WOW 2013!

I know, two posts in two days.  I'm on a roll!  I've decided that I need to be a better blogger and am going to comit!  That's why I started a blog after all.
So this morning (and for a few mornings now) I found it really hard to get out of bed.  I hate the grey, cold days and increasingly I can't get it out of my head that I would much rather be at home crafting.  I LOVE my day job.  In fact, crafting aside, it's my ideal thing to do.  I am very passionate about my day job and spend my days, mainly filled with joy, smiling and laughing through the days feeling lots of love and knowing that I am doing a good job.  I will do a post about my day job some time soon, back to my thinking this morning.  So I was in bed, pressing snooze, really feeling like I didn't want to get out of bed.  I think I am suffering from SAD big time.  I am usually a very happy, cheery person, more than happy with my life and my little world but every year in February I can a little twitch that I sometimes can't shake off.  Usually at this time of year I start browsing the job pages and wondering what the rest of the country/world holds in store for me.  I start to dream and plan but then these go nowhere.  I always wonder if the grass really is greener but usually my thinking decides that it probably isn't.  I read somewhere online (and think I have it pinned on my Pinterest board) that "if we spent more time watering our own grass it would be just as green."  I think this is really true.  I need to spend a little more time and attention focusing on the good in my life and thinking about improving the areas that aren't quite so good.  I know I will snap out of this soon (I'm hoping come Friday and the start of March my mood will pick up.) 
In an attempt to focus on the positive I decided to think back to how amazing 2013 has been so far.  We are only in February, but I can already say that 2013 has been pretty amazing.  I had a fab year last year and had a feeling in my gut that 2013 would be even better.  If the first two months are anything to go by then I'm in for a treat!
There have been 3 MAJOR (I would go as far as saying life changing) things that have happened so far in 2013 (all of which needed lots of preparation in 2012 but came into place this year.)
Firstly (and I believe most importantly, my nephew was born on 10th January.  This little guy is quite possibly my new favourite person in the whole wide world.  The love I feel for him is unreal.  I am not interested in having children myself but having a nephew has got to be the most awesome thing ever.  I get all the lovely bits and am happy to deal with some of the not so lovely bits and I get to hand him back (so don't lose any sleep!)  I am looking forward to being the best auntie ever at each stage of his life.  My heart feels like there's not much room left for much else at the moment.

Me with Sam in the hospital when he was about 20 hours old.  It was love at first sight!

Sam on the blanket that I crocheted for him.  A whole heap of love went into this blanket.  I made it before I knew if he was going to be a he.  I hope that he will have this blanket for his whole life and that it will become a treasured possession.

I saw this idea online, to make a top or baby grow with the numbers 1-12 on.  The baby wears the item when he is that number of months old.  Here he is in his number 1 vest I made him.  One of my first screen printed items.  I must make the 2 as he will be 2 months before we know it!

Me with Sam last week.  I visited for a few hours one day in half term and was lucky to get lots of Sam cuddles.  I was very selfish and held him the whole time I was there.  He was grizzly but dozed a bit while I held him.  I can handle crying babies for a day (at a reasonable hour! hehe!)

Second wow event of 2013 (for which I did all the work in May/June 2012) was I had a couple of patterns published in a crochet book.  Now it's not much, it's a big Everything You May Need to Ever Know About Crochet book and my little patterns are only 2 of 20 but I feel proud all the same.  I feel even more chuffed about the fact that it was Catherine who asked me to be involved.  It was Catherine who taught me to crochet so I felt very honoured when I realised she thought I was good enough TO BE IN A BOOK!!  I was working to some quite tight project specifications set by the publishers but it's got me thinking about lots of designs that I have in my head and maybe putting a few on paper over my long summer holiday this year! Watch this space!  My mind is racing with creative ideas!

So, according to this book I'm an author!!  I made and wrote the patterns for two blankets in this book.  I love seeing my projects having been professionally photographed.  They look amazing (even if I do say so myself!)  I wish everything I make could be photographed like this! 
The third thing that happened in 2013 at the end of January was that I graduated from my MA in Professional Studies in Education.  So the work for all of this was last year (and a whole summer of thinking about or writing my disseration) but the nice bits, the celebratory bits were this year!  I had a lovely day in Kingston at the graduations ceremony and then for a yummy lunch and cocktails with my mum.  I wore my gorgeous new Poppy dress which my parents bought me for Christmas but I had been saving to wear for the first time for my graduation.  After lunch we went to visit my brother, sister in law and little Sam!  A perfect end to a lovely day.

We did it!!  Me and three teacher colleagues who completed the course this year! 

Me and my mum outside the theatre (note my mum is proudly wearing the corsage brooch I made her for Christmas and coincidently colour co-ordinating with my gown!!)

I've just realised why I might be feeling so poopy!  All of these amazing things happened in January!  Maybe February feels like a bit of an anti climax after all of that!

How's 2013 been for you so far? 

love love love

Erin x