I know we have made it through the darkest days of the winter and the sun is slowly returning giving us more daylight. What I could use is more warmth. We have been subzero F temps at night and many days for a few weeks now. It is frigid, mostly grey some snow and I think we are going to have some relief. The sun is rising this morning and temps in the double digits are in the forecast. Maybe in the 20s for a week. Its dangerously cold and most people have had to have supplemental heat to keep warm like fireplaces and space heaters.

I am keeping myself immersed in my analog life project. I have been knitting and crocheting much of the week. I sewed a few seams on a quilt and finished long arming a quilt. But I am still reaching for my phone to scroll social more than I want to admit.

I have been looking for more long version shows and sports. I have the Olympics to look forward to. I have watched more archeology shows and videos on analog life. I ran in to a video on my feed about common place notebooks. I was very curious because my art journal isn’t something I really am happy with and honestly I realized I don’t enjoy it. It takes a lot of supplies, time and makes a mess that I can’t leave out all the time. Maybe a journal for retirement but not now.

I will talk more about common place notebooks in my podcast but I am very interested in them. In fact, I think I have done this my whole life but it didn’t have a name. I would like to embellish it with little doodles and stickers to make them interesting. Here is the definition :

Dictionary

com·mon·place book

/ˈkämənˌplās ˌbo͝ok/

noun

noun: commonplace book; plural noun: commonplace books

1. a book into which notable extracts from other works are copied for personal use.

I have learned that these types of notebooks have been kept for a very long time. It is fun to think that there are many modern electronic versions of this like Pinterest. I have enjoyed keeping books of quotes and sayings. I think I will enjoy this more than doing a mixed media journal.

I have been home more during this cold weather and working on a tiny task each day as Diane from Denmark has been talking about on her blog and YouTube channel. I feel like I am making headway on decluttering and reorganizing. During the warmer temps, a goal is to make a trip to the donation center and to take a load of recycling (boxes) out.

I have been really digging deep into finding joy and contentment in the mundane cycles, routines and tasks in my life. Between the deepest coldest days of winter, the news and work, I have needed to really to look hard to find things that I find joy and contentment in.

I found it in a chickadee visiting my birdfeeder

a weak ray of light hitting my quilt as I took it off the frame

the warmth of a hat, quilt coat and wool scarf

cups of hot coffee and teas giving me warmth

Monks walking through the ice and snow to continue their Peace Walk

Josh and Jase from Britian coming to Michigan in the depths of winter and finding beauty through the eyes of people who have never witnessed my home state even during January when no one else would have the courage to brave our weather.

https://www.facebook.com/share/r/17sqjzKHNb

February is looming and that means more winter but more light. Growing flower seeds for spring is on my mind. I have lots of projects I want to work on and kick off starting my commonplace book.

I have made it through January! I am looking forward to more joy and contentment.

peace,

Vicki