This has been an unusual year for me. I began it as a stressed out teacher. I’m ending it as a less stressed office worker. I went from having very little free time, to being unemployed and having entire months free, to having a pretty good work/life balance. But no matter what’s been going on in other areas of my life, there has always been craft!

I made the most of my free time at the beginning of the year by making several charity blankets. These were a great opportunity to destash some yarn, try out new patterns and borders and of course help other people. I loved making these blankets and was happy to see them being sent off to their new homes.

My free time also led me to thinking about starting an Etsy shop. Which led to a change of name. Which led to a new logo and a website… and here we are! (You can read more about all that here.)

As my new name is actually borrowed from my Grandmothers, it was a perfect excuse to look through old family photos.

I also enjoyed decorating my home for spring. Not exactly crafty, but creative nonetheless.

And when I bought a new camera, I may have got carried away taking photos of Maisie playing in the box…

Anyway, back to the craftiness!

Two gorgeous baby boys were born into our family at the beginning of the year – a great excuse to make baby related gifts! I love the bold colours and the cute smiley faces on Austin’s felt rain cloud.

Sawyer’s parents want him to grow up with an adventurous spirit, so an adventure themed quilt seemed perfect!

And of course Christmas offers so many crafting opportunities! I kicked off the Christmas craftiness by making an advent calendar for the office. All the paper pockets were made from book pages and contained a small card telling part of the Christmas story as well as chocolate or a small gift.

I became slightly obsessed with making crochet Christmas trees.

So obsessed, in fact, that I even made an animation…

I also got quite carried away making baubles for many friends and family members. They all have tiny stars inside with either curled book pages (Harry Potter for those who are fans, poetry for those who are not!) or larger stars punched from scrapbooking paper. I loved how easy these were to assemble and how great they looked on the tree!

I spent a morning at a wreath making class with my friend Beth. We had a great time and each came away with with a new wreath for our front doors.

And I was commissioned to make these cute little penguins. Even though they’re both made from the same pattern they are each unique – and really rather lovely!

There are so many other things I’ve started (and sometimes finished!) through the year that I didn’t get round to photographing, but just looking through this batch has made me realise that I’ve been pretty productive!

I’m hoping that 2017 will be a little less unsettled than this year has been, but I suppose one of the joys of life is never knowing what’s going to happen next!

Happy New Year to you all! x