Finding joy in January

Plus project inspo, recipes to try and more!

January holds such a mixture of feelings. There’s such a lot of pressure to be more this, do that thing, set yourself new goals, and suddenly become a new person overnight and it’s just a bit exhausting isn’t it? It’s by far the hardest month of the year for me, despite it being my birthday month (I turned 38 last week 🥳). I’ve found myself feeling a bit meh during the middle of January, but noticing that the evenings are ever so slowly getting a bit lighter has definitely helped!

I’ve read a lot of things on Substack this month about intentionally taking January slower, and it has felt really refreshing to see more people taking this approach. In going slow I’ve been trying to find the joy in January, and I’ve tried to just take each day as it comes. I’ve made time to catch up with friends, time for moving my body, spent time cooking lovely food, and also made sure to make time for my skin care routine every morning and night. I’m planning some personal creative projects for the coming months, and this has meant allowing a slow month of creating. January feels like a month of down time and it has been good to lean into that whilst focusing on all of these simple things that bring me joy.

I loved this post by poet

Nikita Gill

on ‘The Guilt of Feeling Joy’ last week. This quote from James Baldwin cited in the post particularly stood out for me:

I think it is essential for children to see the adults around them feeling hope for the future, taking in joy where they can for how else will they learn to do the same?

Learning to embrace joy can be a work in progress, it doesn’t have to be something you’re able to do overnight. It’s more about embracing it when you find it, and holding space for those moments that aren’t so joyful too because this is what allows them to pass. In addition to modelling feelings of joy I also want to model resting. I have been terrible at taking time to rest over the past few years, and I’ve become aware of the fact I am not modelling that well for my children (in fact, I’ve done it very badly). So I’m working on it and it will be a work in progress.

I said to Tom (my husband) recently: “How am I meant to get everything done?” and he said “You don’t have to!”. I’m trying to remember this as we move towards February. Joy isn’t just about getting everything done, finishing that project or having a seemingly perfect life on socials. It’s about finding moments of joy in the process of doing, creating and finding out who you are. It’s about knowing that today it might not happen, but tomorrow is another day.

I wrote this post about giving yourself permission to begin last week, so if you’re setting out on a new creative journey then it might be a good post to read.

WIP

The main thing that I’ve been working on this month is my new Embroidery Membership, which is super exciting! At time of writing this newsletter, 17 people have pledged to join which is absolutely wonderful. The Membership will launch on 30th January, and you can read more about it here.

We’re stitching this THRIVE hoop as the first project, and I would love to stitch it with you! You can pledge to join here, and payment won’t be taken until launch day on 30th January.

If you’re reading this on email and you’re new to Substack, then you might find this post for new readers helpful. I explain all the different features and how I’m using them for my free and paid subscribers.

Project inspo

I’m delighted to have another project in issue 49 of Love Embroidery magazine this month! It’s this luxe accent cushion, featuring gold rope couching, Liberty fabric and beautiful ric rac trim. I love the combination of textures in this one, and you could easily mix up the colours if you wish. And it’s another joy themed project! This word just keeps coming back to me and it’s lovely to stitch 😊

If the rope couching isn’t your thing, then you could also make it without and highlight the lettering with some satin stitch instead.

Here are links to the materials that I used for this project:

• The cushion I used is from Sunday’s Daughter, and it’s the duck egg blue colour.

• The gold rope is from Barnett Lawson Trimmings and I used Light Gold (600) 10mm

• The Liberty fabric is from Alice Caroline, and is Betsy in Betsy Q (formerly B-40)

• The gold ric rac is from Hobbycraft

Stitch of the month

This month’s stitch of the month is couching stitch, which is the stitch I used to attach the beautiful gold rope on the joy cushion. You can couch with pretty much anything really, so experiment with different thicknesses of thread, yarn, or rope and you’ll be able to create so many textures!

Click here to watch the tutorial video, and do share your photos with me if you give this one a go.

Currently reading

More Sales Please by Sara Nasser Dalrymple (affiliate link). This was recommended by the brilliant

Lucy Werner

who writes

Hype Yourself

, and if you’re a small business owner then it’s a must-read. I’ve been highlighting so many things as I’ve been reading, and realising so much about my mindset around selling. If you read this I’d love to know your thoughts about it!

Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Kevin (affiliate link). I’m late to the party with this one, but it’s my current fiction book and it’s brilliant so far. If you haven’t read this yet then I’d definitely recommend adding it to your reading pile!

Home ed

It has been a bit chilly over the last few weeks, but I’m so desperate to get out and about on sunny days! We’ve been pottering about and our son is loving forest school despite the weather - he will literally go out in anything!

I was recently chatting to someone on Instagram and they pointed me in the direction of a wonderful Forest Journal that has been put together by Forestry England. It’s free to download if you sign up here, and there are some fantastic prompts for mindfulness and wellbeing. Even if you don’t live near to a forest, you could go to the park and walk through the trees and think about them together. This is a great activity for grown ups too, so you don’t have to do it with kids!

Why not try some of these forest-themed activities too? You could make them more or less complicated depending on age.

DIY pinecone owl by Acorn to Oak

Nature inspired playdough by Real Red Riding Hoods

Animal track stamps by Green Kid Crafts

Natural paint brushes by Learn Create Love

Winter tree art by Fantastic Fun and Learning

From the archives

We are trying to eat more healthily this year, so I’ve been revisiting some of the recipes from my blog archives. Our son is a very fussy eater, and I feel like over the last few years we’ve sort of ended up eating the same old meals most weeks and I think we’ve both had enough of that. It has actually been really lovely to cook some old favourites together and try out some new recipes too. Our daughter has been excellent at trying them all so far at least! It feels really joyful to be cooking together and I want to keep trying new things throughout the year.

This spicy parsnip soup is one of my favourites, it’s so warming and delicious.

We’ve been making this chicken curry for years and our daughter loves it too.

The photo of this sticky honey soy turkey with noodles is not the best I’ve ever taken 😂 but we had this recently and I had forgotten how delicious it is.

These spicy aubergine chips need to be on our meal plan again soon.

We also tried some new recipes from this new Deliciously Ella book (affiliate link), which are all plant based. I’m really excited to try more of these!

Hello! Hooray! Shop

Don’t forger that my second book, The Modern Embroidery Handbook, is available to preorder! It’s gone out to review on NetGalley, and there are some wonderful reviews of it on there with an overall 5* rating 🥳 But I have to admit that I have got massively in my head about the reviews this time for some reason, and I’m finding that quite a challenge. I’m so proud of this book, and I think that it has some of my best stitching in it - I hope you love it too!

It’s also available to preorder via my publisher, on Amazon and Bookshop.org too. Kits will be available for preorder soon.

Wishing you a creative month ahead

Thanks for reading my monthly roundup! I hope you’ve found something to take away and try this month. There will be a launch post for my Embroidery Membership hitting your inboxes on 30th January for all subscribers, and then I’ll be moving back to posting once a month for free subscribers with the odd additional post here and there.

If you want to chat you can reply here on Substack or find me on socials too!

Clare 😊