i live in michigan with my teenage daughter, my partner, and our three cats. i am a paralegal, legal manager and corporate governance specialist, and when i'm not reading contracts or maintaining the dusty archives of our arcane corporate history like some weirdly specific librarian, i enjoy knitting, books, running slowly, making candles, and bird-watching. i started blogging way back when I was an expat living in australia and in recent years have tried to be more diligent about keeping this space up to date and as a creative outlet for the things in my life that inspire me and balance my 9-5.
I often pin and forget – but here are a few of my recent favorites.
Hot Chocolate Bar Coasters by Purl Soho. I think these are really cute and would knit up quickly in bulky super wash. They’d be a sweet gift pack tied up with some twine or ribbon and given with some tea or hot chocolate and a nice mug.
Bedroom vibes. This may be AI. But I love the slapdash wood paneling, the weird old man pictures (reminds me of my grandmother’s den), and the pile of books and the general imperfection yet perfection of mismatched yet complementary patterns. My only complaint would be the preponderance of useless pillows (a pet peeve).
I feel like I became more committed to and organized with my knitting in 2024. I finished 9 projects, which were smallish, but still – as a slow knitter, that’s not bad for me.
I spent much of my holiday break reorganizing the small room in my house (in the back; under the eaves, looking out into the pines) that serves as my home office, spare bedroom, cat playplen, and craft room. As I dug through the layers of flotsam and jetsam accumulated over the years, I found MULTIPLE project bags that I’d set up with various knitting projects. MULTIPLE. Some of them I’d forgotten all about.
I don’t usually like to set goals for my knitting because – again – I knit very slowly and sometimes having a set schedule of what I’m going to knit can feel restrictive and doomed to fail. However, this year I’d like to identify a few knits that I can tackle to clear out the projects bin and keep the momentum of making going.
First – finishing up my 2024 Christmas socks. I’m on the leg of the second sock so hopefully I can wrap them up in January.
I’d like to knit myself a hat for my neighborhood ‘no bad weather’ walks. Probably the Purl Soho Simple Pleasures hat. I knit one for my daughter several years ago (unfortunately now since lost) but we both really liked it.
I’m going to cast on a new set of coasters for our den – the Chocolate Bar coasters (again from Purl Soho) in some great neutral Cascade Superwash 128.
I am about to cast on the Wolop cowl with my Homespun House Advent minis!
Another pair of socks from the project bin…probably these.
And I’d actually like to knit a cardigan this year, too. I’m not much of a garment knitter, but I’ve found that a couple of good, cozy, nonfussy cardigans are missing from my wardrobe. I have thin ones that I wear to work, but I need some oversized casual ones to wear around the house to up my usual loungewear hoodie game. It’s been fizzing in my brain that I’d like to knit another garment and have a go at it. I have my eye on the Good Grandpa cardigan. It’s just the sort of vibe I need and using bulky weight, it shouldn’t be a multiple-years-long knit.
Other potentials for 2025 include finishing up my Turning Leaves socks, continuing work on my Homespun House Cozy Comfort throw and my Cozy Memories scrappy blanket, and the Cloud Mountain cowl which I bought as a kit from Fibresmith. (The Leslie Keating behind Fibresmith was an enormous blogger influence for my knitting journey way back when I was an expat living in Australia and she has gone on to do amazingly beautiful things!)
I hope to do a much better job at updating this space with my crafting progress…in the meantime, I hope everyone is dreaming big with their 2025 makes and finding lots of inspiration in the freshness of January! xoxo
Firstly, Happy New Year to all. The last week or so has been a blur of stretchy pants, movies, excellent eats, naps, and family time. 2024 was ‘mid’ as my daughter would say so we are all ready to embrace 2025 in the calmest, softest, most forgiving and patient ways we can, and hope for the best.
Now on to the content – the big 2024 reads post!
The stats: I read 75 books / 27,617 pages.
Favorite fiction: Without a doubt, the Murderbot Diaries series by Martha Wells get top honors for fiction this year. I’m not usually an enormous science fiction fan (although maybe I really am but just don’t think I am) but her writing style was addictive and SecUnit was the most fascinating and loveable character I spent time with all year.
