Good Sunday evening! I hope everyone has been well and looking forward to the lengthening days, the shortest month.   Imbolc is at our doorstep and of course, here it will not feel like spring until March (or April.. or May… ho hum!). Regardless, these lengthening days see my heart stirring, my mind dancing with ideas and plans!  Beautiful optimism permeating every little detail of our life – I have been feeling very happy, friends.  I hope you are too.

I’m sitting curled up on the couch in our basement – a fire that I started with our kindling and birch bark collected in the woods.  A candle lit, crystals and the cutest orange cat I know.  The wood is sizzling away in the fire, after a recent heavy rainfall.  To sit with the fire spirits after a day of updating the Etsy shop, walking in the woods and making peasant loaf bread, is my idea of a perfect end of a lovely day :D.

I felt compelled to post just a little bit about what I’ve been up to along with the Etsy shop update.  I did spend this past week largely offline, so because I am so often elusive on social media, I would like to keep the friends that encourage me to keep making, to foster my love of solitude and nature, and to write from this basement, updated in a more personal way.  Blogging to me has almost become as antiquated as my regular journal entries, as speaking on the phone, as consciously spending prolonged periods offline!  Our world has changed so drastically in just my short life and I can’t help to be pulled to old ways in more ways than one (I know, I’m being a little dramatic but I hope you understand what I mean!).   Anyway!  So, from this cozy place:

An update!

This week I finished a couple pair of fingerless mittens for the shop.  I drew, baked, walked (more like glided across ice – it’s so icy out there right now) with Henry, collected firewood,  painted, carved, read Alice Munro, ordered wool for new projects, knit a thrummed mitten for my mom, planned our basement renovation, started seeds, organized cupboards and cleaned!  I had a friend over with her little dog (our dogs are good pals), drank copious amounts of tea, started a new Icelandic Sweater for the shop!   All while consciously staying away from my phone and pondering about what really makes us truly happy.

My mind is brimming with plans and ideas and I just wish that I had more hours in a day, that I was immune to being tired.  Something that I’ve been trying to work on lately is not beating myself up over accomplishing little in a day, in a week or even in a month.  We really need to give into our natural rhythms and acknowledge that all that is meant to be, will naturally be and come to pass.  To just submit yourself to the universe!   I can only make so much especially when honestly, it’s not the priority in my life.  Rather, walking Henry, spending time with Jamie, trying to be ever present when I’m outside in nature. But still, I try to find the time each day and slowly work away at these ideas.  Because, honestly, using my hands and tapping into age old arts makes me feel blissful. Maybe it’s strange to many, but I yearn for that antiquated life!  If only the pressure to make more and more and more was poof, gone!

Of course, it’s myself that puts pressure on myself!  So let’s try to be more gentle with ourselves!  To be more present and acknowledge the mysterious and the magical. Give thanks to this generous planet, our ancestors, the people (and plants/trees) who lift our spirits.  The everyday we take for granted.  The beauty in making something with purpose and intention.

Agitation that I’m not accomplishing enough goes hand in hand with the ideas that the lengthening light brings.   With this light, we need to remind ourself that nature never hurries.  That we live in this beautiful world and our time is just too short here to be hard on ourselves! To just let things come slowly and honestly.  To allow them to unfurl naturally!  In this way, we will do our best work and live much happier lives.

I hope to share more of these creations with you, creations that I think speak of those moments with the trees, birds and watching a beaming and prancing dog ❤ . This post did get extremely off topic of “here are some things I have made!” but I like getting lost in sharing little thoughts:D

Thank you so much for reading with me here today and I wish you all a very blessed end of January 🙂