I’m hoping to be back blogging again next monday – 8th February – which, even for a month of only 28 days, is still early February really.

In the meantime, here is a picture of my one of my favourite winter things – flowering witch hazel. I recommend finding some and having a good sniff – they smell wonderful. (Tip – If it’s really cold you need to blow on them first.)

I don’t want to stop things while the posts are coming thick and fast but I have a major website building deadline for the end of this month, and general life, plus the snow, plus the fever/throat virus I got last week means that I really need to step away from the internet and get the site properly out the door.

I’ll be back in early February. Have fun!

(ps. The Shop will remain open, just so you know.)

Before I start documenting my hopes for 2010 it seems important to write down what I achieved in 2009:

• I learnt a HUGE amount about how I want to parent*, and both W and I worked hard to bring as much balance as we could to our lives
• I gave up caffeine and I have to say I feel a lot better for it (though I wouldn’t push it onto anyone else, given that basically what I was giving up was caffeinated fizzy drinks, since I already don’t drink tea or coffee.) Basically though, it’s made it much easier to function on less sleep, as counter-intuitive as that might sound
• I also swapped out pretty much all of my toiletries for more natural alternatives. I carried on with the bicarb and cider vinegar hair care, and made myself some face oil from Make Your Place (a SUPERB book), which has replaced my moisturizer, and which is working brilliantly
• I managed to keep both businesses going (just about) despite finding working from home with a baby really hard. Hopefully – given that we have a few weeks for respite** from the house stuff – I should be able to get some more dyeing done and get more stock into the shop very soon (there is already some stock waiting in the wings that needs adding.)
• I had my first pattern published which was exciting
• I managed to sneak ‘properly getting to grips with crochet’*** in at the eleventh hour (or rather, mid-december), which has opened up another avenue of fibre related fun
• I tried to make more food from scratch, and have cut back our processed food a great deal. That’s an on going thing to be honest, but having made bagels and barley sugars**** (amongst others) this year I’m exciting to continue making not buying wherever I can

Of course (just in case you’re thinking – yeah we get it Goody-Two-Shoes!)  it was also a year of worrying fevers, and sudden sleepless nights when we least expected it. And as I’ve mentioned here before, my grandmother died in October, and though she got the life and death she wanted, she’s still very much missed. I was rubbish at keeping in touch with people (something I’m planning to work on this year), and bit off more than I could chew a few times. Also househunting is horrible.

But all in all a very exciting year.

I’ll be back on Monday with my hopes for 2010.

*Incase you’re wondering I’ll pin my colours to the mast, for what they’re worth – attachment parenting, baby wearing, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, cloth nappies, baby led weaning, unconditional. I’m also getting really interested in Waldorf family life. (I didn’t know I would feel like this when I was pregnant. But I feel it now that FB is here.)

**Or at least I REALLY REALLY hope we’re getting a few weeks respite. Let’s just say that I try to have hope but we are only part of the way through the process. Let’s see what the next few weeks bring.

*** which deserves it’s own post. *adds to the list*

**** W points out they aren’t really be barley sugars since they don’t have barley in them. FACT.

Where was I?

I wasn’t intending to disappear like that. Life just got in the way a bit.

There have been colds (due to first birthday parties), a special first birthday of our own to organise, the wobbly steps in that special place between cruising furniture and learning to walk, visits from dear friends, work deadlines and trying to sell our house.

A wonderful mix of exciting and stressful.

Unfortunately it’s not over yet* but there is yarn to go into the shop, a couple of finished objects to show you, and a few things to enthuse about so I’m planning to be less quiet over the next couple of weeks.

(*The house thing feels like it will never be over – though I keep telling myself ‘ a year from now I will feel differently.’ I remember telling myself that this time last year, two days after my due date, waddling through the longest week ever.)

Oxford Kitchen Yarns Sock Weight: Antique Ribbon

(Note this yarn is a darker pink than the candyfloss.)