How’s your February been thus far? Mine? It’s been busy but it’s hard to pinpoint what it’s been busy with. I feel like I’ve been running here and there but not really accomplishing any one thing, really. I certainly haven’t been stopping to smell the roses, even if there were roses to smell. I haven’t picked up my camera in weeks! I take it with me still and occasionally snap a photo here and there but I’m feeling pretty uninspired lately. With everything. I think it’s because I’ve been so busy running that when I have some down time I’m feeling pretty brain dead and just can’t focus or find the energy to create. But I’ll catch you up on what I have been doing!
Although I haven’t had the extra energy to create a lot this month, I have had some fun times creating new things. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but I started a knitting and crochet group at my local library. It’s been a slow start, but it’s also been winter and that’s also a slow, but busy, time for everyone. Anyway, I was thinking about canceling the weekday session since the past 2 months haven’t been well attended. But then this past week we had more people! I’m really excited about that! So we’ll keep on keeping on with it. We get a lot of people who want to learn to knit. I’m really excited about that too. I love that people want to learn a new skill and are so interested in knitting. Maybe I’ll have one of the crocheters teach me to crochet. Right now I spend the group time helping the new knitters. I love sharing my (limited) knowledge with others as well.
Speaking of my little local library, I also started a milk delivery/pick up point there. There’s a farm about 45 minutes away that is a certified raw milk producer (yes, yes, I know I’ve talked about this a lot). That’s going really well. We keep adding people to the delivery so I think it’s been really successful so far. I’m excited to be supporting a local farm and drinking raw milk too. I make yogurt every week and it is so yummy. Nice and thick and creamy! And I know exactly what is in my yogurt. When I get an extra minute I want to get a gallon of raw goat milk again and make some cheese. I was able to put about a half gallon of goat milk in the freezer for future use (I’m thinking soap making).
Still speaking of my local library I made that cute mason jar holder at their monthly make-and-take. Well, not the holder, that was already done. I painted and decorated the jars and picked out a coordinating holder. I loved this project. I don’t think I have a very creative side so I was happy to let what little creativity I have take over. It just flowed. It was fun. Next month we are decorating a pre-cut wooden rabbit with fabric. I’m already thinking about how I want to decorate it!
Moving on from my library (did you know that your library has so much to offer?!?! I bet you did!). I took a cookie decorating class. The cookies above are the ones done by the instructor. I’ve also signed up for a cake decorating class in March. I think that’s the only thing I’ve signed up for in March. I need a bit of a break from running and doing (well, I’ll still do my monthly classes–knitting group and make-and-take but I don’t want to add anything else). Plus it’s maple syrup season and that takes up a lot of my time. And it’s a good thing it’s that time of the year because I’m getting very low on last year’s stash.
And we set up a new budget which I plan on doing a blog post on. This was our first 2 weeks of being on the budget so I’ll update you all after our next payday.
Oh and speaking of budgets and money. I started darning all my poor, poor neglected socks! Once upon a time I bought some very yummy socks. But through the years I’ve worn holes in them but still wear them. Instead of throwing them out and buying new socks that might not be as durable, warm, etc, I taught myself to darn them. They’re not pretty, and I’m definitely learning as I go, but they are darned. And I’m being resourceful and frugal, so there’s a check in those boxes.
I did find the time yesterday morning before work to make yogurt, put some pie filling in the freezer, make granola, and make some cookies. And let’s be honest I did make a pie this month! You can read more about that here. But back to the cookies. I wanted to make oatmeal raisin cookies for work since I haven’t made any cookies at all this semester (for them. I did make some for the Mister and for a bake sale at the infamous library mentioned above, but nothing for work) and I also wanted to try a new cookie type and I had just had oatmeal raisin, yum, so I thought why not? I have everything I need so let’s do it. But when I went to get my raisins they were moldy! Yuck! I’ve never had that happen. I store them in a mason jar, which I’ve done numerous times before, but this has never happened. So I threw them out and thought “I have cranberries! Who doesn’t like a good oatmeal cranberry cookie”? That’s a thing right? Another tick in the box of ‘make do and use what you have’. And I think they were a hit!
And I just had to add the pic of the hat above. It’s listed in my shop and it’s probably my favorite hat I’ve made to date. I’m currently working on several knitted products and hopefully will get them done and listed in the shop in the next few weeks. And I couldn’t resist sharing a photo of my girl Anna Lee. We haven’t had much time to get outside lately so there aren’t any new photos of us playing in the snow. But we’re back on track with getting outside now that the crazy month is winding down. So lots in store. Stay tuned.