Bullet Journaling

Hello hello!

Long time no see.... I miss blogging. I miss having TIME for blogging. This full-time-mum-part-time-teacher gig is a lot of work. And part time teaching is only part time at school... there is still plenty to be done at home on your "days off". And three kids. One with allergies. All the things.
Buuut... I wouldn't change it. I do love it, and it's the closest I think I'll get to finding that elusive work/life balance.

And it's school holidays! And I'm giving myself a whole week of looking at nothing to do with school, so; hello blogging!

Actually, I wanted to check in to share something really cool that I've started recently. A couple of weeks ago I was waiting to board my flight back to Qld (oooh travelling! Fun!! More on that later!!) I was flicking through pinterest, and stumbled across an article about Bullet Journalling. This lead to more searching on pinterest, and googling, and youtube, and before I knew it I had fallen into a giant bullet journalling rabbit hole. And I'm so glad I did!

So what is this bullet journaling you ask? Well; if you want the purist definition, there's no better place to check than this website. This is the official home of bullet journalling, by its creator Ryder Carroll. But the cool thing about bullet journalling is that you can make it whatever you want it to be for you. It's flexible like that. Have a look at this blog if you want to see what got me really intrigued by the whole thing.  Kara from Boho Berry is a crazy-creative bullet journalist, and her blog and youtube videos really got me inspired to give the whole thing a good go.

My spin on bullet journalling (or Bujo, as the cool kids say) is that it's kind of like one beautiful notebook that you use to organise, write lists, make notes, journal, and generally be creative. Does that sound like my cup of tea or what? I love journaling and writing lists; I have dozens of pieces of paper floating around my house with random scraps of thought, and notebooks and stationery are somewhat of an addiction of mine.  I loved the idea of having it all in one place, with a plan to keep it organised, and even better, to hopefully keep LIFE organised. In the end it was a no-brainer for me really.

It's like an organiser, but you get to set it up the way you like it, and you can do it differently every week or day if you really want to. And lists! I love lists. It's like my BRAIN in a book and it's so good to get some of it out!

Anyway, I'm not here to gab on, bullet journaling is much more interesting if you actually look at it instead of just reading it. I've had a lot of fun setting mine up. I used a notebook that I had at home (from Aldi), that wasn't really used, and has lovely thick good quality paper. I gathered up my collection of Staedtler triplus fineliners (my favourite pens), and I got to it!

I"m not going to show you my first few pages.... they were a bit scraggly until I found my rhythm, figured out what I wanted to include and the look I wanted. I'm in a good bujo mojo now.

So here's what this week's spread looks like. A weekly spread is basically just like a snapshot of the week. There's also a monthly spread, which is where you do longer term planning. This was my second weekly spread, and it is HUGELY different to my first one. In it you can see what I"m planning to make for dinner each night, and what the weather is meant to be doing. I've put in birthdays and special occasions, and started planning out the week.

This is how I've designed next week's spread. I LOVE that I can try new things every week. No chance for boredom here! Next week I've added a journal card into the schedule. On the back side is a space for each day of the week, and my idea is to write at least one thing I'm grateful for each day. This is something we used to do every day as a family, and it is a good practise to be in. All in one book is going to help me to keep much more on top of little things like this!

Then you move into your dailies. This is where you get into the nitty-gritty of your days. I list specific tasks/goals for the day, take notes of things that have happened, and do a touch of journaling. That's what that card I've taped in is for. You don't plan ahead for your dailies (that's what the weekly spread is for). It's an as-you-go kind of deal, which is fabulous because you can't run out of space! Some days might only take two lines, and sometimes you want a whole page. I've decided to stick with this journaling card bizzo for when I want to write specific memories or feelings and journaly type things.  Lists work so well for me. It's so much more motivating if I have things in writing in front of me than if I am just filing them away in my ahead. That filing system is not great. And crossing things off a list gives me SUCH satisfaction. 