Favorite author: Martha Wells. In addition to Murderbot, I also read her Witch King and Cloud Roads series and liked them enormously, though not as much as Murderbot.
Runners-up in favorite fiction: Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer. I loved this book and devoured the rest of the series although I confess that after Annihilation I was completely baffled by the Southern Reach / Area X tale as it unwound; but it was undeniably fascinating. Also, honorable mentions to The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.
Favorite nonfiction: After seeing the Georgia O’Keeffe ‘My New Yorks’ exhibit at the Chicago Institute of Art, I picked up her biography by Roxana Robinson and loved it – it was like reading a novel. Runner up in favorite nonfiction would be Red Comet by Heather Clark, about Sylvia Plath.
There were definitely novels that did not do it for me this year, but I’m going to focus only on the positives this year – I think reading is very subjective and just because I didn’t love them doesn’t mean others would feel the same.
I hope all the readers out there had a very satisfying year and look forward to more excellent hours spent with books in 2025.
The last week or so has been pretty undisciplined over here. I started pulling apart my home office to reorganize it for the New Year and it is still in that classic organization-in-process state of “far more of a mess than when I started”. I hope to get a jump on the “back to normal” routine before my real “back to work” happens on Thursday. Brandon is coming home from a family trip and I have to run out to the airport to pick him up; after, it will be our last big decadent holiday meal (ham and homemade baked mac & cheese) but I’m skipping the champagne.
I don’t make resolutions per se but I do try to consider what is working for me and what isn’t. A few of the “keep” and “magnify” list for 2025:
Physical Health:
Walking more (I’ve been a runner for 10+ years but have not been committed to the consistency of just walking, in the evening or when a run isn’t possible)
Adding in strength training (see above – I don’t go full on, just a few short kettlebell workouts a week has felt really good)
Magnesium supplement has been amazing for my sleep
Upping my protein
Sticking to a few boring yet consistent meals for breakfast and lunch – low points, high fiber and protein
Mental / Emotional Wellbeing:
Journaling more, both here and on paper
Staying ‘in my lane’ – avoiding drama and arguments when I can, limiting my exposure to people that stress me out or feel toxic (when I can)
Remembering that taking care of myself and spending time with Brandon, my daughter, and my loved ones is just as much of an important job as my 9 to 5 and deserves just as much energy and commitment
Spending as much time as I need to be alone and inwardly-focused
Multiple meditation sessions a week; I’d love to amplify this in 2025 to a more daily, consistent practice.
Indulging in the activities that bring me joy – knitting and fiber arts, trying new crafts, making candles, looking to vlogs, blogs, books and media for creative inspiration, reading and writing. I’d like to get back to creative writing in 2025.
I’d like to find a volunteer opportunity or take advantage of smaller opportunities for giving – donations to the local food pantry, knitting mittens for the Mittens 4 Detroit initiative, etc. One of my larger goals as I approach retirement (which is still fairly far off, but visible way in the distance) is to start gradually lessening the time and emotional energy I invest in my 9 to 5 and amplifying the time I can spend doing volunteer work outside the home. This is definitely a longer-term goal as having a house, a partner, a teenager, and a slightly more than full-time job (and being an introvert) does not currently afford me enough time (in my estimation) to take on a volunteer role. But I am committed to keeping that as a goal as I begin in the next 10 years to ramp down my work life.
Spending as much time as I can with my daughter. She is in the final two years of high school and before I blink, she will be spreading her beautiful wings to fly ever farther from my nest and I want to fully enjoy all of the time I have with her, while I have her under my roof.
Honestly I kind of hate New Year celebrations so the best thing I’ve found for me has been to just stay midstream and keep going like usual. But if it’s your jam then I hope you enjoy the evening! 2024 was by no means an easy year, so on the arbitrary calendar delineation day, I want to take a moment to acknowledge and appreciate the lessons it sent my way and send up a wish for a softer and more peaceful 2025 for us all.
We had a really good Christmas Eve followed by our Christmas and birthday celebration for our Christmas babe Brandon but as usual I’m now ready for it to be done and put away. I’m going to squash that urge until New Year’s Day, however.
