Author: Caroline

Monthly Review – March 2023

March was a quiet one blog wise as life has been super busy but here’s my monthly snapshot.

Latest posts

New recipes

  • quick chicken curry
  • chicken leek & corn pie
  • curried beef & noodles
  • beef fried rice
  • meatballs in sticky plum sauce
  • garlic butter chicken
  • chicken satay rissoles
  • bbq pork ribs
  • spiced rubbed chicken w maple glaze

What I’ve been consuming (videos, podcasts, books, music)

Lots of craft & gardening videos
AFL

Gratitude

  • family
  • craft time
  • internet friends

Events

  • a 13th birthday party – we played D&D
  • so many craft/business workshops
  • our first lot of bottle fed foster kittens
  • School athletics for both kids
  • MIL’s birthday

Monthly stats

  • Number of photos taken – 364
  • Books/pages read – 4 books

Monthly Goals

Current

  • Photo-A-Day
  • Declutter 365
  • Clean up this blog
  • Set up April & May in my planner

Next Month

  • Photo-A-Day
  • Declutter 365
  • Winter planner setup
  • blog posts

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the 2023 monthly review tag

Monthly Review – February 2023

Welcome to something new I’m doing in 2023 – my month in review. Each month I’ll be sharing

My posts for the month, new recipes I’ve tried, what I’ve been consuming (media wise), how I’ve done with my monthly goals (& sharing the goals for the month ahead), things I’m grateful for, events that happens, stats and anything else I want to share

So onto February 2023

Latest posts

  • No new posts since the last review

New recipes

  • RecipeTinEats Chicken shawarma
  • Beef kebabs
  • Meatloaf cupcakes
  • Creamy chicken pasta
  • RecipeTinEats Chicken lasagne
  • Stir fry beef bowl
  • Ginger chicken & crunchy noodle salad
  • Tandoori chicken wraps (with homemade flour tortillas)
  • Chinese pork & vegetables

What I’ve been consuming (videos, podcasts, books, music)

  • More junk journal videos
  • Lots of history docos
  • Death in Paradise
  • Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch by Rachel Patterson
  • Creative Watercolor by Ana Victoria Calderón
  • The Witchy Homestead by Zoe Ingram, Nikki Van De Car

Gratitude

  1. Long warm days
  2. Kids going back to school
  3. James being allowed to drive again

Events

  • Lots of craft workshops for me
  • Kara turned 13 – I have a teenager!!
  • Dad doing a presentation on my Grandfather (his Dad) at the Chin society

Monthly stats

  • Number of photos taken – 292
  • Books/pages read – 3 books started. 2 books finished.

Monthly Goals

Current

  • Photo-A-Day – all done
  • Declutter 365 – all done
  • Get back into the school routine – daily alarm set for M-F but we still run late most days 🙁
  • Clean up this blog – started

Next Month

  • Photo-A-Day
  • Declutter 365
  • Clean up this blog
  • Set up April & May in my planner

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the 2023 monthly review tag

Monthly Review – January 2023

Welcome to something new I’m doing in 2023 – my month in review. Each month I’ll be sharing my posts for the month, new recipes I’ve tried, what I’ve been consuming (media wise), how I’ve done with my monthly goals (& sharing the goals for the month ahead), things I’m grateful for, events that happens, stats and anything else I want to share

So onto the review of January 2023

Latest posts

New recipes

  • English muffins
  • Baguettes
  • Mongolian beef meatballs
  • RecipeTinEats Chicken salad
  • Beef rissoles with scallop potato
  • Chicken Kyiv pasta bake
  • Creamy French onion chicken salad
  • Thai chicken meatball salad
  • Cheesy one pan sour cream chicken pasta

What I’ve been consuming (videos, podcasts, books, music)

  • Junk journal videos
  • Cricket – Tests and Big Bash League
  • History Channel
  • Death in Paradise S10 & S11
  • The Legend of Vox Machina Season 2
  • Egyptian Mythology by Garry J Shaw
  • Grimoire of a Kitchen Witch by Rachel Patterson

Gratitude

  1. Family
  2. Super relaxed school holidays.
  3. Fresh summer fruits – hello mangos

Events

  • School holiday workshops for the kids
  • Birthdays – Dad & Mine

Monthly stats

Number of photos taken: 363
Books/pages read: 120 pages

Monthly Goals

January Goals

  • Photo-A-Day – all 31 days done
  • Declutter 365 – a couple of days behind but mostly done
  • 1st quarter vision board – done and in my planner

February Goals

  • Photo-A-Day
  • Declutter 365
  • Get back into the school routine
  • Clean up this blog

Want to see previous reviews? Check out the 2023 monthly review tag

Planner Setup for 2023

Another year in my Planners Anon Melodies. Hopefully I might add a third to the line-up this year and have a dedicated Christmas planner (hello Christmas at Home). Maybe even splurge and buy myself a Melody for Spring or Autumn – possibly Sakura for Spring and All for Fall for Autumn. It depends on what Sami brings out this year.