Then there are the lists. I believe the official word is "collections". There are no rules for these and you can use them however and for whatever you want. They're super handy and the family has enjoyed being involved in brainstorming with me. Although Pete did have a good laugh at the title of this list! A list for lists! Maybe I do have a problem, Ha! Here are some of my favourites.

The kids LOVED making this list with me. It's obviously a verrrrry long term list of dreams! And yay, I'll get to cross something off my blogging list! I'm hoping keeping a list of things I want to blog about will help me to pop in here more often... rather than just those fleeting "Oh I should blog about...." thoughts that fly out of my head as soon as they land there. Time will tell.

The school holidays list is a bit  more populated now than it was when I took that pic! And we have marked off a few things every day. The kids love having a look each morning and deciding which thing they'd like to do. And the yarn projects page is to keep track of what I'm working on. There are definitely more WIP's floating round my house that need to be tacked onto that list.

The 'next visit' page is for when you think "Oh, next time we go to x store we really must get some...." Because I don't know about you but I'll always end up at x store and think, "What was that thing I said I wanted to get again??" No more!! The Chore Score page is probably my new favourite invention.  The kids work on this together. Each time they do one of their 'jobs' (without any grumbling or complaining) we colour in a square. It's a teamwork thing; they need to get all the way to the centre, and when they do we get to go on a family date! It's been very motivating for them.

The kids also had a lot of input into this list. The idea is to collect the meals that we all really love, so when it comes to menu planning each week, we can easily get ideas. The Food For Reuben page is for my facebook page.

This is another of my favourites. It tracks my steps each day, weight loss, my sugar-free days (we've gone a bit lax and I'm working hard to get back on track), and my cycle.

 I've always kept lists of the books I've been reading, but it's funner when it's pretty! And yes, I"m re-reading my Anne books. I've also got a page in my journal of my favourite quotes from them too <3 p="">
Anyway, that's just a small taste of my little foray into bullet journaling so far... I hope you enjoyed it! I know I sure am. So much so that I was motivated enough to tidy up the dumping ground that was formerly known as my desk!

 It's kinda wonderful to have a creative space again. I'm determined to make this stick!!

So what do you think? Yay or Nay. Does bullet journaling float your boat?? Would you give it a go?

Talk soon!

Zoey x

Knitwit

If you've followed this blog for any length of time, you'll know that I am a notorious crafter. I'll give anything a go... I like to draw, and paint, and scrapbook, and sew, and cross stitch... But my craft of choice for the last few years though has been crocheting. I ALWAYS have a project on the go. I make hats, and little shoes, and cardigans, and blankets. I love it!

This is my most recent blanket, made from a beautiful pattern book I was given for Christmas. It was quite time intensive (took me months) and very challenging. I learned a new style of crocheting called Intarsia, where you work by the row, with multiple colours of yarn attached simultaneously. I think on my most difficult square (the spiral) I had about 8 balls of yarn attached at once. Definitely not one to do while the kids were around... I quite often landed myself in a tangle. I'm very proud of this blanket though, it feels like a huge accomplishment.  also learned how to crochet by reading charts while making this blanket, so that was pretty cool too!

I've also whipped up a few hats for the kids recently. The minion hats are proving quite popular and I have a long list of requests.

Recently, my Nana challenged me to have a go at knitting. Being that I'm mostly self-taught with crocheting, she thought I was up to learning a new skill. So, I did what any Y-gen gal wanting to learn a new craft would do, and got out my iPad. I spent a while on pinterest finding a pattern that a) didn't look too difficult, and b) were still cute. Then, I switched over to youtube, and found myself some tutorials. YouTube is seriously fantastic for things like this. It doesn't get cross at you for holding your crochet hook differently (I'm looking at you Nana!), or get frustrated when its student just doesn't *get* the whole tension thing... Plus it lets you stop and rewind as much as you want. I mostly learned to crochet via YouTube tutorials. I would simply search for the name of the stitch in the pattern I was using and voila, hundreds of wonderful tutorials would appear! And it's the same for knitting.

