Yes, I know I’m a day late; maybe even two days late by the time I get this published! but well… I’m a bit busy right now. All will become clear in my next post 
So it’s the end of the year, and I’m looking back on my year of sewing and blogging. First up, I’m posting some of my favourite pictures for the year, one per month…
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
So. It’s been a strange year; I dare say a BIG year for everyone. One of the happier big things in my own year was of course Cassie’s wedding in March, the preparations for which brought us much happiness and excitement, although the last week was tinged with growing uncertainty as we didn’t know whether the gradually impending threat of covid would cause problems… it was such a weird time and no one knew what to expect! With incredible good fortune, everything went ahead and only one week later lockdown restrictions were imposed that would have made the wedding impossible. So, MAJOR stress at the time, but ultimately a very happy and extremely lucky outcome! I wrote more details addressing this subject and how we handled it at the time in this post here…
I want to say too that I was very pleased for our government’s swift action that has definitely saved us from the virus all this year, and was more than happy for Perth to have a strict lockdown just to make sure. We were in lockdown for basically all of April and extended well into May, and I have to say my sewing output reflected the general level of anxiety that I had at the time. In fact I think that like everyone, my anxiety kept me from being productive in just about every aspect of my life! but honestly I have no complaints. I’m just grateful to be here, to live in a place that took the virus seriously and a government that had our safety and truly our best interests at heart, and acted accordingly. I truly feel like I live in the absolute best place in the world right now. I’m so very grateful.
The other huge thing I’m grateful for is the arrival of our darling first grandchild, Arthur. He is an absolute joy and delight. and we are all totally in love with this precious human being. And Cassie is expecting! I can hardy wait to meet her little bunny!
But ok, now on with my sewing! I might have had a crisis of confidence and motivation, but I did manage to keep making things! I kept up with my planned “make 12” and saw it through, even if once or twice that thing for the month was my only thing for the month! My picture for May above was a kind of lockdown game in which you gathered all the things in your house you could find in your favourite colour. It’s downright embarrassing how many red things I’ve accumulated!
What did I make?? well, I managed 91 things this year… 91! I’m shocked because honestly could have sworn I made hardly anything apart from a wedding dress! Anyway, the breakdown is: for me; 15 dresses, 2 coats, 6 skirts, 8 tops, 3 sets of lingerie, 1 pr of shoes, 7 sockettes, 1 knitted jumper, 2 hats, 1 pr trousers, 1 hoodie and 1 raincoat. For Cassie; the aforementioned wedding dress! including 3 separate petticoats, 2 tops, 1 skirt, 1 pr shorts, 3 maternity dresses; for my nieces, 3 bridesmaids dress, and 1 dress for Mum. For babies; 6 onesies, 6 blankies, 1 huge “texture” quilt, 1 knitted beanie and 1 baby swing. For Craig’s Mum; 7 masks and 1 bag. Oh and I also made 27 kangaroo pouches, that I’m not including in the total of 91 things. Aaaad.. I also made another sewing pattern?! It hasn’t been released yet but will be very very soon. Maybe even… tomorrow?! Ooh, did I just spill the beans in a big way! I’ve wanted to make more patterns for ages but sewing wedding dresses took precedent in the last two years.
Favourite makes of the year? hehe, obviously Cassie’s wedding dress! and I also really loved the girls’ bridesmaids’ dresses and my own mother of the bride dress too.
My most worn items for this year…?
I love most of these things pictured, but not all of them, strangely. I think during lockdown and the subsequent many many days of not going out by my own choice, I took up the habit of wearing daggy things that weren’t my favourites, simply because I wasn’t going out and didn’t need to “dress up”. I’ve decided this is very very silly and I’m going to only wear things I absolutely love from now on. yolo!
In other stuff, I fulfilled a long-held fantasy and took up learning a language! I chose Japanese because I love Japan, would love to visit again some day – although that might be a pipe dream! and I love the visual appearance of the language and kanji. I also felt in the need of a mental challenge. And boy, has it been a challenge! But I’m pretty thrilled I made it into the top 1% on the duo lingo app. Who me, competitive? Oooh, I never #TOTALLYcompetitive I also managed to top the platinum league, one crazy intensive week in which I did virtually nothing but study Japanese. Hmmm, did I mention… competitive?? #dirtyword
It says I studied French but i actually only did a few days dabbling in that, and the one other language was Celtic, which I eventually decided was just too hard to extend my brain to that AND Japanese. I’d still like to learn Celtic one day because it is my heritage after all, but I think that can wait until I’ve got a bit further in Japanese.
So what does 2021 bring for us all… much better times, I hope! and a world that can come together again and regain trust and health as soon as possible. I know this takes time, and maybe the world will never go back to the way things were. Every now and then I wonder if this is the start of a completely different world and what if something else unexpected is lurking just out of sight around the next corner? But really, we can’t dwell on the uncertainty too much, just keep on keeping on, chin up and continue doing the best for the important people in our lives. I just hope the worst is behind us. And that good times are ahead. And mostly that the vaccine WORKS!
Thank you so much to everyone who takes the time to read this silly blog, and even to leave a kind comment or two. I really really appreciate everyone who does. I hope the year brings you all much happiness and joy, good health, peaceful thoughts, appreciation of our home towns, and making many delightful memories with the important people in your life. Cheers!!
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