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.