2015 Resolutions!!

Hi Pals!!

Oh my word....
I am the worst blogger in history! Sorry for being away for so long folks!! Life has been crazy, you know when you are so stressed and you have been so busy but you have no idea why you are stressed or why you have been so busy....? no...? Well this is awkward!
I think for the most part I have been battling with my health a lot so that stresses me out but I won't go into detail because ya know~private~ anyway enough babbling, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year!!

Can you believe that it is twenty fifteen already?! Crazy.
I have no idea where 2014 went. Seriously.
I think 2014 was a very crucial year for me. I felt as though I grew a lot as a person and that the strength and bond of my relationship with my partner Josh became so solid and that we both grew together and our connection was made a whole lot deeper. I think moving country with someone will do that, I feel it is one of those make or break things and we made it!

Moving country was a huge milestone for not only our relationship but also our lives. Australia is great! I have been loving the difference it has made on my life. I have been able to take a step back and really review myself as a person. By moving I realized that a lot of things I thought were really important to me just weren't actually important at all. Friends for example, I realized after I moved that I really don't have many! Honestly 4 people kept in contact with me after I moved. One of those people was my mother.

That really hit home for me, I mean I knew a lot of the people I called my "friends" didn't really give a damn but moving away really highlighted that. I had around 800 friends on facebook and I only kept in contact with a miniscule amount. This oddly enough  makes me happy, I was able to rid myself of any "toxic" relationships and get rid of the fakes and the leeches and really apply myself to the people who do matter. In fact I had one of the most magical moments of my life in 2014 and that was getting to celebrate the union of two of my best friends getting married! And that's what it is all about, I really learnt that friendships are about quality not quantity.

I learnt self respect, that I had to put myself first more often, that it isn't my sole responsibility to always be the one in control to maintain relationships or to have everything organized for everyone else. I was allowed to be a little selfish and put my feet up and say the forbidden word; "no"
No is a word I had always shied away from saying "no" doesn't make you popular to toxic people but it does keep you sane. I think sanity should always come before popularity and its a shame so few people don't realize this. I have seen far to many people ruin their lives from their inability to say that simple two lettered word. Just say it and save yourself some braincells and the need for premature burials.

In 2014 I learnt just how I cope under pressure and I honestly surprised myself. It really was a year for trials for us. We had a huge list of things go wrong right from the get go and somehow managed to pull through every time with very little tears.

I learnt just how big the capacity of love is and that sometimes a cuddle is all you need.

I learnt that your body the single most important thing you have and it needs respect. That in order for your mind and body to stay happy you need to put only the good stuff in, Healthy food, Plenty of water, exercise, good thoughts and love.

I learnt that "beauty" is a marketing ploy and that you don't need the latest fashions or to spend a billion dollars on silly pore clogging products to be beautiful because that isn't  what beauty is. Beauty is your personality. Beauty is your smile. Beauty is your ability to look past someones flaws and see them for what/who they truly are. Beauty is appreciating your surroundings with childlike wonder. Beauty is kissing with your eyes closed, Beauty is staying up late and talking about nothing just because you want to fall asleep with their voice being the last thing on your mind. Beauty really is more that what the eye can see. It is all the little things that make you tick, that make you, you the beautiful person that you are, so unique, this amazing bright shining light that without you this world would be that slight bit duller without. I learnt that although I have never been happy with how I look that I to am beautiful because I can see the beauty in others.

At the start of 2014 Josh and I wrote down our goals for the year:

• Get Fit and Healthy
• Find Job, house and car.
• Finish sleeve (josh)
• Save $100 per week
• have date nights
• Get pet/s

• enjoy our new chapter together.

I personally feel we did really well with all of these except the saving $100 and date nights. We struggled to stay on our feet financially for the last part of the year. From October onwards was tough for us. The trip to Rarotonga was a huge financial blow for us (we wouldn't have missed it for the world though!) as we spent all our savings on the trip and right before we left both the cars broke down and then we got FLOODED with bills and it has been a struggle ever since to get back into the comfort zone we had ourselves in. As for the date nights I think that goes hand in hand with the whole being broke things although to be fair we do spend all of our down time together and to me that is a lot more special than blowing all our money on wine and dining!

For 2015 we also sat down and wrote this years goals. I think it is important to set goals together, it gives to something to work towards together and really ensure you include each other. So this years goals are as follow:

• New Jobs 
• Puppy/Kitten ;)
• Keep up with YouTube ( I have a channel now that you can view here!)
• Get new car
• New houseware
• save money
• Holiday

So those are our joint goals and as a private goal for myself I am to continue to improve myself and listen to my body.
 I would love to hear your goals or how you found 2014.

