A head full of dreams

I love this time of year, I'm slowly easing myself into the new year. We have been away on a beachy holiday so there is a super relaxed feel going on here. What I love most about this time of year is dreaming up all the wonderful things that I might like to do in the year ahead. For me over time I have realized that there is just no point in making restrictive resolutions, it only hurts my soul. So instead I love to dream up all the wonderful things I would like to do and if they don't happen, oh well! Its not a problem! This year I am dreaming of lots of fun crafty things. Last year my crafty goal was to complete 180 ornaments and that I did, more or less. And I am so glad that I didn't make any more because they didn't quite all make it onto my tree, don't worry though they will not go to waste!

 They totally would have if I had just stuck to the tree that I was going to put them on but when the chance to have my own first real life Christmas tree came up I just couldn't pass up the chance and I must say it was totally MAGICAL and there were happy tears ( a total dream come true) and it will be happening again because I LOVED IT!!!! But it didn't need quite that many ornaments. Anyway I digress, the 180 ornament project took up a lot of my crafting time last year and I spent a lot of time from September till Christmas making so many Christmas crafty things, I quite possibly got a little obsessive about it and I  pretty much forgot about this space! So I am really looking forward to doing some other fun crafty things this year and getting back into the swing of things.

Some things I am looking forward to doing this year are:

Finishing my December Daily Album

Getting some fun snail mail happening

Using my memory planner- though I am still deciding on how to document this year

I have some fun felt plans and gifts to make

Id love to try doing some cross stitch

I'm dying to finish some travelers notebooks that were supposed to be xmas gifts (reminder finish making things early!!)

Scrapbooking

and I miss sewing!!

And I have a year long project that I am still deciding weather to attempt or not!

So that's where I am at, still dreaming of all the fab things that I might or might not do this year and just enjoying the beautiful dreamy stage.

Snail Mail Outgoing

I recently created this snail mail for my pen pal. As I said in my last post I have been super inspired by all this cold weather here in Australia. And the theme for this Christmas is a winter wonderland. I am going to have lots of houses around the place. My pen pal asked me how my Christmas planning was going and well I just couldn't help but tell her all about it in this mail.

  I simply used some pens to draw on the box and wrote her address on the right hand side.

It opened up to have a little winter village inside. A little view of my Christmas plans :-)

 I created a pocket pouch to hold the letter by sticking two pieces of  white card together and cutting slits in the top piece to crate the pocket and then added a flower to the front that I had cut with my silhouette. 

 I put my letter in the left pocket, the plan in the middle and a pattern in the right. I also added in a photo copy of a pattern that I thought she might like.

I had really wished that I could have made something useful, my pen pal Sara makes me the most wonderful things that I can actually use, so I felt a little guilty sending something that is purely pretty, but it is also nice to have something pretty in the mail, I guess.

Of course it was lots of fun to make and I always love to sit down and read a letter from my pen pal- its such a lovely thing to do. So different from our more modern forms of communication! 

Finding Magic

I've struggled with my One Little Word during January. I found it fairly easy to find those peacefully magic moments but not so easy to make magic. I guess my biggest problem is that as the mum in my little family of four we tend to be the ones to make things happen. So with lots of other things to make happen, magic kinda fell to the bottom of the list.

 Some time during January I decided that it would be great to start recording some of the magical moments and I thought the simplest way to do that would be just to write it down on a piece of scrap paper and pop it in a jar. I haven't been managing to do it every day but its nice to think that by the end of the year I will have a jar of magical moments.

It might even be nice to get my family to write down a magical moment every now and then, so that they can be a part of my magical year.  And I must find a way to make some magic happen and soon :-)

My One Little Word for 2015

My One Little Word  has found me this year, I could feel it creeping up on me towards the end of 2014. There were some moments that stood out to me and the only way that I could define them was: Magical.

So my word for 2015 is Magical

Magical

- relating to using or resembling magic

-beautiful or delightful in a way that is removed from everyday life.

I especially love that second meaning, beautiful or delightful in a way that is removed from everyday life. Isn't it just so easy to get stuck in our lives, to get in a rut, to not live in the present I think its so easy to get into a pattern where we don't see the magic in our lives at all.

I've thought about this word a lot and I have two different ways that I would like it to be a part of my life this year. The first is what I would call Magically Peaceful, these are the moments that are right there in front of us there to see at any moment but sometimes more moving that others. Simple things like the sun setting in a brilliant sky, rain falling on a summers  day, a bird sitting on my windowsill or golden fields of wheat blowing in the warm breeze.

I want to be more aware of these moments, more open to them, more willing to stop and see them because they are right here and so easy to miss.

The other way Id like to include it in my life this year is Making Magical. For me this is all about consciously going to a little effort to create our own magical moments.

When I look back on 2014 the most magical moment was most definitely my birthday.It was totally created by myself  and Paul, it was so so much fun!! It did take a little effort but it was worth it and it will probably live to be my favorite memory of last year. I want to create more of this type of magical moments in my life and I would love to create some of this type of magical moment in others lives too, though I am not sure how I am going to do that. Any ideas?

So do you have one little word this year? What is it?

Also I am having super trouble working out my sidebar
 So I thought Id let you know that you can find me here on facebook now ;-)