Early bird

Catches the gorgeous sunrise. It was cold the past two nights! Finally! After a seriously disappointing winter, we finally got a glimpse of what everybody has been missing. Even the people that dislike winters. (seriously, what the hell, people-that-dislike-winters. What is wrong with you? How can you dislike winters?!)

And, something I learned when I had a paper route, if the night has been really cold and clear, the sunrises are even more spectacular than usual. Because I'm getting up earlier now that I'm a freelancer, I catch a lot more gorgeous sunrises than I did before. Just yet another perk of the job.

Blogs I'm enjoying right now

You probably know, judging by the long, long list of blogs in the sidebar, that I really enjoy reading blogs as well as writing them. I thought I'd give you guys a peek into what I've been reading lately!

LoveElycia



I'm absolutely smitten with this blog and this lovely lady! And that's partially because of her awesome, awesome hair. The other part of the reason is the fact that she writes great little posts about a number of topics and takes adorable pictures and videos. It's a cheerful, lovely blog!


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One Sheepish Girl



Another lovely blogging lady! Another blog that is all about gorgeous pictures, posts about what inspires her, and posts dedicated to blogging for confidence, an ongoing project about boosting self-esteem through her blog posts. And of course, the This & That posts that have inspired me to start my own series of This & That posts.

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A Playful Day



A Playful Day is a blog that I love for a completely different reason than the above: I love A Playful Day for her podcast! I am a big fan of podcasts, but I'm a difficult audience that wants to be able to do things while listening without missing a lot of your podcast. There are few podcasts that allow this, but the A Playful Day podcast hits that nail right on the head: it's lovely knitting talk, filled with nice anecdotes and reviews and recommendations of patterns that make me want to knit.. well, anything! Give it a listen. And, of course, read the blog too!

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Untangling Knots



Untangling Knots is written by yet another lovely lady with gorgeous hair. (I think that a generous part of this list may have spawned from some serious hair-envy.) Not only does Andi write great posts about her knitting projects and her forays into crochet, she has written several mini-series about the technical side of knitting, such as stretchy bind-offs and button holes. For someone who is not as apt a knitter as she would like to be, this mini-series taught me a lot!

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Goodknits



And last but not least, Goodknits! This young mom with 2 adorable kids talks life, knitting and crochet, other crafts and photography, and once again it is a gorgeous blog to look at.

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And that's my list for today! What blogs have you been enjoying lately? Let me know!

This & That: creative ways

This week, I've found myself longing for my hobbies. To take my mind of things. I usually cope with stressful situations in creative ways: I bake, or crawl away in the corner of our couch and crochet. Starting a business on your own when you've only ever worked, let's face it, low-level jobs, is quite scary sometimes. I've found myself in the baking aisle more often while doing groceries. So today I caved and baked cookies during my lunch break. By hand. There's something quite therapeutic about furiously pounding butter and sugar into one glossy, glorious mess with a big wooden spoon.

But apart from that, I've also decided to start working on something quite special for a friend. Can't say much, all I can say is 'yes, that is WoW-related', and 'yes, that does indeed look a lot like a cow'. It's a new project, though, and it's quite special, and I'm quite thrilled to have something like this to go to and relax with when I'm done working. And it gave me a reason to go yarn-shopping soon, yay!

Today.. I shall feel pretentious.

And give this photograph a name. And it shall be.. 'After the Storm'.


Because it was taken after a storm, see. It all makes sense in the end.

This & That: A new year's resolution

I'm starting a new tradition on this blog, following the example of a blog which I very much enjoy reading: One Sheepish Girl. Her This & That posts are perfect for when you want to post something on your blog, but don't know how to work it into an entire blogpost!

This: This week I shall mainly be wrestling with being a fulltime freelancer, tackling issues such as 'how will I plan my time?' and 'can I spend money on stuff for my own company already?'.

That: I think, or rather, I like to believe, that it is slowly cooling down a bit to a temperature that's more common for January, and therefore I shall be enjoying the snuggly warmth of the shawlette, which is slowly stretching out a bit (mainly thanks to me tugging at the ends a lot) and now remains safely inside my coat instead of crawling out when I'm not looking.