My Resolutions and Goals for 2022!

First of all, happy holidays and happy new year!
It's the time of year for making resolutions again, and despite everything that's happened in the last few years, I'm in the mood for it.

I made a more fun video about some of my resolutions/goals/intentions/whatever you prefer to call them, but I wanted to write about some that I didn't mention in the video, and elaborate on some that I did. (I'll mark those ones with a "V" so you know what's what.)

In the last few years, I've been in the habit of dividing my goals into 7 categories on the model of a rainbow, so you'll get a chance to see that in this post, too. I've been experimenting for quite a long time now with different ways of presenting my goals to make them seem more fun and the boring ones less boring. I've seen others divide the areas of their lives into 3, 6 or even 9 areas. I settled on 7, myself. And then I had to colour-code them in rainbow colours, because, well, that's the kind of person I am. The categories are pretty self-explanatory, so I'll just dive straight in.

1. ART & CRAFT
❖ sew an outfit (V) - I'd like to learn/re-learn how to make the basic garments: top, pants, skirt.
❖ try altering clothes using different ideas and techniques.
❖ complete 1 painting a month (at least!).
❖ either learn to draw, or get over it!
❖ learn to write my Constructed Script off by heart.

2. READING & WRITING & VIDEOS
(I added 'videos' new this year as I now have a YouTube channel, and it seemed to fit well in this category.)
❖ read 1 book a month (V) - possibly the Game of Thrones series as I saw the TV show last year.
❖ re-read a classic/favourite book.
❖ write 1 blog post a month (at least!).
❖ make 1 video a month (at least!).
❖ re-do the intro and outro for my Yearlong Style Experiment video series.
❖ buy a GoPro (V) - or similar camera for making my videos more fancy.
❖ either write, or get over it!

3. FASHION & STYLE
❖ wear what I want (V) - maybe try to consciously create an outfit in a certain style (Mori, Cottagecore, Pastel Academia, etc.)
❖ learn modelling & selfie photography techniques - then I could document the above point with more confidence!
❖ wear novelty ears in public (V) - as I explained in the video, this comes from a satirical 5-year-plan style list that I created for myself several years ago. This is the only point from that list I've yet to achieve!
❖ create a Ghostbusters costume for Halloween/Springoween (V) - a pretty big project, but one that I think I would learn a lot from, and would make an interesting video, I hope!

4. HOME & GARDEN
❖ do 3 things to reduce waste.
❖ do a Christmas in July and document it on my blog (and video too?).
❖ "complete" my house and garden (V) - this was pretty vague, but I did list a few concrete things in the video, two of which I've listed below:
❖ set up the shed (V) - install more shelving and organise everything to create an efficient storage space.
❖ hang all the paintings/pictures I have (V) - they're in a box taking up space in the hobby room at the moment, so it would clear out that space as well.

5. THE WORLD
❖ stay in contact with my family and friends more regularly.
❖ get a job or make some kind of income. Or maybe volunteer?
❖ show my art more on social media, both finished and in progress (V) - I'm learning how to make Instagram Reels so I can do that.
❖ seek out more opportunities to share my art in person (V) - e.g. try to go in two exhibitions (I already have one lined up!); make my art/craft available to buy.

6. ME
❖ consistent selfcare and skincare (V) - taking my tablets every day, drinking Yerba Mate every day, excercising regularly, and doing my stretching exercises for my arthritis consistently.
❖ drink water! (V)
❖ go for a "walk" (V) - not just an everyday walk, but a forest walk somewhere lovely. In the past I've set yearly walking distance goals, but my athritis is very unpredictable, so I'm hesitant to do that right now.
❖ get my ears pierced again and get another tattoo (V) - something I've been meaning to do for a while, but hopefully I'll be able to this year.

7. SPIRITUAL
❖ meditate daily - perhaps not daily, but at least have a regular practice.
❖ practice divination regularly
❖ continue my studies
❖do more magic!

BONUS: DOESN'T REALLY FIT ANYWHERE
❖ learn the Rubik's cube (V) - I can solve it using a cheatsheet, but I'd like to memorise it so I can impress people by solving it spontaneously (haha!).

My 2020 Planner

In 2019 I made a big change to how I use my planner. I shifted it online and started using Trello after I saw how it works at my old job. While Trello is excellent for managing projects, daily planning and to-do lists, I found it wasn't very good for future events, appointments, etc, so I decided to keep going with a paper diary for these things. I downsized from an A5 to A6 size diary because I don't need the extra space for to-dos and tracking anymore. I'm only using it for yearly holidays/festivals, birthdays, appointments, moon phases and similar things.

