new year

A New Start?

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hello-2016

I guess I should start by wishing you all a belated happy new year…. although one week in to 2016 and I am starting to feel surfeited by all the new year-new start sentiments flying around in every direction. But then perhaps I am just tired and grumpy at the moment!

I have been away for so long from the blog that for a little while there I really wasn’t sure I was actually going to come back to this space. As usual I spent some time going back over the last year or two and reading the memories I have stored up here and once again I have reminded myself why I do keep rambling away. I do not often enough go back to remember what I have posted and while I love crochet, enjoy posting about it and am grateful for the response it gains…. ultimately it is my family posts I love the most. The posts where I am truly rambling about our mini adventures or just our every days, they are the ones that keep me persevering with this.

I struggle a bit though as these days it seems not many people blog like this anymore, just for memory keeping purposes. It is ever increasingly about reviews and sponsored posts, website traffic and social media stats, and creating a revenue. I am torn by this as I understand it and see the potential, we are a low wage one-income family and I do need to think about earning a little to top us up, but I don’t want to lose that personal diary aspect that I love looking back on.

So here I am in 2016 giving myself another year of blogging. I don’t know if I would designate it a new start but I will say that I expect to see some changes around here as I try to balance writing more often my rambling family posts alongside branching out of my comfort zone and working on some new things to grow the blog and earn a little needed side money for my family.

There will of course still be crochet. There is always crochet. <3

Naomi-16

Focus for 2015

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Like most people at this time of year, I have been reflecting on the last 12 months and looking to the coming year, giving mind to what I might resolve to do/set as goals/have as my word for the year/etc…

Each passing new year I feel less and less inclined to create a list of specific resolutions, largely because I find they are too easily broken which sounds too final. Once something is ‘broken’ I think I am less likely to try again with it, I would rather have a sense of falling off the horse but being able to get back up and on again. Does that make sense? I just think, at least personally, having the right mind-set when first starting something is important… Or perhaps I have just rambled out some baby-brained nonsense!

None the less I do have some hopes and intentions for 2015 and as I was reading in my quiet time today I read through the following verse which seems to say it all. So I may not have a word or a list of resolutions for the year but I do have a scripture! (..and in all honesty I do believe that is better.)

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12:12

This perfectly covers the things I intend to remember to live by and areas I wish to improve upon in this coming year of miracles and challenges for our lovely little family.

As we have now taken down the christmas decorations I was in need of a new print for above our fire place. It has been bare wall for two days now and was driving me a little nutty but I was struggling for decoration inspiration to fit between christmas and my usual February mantlepiece. Often in the past I have designed my own prints for this purpose but today a quick flick around Pinterest for my chosen verse and I came upon the perfect free printable.

romans12_12

Muted tones that are not festive brights, but still warm in colour, not the wintry blues and whites I was trying to avoid yet seeing everywhere. It is available as a free download from I Should Be Mopping The Floor.com 🙂

When I have better light and a completed mantle I will show you the print in it’s frame. Love it.

Do you have any goals/words/themes/scriptures to focus on in 2015? I’d love for you to share them!

Naomi x2

New Year Blog Post Round-Up 2014

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Last year I did a summary of posts and photos throughout the year and I thought I would do another to close this year 🙂

It means taking the first few lines of the first blog post for each month and a photo for the month:) So here is Lovely Little Life’s 2014!

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JANUARY

This year I am not making new year resolutions as such… I have found that ‘New Year Resolutions’ tend to have a kind of stigma of being unattainable or quickly forgotten about or otherwise broken long before the years end.

wristwarmers

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FEBRUARY

Well, we are pretty much one week into February (already?!) and thankfully I think we are all feeling much better for it in our neck of the woods.

emma on bridge

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MARCH

I can’t believe that it is the 1st of March already!

Happily, February did end on a good week for us and today was apparently the first day of Spring in the meteorological calendar. That is some very welcome news!

February end Collage

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APRIL

Wasn’t Tuesday just gorgeous in the south east? We popped into town for a few errands and found ourselves whiling away the hours on the seafront. Bliss.

throwing stones

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MAY

It has been one of those weeks where I feel like we haven’t really been doing much of anything and yet at the same time I’ve felt ridiculously busy.

piggy pie slice

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JUNE

A little while ago I came across a tutorial for a little dress with a crochet yoke on Mon Petit Violon. I finally got around to making a similar dress for Emma!

I used the original dress idea as inspiration but tweaked it here and there to suit and fit Emma.

summer dress holding flower

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JULY

Happy Monday! :)

I’m back again to link up with Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. As I have managed to go a week without blogging again… One of these days I’ll get myself organised into a good routine of posting!

purple giraffe 2

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AUGUST

Happy moments… quite often involve hooky time for me and not as often as I would like include home making.

leaf-walk-large-leaf

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SEPTEMBER

Hello lovelies, I haven’t been around too much lately have I?

I just haven’t had quite as much time on my hands recently and as usual my poor blog is the first thing to slide (*ahem* if you don’t count certain aspects of housework!).

HMR-and-boats

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OCTOBER

We are so excited to announce that we are expecting a new little addition to our family! It is a huge blessing that has truly been prayed for and I am so thankful for this new little life.

PregnancyAnnouncement

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NOVEMBER

Goodness, where is this year disappearing off to?! A fortnight ago I shared our wonderful news and explained why hadn’t been around so much, but also declared I was getting back to normal and should be around a bit more….

wpid-img-20141108-wa0000.jpeg

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DECEMBER

So today is apparently the official first day of winter… and the start of Christmas judging by the number of fully decorated trees and houses in my social media feeds!

wpid-imag0632.jpg

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I have to say pulling this together was great fun, I don’t spend enough time going back to look at past blog posts and it is so lovely to remember and see all the wonderful memories we have made together over the last year. I was seriously considering whether I was going to keep this blog going next year but this little exercise has renewed some of my passion for it!

2015 is going to be an exciting year in our Lovely Little Life, some big adventures to embark on and of course the biggest adventure coming our way in April. I can’t wait!

Happy New Year lovely readers! Wishing you all the best things for coming year!

Naomi x2