Meandering into the New Year

How are you all settling into this bright New Year?  Ours didn't quite roll in with a bang but that's fine by me.  Since having the kids I've decided that I don't mind having a good sleep on New Years Eve then waking up early and spending some quiet time with a cup of tea and my journal.  It's a lovely way to begin a year but it didn't quite happen this year of course.

Master M's mate from across the road stayed the night so the kids all happily stayed up until midnight.  I dozed in bed with every intention of sleeping blissfully through the ticking of the clock but somewhere in town some crackers were let off which woke me up.  Then the noisy household kept me awake and my insomnia kicked in so while everyone else went off to bed I was wide awake and bushy tailed as the saying goes.  I rolled with it though and enjoyed some quiet time until exhaustion finally settled in around 3 am and off to bed.. again... I went.

We have had a couple of outings since Christmas but not without plenty of grumbling and whinging from the kids.  Hubby and I decided that we had better do a few things before we all became stuck to our favourite perches, not that the kids appreciated it at first.  

We are such cruel parents that make them go for a drive, feed them fish and chips, let them explore the rocks and sand at the beach and generally have a lovely happy time. The DRAMA of it all! :)

This time we headed around to Shelly Beach in Caloundra because it wasn't as crowded as some of the other beaches closer to town.  

It's a great one to explore because of the rocks that take up most of the beach but I'll show you more of this on another walk to here that I intend doing sometime in the next couple of months.

Holiday jigsaws always seem to happen at some stage around here too and I was given 5 x 500 piece ones for Christmas and we're working our way through them.

I always do my jigsaws on a canvas I bought at one of the local bargain shops years ago.  It's a perfect size for a 1000 piece jigsaw, it's not slippery so the pieces stay put and because of the wooden frame, it's easily portable.  Most of the time we work on it at the dining table and just put a piece or two in whenever someone walks past.  It's easy to pick it up and move it to the coffee table, bed or even the ironing board at meal times or if we feel like working on it somewhere else.

There's been plenty of crochet going on here too of course and I've been slowly browsing through the treasure trove of books my husbands Aunt gave me at Christmas.

She called in late in the afternoon when everyone was inside recovering from the day and I was enjoying some quiet time with my crochet, a wine and the dog at my feet for company.

The books in the photo below are what she gave me and I have to admit I've broken out into a cold sweat seeing the patterns for some things I remember wearing when I was a child.

I have come across some gorgeous things hidden in the pages, as well as some stitches that I would love to try.  Most of the photos are black and white so it's a bit difficult to see the stitch patterns properly so I've decided that I'll work on a few dishcloths over the coming year and test out the patterns to see how they work up.

I hope you're all having a great week so far and have a wonderful weekend.

xx Susan