I purchased my planner from Typo this year, and the set-up isn't perfect, but it'll do. I wasn't as fussy about the set-up as in previous years as the planner will have more limited use. To be honest, I just bought the first one I saw with a cover that I even vaguely liked! It has the usual week-to-a-spread that I prefer. I don't really like the grey bands across the pages, and there were some other features I didn't like as well, but I ripped out some pages and glued other ones together until it suited me a bit better.

I decided not to decorate it as heavily with stickers and washi tapes, just adding a few accents. I stole re-purposed some of my favourite stickers from last year's diary (ones that I could lift up without ruining!), and used them to decorate it. I'll probably add more as the year goes on and if I feel like it.

I added a few inspirational quotes and thoughts I've had into the front, as I usually like to do:

Also the Indigenous seasonal calendar (though I accidentally pasted it in sideways, oops):

The mail order tracker I created a few years ago fits in just fine, thankfully. I only needed to chop off the bottom to make it fit the A6 size.

I did order a vinyl sticker to decorate the front but it hasn't arrived in the mail yet. I managed to peel the sticker off last year's diary and stick it to the back though. I like this sticker a lot; it's from Fox and Cactus.

Here's a page from last year's planner as a reminder. I still track most of these things, but on my Trello now.

My 2019 Planner

I really enjoyed having a proper planner last year, and I decided to continue the same. But which planner to get? I'm a bit fussy when it comes to the format -- no spiral bound, no ring bound -- which means none of the fancy planner 'systems' out there, like the Happy Planner, Erin Condren, etc. I decided that I may as well look at Smiggle again as my first option. Thankfully I was able to see images of the planners inside and out on their website, which saved me a trip to the shops, as the internal page layout has changed and I didn't like it. Which is a shame because the outer covers were glorious! This one being the most glorious of all:

The scenario was the same with Typo's planner and various other ones I looked at online. In fact, Erin Condren even has a hardback bookbound planner now, but it was a little expensive for me. (Australians pay 30% more for everything from overseas!) I was feeling desperate to secure my planner before the chance was gone (this was back in November, mind you!) so I decided to just go to my local shopping centre and look at the planners in person, hoping to find something that sparked joy.

Then the strangest thing happened. I bought a planner from the first shop I walked into, which happened to be Target. I wasn't even sure they'd be selling planners at all, but they had two Target-brand planners to choose from. I chose the sparkly pink one, of course:

I added the decal on the front; it's from Fox and Cactus, and the charm is from a stationery pack from Mockeri. And yes, I'm aware that the cover is almost the same as last year's:

I know that last year I questioned my choice of a planner that I can't whip out in job interviews, but my magpie-like attraction to shiny things kicked in and here we are! There was an insert with a sample page layout in the plastic wrapping, and it seemed fine, so I grabbed it. (More on that later!)

Fast forward a couple of months, and it was time to set up my planner for 2019! I'd been waiting for this day for a long time. When I opened the wrapping and had a good look at the inside, I was slightly perturbed. The page layout, while generally what I wanted, was a little perplexing. For some reason, Thursday has half the space of the rest of the days, while Saturday and Sunday -- which are often combined in the layout -- each have just as much space as the weekdays. Also, there's a monthly calendar for the current and next month on each page, which I really don't need. It's just taking up valuable space!

I'm a bit on the unicorn spectrum, so it took me quite a while to get my head around it. In fact, it took me nearly a whole day to set up my planner, I have to admit, what with the procrastinating and a couple of near meltdowns. But I did it:

The main layout change is the insert. I have an insert that I made up in Excel which lists my habit trackers, things I do every week etc. I glue this printout into each weekly page of my planner, to save me from having to write it all out fresh every week. Last week I stuck that in the top left corner, because nothing happens on Mondays anyway. For this year's planner, I thought I may as well stick it over the monthly calendars instead. It was hard to accept in my change-makes-me-freeze-up-and-freak-out brain, but logically it made the most sense. (Aside: I'm also currently re-designing the insert with some nice coloured icons and less stuff I don't do anymore, so future pages will look a little different.)

