisted in setting myself a small challenge for January. It's hard to describe but I have felt a small shift in my way of seeing things. January is my month, and as a Capricorn things tend to be over-analysed and take for evvvveeeeer to actually come to completion. Somehow though, it feels like my looming birthday has given me a big kick in the backside and I have embarked on another baby quilt project.
This weekend I left all the dirty dishes in the sink, ignored all the little things I needed wanted to fix and just did a bit of cutting and arranging fabric squares. Bliss. Then I did more ignoring of the chores and just sewed all the squares together. More bliss.
Tonight I plan to not only sandwich the top, middle and bottom layers together but also start hand-quilting it. Why not?z
I see wonder women everywhere on the net who seem to be able to do it all: job, home-maker, mother and crafter. Maybe they're just bragging. Or maybe I just need to prioritise things differently again from now on if I truly aspire to be a bit more like them.
2014 is still young, but as I keep writing in my students' reports I will do my best and strive to achieve my full potential. Sounds like a plan!

Best wishes

Well, this is it. 2014 has come and the holiday is nearly over. It's been a good time, even though not much has happened: no reading of the couple of books I had lined up, definitely no work prepared for next week, no sewing, and not much sleeping (when can I start having a snooze until 8 again?). Instead, lots of cuddling with Baby, cooking, a new header for this blog, walks in the park and trips to the city, a couple of good movies and a spot of retail therapy.
Resolutions have never really been my forte, so again this year I fail to make any but promise myself to try and keep calm and look after me and my two favourite people, and use my best judgement as much as possible. That should do it. The other things will hopefully just fall into place by themselves over the next twelve months: treat ourselves to our first holiday, sew sew sew, worry less about work, go back to healthier-looking food, spend lots of time with Baby before she fully turns into a little girl (sometimes it scares me how much she has changed already).

♥♥ happy  2014 ♥♥