Hello New Year.......

Welcome 2015 I am so glad you are here.  2014 had many, many ups and downs as most years do.  It was wrapped in sadness as my family lost three close loved ones and we lost one very dear friend.  At the same time it was blessed by wonderful times with family and friends, as well as the arrival of Little Buddy.  We got approved to be his forever family on January 3 of last year, so much has happened since then.  My favorite day of the year was when he officially became ours on June 25.

Notice I am showing you this picture again because I look so much younger in this photo than I do in real life.  The lighting was perfect (so you could not see all of my wrinkles or should I call them smile lines), so was the day.

My favorite post of 2014, and yours as well, is the story of Little Buddy's arrival into our life, you can see it far down on the left side of my blog, it is called Beautiful Blessings.

I made many things this year, but my absolute favorite was the Olive Twist Shawl pattern by Sue Perez.  I made three of them and loved each and every stitch.  My favorite was this one in a soft gray.  I, who always make shawls but never wear them, have worn this several times.  I love it.

I used approximately 15,110 yards of yarn last year with all of my crochet, knitting and weaving projects.  That amounts to 8.5 miles or 13.8 kilometers of yarn.  I think the weaving helped me reach these numbers.  I was down from last year but still impressed with the number of yards considering I am now the Mother of a three year old.

There are some new knitting projects on my needles to start the New Year off right.  A cowl made from the beautiful yarn I got at Christmastime.   This yarn is an absolute pleasure to work with, natural, with no dyes and oh so soft.

I also have the Lady Kina in the works.  I got a bit distracted with other projects when I started this one, I will get back to it soon as it is easy and fun to knit.  If you are looking for a relatively easy pattern to knit this one might be for you.

 

I do not have many goals for the New Year, I rarely do.  But I, like many of you, like to pick a word to focus on for the year.  I have been tumbling many of them around in my head these last few weeks and the one that sticks is Blessings.  Bless, Blessed and Blessings.  I'd say that is something I need to remember every day that I am blessed in so many ways.  I forget to think about that, even the little things that make life easier.  I get so wrapped up in getting it all done, working, cleaning up, running here and there.  I forget that I am blessed every single second I am here on this Earth.  These three above, along with their father, while causing me to worry and fret half the time are the truest blessings of my life. 

Having a home to live in, a car to drive, food to eat, a family that surrounds me near and far, and friends that are always there for me.   These things I need to remember and be thankful for every day.

I thought about the words beauty, laughter, moving forward, letting go, love and peace.   They are all wonderful but if I remember I am blessed they should all be there, too.

And this guy..........who could not feel blessed with his crooked smile looking at me every day.

Happy 2015.  I hope this year brings you joy, peace, good health and blessings.