List week part one

I love this time of year for reflecting what went well last year and how to make things better for this one. My birthday is also tied up in the start of the year, so that makes two measures of where I've been and where I want to go.

All in all, 2011 was really the year where our little family emerged from the baby haze (our youngest is now 2.5) and I started to feel energised and ready for new challenges. After doing the life changing Unravelling course by Susannah Conway in 2010, I'd already figured out I wanted to go back to my childhood loves of creating, and my ever supportive husband bought me a sewing machine for Christmas last year. Little did we know where this amazing present was going to take us! It was such a sense of achievement to go from receiving a sewing machine to be selling my wares at two Christmas markets the following year.

From left to right: Petra (Pebbles and Bloom), me and Silke (Lulu's Wardrobe)

Other things that went really well last year are:

• I opened up to new friendships which have brought me lots of happiness as well as adventures (see my two partners-in-crime above)
• I ran 6K for Unicef in Geneva thanks to another new friend and started doing yoga
• I learnt how to stop planning and start living in the moment (so much easier said than done, it's an ongoing process)
• We got ourselves not one but three babysitters and started having date nights again
• The kids are both happy and healthy
• I started menu planning thanks to this down-to-earth lady, so shopping is slightly less of a chore and the number of meltdowns (by me and/or the kids) at dinnertime have drastically reduced.
• I started a blog and am very happy to be here!

Next up, my sewing goals for 2012..