September 30th-

I am someone who likes to do crafts and try new ones constantly. The crafts I have done or liked the most are knitting hats, embroidery and making cards.

I started knitting hats somewhere around fourth grade when I started a kit that my aunt had gotten me. The first one I made looked very interesting but I knew I liked it from then. The kit I got had only one size loom so I started doing baby hats. I can make one hat in around 30 minutes, so I just started making them all the time. My mom is a teacher and her school has craft sales in the winter so we decided to join that so I could sell them. I did and they sold pretty well but the biggest complaint from people was that I didn't make adult hats, which I don't want to do because they take closer to 3 hours. I just make them for people I like, like my friends and family members because I would have to sell them for a much higher price that most people wouldn't pay.

Embroidery is something I have always been interested in. I follow embroidery accounts on Tik Tok and Instagram because I always loved it. My mom got me some stuff to start doing it and it came naturally to me. I started doing it more and more and with different materials until I found what I truly liked the most. I found that I liked doing it on canvas bags, and I was best at flowers and outlines. Flowers are so organic and don't need to loo one certain way, unlike words or animals. The outlines are up to me on weather or not they should look perfect. Usually they look better when they are less exact. I am planning to sell canvas bags and Christmas ornaments at my moms school craft fair this upcoming winter, so I need to start making them more often to get up the inventory.

Card making was one craft that I got really in to, but I haven't picked back up in close to 2 years. I realized that I didn't really have a purpose for them, other than myself. So now I use them when I need them to give to people, and when I run out I might start making them again. It was a fun craft because there are so many different possibilities. Different paper colors, stamps,markers, pens, layers, the possibilities are endless. That is part of the reason I liked it, but also why I stopped it. Once I found one design I liked, I would just do that one and get stuck in a rut. After a while it felt like I had no new ideas because there were too many different things to choose from.

Though I switch up crafts often, usually I circle back to them eventually. I enjoy being creative and making practical things people can use.

November 18th-

Holiday traditions are important in my life. Every year is different, but there are main traditions that have never seemed to change.

One tradition that my family does is making pizzelles. These are anise flavored cookies that are cooked on a hot iron. We only eat these during the holidays, without any reason. Though they could be good to make and eat all year round, they are so much better near Christmas. Many people don't like them because of the favor, but can say that they are one of my favorites.

Another tradition that we do is wrapping our presents on Christmas Eve. This could be due to unpreparedness, but it is so fun to bring the excitement of weather or not we will get the gifts all wrapped. They always seem to get done, but it just adds to our Christmas spirit. We always do it at nights, where we eat out dinner then we take turns wrapping.

Something that everyone seems to do is to go looking at Christmas lights. We drive all around our neighborhood to see the houses of people we know and sometimes go visit with them. Then we go to the rich neighborhoods because their lights are always so much classier than ours. We always put the heat up really high but leave the windows down to see the lights good. Over the years, we bring more people, sometimes my moms friendś kids, sometimes my friends, and my brotherś friends.

Each year, in our entire family, we open up one present on the night before Christmas. This gift is always pajamas that we will wear to sleep. While we know what the gift is, it just reminds us of what the next day will be. We usually do this before dinner and wear them while eating dinner.

I hope to make new traditions as time goes on, that will continue for years into the future.

December 7th-

Spotify Wrapped is something that Spotify does to show what music you listened to for the past year. It includes your top five listened to artists, top five listened to songs, how many minutes you've listened to and the number of genres you've listened to. There are more things that are included, but these are the ones I like the most.

Over the year,I listened to 574 different artists. My top five are Post Malone, Olivia Rodrigo, Novo Armor, Sea Fret and the one artist I listened to most was Dean Lewis. I think this is an accurate representation of who I listened to for the past year. Post Malone has been one of my favorites for a couple years, and me and my brother got to go to one of his concerts just over two years ago. I am not a huge fan of Olivia Rodrigo, but she came out with one song called Drivers licence that I really liked, and still do, but I am less obsessed. I played the song 56 times to be exact, which is the most I have played one song. I enjoy Novo Armor, and listen to the music to go to sleep. Sea Fret is another that I listen to go to sleep. Dean Lewis is by far my top played person, and the person I most enjoy. He is from somewhere else and I like how his accent comes out in his music.

My top songs are 7 Minutes by Dean Lewis, Oceans by Seafret, Stay Awake by Dean Lewis, Waves by Dean Lewis and the number one is Drivers Licence by Olivia Rodrigo. None of the Dean Lewis ones are better than the other, but I agree that the three in the top five are really good. Oceans has a certain sound to it that I am really drawn to; it is like an acoustic version of a song, but it sounds soother and more cleaned up compared to other acoustic songs. Drivers Licence was playing out of every speaker I own every single day for weeks straight at one point. There are good memories with all of these songs, but Drivers Licence is the happiest in my brain.

I have listened to 22,216 minutes on Spotify, which surprised me because I feel like I haven't listened to that much music this past year, but I apparently did.