I hope you are all staying happy and safe!
Stay crafty you foxes!

Serena
xx

Hey Macrame`

Hello Pretties!!!

I hope you have all been well and not on the verge of melting like we have been!! We had a crazy hot weekend with Saturday getting to 43c, Phew not good!
I feel super sorry for Loki on days like that, the poor boy was practically a puddle of dog goo on the tiles the whole weekend. A hairy puddle of dog goo, less than ideal.
It is our plan to move house in February and on the top of our search list is a house with a pool and air-con. Please housing gods help up find a place with those special much appreciated perks ;)

To try and distract myself from the heat I decided to dive face first into some creative antics. I sewed up a storm (I will touch base with you on that next time). Baked some seriously good cookies which I will link the recipe in a jiffy, and I tied knots to make pretty lanterns until I went cross eyed.

I have been in love with macrame` since the dawn of time, and I always get excited when I see pretty pot hangers in second hand stores but am always so sad at how much they charge for something so simple! Don't get me wrong I am no macrame` wizard, in fact this has been my first attempt but it was such a fun and simple project EVERYBODY is capable! Even little Loki bared witness to ensure I was doing it right ;)

I did lots of googling (is that a word? If not it should be), Plenty of YouTube searches and general hunting and a little birdy provided me with the simplest option over on "A little birdy blog" (see what I did there ha hah!) Seriously go check out her blog though! Its quite simply adorable I have blog envy but hey I will get there!


This is what I ended up making- am boy am I in love with it!

Eeeeek! So cute!

So if you would like to learn how to make one of these jump aboard the craft train and here we go!


Things you will need are:

• String (I used crochet cotton for this one but also made another out of cotton twine which also turned out a treat!)
• A 30cm ruler
• Scissors
• A jar (mine was just a old simmer sauce jar cleaned with labels removed)
• Patience

To start you will need to wrap your cotton around your ruler 30 times like so:

Cut the string once you have wrapped it 30 times and slide off and set aside, do this three more times so you have 4 lots of string like this:

Now what you will need to do is get both of the ends together (this is where the patience comes in as the string is VERY easily tangled so go slowly).  Once you have the two ends together you will fold it in half again and then once more so you have folded it three times, the string should now be about a meter long. Do this for each of the lengths of string, you will now have 4 lots of meter long string bunches, gather the string at the fold like so:

 And make a large knot, this will become your "hook"

Now you will divide the string into four:

We moved into the lounge to be under the fans :P (please excuse the state of my floor! argh you can't win with a inside/outside dog)

Loki keeping a watchful eye to make sure its done right.

Now you will begin the "braiding" like so:

Bring the right hand section of string over the middle two and bring the left had section over the right hand section.

 Tuck the left hand section underneath the middle sections and in through the "loop" on the right hand side.

 You will have a twist like such, and pull the two ends up to form a knot like so:

Repeat this process all the way down until you have made a pretty "rope". Now you will group the sections together again and about 10cm down form another big knot:

 Again you will divide the string into 4 sections:

 And tie knots about 5cm down on each sections:

 Now divide the four sections into 8 like so:

 Now you will tie two of the sections to each other until they have been connect like this:

 You should have a "fishnet" looking pattern going on, now connect the last two sections together  so it is all connected. Put your jar in to ensure it is going to fit, if it looks nice and snug you can now add another row of "fishnet"

Tie a big knot at the end and trim off any access string and you are done! And now have a beautiful lantern!

I am planning to make several of these and stringing them all the way along the curtain rail for Christmas, they would look pretty outside strung up either in trees or around your patio for a gorgeous alternative of outdoor lighting!

These are the yummy cookies I baked. They are ginger cookies that are perfectly soft and chewy. They smell like Christmas and general happiness! I got the recipe here the only change I made was swapping out the molasses for brown sugar! Honestly try them you won't be disappointed!

I have one more thing to add before I go and that is how talented my Mum is! I had my 21st just recently and Mum sent me over my present. I promise you she has more talent in her thumbnail than what I have in my entire body.
Mum quilts for a living and she is bloody good at it too!
Here is the quilt she made me for for my birthday and I am utterly in love with it! I had found a picture of a quilt that I really like on Pinterest and sent it off to Mum and so she decided to give it a go and put her own spin on it. Here is the quilt I found on Pinterest:

And here is Mums version which I personally think it turned out much prettier!:

Such a special gift I will savor for years to come, thank you so much Mum!
If you want to see more of what my darling Mumma bear is capable of please don't hesitate to go and check out her blog: http://quiltmekiwi.blogspot.com.au/

Well that's all I have for you today folks!
Thank you for taking the time to swing by, Until next time you stay classy ;)

Serena
x