In one evening, YouTube had taught me to cast on, knit (actually those two skills were just a brush-up, my Nana taught me those when I was about 8, and I was amazed that it all came flooding back), purl, add stitches, drop stitches (like, intentionally) and cast off. And within a couple of evenings, I had made myself (well, Mayana actually) a knitted beanie! It's such a feeling of accomplishment to figure out how to do something like that, and to construct a piece of fabric from a single length of yarn is just so cool.. it never gets old for me!

So beanie done, I decided to move on to something a bit more involved. My next project was a little sleeveless cardigan, also for Mayana. I just love the way knitting looks.. and I'm really enjoying watching pieces of clothing evolve on my needles. With crochet, I have a pretty thorough understanding of how it all works, and can visualise how things are going to work or come together, adjust patterns to suit my imaginings, and quite easily create my own patterns by just looking at something. At this stage, knitting is more like a paint-by-numbers experience. Working row-by-row, unsure of what each stitch is going to achieve on the actual garment. The downside to this is that if I made a mistake I'm not sure how to un-make it, and I did have three very time-consuming false starts on my little cardi before I realised that I was misunderstanding some of the instructions on the pattern. But I got there eventually (thanks again internet!!) and there's no stopping me now.

Next up, something for my Quinny-bean. I decided to use up my left over bamboo/wool blend from the gorgeous Intarsia crochet blanket I made. I found a Patons pattern at Big W for a cute little vest, and adjusted it a little to make it striped. It worked out beautifully, though I've just realised I don't have any good photos of him modelling it!

Currently on my needles is a vest for Reuben. He asked for his to have buttons down the front, as he's just learned to use them and LOVES them. Luckily the pattern I bought has a button option, and it also has pockets! So a few new challenges ahead.

So look out world, Zoey has a new addiction.... who knows what will come of this! I'm pretty excited to find out!

{Crochet Tutorial} Ripple Blanket

I recently posted this photo on my Zoey Makes facebook page. (in case you didn’t know, Zoey Makes is my little handmade business, where I sell some of the handmade goodies that I make.) Anyway, I had a lot of positive feedback about this lovely textured blanket, and a lot of interest in a tutorial. So here I am, about to embark on my first attempt at a crochet tutorial. Including a video. Eek!! Wish me luck!

The ripple blanket is not a new thing, and it’s not an original thing. Your grandma probably has a pattern for one floating around, and there are a bazillion of them online, too. I had done a lot of reading of various freebies, tried out a few… they all work with basically the same idea, just different lengths and numbers of stitches. After experimenting I came up with this particular variation, which I think creates a good length ripple and a nice texture.

For this project you’re going to need a 5mm crochet hook. I’m using the Carnival Soft Acrylic 8ply from Big W. It’s lovely and soft, and a good price. I live in a town with very few options for yarn, but if you can access a nicer yarn than this, go for it! I’m using five colours, and with one ball of each colour, I’m probably about a third of a way through my blanket. I would guestimate that 3 balls of yarn for each colour is about what you’ll need.

If you are crocheter who knows what they’re doing, I’m gonna give you the pattern straight. I know that I sometimes get frustrated when I find a website with a great pattern and have to sift through pages of explanations and photos to find the actual guts of it. If you just want to see the pattern, without the step-by-step how-to, scroll to the bottom now!

This pattern requires for you to really only know one stitch: the double crochet. The internet is a wonderful place to learn how to crochet; in it’s mainly how I learned! Once you find a pattern you like, jump on to youtube and look up the stitches you need.. there are loads of fantastic tutorials. I am going to recommend that you watch this video if you don’t know how to do a double crochet. Have a practice while you watch until you get the hang of it. That video is exactly how we’re going to start off this project.

In the above video, she chained 15 stitches to begin with. For our ripple blanket, you’re going to need to chain 146. This will make your blanket around 90cm wide. Then you need to miss two of your chains, and double crochet (dc) into the third chain, just like she did in the video. You need to do this six more times, so all up you’ll have 7dc, and the 2 chains you skipped will form an 8th. Into the next chain, you need to work 3dc, all into the same stitch. This is how you increase, and it will create the peak of your ripple. Then, you double crochet into each of the next 6 chains.