Suggested blog posts for the week are now in the top right corner instead of just under the insert where they were last year. (There's no room for anything under the insert now!) School tasks are moved to the left-hand side of Wednesdays (to remind me about Wizard Wednesdays!). To-dos are still on the right-hand side of each page -- boring stuff on the left side and more interesting/fun stuff on the right side. I've tried to represent more tasks visually with stickers and circles to colour in, because that's fun.

As for the rest of the planner, I went through and decorated some of the future pages with washi tapes and stickers, especially the significant dates (more decoration to follow, of course!):

I added some of the extra pages as I did last year, using some printables that I bought previously. These are pages where I can write down ideas, etc when I'm out-and-about:

Finally something a little new -- I added some information about different calendars that I'm interested in following:

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking with me until the end of this mega-detailed planner post! I've become a bit of a planner nerd in the last few years, and perhaps fellow planner nerds may find it interesting. More about my sticker obsession is coming up soon!

Hello 2019

2019 feels like a really different year for me. I have no idea what's going to happen. My job finished up at the end of last year and I don't know what the next one will be like. The agency I go through (a specialist records management and archiving agency) has a different representative, and I don't know what kind of jobs he's going to pass my way.

In my other world, too, things are new. I have my first solo art exhibition booked in, in May. Will I get my art project done on time? Will I pull it off? Will it lead to greater public recognition? I really have no idea, but there's only one way to find out!

Usually at this time of year I'm very focussed on making goals and setting resolutions, but I've started to find it a bit overwhelming. I had my Life Square, which I wrote about last year, and my 7 Subject system, which is 6-monthly and follows the seasons. Not to mention my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list! I decided to combine the first two and keep the seasonal format. This means that the cycle is halfway through when New Year hits (as it runs from Spring Equinox to Autumn Equinox), so there's nothing for me to do, resolution-wise.

It feels a bit strange though, not doing something I've done for so many years. I'm already immersed in the middle of my goals, rather than diving into something fresh. I keep catching myself thinking, "this year, I want to ..." And there's nothing wrong with that, of course. I just don't want to fall into the trap of piling up more and more goals onto my plate until they're impossible to achieve.

So, instead, I thought I might play a little game. I call it More and Less. It is a game, mind you, not something to stress over, or to 'win' or 'lose'. This year I want to:

✷ read more ; play games less
✷ create more ; watch less
✷ eat more vegetables ; eat less sugar
✷ do more ; worry less

End of 101 Things in 1,001 Days

A couple of days ago, I finished my first 101 Things in 1,001 Days. Like with many things, the last two-and-three-quarter years has seemed like a very long time and also hardly any time at all. My life has changed tremendously since it began, but I'll save that for another blog post.

I ended up finishing 35 things on the list -- approximately one-third. And that's even with reviewing the list every 6 months to take out things I was no longer interested in and adding in new ones. I'm trying not to see it as a dismal failure rate, but in just that it just reflects my personality as a person loves novelty and whose interests can change pretty quickly. I also have a feeling it probably says a lot about the lack of time and energy I have to devote to my hobbies. Perhaps the experience will give me motivation to look at the way I spend my spare time.

I always knew that I'd start a second 1,001 Days well before I finished the first one. I love the concept of (slightly!) longer term planning. Sometimes I want to plan further ahead than a year, but 5 years is a bit too long and daunting! A time period about half that length just seems right to me. I rolled over some of the things I'd completed and enjoyed from my last list. I also re-added others that I didn't complete, because I'm still interested in doing them. Others are new.


Here's the full list (there's also a tab at the top of my blog), and here are a couple of the highlights:

✦ finish KonMariing my house -- well, it's still not finished, even after 2.75 years ... a little outside of the 6 months that KonMari recommends! But I'm determined to finish one day.

✦ write a "reverse bucket list" -- as much as I hate the term bucket list, I think it's a good idea to remind myself of the things I've achieved so far in my life, big and small.

✦ hang all my art -- this was uncompleted from my last list, but it's important to me. Tara Leaver recommends hanging your own art in your studio to help inspire you, and it just makes sense to decorate the house with it instead of it sitting stacked up in a corner somewhere.

✦ watch 50 new movies -- I finished this one way early too, and now that we have Netflix, Husband and I watch a lot more movies. So I've increased it from 30 to 50.

✦ go to 15 art/craft exhibitions -- increased from 10 on the last list.

