Cultivating a Healthy & Creative 2016

I love the feeling of a fresh start that the New Year brings - a lovely blank slate that I can doodle all over with plans for the year. If you saw my New Year's post last year you'll know I'm not keen on making New Year's Resolutions as such, but I do like to have a short list of things I'd like to achieve, and I like to have a couple of life enriching principles/philosophies in mind.

Last year I was inspired by Paloma Faith's song Ready for the Good Life as an invitation for fostering optimism & positivity and being receptive to 'good stuff' instead, and I wasn't disappointed. 2015 was a fantastic and successful year for me, particularly on the hand-knitting front. I publishing my first Knitting book, Elements, with other half of the Smith & Jones Knits collaborative,  Alison Crowther-Smith. However it was also RIDICULOUSLY crammed, so much so that many other areas of life, such as home and physical fitness have been sorely neglected, so for me 2016 will be about redressing that balance. 

I had also intended to undertake a major declutter - and I made some headway with this in the early part of the year but this all came to a halt as I got so busy with other priorities - so it's going near the top of the list again......

This year my theme is Cultivation - I intend to cultivate some helpful habits, replenish my reserves, weed out anything that is not joyful, and trim back any dead wood ready for new growth.

This will mean taking a little more time for some rest, tending to my health and well being and ensuring I get some rest as well as physical exercise. It'll involve getting out in the fresh air more which will recharge the batteries and also provide inspiration - like many creatives I am hugely inspired by nature, and a good old 'soak' with the 'green stuff' does wonders for my energy levels. 

There will be careful 'weeding' of what currently fills up the space of my life, in terms of physical environment as well as what takes up time. So that's where the decluttering will come in - and I live in hopes of rediscovering the surface of my studio table which I think will require a major excavation!

Look away now if you are of a nervous (or OCD) disposition.....................................!

This will then allow space and energy for some new growth, and this year I'm planning to:

• Get up to more creative antics with Smith & Jones Knits - you can take a peek at what we have planned here
• Learn some new skills including improving my computer tech skills and getting to grips with creative programmes such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator
• Teaching some new workshop topics such as Entrelac knitting
• Develop further artistically and create some exciting creative textile pieces for the Swansea Festival of Stitch in August

If you have any plans, resolutions or themes for 2016 I'd love to hear about them, so do feel free to leave a comment below.

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