Happy Friday Everyone! This week kicked off my busiest time of the year at work but I’m glad it’s Friday and so excited to share some of my favorites from the week! I think the theme of this week is planning, goals and sewing entertainment.
- Organizing Your Sewing Plans –
I stumbled upon this blog post from Rachel of the Maker Style Blog and the Maker Style Podcast with her interview of Anna Zoe earlier this week and think this is such an awesome way to organize your sewing plans. As an accountant by day, I love excel and planning so this helps you think about what you’d like to get done each season. As I continue to work on my goal of creating a mostly handmade wardrobe that I talked about in my 2017 Goals post, this organization post and podcast episode will definitely come in handy. It was totally inspiring!
2. Erin Condren Life Planner
See previous comment about my love of planning….I’ve been an Erin Condren planner girl for a long time and this year is no exception. I’ve been using my planner to keep track of my sewing and knitting throughout the week as well as trying to budget time for my makes as well. At the end of the month it’s such a great review of what I’ve worked on!
3. Pure Barre
Not really sewing related, but I have recently gotten back into going to Pure Barre in the morning. Once I took up some of my handmade hobbies last year, exercise dropped off the map a little bit. I committed to myself in November to start making working out a priority. As a previous 6 am Pure Barre-aholic, I am loving getting back into that routine. There is nothing better than crossing off working out early in the morning and having that in your back pocket for the rest of the day! Since it seems like all these favorites tie into one another – I’ve been keeping track of my PB attendance in my planner too which is major incentive to go so I can mark down another day!
4. Audible
I’ve been really trying to find a good thing to watch while sewing. I used to watch TV but it’s really hard with the noise of the machine and moving from the ironing board to the machine. I decided over break to start listening to audio books through Audible and it’s been great! Over the Christmas holiday, I listened to 4 books (!) – guys, I think those 4 books are the only 4 books I read this year….#mustreadmore.
I listened to the Magnolia Story, Talking as Fast as I Can (to re-live Gilmore Girls one more time!), the Hopefuls and one other that I talk about below. All four books were such great sewing entertainment. The Magnolia Story and Talking as Fast As I Can were both non-fiction and quick reads. The Hopefuls was fiction and was okay – not my favorite but kept me interested and wanting to learn more.
If you’re looking for some sewing entertainment, I would recommend checking out audible. Audible + earphones were a great companion this holiday break. The only thing I might want to invest in is some bluetooth headphones. The number of times my phone dropped to the ground cause I walked away from the iron or sewing table was ridiculous…good thing the phone stayed in one piece!
Anyone else have any good sewing entertainment??
5. Small Great Things
This was by far my favorite read of the month. Small Great Things is written by Jodi Picoult and was such a captivating book. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who is interested in reading it, but it is written in a variety of voices (one of my favorite) which made the audio book particularly compelling. Jodi Picoult’s books are always my favorite – but I think this one takes the top of the list. I was trying to think of the best way to summarize it and I think some of the quotes on the Amazon page really do it justice:
“Small Great Things is the most important novel Jodi Picoult has ever written. . . . It will challenge her readers . . . [and] expand our cultural conversation about race and prejudice.”—The Washington Post
“Jodi Picoult is never afraid to take on hot topics, and in Small Great Things, she tackles race and discrimination in a way that will grab hold of you and refuse to let you go. . . . This page-turner is perfect for book clubs.”—Popsugar
If you’re looking for a captivating book – this one hits the top of my list!
I’m linking up with some of my favorite bloggers Momfessionals, Grace and Love, A Little Bit of Everything and Smidge of This and I’d love to hear what favorites you had from the week! Feel free to let me know in the comments below. Hope you have a great weekend!