Slow start

I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year - I do hope 2012 is happy and healthy for all. We have had such a lovely long holiday and slow start to the New Year.  It has been so good for us all to just take some time off and enjoy family time.  I did intend to do lots of blogging but somehow that didn't happen.  Tomorrow life goes back to it's more usual pattern with Finn, Angus and Islay at school - and that will be good too...for them and me!  I guess, after a while, a little more structure to the day doesn't do any harm. 

We started 2012 with a New Year's Day beach picnic.  The sun was out, and if you ignored the quite cold and very strong wind, it was perfect for a picnic.  We went to our old haunt Seacliff and were a bit miffed to see that so many other people had the same idea (although I think it probably wasn't all that busy we just felt it was since it's normally pretty well deserted).

We cooked sausages, beans and hot chocolate to keep the cold out 

I have so much I'd like to do this year.  I guess the most important thing is to enjoy my family - which shouldn't be too much of a challenge. In between doing that, and having a fun couple of days each week with my niece and nephew (they are ski-ing this week so I'm enjoying a little break today and tomorrow and will be all refreshed for them next week), I have sewing plans that are probably waaaaaay to ambitious for the amount of time I'm likely to have.

I'm working on a simple website at create.net at the moment and my domain name should be transferring as we speak.  For the next wee while I'm just going to have it set up to take commissions  (I haven't decided yet whether to take folksy off holiday mode and do the same with it or not) - don't know how much interest I'll get but with commissions I can control the workload and say no if I need to.  But I'd like to have it up and running properly with ready made items too at some stage.  And I have so many clothes I'd like to sew for myself and the girls (sorry boys!), especially dresses for me and Katie to wear to a wedding in April.  Islay is going to be a bridesmaid, the most excited one ever, so I don't need to make her anything - phew!  And I'd like to aim to attend at least one craft fair at the end of this year (I have my eye on one which is local and has proper hand-made sellers rather than many fairs which don't really have proper hand-crafted goods) - my, very organised and so rather unlikely, plan is to make things for this throughout the year so that I have stock building up steadily.  And anything that doesn't sell can then go online to my website or folksy.  See - I have it all planned out, only this time next year will tell whether I've got anywhere close to achieving any of it!

Long shadows

And they are just my sewing plans but there's so many other ambitions too - I think I'll just keep them to myself for now as I'm probably planning far above a realistic goal.  But I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing as long as I don't let them get on top of me and just keep all my many ideas as positive things to aim for - after all I'm bound to achieve some of them even if it is only one or two! 

Where have my hands gone?

And finally the world's happiest little girl.  She really is such a cheery little person it's such a delight to have her as part of our family.  I bumped into one of Islay's  old nursery teachers the other day and, having just had her second baby, she was talking about how it is inevitable that subsequent babies cry more - but that really isn't the case with Katie, she enjoys life so much and is usually only unhappy if she's extremely hungry or tired (or if someone pokes her in the eye or sits on her - which is a hazard with three bigger siblings and cousins who spend time here too!).  John and I quite often catch ourselves grinning at each other, especially when we're sitting down at meal times (that's if everyone is eating and not fussing about the vegetables (Angus) or meat (Islay)), as we realise how lucky we are to have our family of six.