happy 2016!

Happy brand spankin' New Year to all of you!

I know I've said it on here before, probably every single new year that I've been writing my blog (which would make 8 times if you're the counting type), I LOVE a NEW YEAR!  I love the clean slate, the fresh start, the possibility, the potential, the excitement of what's to come.  I love the chance to become better, to do more, to dream bigger.

Here's a little peek at my preliminary plans for this year via some excerpts from my planner.

Resolutions

I know many people don't believe in setting resolutions.  I love setting goals for a new year.  They help me focus on what's important.  And writing them down helps me to check in and see how I'm doing as the year progresses and add to the list as I need to. Even as I am writing this, I have added more goals to this list. 

Free Resolution printable found at Life with My Littles.  I used Photoshop to change the year to 2016 or get her 2016 one here.

 One Little Word

My One Little Word for this year is B R A V E.  Well, Be Brave actually, but that's 2 words and it feels like cheating.  

 This little bit of word art was created with the Studio app (still my favorite for graphic design work).

This year I will  B E . B R A V E
to do hard things
to take chances
to risk failing
to love deeper
to connect more
to be confident
to take care of myself

Life takes courage.
This year I want to focus on confronting challenges and overcoming fears.  No, I won't be doing any skydiving or bungee jumping in 2016 (at least not that I know of).
But I will be working to silent the voices that whisper: you can't do that, you're not good enough, you're going to fall flat on your face. I want to gather the confidence to DO and maybe conquer, but at the very least stand tall and say, "I'll try."


Each month, I will be choosing an area of my life in which to BE.brave
confidence | love | connections | creativity | learning | self care

30 Day Challenges

Each month, I will be giving myself a little challenge, something measurable that I can do daily.  I am all about habit energy and want to use this year to establish some good habits, if only for a month!

wash my face each night | run a mile a day | crochet, read, write for 30 minutes | post on IG | clean out something

Unfortunately, I can't locate this printable that I had altered, but you can find several similar ones by searching "important dates printable" on Pinterest.

And I can keep track of each day on this cute little rainbow colored checklist for the year!

Free printable from Miss Tina

You can find many other fun printables for your planners on my Pinterest board

Follow Life Made Creations's board i♥ DAY.PLANNERS on Pinterest.

Crochet

This year is dedicated to finishing my crochet WIP's.  I recently went through my unfinished projects and crazily have enough to work on one (and even 2) each month for all of 2016.  I also need to finish up this gorgeous blanket 

as well as my 12" granny blanket from 2015.
I am forcing myself to finish each month's WIP before beginning another crochet project.  Crossing my fingers that I will end 2016 with at least 12 completed crochet makes!

So that's it: my hopes, dream, plans, goals, bravery to make 2016 one of my best years yet!

Thanks so much for stopping by and I would love to hear what you guys have planned for this year!

Happy New Year!

granny blanket : velvet & lace + mistletoe

Hey there!

Remember me?  The girl who's been working on a 12" granny square blanket since January?  I'm back with two more squares, and am admittedly feeling a bit relieved that next week is the last square before joining {breathing a little sigh of relief}.  Big projects are often like that, aren't they?  They begin with a burst of excitement and anticipation and then, by the end, teeter off with exhaustion (at least that's how this one feels for me).

WEEK FORTY EIGHT || Velvet & Lace

by Priscilla Hewitt

WEEK FORTY NINE || Mistletoe

by April Moreland

granny blanket : fountain of roses

Hey, hey, hey!

I was really hoping to get this post up on Monday, and then it was Tuesday, and well, the week got away from me from there.  But better late than never, right?  And we are quickly approaching the end of our square patterns and it will soon be time to begin the daunting super fun task of joining 50 squares!

WEEK 47 || Fountain of Roses

by Shan Sevcik

This is such a pretty square.  I love the center clustered flower, and the way it poofs up when you stitch the backside.  I wish my square had more room for the beautiful roses around the outside.  Lots of interesting combinations of stitches here!

crochet : christmas baubles

Hello, friends!  Thanks so much for popping in.  

Yesterday, here in the States, we observed Veterans' Day to honor the people who serve in courage to protect our country and freedoms that we so often take for granted.  I spent the mid-week day off from work hooking up some Christmas baubles.

They are super fun to make and work up fairly quickly.  I am excited to make bunches of baubles to give as gifts this holiday season.  

If you would like to hook up some of your own, I am happy to share the pattern with you:

Materials: size F hook, dk weight yarn (or light weight worsted), 3" glass or plastic ornament bulbs

Finish each round with a slip stitch join and fasten off.

round 1: in a magic circle, ch3, 11dc {12dc}

round 2: working between each dc from round 1 (not in top of stitch) work 1 hdc, ch1around {12 hdc, 12 ch1 spaces}

round 3: 3dc cluster, ch 1 in each ch1 space. (YO, insert hook in space, pull up loop, YO, pull through 2 loops, repeat 3 times, then YO pull through all 4 loops) {12 3dccl, 12 ch1 spaces}

round 4: sc in each of the 2 stitches of the clusters (the large stitch of the cluster & the chain stitch), dc in space between stitches {24 sc, 12 dc}

round 5: dc in each of the 2 sc from rnd 4, ch1 sk dc (24 dc, 12 ch1 spaces}

round 6: 2hdc in ch spaces, 1hdc between 2dc from rnd 5 {36 hdc)

Make 2 and don't fasten off the final round of the second medallion.  Weave in all ends.  

Place the two sides together, right sides facing out, and slip stitch all the way around to join.  Go around about 3/4 of the way, insert the bulb and continue slip stitch joining.  

I gave a full tutorial on Periscope and the replay from Katch is embedded below.

You can check out the rest of my crafty Scopes at Katch.

Join me on Periscope for more crafty scoping fun!

granny blanket : chocolate delight

Good Monday Morning!

Holy smokes!  I'm on time with this week's square!

{and I ordered our Christmas cards this weekend!}

I think I've been abducted by aliens.  This is on not like me!  But I like it.

On to this week's square:

WEEK FORTY SIX || Chocolate Delight

by Dayna Audirsch

Have a wonderful week!