Starting from scratch (twice) 😅

Hello hello. Really not much has changed since my last post...I'm still knitting, Juniper is still cute, we're still playing Sims and watching The Office, it's still January, we're still in lockdown. 

As promised here are some pics of my homemade socks in action! As you can see they fit nice and snug and Juniper likes them too.

Here is a new houseplant (rescued at a bargain price from work on my first day back of the new year, starting the year as I mean to go on 😆), on one label it says monstera, on the other it says philodendron but according to my research it is actually neither! It's a rhaphidophora tetrasperma, and has very interesting leaves that are almost more hole than leaf.

A cool purple and green outfit that Ed said made me look like an art teacher 🎨🎨🎨✨

Juniper watching the sunrise.

The snails are still going strong 🐌🐌🌳

Ed's dead chilli plant from last year still has little red chillies on that look like little christmas decorations! The second pic is a page of doodles from work (it was a slow day, I had lots of time to scribble).

Last Sunday we decided to go for a walk on Dartmoor, we just drove until we saw somewhere interesting to stop.

We found highland cows!!!

Juniper helping me make notes for house group (we're currently reading 1 Peter):

This is how I have spent most of lockdown 3.

I am now well into Ed's pair of socks but it is taking a little longer this time because I got all the way to the toe of my first sock and decided to unravel it all and start again! I had noticed a mistake earlier on and it wasn't a perfect fit anyway so back to the start I went. Let's just say it was a good learning experience!

Juniper makes a very sweet knitting partner when she is feeling sleepy, other times she likes to chew on the wool and attack my needles as they move around. She has recently turned into the absolute stereotype of a kitten and fallen in love with balls of wool...playing fetch with them, wrestling with them, and sleeping on top of my wool basket. One night she came and dropped a ball of wool on my face just as I was falling asleep, it's very entertaining!

😭

The most exciting development of this past couple of weeks is that we have a new batch of sourdough starter which is THRIVING so we're back in the bread game! The previous starter was just soo lethargic and grew some kind of mould so I threw it away and began again from scratch (looks like I have a theme going on here!) As you can see the new batch is super happy and bubbly, I've been keeping it in the fridge and only feeding it the day I am going to use it which is working much better.

Just look at this lovely loaf 😍 (and some bagels which Ed recently made as well):

This is the most beautiful loaf I have ever made.

Here is the nearest I can get to evidence of Juniper being manic and feisty 😂 she loves to play with the rugs and hide under them. The first pic is a running attack aimed at my phone:

But we never stay annoyed at her because she also does this 👆

Another wintery walk...after the torrential rain of last week it has been nice to see some blue sky.

One of Ed's begonias which he grew from a cutting started flowering this week!

On Sunday we woke up to see snow! Not a massive amount but still exciting ⛄ it was my brother's birthday too so it was a nice present for him haha. 

Here's the really cool house I made on Sims...it has a unique colourful roof, a very successful veg patch and even some monkey bars. The dream.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for Ed's socks and more bread adventures 🍞💛💛💛 lots of love. 

New year new socks 👣

Happy 2021 😄 

Here I am, before we took down the Christmas decorations, knitting away on my sock number 2 (with Juniper's moral support of course). This is actually were we've spent most of 2021 so far thanks to Lockdown 3, which happened to coincide with some days I had booked off work. Definitely not complaining. Needless to say we have had a very chilled start to the new year.

I would like to announce that my very own first pair of handmade socks are officially finished! Hooray! 🎉 I would take a photo of me wearing them but my feet are currently nice and snug in my slippers and I can't bear to take them off so that will have to wait until next time. I am very pleased with how they turned out, even though something somewhere went a bit wrong so one is slightly longer than the other and the stripes don't quite line up. But I doubt anyone would have noticed if I hadn't pointed it out haha.

(Thank you to Winwick Mum for her very easy to follow sockalong pattern! 🐑)

Before we crack on with 2021 I have a couple of things to round up from last year:

- Firstly my 2020 playlist which I added to throughout the year, not necessarily just songs that came out last year but also ones I discovered or listened to a lot. It's a very random assortment!