✦ create a gluten-free flour mix for bread -- I've been meaning to do this for a while. Gluten-free flour mixes are available from my local supermarkets, but they're expensive and only come in small packages. I want to experiment with different blends until I can make the perfect bread. (And perhaps pizza dough, cakes and biscuits too!) Since I've been unable to eat gluten, I've baked a lot less and I've missed it. This item will be a great excuse to take it up again.

✦ have a Harry Potter themed feast -- because who wouldn't want to do that?

✦ write 30 reviews on my blogs -- this item was a lot of fun, and I finished it about a year early last time, so I've increased it from 20 to 30.

✦ read A Christmas Carol every Christmas -- I had this on my list to do once, and I loved it so much that I've decided to do it every year. The message of goodwill and generosity in the book is so wonderful that I want to remind myself of it regularly.

✦ learn 5 songs on ocarina -- I didn't have any music-related items on my old list, as I only took up playing the ocarina late last year. I've been sadly slack with my practice and would really like some motivation to do it more regularly.

My 2018 Planner

For a few years, I had a two-planner system, where I had a small pre-printed planner, plus a notebook for my to-do list and habit tracker. I wrote in detail how this system worked here. Last year, I got sick of carrying around two planners, so I ditched the dated planner and just had the notebook. As I completed each week, I would rip out the page for the previous week and discard it.

Left: 2017 notebook planner ; Right: 2018 Smiggle planner

In lieu of the planner, I made a print-out of all my important dates for the year, and wrote down appointments on it as they came up. At the start of each week, I referred to the print-out and wrote down any events for the week on the current week's notebook page. As you can see, it got very messy and not very aesthetically pleasing to look at:

Speaking of ugly planners, I was always hesitant to decorate the pages too much, knowing I'd throw them away in a week's time. I felt like I was 'wasting' any stickers or washi tapes that I put on them.

On a slightly more serious note: I also had no way of tracking how long a task had been on my to-do list. If there were any undone tasks at the end of the week, I would copy them into next week, or, if there were a lot, cut out that section of the page and stick it on. I had no idea how long some of the tasks had been on the list -- the system was missing a sense of accountability. Sometimes, if I was having a bad chronic illness week and hadn't done much, I would even re-use the same page for a second week. This made me feel better about not getting much done, but it also had the effect of not being able to plan in advance -- I didn't know which page to write future tasks or events on because they weren't dated and could vary. So, my planning was very flexible, but had some large drawbacks.


Then one day back in November, I was in Smiggle (a stationery and accessories shop for pre-teens ... and me!) and saw their new range of 2018 planners. I bought one on impulse, deciding then and there to go back to a proper planner for 2018. After months of waiting, I was finally able to start setting it up on New Year's Day! (I was going to start on New Year's Eve, but I had a sudden urge to clean and tidy the house, and I don't want to deny that urge when it happens!)

It took me a surprisingly long time to set up my planner -- writing in event dates and birthdays, decorating the first few weeks in advance, and glueing in printables to cover up the pages I wasn't going to use. I also added in a list of my goals for the year, and some inspirational sayings. Then of course I had to go through my whole sticker collection, dividing them up into a Planner set and a Hobonichi set. Then I had to prepare some washi tapes and decided to re-arrange my whole washi tape collection, too.

While the Smiggle planner is a lot of fun, if I had thought about it more, I would probably have chosen a different one. All of the coloured pictures you see on the pages are stickers or printables I've added -- all of the artwork in the planner is monochrome, which surprisingly isn't in keeping with Smiggle's colourful reputation. The paper is quite thin: felt-tip pens bleed through, and ballpoint pens leave an imprint. I'm not so worried about that though, as I can always cover them up on the other side with a sticker. The glitter cover, while awesome, means that I can't really whip it out during a job interview!

I'm already enjoying having a combined planner. Planning ahead is easier, and decorating with lots of stickers and washi tapes is fun. I hope that will be reflected in an organised and fun year in 2018.

Hello 2018

At the start of every year, I decide that I'm NOT going to make any New Year's resolutions, but I can't help feeling a niggling urge to overhaul my entire life. In the last few weeks, I've watched so many YouTube videos on how to set goals and keep them, that my head is swimming!