We watched three different versions of “A Christmas Carol” (Albert Finney, George C. Scott, and the Muppets). We ate tenderloin and burned Twisted Peppermint candles and the kid made an enormous birthday cake liberally decorated with sprinkles and buttercream and on Boxing Day we saw our big budget Christmas movie of choice “Nosferatu” (yep) and ate a square ton of buttered popcorn and I went to bed feeling sick and full as a tick.
(“Nosferatu” was interesting. I suppose I was expecting it to be a straight Dracula retelling but over our brewery dinner debrief, Brandon educated me that the original version was actually a ripoff of Bram Stoker, which explained the changes (England to Germany, different character names, some characters changed, amalgamated or removed altogether, etc.) I enjoyed all the key performances- Lily-Rose Depp gave an impressive turn in a role that was originally intended for Anya Taylor-Joy and showed she’s more than a nepo baby. I thought she was eerily reminiscent of Keira Knightley. Nicholas Hoult was also impressive (hard to forget, though, that he was the gawky kid from “About a Boy” and quite goofy in The Great (HUZZAH)) and Willem Dafoe always serves. Bill Skarsgård was a fine Count Orlak although in certain lights he sort of seemed like a demonic Omar Sharif as Zhivago and I’d kind of like to see him take on a totally different role next time – how about a romantic lead? I think he’s playing the Crow soon so that may scratch that itch.)
This morning we were up early to take Brandon to the airport as he’s headed out for a weekend with family. After I got home from the airport drop I got out for a three mile run. It’s mild and damp here in Southeast Michigan and the dark-eyed winter junco birds don’t quite know what to do with themselves. I came home with mud splattered up to my calves; I made more coffee, had a hot shower, got back into pajamas, and pulled out my old copy of “The Gentle Art of Domesticity” and my knitting.
I am looking forward to being full feral while he’s gone. There’s always the niggling feeling that I should be participating in some form of capitalism during this time off but for once in my life I’m going to ignore that. There’s a frozen pizza in the freezer, I have a ton of Vlogmas to catch up on, the kid has soccer and mall returns and exchanges, and I’d like to finish one more book in 2024*. I need to make progress on knitting my Christmas socks before I get sick of Christmas colors! There will be time to catch up on emails and bills next week, move into my 2025 Hobonichi, and feel dissatisfied that I haven’t monetized any hobbies. In the meantime, as Nicholas Hoult would say whilst playing one of his other acting roles, huzzah!
*Stay tuned next week for my Big Book Recap of 2024 which may or may not be interesting to fellow book lovers!
I usually like to celebrate the winter solstice with some sort of outdoor activity- a walk in the woods, a run, a hike – but today we hosted my best friend and her husband for a solstice brunch. I’m officially off now until 2025 and ready to go into full goblin mode but seeing my best friend (since the age of seven) and exchanging our small heartfelt gifts was so deeply good for my soul.
I’m not the best hostess but this morning I think the brunch was perfect. I served this frittata (made with mushrooms, sausage, onions and cheddar jack cheese) and this baked French toast with fresh fruit, bacon, and scones and of course had pots of fresh hot coffee. We ate in the pale solstice light with candles and Christmas carols on the radio and laughed and swapped stories. It was a great way to celebrate the return of the light and the turn of that greatest old wheel.
Happy Saturday everyone! It’s still cold but sunny here in SE MI and the temps will be slowly climbing out of the teens. I’m drinking my morning smoothie and my plans are to work out, run some errands (my wild birds are hungry and need more seed for their backyard feeders), meal plan and shop for the next few days, and then spend the afternoon and early evening knitting and hopefully finishing a book (I have three going plus one on audiobook). My Christmas sock yarn JUST arrived yesterday (it is West Yorkshire Spinners 4-ply sparkle in the “Yuletide” colorway) and I am full speed ahead on them with realistically no chance at finishing them anywhere near Christmas.
The last few evenings have been bitterly cold in Michigan but I’ve still doggedly bundled up and gone out for a walk. I love the “blue hour” between sunset and full dark (which happens just slightly after five pm here now), the solitude, the lights, people passing. No bad weather, only bad clothes!
Six Ten 