•3 min read
2021: A knitting year in review
Each year, I enjoy glancing back and making note of what knitting projects I worked on and completed throughout the year, noticing trends or patterns in my making. I've noticed that my creativity or how my creative pursuits "serve" me in a given...
Read more•16 min read
2021: A year in review
Every January, I assemble a blog post of sorts that catalogs our year. Largely organized in list-form, I touch on the big and little things, events and thoughts and experiences that shaped our life over the last year. I do find this incredibly...
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A Christmas at home
I wrote about our early Christmas celebrations and travels in my previous post here. After we returned home from that trip, we had a relatively mellow week at home, with lots of little celebratory things sprinkled into the week of Christmas.
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An early Christmas weekend up north
The weekend before Christmas, we packed up our truck with warm clothes and Christmas gifts, plenty of snacks for the drive, and a loaf of sourdough bread, and drove north to see my family in the Twin Cities. It had been over a year since we spent...
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Christmas crafting for gifting and home
Over the last several months, I've been working on several Christmas crafts—both sewing and knitting. Some are for our own home as decor, and most are gifts. Since some were mailed off relatively early or opened at early Christmas celebrations, I...
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Thanksgiving weekend and early December 2021
Per usual, this time of year flies. I've had much of this post saved in a draft for what felt like only a few days, but has in fact, been weeks. Time to catch-up a little on life these last few weeks!
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Decking the halls (a little early)
Last Christmas, we were still a bit dazed post-move. We put up the tree and I added a few pieces of decor, but since we were still deciding on or waiting on the delivery of furniture, our home didn't feel "finished," and so extensive decorating...
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Our family is growing!
It feels like the right time to share some news we've been keeping (mostly) to ourselves and to close friends and family. We are expecting a baby in the spring!
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The worth of each day: Life lately, November 2021
Fall feels like a number of transitions, one right after the other. We are now bridging into late fall, with lots of frost in the mornings, first sightings of bare trees, and darker, cozier evenings at home. Of course, there is talk of Thanksgiving...
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Creativity check, fall 2021
As the seasons shift and days bring cooler air, I'm keeping my hands busy with a few knitting and sewing crafts. And looking back in my archives, I just realized that I haven't written a "creativity check-in" since July. I have been working on...
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Turning over autumn & Turning thirty-one
We've taken to a regular "cozy hike," as we've termed it. A nearly wooded path, my favorite spot for fall color, a wagon, an eager toddler, a cozy blanket, and snacks. I look for the bright red leaves, since those are a favorite for both of us. And...
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A first hike
Several weeks ago, Nicholas took some time off of work, and our little family planned a few semi-local adventures. One was our day trip up to Michigan, and another was a first "real" hiking experience for Cooper at Starved Rock State Park. My SIL,...
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Lodge sweater, finished
This sweater has been patiently awaiting photos and a proper blog post with more details. The weather took a cooler turn (on some days, at least) this past week, and I wore it on the coziest 60-degree temperature weather walk with Cooper on one of...
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Life lately, September 2021
The air is crisper in the mornings, leaves on some trees just barely tinged with red and gold, a few eager leaves already fallen, begging to be crunched on the sidewalk. It's not truly fall yet, I realize, but the wonderful in-between has very much...
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An outing to the Michigan coast
Last week, Nicholas took some time off of work and our little family of three planned a few outings as a means of a (nearly) staycation. On one day, we planned a trip to a lakeside town, just shy of 1.5 hours north of us.
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Eight years of us
This past Tuesday, we celebrated eight years of marriage. It feels like I've spent so much of my life being Nicholas' wife, and also, I can hardly believe that our wedding day was eight years ago.
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Summer days, early August 2021
It's August already! I can't believe it either. This summer has felt filled to the brim with so many good things, so many summer-y things. Beach trips, visits to new places (the zoo, etc), and lots of family outings. Of course there have been truly...
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Color craze shawl, finished
Although it's been finished for a few weeks now, I'm just now making time to write a blog post on this larger knitting project. A few months ago, I craved a colorplay project, namely one that used smaller amounts of several colors. The original...
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Creativity check and finished projects, mid-July 2021
My creativity is rather steady, these days. I feel excited about several projects, and it's been satisfying to finish a few projects recently (see below). I've done a little sewing and a lot of knitting, with plans for more of both.
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Musings on sunshine and life lately, July 2021
Aside from Cooper's birthday celebrations, life has felt chock-full of summery things, good things, hard things, and all that is between. We are spending a lot of time outside, even on extra hot or rainy days, which has been a lesson to myself that...
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Cooper is two! : A family visit and celebrations
A few weeks ago, we celebrated Cooper's second birthday. My, oh my, how these years have flown. I wrote about his birth story not long after he arrived, and so many details are forever stuck in my mind of the day we met our little boy, officially....
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The first beach day of the season
A few weeks ago, on a hot, sunny Saturday, our family of three packed up and headed to the beach (for us, Lake Michigan sand dunes) in the morning. We parked, walked a ways to where it was less crowded, and laid out our quilt.
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Creativity check and finished projects, almost summer 2021
The daily high temps are flirting with summer weather where we live, and we've been enjoying it so much. That said, when we're not outside, and especially in the evenings, I have still been working on creative pursuits, namely knitting and sewing.
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What brings me to worship: Life lately, mid-May 2021
There's a lot of heaviness in the world right now.
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Picnic dinners & play
As the weather warms, we're spending even more time outside. Nicholas is mowing and trimming, I'm weeding and sorting out rocks from a garden bed, Cooper is roaming and playing in dirt. But beyond the practical outdoor tasks, we're doing a lot of...
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