18 for 2018 – July update

Happy Wednesday and welcome to August! Which means I only have 2 more months to go before baby is born and I just can’t wait! Because I’ve submitted my thesis, I did actually get a lot done this month and I can’t wait to share with you. Ready? Here we go!

18 letters sent to friends – 2/18
With the interstate move I would like to keep in contact with friends so I want to make the effort to send them handwritten letter throughout the year.

Hum, I haven’t been good at all with this goal, have I? On the bright side I did send message to everyone for their birthdays (there were a few) this month so I guess I’m still catching up with friends but not really sending snail mail. 

17 new recipes tried – Completed in July
If you’ve been following me for a while you will know that I love cooking and baking so this should be pretty easy. Plus, the monthly bake-along will definitely help me with this one!

I’ve made a delicious batch of shortbread biscuits for the Fantastic Bake Along this month, and they were amazing! I’ve also made Kate’s peanut butter cookies and tried a new recipe for banana bread that a friend gave to me. So this goal is finished! yay! I will be baking more over the next few months for sure though so I will probably share more pictures for this goal.

P.S. I don’t have a pic of the completed banana bread because when it came out of the oven it went straight to hubby’s office (I kept him company that day) and was never seen again! 

16 painted units of miniatures – 4/16
My husband and I play a miniature game and one of the fun parts is to build and paint our own miniatures. I haven’t done much last year so I hope to catch up this year by painting more models.

None this month but we have played a game (see below) which motivated me to paint for next month!

15 books read – 6/15
I’ve decided to tune down this goal from last year, as I don’t have a lot of time to read. But I feel like 15 would be a good number to reach this year.

One more book this month, the last in the series I previously mentioned reading (Les tentacules du mal). I have two new books on the go though, one set in the same universe as the series I was reading (it’s another trilogy) and a book about babies and children (hoping to pick up some advice before bub is here). 

14 mitered squares added to my memory blanket – 4/14
I have started a knitted memory blanket using my scraps of yarn from previous projects (mostly socks) and I’d like to see it grow this year.

I finally knit on this! yay! I added three more squares last week and now have what will probably be the final width, 10 squares in total.

13 batches of baked goodsmade and eaten – 10/13
Again, with the bake-along this should be quite easy to accomplish!

You can tell I’ve submitted my thesis, I’ve been baking a lot these past weeks! On top of the shortbread biscuits and peanut cookies, I’ve made banana granola cookies and another batch (or three) of scones (those were for the baby shower we had earlier this month).

12 pairs of socks – 4/12
We have real winters in Melbourne, so hubby and I will definitely need new socks, I thought one per month was a manageable goal.

Two pairs of socks this month, I was on fire! I’m still a bit late on my ‘one pair a month’ but I know I can catch up!

11 new stitch markers made – 0/11
I have been playing with shrinking plastic lately and I’d like to make new stitch markers using some cute drawings.

I say that every month, still nothing on this front (why did I even make this a goal again?)

10 new movies seen – Completed in May
We go to the movies almost every week, so I think this goal will be easy to reach, but it will give me a change to blog about movies I see a bit more.

I know I’ve completed this goal a while ago, but we went to see Hotel Transylvania 3 and Antman 2 and those were both so good! I actually really loved Hotel Transylvania, the story was great, the new characters were great and the old ones were just as fun as usual. Antman was also such a good movie, I just love how it tied up into the other Marvel movies. 

9 amigurumi made – 3/9
I obviously love amigurumi enough to design some! I want to precise that those 9 amigurumi will be from other designers, I might even participate in another ami-along.

I have completed one of my Orbit the Dragon! The next one still needs to be assembled, I though I might manage that today but I ended up having to do other things (mostly boring admin stuff, which took me all afternoon). I’ll do a proper post with more pictures on Friday but here is Orbit #1!

8 months cross-stitched on the snowblower diaries calendar – 2/8
This did not get worked on at all last year, so I’d like to finish it this year.

I haven’t been feeling like cross stitching so I’m not forcing it. Maybe when it gets warmer I’ll be back to it. 

7 games of 40k played with hubby – 3/7
The good thing with painting miniatures is that I will definitely want to play more (I’m hoping anyway) and this will definitely be a fun activity to do with my husband.

We had another game and I destroyed hubby again mwahahahaha! My army is the one on the left, and although I had less miniatures than him I killed all his stuff, giving me a major victory.

6 new designs published – 2/6 
As you know I already have two new designs that I need to write up and publish. I have also started on a knitted shawl design using the beautiful yarn I got in NZ. Very excited about this one!

Not quite but I actually did work on the pattern for Cooper the Copepod, I just need to take more tutorial pictures for the pattern and get testers before I can release it (hopefully in August). I’ve also been drawing a couple of designs I had in mind, I’m thinking to make a two in one pattern for an orca/narwhal 🙂 

5 k steps walked every day – 15/31
I changed this goal. I am still trying to keep moving during my pregnancy to not transform into a couch potato! Hopefully this will help me keep healthy despite the weight gain.

Ouch, not great with this goal this month, it’s been getting increasingly tiring to go for long walks, especially with our dog as he is quite eager to walk faster and I just can’t do it at the moment. There were a few days when I did walk a lot though, especially two days when I walked 8 and 10 km (12,000 and 16,000 steps respectively) and I have been going to the pool to swim so I’m not feeling too unfit yet. 

4 LOTR squares finished – 2/4
Yes I know I’ve been making this for ages but 2018 is the year I get it finished!

I have just started the second to last square, which should be done this month if all goes well (touching wood here). 

3 jumpers knitted – 1/3
Similarly to the need for socks, I will need more jumpers this year! I already have the yarn and a pattern for my first jumper so I’m hoping this goes smoothly.

I have cast on my second jumper of the year, but I’m afraid it will end up too big for me (even though I got gauge with the yarn and needles I’m using) fingers crossed that it works out or I will have to gift it to someone else. 

2 getaway trips – Completed in July
We are trying to save money for a house deposit this year, but I’d still like to get a couple weekends away with hubby. We already have one planned, we will be going to the Bendigo sheep and wool show in July

We went to Bendigo and it was great! I loved catching up with my spinning friends and looking at all the sheep/goat, it was super cool!

1 thesis submitted – Completed in June
I’m so keen to finish my PhD, so this is definitely my n°1 goal this year!

It took them almost the whole month but the Grad school has acknowledged that they have received my thesis so that I didn’t have to pay extra fees, yay!

That is it for this month, I’m super proud of my progress and I’m super keen for August! I hope you’ve had a great month too and that you achieved what you wanted to do!