Happy New Year!
It is a cold, crisp morning. Light snow is swirling around in the air.
While I stand outside, a hot cup of coffee in hand, I watch our pups, Bella and Jaina play in the snow. After a few deep breaths… for a moment, all is right with the world.
The snow came a little late this winter, but just in time for Christmas. December 23rd we were hit with a blizzard. What started with freezing rain turned into heavy snow and extreme winds. As beautiful as the snow was, the conditions were dangerous. Waking up to a white Christmas was glorious though. A few nights ago, light fluffy snow started falling, blanketing everything around. The Christmas lights twinkled and danced across the soft layer in the cold silence. How I love winter.
If 2020 has taught me anything, it has taught me how to slow down and refocus where my time and energy goes. I think that is why now I’ve decided to start a blog. As some of you know, I started streaming on Twitch back in January 2019. It was a crazy fun year. I was so blessed with meeting many new people. Being able to share what I make brought me a lot of joy. I was also was able to share a little bit of my family with you! My channel and community were growing at a steady pace. I was looking forward to the new year.
Enter 2020.
The year started out good. I kicked off streams with new projects, more stream days and was getting ready to start making content for YouTube. One of my dear friends stepped up as my community manager to help me out online. I was also working on launching a new craft kit line early summer. So many projects! So many hours!
The joys of early spring were overshadowed by COVID-19. I started sewing masks as quick as I could. I also started watching Stargate for the first time. I have to say, I LOVED it! SG-1, Atlantis and Universe. It was the perfect escape while the world was turning into a vastly different place. We also had to say goodbye to our sweet kitty, Stanley. Thankfully, our area was not in a drastic shut down just yet, so we were able to be with him. We miss him very much. His sassy attitude was balanced by his sweet snuggly moments. Even our pup Jaina missed him. She was hardly eating, would not play with her toys and would lay in their favorite spot looking so lonely and sad by the window.
In May, we brought home a new addition to our family. A 10-week-old rescue pup we named Bella. An extremely sweet pup with a bit of sass! The end of May, my husband and I celebrated 20 years married with many of you on Twitch and you all were able to meet Bella. I decided to take a break from streaming to work on training her.
With her being 50% Great Pyrenees, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Large guardian breeds take longer to mature, and Great Pyrs tend to have strong opinions. They are gentle about them, but they are strong opinions. She is now fantastic at going outside to do her business. We are still working on a few commands, but she has the basics down quite well. This coming spring, we have some leash and recall training to work on.
Like 2020, our spring really did not know what it was doing. It would warm up, then suddenly get cold, rain, snow, and back to warm. While the earth was trying to wake up and bloom, my husband was finally able to get our garden planted. We had sweet corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, cantaloupes, rhubarb, raspberries and pumpkins. My husband and son also finished fencing in our yard. Our little yard was coming together rather nicely. I enjoyed sitting outside with the pups. I always brought some yarn with me to crochet. I was making things I enjoyed again. It had been a long time since I found crochet relaxing. My afternoons were filled with homemade lemonade with freshly blended raspberries and peaches. Sitting outside in the shade while Bella and Jaina enjoyed the warm summer breeze and napped in the grass. In the evenings I was spending more time with my husband and our pups. My husband was always grilling or smoking something on his new grill for dinner. We even managed to get ourselves into a better sleep schedule! I was online less and less. It felt great! Yet, at the same time, I felt like I was letting so many people down by not streaming. The guilt was awful, and I was stressing out over it. With Bella growing up and learning how thing worked around here, I thought I could get back to streaming. Then I realized, I didn’t want to stream. It was summertime. I was spending more time outside than I had in years. I didn’t want to give that up.
So now what?
I decided to take some time and write out a few of my patterns. When I started, it was fun! Being able to still share my creativity without the pressure of streaming seemed like a great answer for the time being. Then I started getting messages from people asking for me to write patterns for characters for them. The fun went right out the window and I stopped. I do have my Rum River patterns on Ravelry and Etsy. Will I write more patterns? I hope to. However, it will be when I want to take the time and for what I want to make.
That sums up spring. I’ll be sharing more in “Goodbye 2020 – Part 2” next week. I do hope all of you are taking 2021 one day at a time. We have a long way to go before we get back to “normal.” Make the most of what you have around you. Slow down and enjoy the little, simple things in life. I promise you it is life changing!
See you all soon!
Love, Sota
1. What is your favorite thing about spring?
2. Did you or your family adopt a new pet in 2020?