While I avoid making resolutions, I'm increasingly embracing making goals each year. I decided to go with the same system as last year, that is, structure my goals around my Life Square. It helps me to think about all the areas of my life and how I want to change or improve them:

I chose three goals for each section of the square, which is a lot! For some reason though, I like the numbers 3 and 9, and it just seemed right. I made sure to choose some that were one-offs or relatively small, to try and give myself a better chance of achieving them. Unlike last year, I'm going to show you all of them! in the spirit of my goal last year of sharing more on the blog, which is something I'd like to continue:

A new thing this year was that I used divination to help me decide on the goals for each section. I wrote a post about the rune casting I did for that on my other blog here. The very first thing I did after setting the goals was decide which ones I was going to start on straight away, and which ones were for later. Then I wrote a list of between 1-3 actions that are the first steps towards achieving each goal.

I'm not a very ambitious person and used to shudder whenever I even heard the word 'goals', but I guess I'm more organised than I give myself credit for. There are things I want to do in my life, so why not plan them out? Perhaps I might even add a goals check-in to my monthly update post this year.

Speaking of plans, in the next post I'll be showing you my 2018 planner!

2017 Goals - How Did I Do?

At the start of this year, I sat down to work out my goals for the year, as many people do. For the last two years, I've been categorising them by areas of my life, according to this grid:

I didn't share all of the goals I set myself, as most of them were quite boring ("review my health insurance") and a couple too private (though I think I'm more open now than I was a year ago). Looking back on my goals, I completed about a third of them to my satisfaction. Despite knowing better, once again, I set some that were vague and hard to measure (e.g. "plan a regular yoga practice"), so it's hard to say whether I achieved them or not.

Goals I felt I did well included:

✦ spend more time outside -- the place where I'm working at the moment has a huge park right next door, so I spend every lunchtime outside for an hour. It's wonderful!
✦ See if my sewing machine still works -- I did, and it does! I used it to finish one small project, but didn't have a chance to sew anything bigger.
✦ Share more on the blog -- I didn't write as many posts, but I wrote more personal ones, and that was important to me.
✦ Continue my rune studies and other spiritual pursuits -- I did a daily rune reading most days, longer readings once a month, and in July I also enrolled in the Grey School of Wizardry. While my studies are going very slowly, it's given me a chance to interact with teachers and other students in the forums, and expose myself to other points of view.

Goals I failed completely included:

✦ Finish Kon-mari'ing my house -- it's a much bigger job than I anticipated, and working 6 days a week didn't give me much time or energy to dedicate to it. Plus, I slipped back into impulse shopping several times and acquired more stuff that I had to deal with. I will do better next year!
✦ Re-open my online shop -- This just became less of a priority for me as the year went on.
✦ Research herbalism -- My track record on growing herbs is extremely poor: they always die before I can harvest anything, and this was very discouraging. I would still like to work with herbs, but I might need to content myself with buying them instead of growing them myself.

In the end, I concentrated more consistently on the activities in my 101 Things in 1,001 Days list than on my yearly goals. I'm not sure if this was because they were things I'd rather do, or the new goals just added too much on top. Nevertheless, I'd still like to set goals for 2018 as it helps me to stay positive if I'm planning my life and have things to look forward to.

In a few days, I'll update you on how my year went in general.

Hello Spring!

This is the second in my experimental series of posts greeting the seasons, the first being Hello Autumn last April. (Oops, I forgot to say hello to Winter. I'm not going to apologise or feel bad for not being consistent. I suspect I probably have Seasonal Affective Disorder but I'll write about that another time.)

Spring comes early in Australia. We first feel its effects in the middle of August, when cold days are interpersed with a sprinkling of sunny ones, with a hint of a warm breeze wafting the scent of magnolia through the air. By the end of August, the wattles are in full bloom, buds are starting to appear on the fruit trees, and bright green new leaves are peeking out everywhere.

What things am I looking forward to in Spring?

flowers
While we are lucky enough to get some flowers throughout most of the year (with the height of Summer probably being the exception), Spring is the time when the flowers are most plentiful and beautiful.

I also love the wildflowers that grow on infrequently mowed lawns throughout the neighbourhood -- and yes, that includes ours!

working with plants
Spring is the time to re-pot potted plants, and plant new things outside. My succulents have really taken off and most either need to be transferred to larger pots or divided up into even more new little friends.

baby birds
This photo isn't the best, but it shows one spot under the eaves where doves nest every Spring. Every year there has been at least one bird come into being and grow up in this spot. It makes me proud!

pastels
Wearing them, decorating with them -- just having them everywhere!