- Secondly, I decided to make a list of all the books I read last year (any excuse to write a list, I love lists). I finished a grand total of 27 books, including the whole Bible 😆 I did a Bible in a year reading plan which was fun. Other highlights were: 1984 by George Orwell, Myself When Young by Daphne du Maurier, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman, Gotta Get Theroux This by Louis Theroux, and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins......and Midnight Sun by Stephanie Meyer of course!!! (2020 was the perfect year to revert to my teen self for a while and get hooked on Twilight again lol).

My jar of 2020 moments and memories.

It was nice to get back into reading last year, I'm hoping to keep up the good habit so I've set myself the challenge of making it to 30 books in 2021! Speaking of good habits, I decided to make the effort this year not to waste time on my phone, and also I want to listen to more worship music in 2021 so if you have any recommendations do send them my way.

After Christmas we started playing candlelight chess each day which was fun until I got bored of losing every time so we stopped. I think we've had a long enough break now to get back into again, maybe, if Ed goes easy on me.

One day we decided we really fancied going to the sea to get some fresh air. When we used to live in Falmouth we went to the beach all the time but now, especially this past year, we've hardly been at all.

When Juniper first arrived I would carry her around all the time and wanted to train her to ride on my shoulder, I am happy to say my hard work (not really) paid off and she now loves it, especially when we're busy in the kitchen. She actually nearly fell asleep up on Ed's shoulders when we were doing the washing up the other day 😆 it's very cute and her balance is impressive.

 

We've been enjoying going outside in the garden and smashing all the ice that forms in the various buckets of water (see Ed with an ice crown). Everything looks so pretty with a dusting of frost.

On New Year's day we met family and drove up on Dartmoor for a car picnic, hoping to see some snow. After driving for a while (and sliding a bit too) we found a nice spot to get out and explore. The snow wasn't very deep but it's always fun and magical isn't it? A great way to start the year.

Hello christmas cheese and cracker leftovers 👀

Juniper still likes to read my Bible with me in the mornings...

I went for my first run of 2021 the other day, I went a way I'd never been before and saw some new sights. Such as this big tree silhouetted against a pastely, cloudy blue sky.

Juts documenting an early morning, a cold temperature, and the frost INSIDE my car 😅

Look at this odd bean (sleeping in my lap during our first zoom house group of 2021), she has started sleeping in squirmy positions, and also might be part bunny? 🐇

Our house looking bare after the decorations came down. It's nice tho.

*swinging into 2021 like* 😆

One of the most fun Christmas presents we received was a rainbow bagel kit 🌈 we spent an enjoyable evening making these and getting very colourful hands (there is still a faint trace of purple in my nails). They tasted good too! 

More evidence of Juniper being the queen of shoulder rides:

This past week she has started to enjoy sitting up on the windowsills and looking at the outside world. It's the sweetest thing. She gets quite excited at the birds so it's going to be fun in the Spring because we had a few nests around last year, lots of sparrows and starlings outside the upstairs window.

(P.S. Ed has been planning what we're going to grow in our new raised beds this year, very exciting 😄🍅🌾🍓🌿🌶️🌱🐝)

She is ridiculous.

Ridiculously CUTE. 

One of my many pairs of Christmas socks (I have a passion for socks, you may have noticed) 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌 also another great present:

Stuart Little 😍

My main priority this week has been tidying up our studio room which ended up as a bit of a dump for all the things we hadn't unpacked yet / didn't know what to do with. It is looking SO much better now and is actually a useable space for our creative pursuits. I'll share more pics in the future but for now here are two of my sweet display shelves which we finally put up:

And finally, here's me and Juniper playing Sims:

Ed randomly got Sims 4 and we have been so into it, we have two different families and we're very dedicated to their wellbeing...maybe I'll introduce you to them next time 😆 Our other two passions so far in 2021 have been watching The Office and listening to Smooth Country radio. We are very cultured in this household. 

Thank you EVERYONE who read my blog in 2020! 💛✨ I also have a certain pandemic to thank for giving me the motivation (and desperation) to actually post regularly, it's been fun. The blogging I mean, not the pandemic. 

See ya next time.