Start the New Year Fresh

I'm enjoying dusting off the dust and dirt from 2014 and embracing a fresh start to 2015!  I've decided this year I want to spend more time enjoying life and enjoying things I like to do.......  I will still be required to work outside the home in order to try getting our mortgage paid off (retirement would be rather good, particularly for my DH who is 14yrs older than me and I see the daily work grind beginning to wear on him).  But apart from that and the travel time involved in living in the country - it would be nice to not spend most of my "time off" cleaning house and pulling weeds!!

So yep, you guessed it......  I'm busy moving furniture into new places, decluttering and still there is M O R E  stuff ....... at some point I might get through it all, but for now I'm concentrating on the kitchen, dining and lounge room areas.  It really is nice to see some clear spots!

As for the garden ...... well, I love to enjoy the garden - the smells, the produce, the flowers and the birds, insects and critters it brings.  See the lovely crop of white nectarines and apricots we picked yesterday?  I've been busy making more apricot jam again this morning - all up I've used 5kgs of Apricots to make up the jam which should last us the whole year.  
The garden's a lovely place to sit and read, or stitch  or write a letter - when its under control.   But when it's been neglected for just a couple of weeks (like the past few where we just couldn't get out to it)...... well, let me tell you, there is grass and weeds growing like crazy and well out of control in some areas!!   So this means that part of the yard will be getting a makeover as well - that's still on the drawing board, but I'm looking for lower maintenance and something that can handle us being away for a couple of weeks here and there.

Naturally I'm looking for extra time so I can spend it in the cabin knitting and sewing.  In 2014 I took part in OPAM - a fantastic way of keeping track of just what things you get made up during the year and my total for 2014 was  48 items from dishcloths and ornaments to knitted adult sized jumpers and an afghan (6 knitted, 29 crocheted  and 13 sewn objects).  

Some of the knitted and crocheted items

 It appears my best month was January (no doubt because all the various family crisis had barely started then!) and the months of Feb, March, August and October saw no items completed.   I look forward to improving on that this year as I have quite a bit of stash I'd like to reduce and UFO's that need completing.
Right now, I've started on a tee shirt that I'm knitting up in some Wollmeiser Yarn in the Ballerina shade which is a blend of purples.  I have quite a knitting and sewing queue of items I'd like to get made up!!  

I do hope you have had time to reflect on what you would like to achieve this year.........  I'm off now to do some knitting.....
Hugs Sharm