Not my table, unfortunately!
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Not my bedroom, unfortunately!
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Spring treasure box
This time I chose a pink Lavshuca eyeshadow, a floral scrunchie, and quince-flavoured tea from Daiso. A cute comb to replace the boring old one in my backpack kit. There's also a Spring-themed pond decoration for my bedroom, but I've had it for several years and a few bits have fallen off, so I'll probably spruce it up a bit.

events
Aside from the Spring Equinox, there are the Marimo Festival on 8th-10th October, which I celebrated a couple of years ago. Later is Halloween / Samhain / Dias de Muertos, and the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in November.

and another thing
I've decided to try another experiment, this time inspired by a small challenge we were set at school. We were asked to make a list of goals for the next term (terms run for 6 months from equinox to equinox). It was quite an easy challenge to do, but it got me thinking about that sort of thing. The end of my first 101 Things in 1,001 Days is in June next year -- that's only 9 months away! Plus there are all the other things I want to do in my life, too. I need something to motivate me that's a bit more short term. 6 months is a good time period to think about doing things school-wise. In the spirit of the Slow Time course I'm doing at the moment, I like the idea of having each season as a natural time division. 3 months seems more realistic than 6 months, but less scary than 1 month! I'm still thinking about how this will look. Having goals that tune into the seasons really appeals to me, though.

That reminds me, I've been meaning to write a post about how there are 6 seasons in South-Eastern Australia. Or even 7 according to one Indigenous culture. This could get messy!

In Progress: Top 5 Craft Projects

One of my resolutions this year was to do more crafts. I have a huge number of craft projects in progress -- 52! (Or even 56 depending on what I classify as a craft.) Even to me, that seems incredibly high, but I practice many different crafts, from crochet and knitting through to hama beads and embroidery. I realised that I had quite a few I'm never going to finish, for various reasons. I didn't like the colours anymore, or the little person it was for had outgrown it, or it just didn't pique my interest anymore.

Back in December, I decided to cull 12 projects. That would bring it down to 40, which is still high, but not quite as bad! It wasn't as hard to choose as I thought it would be. I have all of my craft projects listed on a spreadsheet, which is incredibly handy because it would take me hours if I'd had to sight each one physically, digging through boxes and tubs. Some of the projects I culled were:

✖ a baby blanket with squares that puckered
✖ a scarf I didn't like the colours of anymore. Also it was supposed to replace one I'd made years ago which is getting a bit ratty, but which I still wear. (Also, I'd rather put my energy into making a Hufflepuff scarf instead.)
✖ a scarf for my Lammily doll, though I might re-work it one day
✖ a sewn handbag which I can't find anymore. I already have a lot of handbags anyway.
✖ an experimental monster plushie which I didn't like the way it was turning out. I tried knitting it, but I've decided I prefer crocheting them.

Once that was done, my craftload seemed much more manageable and I felt lighter. However, deciding which project to work on in any given session was still a bit overwhelming. So I made a Top 5 Projects list. It includes some small projects that I can finish quickly for (almost) instant gratification, plus some larger projects that I want to have finished sooner or later. I collected them all together in my craft basket in the lounge room for easy access. Here's the Top 5:

1. Pink Flower Cushion
I bought a flower loom a while back and made this flower while learning to use it. I didn't want to waste it, but didn't know what to do with it for a long time. The obvious solution was a hair deco, but the colour doesn't work for me. I finally had the idea of making a doll floor cushion and sewing the flower to the front.

2. Polka Dot Coathangers
My dream is to have nothing but nice coathangers in my wardrobe. For some reason I always make them in sets of 3, because it seems easier to make them in batches, but also because I like the idea of matching ones. I had nearly finished knitting the second one when I found a third one I'd started ages ago which is sort of polkadotty, so the project is even further along than I'd thought.

3. Travel Bunny
It's a small, simple bunny that I'm going to make into a trackable. The method of turning it from a plain square into a bunny seems quite clever. I'll explain further in a future post. To finish it, I'll have to find the website with the instructions again...

4. Swedish Christmas Shawl
I call this the Swedish Christmas shawl because it was inspired by the shawl a girl was wearing in a TV ad comparing Australian Christmas to Swedish Christmas. The pattern is just a simple straight granny stitch, so it's good for mindless crocheting. It's incredibly long though, and I think it will take quite some time to finish.

5. Granny Land Blanket
I always have at least one blanket or afghan in progress. This one was inspired by Pinterest and I want to make it large enough to really snuggle under in Winter. I haven't thought about how I'm going to join the squares yet, but there are plenty of methods to choose from. The internet is a wonderful thing!