In the last year, I have listened to 48 new genres. I had no clue there even were 48 genres because I feel I haven't listened to that much of a variety. I was thinking ten would be my max. My top genres are Electropop, Poprock, Background Piano, Dance Pop and the top is Indie Folk. I am not sure what most of these are or what songs would fall under which category, so I now can just search for Indie Folk, and hopefully find something good.

January 5th-

My break

Over break, I started moving my room to another bedroom in our house. I have been wanting to for a while, but I decided I finally would have time. I got most stuff out of the room and my room into it, but now I just need to get out the bigger furniture. I need help to move it because its so big and heavy, so in the meantime I am just decorating it. I have a picture collage I recently put up and I am going to put up twinkle light soon.

Another thing I did was starting to knit a blanket. I had started one about a year and a half ago, but I had no pattern or tutorial to look at, so I just did what I though which turned out bad. I had only gotten a few inches done, and I just turned it into a scarf. This one I am currently working on is stripped and goes by much quicker than when I was doing the other one. Each strip is a little under six inches wide and they are about 50 inches long. Each one takes about 5-6 hours. In total, the blanket will take around 60 hours.

For christmas I got lots of things I wanted including a wall collage, shelves and a bag from my brother. My mom got me a cute couch for my room that I wanted, but it is backordered, so it will get here mid-February. I really like it, and think it will be good to hang out in. My current room is so small that I wouldn't be able to have more than one person over. Now I can have lots over and they will have somewhere to sit. Also, my dogs and cat are spoiled and they will get to use it.

Other people got me gift cards to Amazon and Ulta. I already spent the Amazon one and got two records, one from Novo Armor and one from Lewis Capaldi that I have listened to for a while. I also got a book light that goes on the book to light up single page, which I think will get to my house today.

January 25-

I have seen lots of cute sweaters and on Pinterest lately that people have crocheted. I don't know how to crochet, but I wanted to make one. I am almost done with my blanket, but I stopped making it in the meantime, just because it had no timeline. I want my sweater to be done by the time I go to California, which is in late March.

The inspiration for this was so different from how I am going to do it. I knit on a loom, so it is nothing like crocheting. The way to connect squares, the shape, and the general look will be different, but they all ave me inspiration. Due to the fact that I a going off of nothing, I made my own pattern based off of my favorite cardigan.

I got a little couch for Christmas, so my original goal was to have my blanket done by the time my couch was delivered, but I realized that would be so far out, and I have plenty of time before I need it. Our trip to California ids what I am looking forward to now, so I hope to by it done by then. I can look forward to the trip and getting something done.

For the pattern I made, I am going to need 30 squares, and both of the arms. Each square takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and a half to make, and the arms are going to take around 5 hours each. I figure, I can make one square everyday and do the arms and it might be close to the trip but it is doable. This weekend, I made 6 squares of it, so I think I will be fine on time.

I want it for the trip to California because I want to take cute pictures, and it is light so it will be a good layer for night or during the days even when we are out by the beach. It will be cute with shorts I think, so it will be one of my staple pieces while we are there.

I used this picture for reference of colors. I am changing the way the arms are, and the purple is going to just be solid, not striped. I am also changing all of the hems to the darker pink, instead of the orange near the middle. I am not sure what buttons I will do, but I don't think it will be like the ones on the picture. I will be doing the arm shape the exact same way by having it big and the same size all the way down, and the small cuff to create a 'bubble' look.

February 8th-

My week

Monday was the least fun day, but it was still a start to my busy and fun week. I just went to school, and then after went to out car insurance person to talk about things. After, we went to get dinner.

On Tuesday our class did Newspaper in a day. It was very fun. I got to work mostly with the stories and Juliet worked with the page design. We got to spend all day working on creating out newspaper. I did things like fixing grammar, formatting and creating a flow when reading.

On Wednesday, I have a couple things. One is Mock Trial. I haven't gotten to practice in a while, so I am excited to see how I will do. The competition is next Friday, so I am just slightly nervous. Another thing is that me and my besties are gonna go to youth group. We do it every week, but this week there is a new series.

On Thursday, I am doing Mock Trial after school, which I am excited about doing another time. I also get to go with this class to a park to take our cover photo for the magazine. Me and my friend are going to go to a jazz concert this day too, to support our band mates.

Friday to Saturday are the best days in my opinion. My friends chruch is doing a Lock In which is from 8pm to 7am. It is an all night thing and there are tons of games and things to do. We went to it two years ago and it was so fun. It was cancelled last year, and then rescheduled due to Covid this year. I was so glad it was rescheduled because I couldn't go to the original one.

On Sunday, I am going to training to become a youth leader at my church. I will be leading groups of 3rd through 5th graders. I am doing it because I want to help people at the age that people from my chruch group helped me. I am also doing it to get hours for NHS, but that isn't my main reason.

This picture is from Tuesday, it shows what I bought at King Soopers for the breakfast contribution.