The next step is a little tricky, which is why I’m making a video. So if this doesn’t make sense in written form, hopefully the video will help you! You are going to double crochet three stitches together (of which the fabulous abbreviation is dc3tog), which means that you will have 3 dc but with only one top! Confused? Sorry! What you need to do is the first part of a double crochet: put your yarn over the hook, hook through the next chain, and pull up a new loop. Pull your new loop through the first two loops on your hook (just like usual). Then, instead of pulling it through your remaining two loops, leave them there. You’re going to repeat this first step of a double crochet again. Put your yarn over the hook, hook through the next chain, and pull up a new loop. Pull your new loop through the first two loops on your hook. Now you should have 3 loops remaining on your hook. Do this one more time, into the next chain, and you will have 4 loops left on your hook. Now, pull your yarn through all four of the loops on your hook to finish the stitch off. Phew!  You’ve just made your first valley! 

Now you need to double crochet into the next six chains, then work 3dc into the next chain. Keep repeating this pattern (6dc, dc3 in next chain, 6dc, dc3tog). Do this all the way to the end. You’ll have two stitches left over after your last 6dc. You need to double crochet those two stitches together. This is worked in exactly the same way as a dc3tog, except you only need to do it two times: put your yarn over the hook, hook through the next chain, and pull up a new loop. Pull your new loop through the first two loops on your hook (just like usual). Then, instead of pulling it through your remaining two loops, leave them there. You’re going to repeat this first step of a double crochet again. Put your yarn over the hook, hook through the next chain, and pull up a new loop. Pull your new loop through the first two loops on your hook. Now you should have 3 loops remaining on your hook. Pull your yarn through all three of those loops to finish the stitch off. Finally, chain 2 to finish the row off, and turn, ready to start your new row!

It might look a bit wonky at the moment, but doing your next row will help to neaten things up. To start the new row, skip the stitch that your ch2 is coming out of, and work a double crochet into the next stitch. **Now work dc into the next 6 stitches, then work your 3dc peak into the next. If you look at your previous row, you will notice that you are working these 3dc into the middle stitch of your previous 3dc peak. Work a dc into each of the next 6 stitches, and then work your dc3tog over the next three stitches. Repeat this sequence from the **. Again, you will have two stitches left at the end for you to work a dc2tog. Chain two to finish the row off, and turn ready to start your next row.

That’s it! You just keep repeating that second row over and over until your blanket is at your desired length.

I like to do two rows in each colour, then change. When I change colours, I work my stitches into the back loops of the previous row (I explain this in the video). This gives it a really cool layered texture, and makes the ripple look really effective. I also explain how I change colours in the video.

And…. here it is: my first ever video tutorial (eeek!!). Near the end we had a massive roll of thunder, and Mayana comes out a bit scared… I don’t have the skills/time to edit, so sorry about that!

My video tutorial!

I really hope that you find that helpful, please comment if you need clarification on anything! When I’m finished my blanket and decide if/how I’m going to edge this thing I will post an update with a tutorial for that too.

Now for people who were just after the pattern: here it is!

