Preparing for the New Year - Embracing Happiness

While I have been considering home and work for the New Year, I have also been taking in to account considerations of my personal happiness. In particular, what measures I can take to increase my happiness and the happiness of those I love. As I think of it, I have been adding to a little list of the things that make me happy. Some reminders for when things inevitably get out of balance -

Send more handwritten letters and cards
Visit art galleries
Browse book shops
Read for the sake of reading
Make jewellery
Catch up with friends
Schedule 'me-time' in my diary
Knit for my family
Get my hands dirty in the garden
Pick up the camera
Grow or buy flowers for the table
Take yoga classes
Craft with the children
Plan a holiday
Cook new recipes
Walk in the rain-forest
Remember birthdays
Re-read The Happiness Project
Be Christina

What's on your happiness list?

If you are keen to read more about happiness, head to the happy authority, Gretchen Rubin.
And maybe start a Happiness Project of your very own.

Yarn Along

While pregnant with Emerson, and in the weeks after her birth, I knitted a simple striped garter stitch blanket for her. For the past year it has gone everywhere with us. Unfortunately that dear blanket came to a sad end after our disastrous camping trip (two words - tummy bug.) Yes, that lovely little blanket managed to get thrown in the washing machine with the acrylic blankets. Unlike the acrylic blankets, it turned to felt. I was horrified when I pulled it out the machine. But what is a knitter to do, except knit another blanket?

Thus I had in mind to knit Emerson a new blanket for her first birthday. I ordered the wool and already had the pattern, before I found out about my naughty eyes and the required surgery. Now, two weeks post surgery, I have been working on it little by little for the past week as my eye allows, hoping to have it finished by the 27th. There will be a wrapped book (once I choose the perfect one) and this beautiful hand knit bonnet by Greer at Typically Red as well. Surely no one will notice the missing blanket should it not be ready? 

While my eyes can not bear to read for very long yet, I am listening to 'The Happiness Project' on audio book, read by the author Gretchen Rubin. Once again, thank goodness for audio books!

And you? What are you reading and knitting?

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Joining in with Ginny.

Raverly notes here.

On happiness and art galleries

While the children slept and Dave was away for a golf weekend, I read the last pages of The Happiness Project. In the unusual silence, I contemplated the questions posed by Gretchen. I put pen to paper. It's the kind of book that it's difficult not to be inspired by. I adopted Gretchen's mantra and noted, 'Be Christina.' I mused on the things that made me feel happy and which created an atmosphere of growth. 

I find that it's easy for motherhood to swallow your identity. But it is something I don't really notice until someone asks me what I've been doing. Each response that springs to mind tends to be what I've been doing with my children - we've been going to the park/ playgoup, we've been making toilet paper robots, Emerson has her six month check up. But me? I feel like appologising. I've only been doing solitary things - knitting, gardening, reading, blogging. But I realised, I shouldn't appologise or try to justify it. I should 'Be Christina.' They are all things that are a source of creativity, growth and community for me. Things that make me happy.

It  made me think about what else made me happy. What else I hadn't been indulging in as often since becoming a mother? An entire empty Sunday stretched before me and I decided to make it an ideal Christina day. My first love has always been fine art and I'd been meaning to visit the 'Portrait of Spain' exhibition at the Qld Art Gallery since it opened in July. What better day that this?

I joyfully wandered the gallery, sharing the paintings with Cohen while Emerson slept. I renewed an old tradition by having a cuppa at the cafe, though unlike my uni days, I splurged on lunch as well too.  I visited the book store at the State Library and brought a set of three Moleskine cahiers in order to start a garden journal. I also brought myself a print of a painting I'd admired. 

The gallery assistant captured this image of us in front of a large photograph of the Prado, so that it looks like we stepped out of Brisbane and into Spain for a moment. And do you know what? I think I look pretty happy.

(We also visited the Gallery of Modern Art and the fabulous sculpture exhibition currently on there. I'll share some of my favourite pieces with you tomorrow.)

Yarn Along

I feel as if I am on the homeward stretch with the hot water bottle cozy, with only one repeat to go before shaping the neck. Then only several inches of ribbing remain. So perhaps not quite on the homeward stretch after all. But it 'feels' like it, so I am going with that.

I'm a third of the way through The Happiness Project and find it interesting and motivating. Gretchen takes principals of happiness and puts them in to practice in her life, then talks openly about the results. A lot of the principals feel well known - sleep more, exercise better, declutter, enjoy now - but it is how she chooses to tackle a list of resolutions each month and her individual experience of them that makes for compelling reading. We all know we should sleep more and exercise better, but what does that look like? How do you achieve that if, in Gretchen's case, you are a mother of two and a writer? What are the results? 

It's difficult not to feel inspired when reading about her experiences. I have had several 'ah-hah!' moments and have been thinking about exactly what brings me happiness. I have been reminding myself of two simple points from the book over the past week, because small changes can make big differences. Firstly, "by doing a little bit each day, you can get a lot accomplished." And the "one-minute rule." The first idea strikes a chord with the knitter in me, I know that a little each day can accomplish a lot. A row here and there will eventually make a blanket. But in day to day life I often find myself discouraged at starting a large project when I know that I will soon be interrupted by one, or both, children and won't have achieved much. Rather than feel discouraged I have been reminding myself that every little bit adds up and have changed my outlook. I don't have to organise all the photos on the lap top at once. I can just start sorting them out and come back to it. I don't have to Spring Clean the whole house in one day. I can go room by room, closet by closet, there is no time limit. One day I won't have two lovely little ones wanting my attention, but at the moment it is about finding ways to achieve things that work with our life.

The "one-minute rule" attracts me because a clean house makes me happy. The rule inspires you not to postpone a task that you can get done in less than a minute. Gretchen writes, "I put away my umbrella; I filed a document; I put the newspapers in the recycling bin; I closed the cabinet door. These steps took just a few moments, but the cumulative impact was impressive." I agree. It's the main task when tidying just putting things back where they belong? Putting my hair clips back in their tin rather than leaving them on the bathroom sink. Putting clothes in the laundry basket (even if they are not mine.) Returning shoes to the closet. If only I could get everyone in the house to live by this rule...

What are you reading, knitting or crafting?

Do you have any rules that help create happiness?

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Joining in with Ginny's Yarn Along.

Ravelry.