This year I’m shaking things up a bit. I’m using both the strings and rings in the Melody. On the front string I’ve got a B6 TN Undated Monthly Glance from Lights Planner Action for all my monthlies, monthly goals, important dates
On the rings I have 4 dividers set up. The first is Yearly which contains my Master Birthday & Anniversary list and my 23 goals for 2023. I’ll be adding moon phases, yearly oracle reading, yearly numerology & corresponding Tarot in here too.
Next is my weeklies. I printed a bunch of dot grid paper which I downloaded. There is a blank page and the front and back of each month so I can decorate the front and do a monthly roundup on the back.
Third divider houses my trackers – mood, sleep and period. I have a master habit tracker on my Google Drive that I purchased from Thyme is Honey. I’m thinking I’ll add a paper habit tracker to this section and just transfer the data at the end of each month.
The forth, and last divider, is my Misc section. Movies to watch & have watched. Books to read and have read. TV shows and Podcasts
On the back string I have a planner pocket from Planners Anon I’m using to store the stickers I use every week (like my rubbish bin stickers from Luscious Labels)

Here’s a quick flick through (& sneak peak of some of my January pages)

You can see my previous setups in these posts – 2022 | 2021

Catching up – the rest of 2022 in my planner

September sees me move into my Spring/Summer planner which is a Planners Anonymous B6 melody from the Note to Self range.
I changed up my planner inserts a bit for the remainder of the year – a mix of boxed, bullet journal and even had a go at designing my own.

September was the boxed Masquerade insert from Planners Anonymous, October was the insert I designed using the Planners Anon For the Boos digital creative kit, November was Planners Anon Dream Chaser luxe bujo insert and December was another bujo insert from Planners Anon (I can’t remember which one). I have to admit I am really loving playing with bullet journal spreads again.

Catching up – My Winter planner 2022

July and August were still in my Planner Anonymous Northern Lights melody cover. Inserts are from Planners Anonymous as well with
July being a bujo insert (I can’t remember which one) and August was Dream Chaser.

September sees me move back into my Spring/Summer planner – the Planners Anonymous Note to Self melody.

Around here in 2023

Welcome to 2023! Yeah I know it’s nearly the end of January but life has been a bit more relaxed since Christmas. We’re enjoying the warm days, sleeping in when we don’t have work, the kids are sleeping in the tent most nights. Cricket is on the TV. Life is just generally slower before the rush of back to school and more structure in the first week of February.
The eldest is off to High School this year so that will be interesting.

Anywho, what can you expect here on the blog for 2023?

  • I’m starting with a good clean up. The majority of my craft posts will be leaving, they may turn up on my craft blog – Nightwolf Crafts.
  • I have a couple of Catching Up posts scheduled that I wrote towards the end of 2022 and never posted.
  • In the Den Kitchen is going to get a major revamp. I’m not sure what as yet but it’s going to change.
  • I’ll be archiving a bunch of outdated posts.
  • Still posting my planner setups and weekly layouts.
  • A new 101 things list (the last one finished in October 2022)
  • More of the Travelling Tasmania series.
  • Party planning for a 13th and 9th birthday
  • A new series of posts.
  • General posts about blogging, family, food and planners.
  • I’m hoping to branch out a little in 2023 with some planner things but we’ll see how that goes Smile

Hope you all had a good Christmas & New Year and I hope 2023 is a good year for you.

2022 – a year in review

So 9 days into 2023 and I’m finally getting around to doing my year in review.

2022 was an … interesting year.

January – school holidays. Crafting. fatal car accident out the front of our house.Lots of foster kittens.Kids got first covid jabs. Dad’s birthday. my birthday. Dylan Alcott got Australian of the Year.
February – Covid boosters. Chinese New Year. Started setting up the craft room. Back to school (Grade 2 & Grade 6!!).  Kara’s birthday. 2nd Covid jab for her. Dad had a heart attack.
March – Statewide internet & mobile phone outage. Kara trialled contact. My uncle (Mum’s brother) passed away. School athletics. 2nd Covid jab for Anastasia. My niece turned 1.
April – Kara started club hockey.School holidays. workshop at Bev’s playing with polymer clay. Kittens with ringworm.
May – Artist trading card workshops. First game of club hockey. Rangers FC made the Europa League final, lost on penalties. But then made Scottish Cup final & won. Federal election, Labour won. School cross country. First trip away without kids. Battle of Crete memorial.
June – TPSSA Cross Country for Kara. Crystal workshop. Would have been Mum’s birthday.
July – School hockey. Flu vax for me & James. Paper making. School holidays. Children’s Uni event at AMC. Cousin got married, we were sick & couldn’t go. Arm warmer workshop at Rascal Robot. Kids sick
August – me sick. bought a new dishwasher, washing machine & dryer with tax return. Anastasia’s birthday. James finally got to see specialist about his knee (only taken a year & a half!). Book week.
September – James sick. Queen Elizabeth II dies and Charles becomes king. Applied to the high school Kara wants to go to. Club hockey finals, lost but Kara scored a goal. Hockey presentation evening. James had MRI on his knee.  TPSSA Athletics for Kara.
October – School holidays. Council elections. New dishwasher, washing machine & dryer delivered. James collapsed, ambulance trip to A&E. Blood clots to 90% of his lungs. Stayed in hospital for a week. Stem Club for Kara. Mental health issues for Kara.
November – James started physio. School Hobart trip with the Grade 5/6 classes. Social club hockey. TPSSA Swimming carnival for Kara. High school transition days.
December – End of year school stuff. Grade 6 leaver’s dinner. Presentation assembly, both girls got an award. Christmas stuff. Annual Christmas dinner with friends. Quiet Christmas day, short visits with immediate family. Set up the tent in the backyard & the kids pretty much stayed there every night. Quiet NYE.

So that is pretty much what happened in 2022 for us. Here’s hoping to a healthier 2023 and a good start to high school for Kara.