The Pattern! 5.00mm crochet hook, 5 colours, three balls of each. I am using US crochet terms. This pattern yields a blanket of just under 90cm in width, and you can repeat the pattern until it is your required length. Basically your initial chain needs to be a multiple of 16, plus two stitches extra. If you want your blanket smaller or longer, adjust your initial chain accordingly. Special Stitches: Double crochet three together dc3tog: Yarn over, hook through stitch, pull up a loop, pull through two loops (2 remain on hook). Yarn over, hook through next stitch, pull up a loop, pull through two loops (3 remain on hook). Yarn over, hook through third stitch, pull up a loop, pull through two loops, then through 4 remaining loops. Double crochet two together dc2tog: yarn over, hook through stitch, pull up a loop, pull through two loops (2 remain on hook). Yarn over, hook through next stitch, pull up a loop, pull through two loops, then through 3 remaining loops. Row One: ch 146. Skip first 2 chains, dc into 3rd chain. *Dc into next 6 chains. Work 3dc in next ch. Dc in next 6 chains. Dc3tog over next 3 chains. Repeat from * to end, working dc2tog in final two chains. Ch2, turn. Row Two: Skip first stitch (where the 2ch comes from), dc in next 7 stitches. Work 3dc in next stitch (this will be the middle of your dc cluster from the previous row, and will form the peak of your ripple). *Dc in next 6 stitches. Dc3tog over the next three stitches (the second of these three stitches will be the top of your dc3tog from the previous row, and forms the concave of your ripple). Dc in next 6 stitches, work 3dc in next stitch. Repeat from * to end, working dc2tog in final two stitches. Ch 2, turn. Repeat row two until your blanket is at desired length! I do two rows in each colour, then change. In the rows where I introduce a new colour, I work into the back loops only. This gives a layered texture, and is definitely my preferred ripple style. The second row of each colour I work into both loops. Now, I’m not finished my blanket yet so I haven’t gotten to the part where I edge it.. in fact I haven’t even decided how I want to do it yet! I have found this great tutorial on pinterest through, and it is probably something I’d like to try.. I will be back to update this post once my blanket is done!

I would really appreciate any feedback on this pattern/tutorial. It’s my first attempt at anything like it, and if I’ve made any mistakes or caused any confusion, please let me know! And if it’s brilliant and you learn something from it I’d like to hear that too… ha!

Thank you!

my birthday present

As I mentioned in a previous post, I was a very spoilt girl this birthday! My husband and my family pooled their resources and gave me my dream sewing machine!

It’s so pretty and fancy and I never thought I’d own something like this. When Pete not so subtly asked me in the leadup to my birthday what I’d be looking for in a sewing machine, I said one that sews without skipping stitches, eating material, randomly snapping needles and actually does more stitches than just straight stitch.

And he chose the Brother NX-400. This machine has nearly 300 stitch types, it threads itself, you can use it with our without a pedal, it has a whole bunch of different feet, including one for buttonholes, and which lets you actually sew a button on, it cuts the thread when you are finished sewing, you can lift the foot using a lever with your knee so you can leave your hands on the fabric, and you can even design and program your own stitches! I’m a little bit in love.

I’ve been a little addicted to playing with it and have done more sewing projects in the last week than I have in the last year! It’s so much fun to use, and it’s really got my creative juices flowing. I have so much awesome fabric stashed and I’m loving watching the pretty material turn into useful things right before my eyes.

Here are a few of the things I’ve been working on…

A skirt for myself. I haven’t made myself clothes since I was pregnant with Mayana, and I love this one. I used the lovely heavy kind of linen fabric I’ve had stashed for a while. Love it!

And of course I had to make Mayana one too! I absolutely love hers. I accidentally made it more high-waisted than I intended to but I’m glad I made that mistake because I LOVE how it turned out. And I also feel compelled to mention that I did not ask Mayana to pose that way, she came up with that all by herself…

This was a gorgeous quilt panel that was given to me about three years ago. I had no idea what to do with it until I glimpsed a cute alphabet book on Pinterest and felt a flash of inspiration. I’m so happy with it! I love the colours and illustrations of this fabric, and I think this was a good use for it.

And finally this little experiment. My first foray into proper patchwork. Also inspired by Pinterest (don’t you just love that place!). It’s a little bit wonky but I’m pretty proud of my first attempt. I really enjoyed doing this, and learned a lot along the way. I have an idea of what I’m going to do with it but I’m not totally sure just yet… you and I both will just have to wait and see!

So I am LOVING my new machine, and the world of possibilities it has opened up for me. I’m really enjoying creating so many things lately – not just sewing but crochet too. I’ll have to do a post about that sometime soon because I’ve been challenging myself a lot with designing things and making my own patterns and I’m really excited by it.

Do you have a creative outlet? I’m the sort of person who dabbles in just about anything, I’m not happy unless my hands are busy. What projects do you want to tackle next?