This week’s roundup is my weekly attempt to share things from around the web. Sometimes it will include affiliate links, but it will never include something I am not enjoying already.

Random Love this week:

This bear is invited to my backyard this summer

This is why trying on jeans is the 6th circle of hell
Lisa Simpson + Pink Pony Club - we don’t deserve this. so. so. so. good
Whimsy, can I get my neighborhood to do this? no, but I want to

Watching/Listening:

Finally on the last season of Lost, but I have listened to some great podcasts this week

• Great episode about one of the few books I really enjoyed last year

• My favorite silly club has a podcast

• This (old episode) one still makes me cry

Making:

Finished up a quilt for a baby in my life, but the pattern was made up by my mother so I can’t share it.

Still working on the stocking for my nephew

• pattern: The middle one in this set of three stockings

• yarn: Knitpicks Brava Sport in Wine and Almond

And almost done with the border on Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Arctic Animals stitch

Reading:

My book clubs are reading the following this mongth:

• The Husbands

• The Italian Ballerina

• Black Woods Blue Sky

• The Fetishists

I am also reading:

Murderbot series

The Snow Child

Catching Whimsy

Cooking:

Beans, so many beans, but this recipe was this week’s adventure

Planning:

Quilted Shoes

Buying:

Which led to a ridiculous purchase of a full bolt of pellon 2 sided foam stabilizer

The intersection of traditions and habits is found in the keeping. Are you finding it hard to keep you traditions going?

Why? Is it because they have lost their meaning, are you doing them for the sake of doing them? Is it a time problem, you are having trouble putting the required energy into your life? You can absolutely use this as a reason to drop the tradition, but sometimes you just need to allow yourself the freedom to skip it, reduce the specifics or lighten the load related to the tradition.
If you are having trouble getting the gumption, finding the energy, or generally connecting back to your tradition try something from this list

• go back to your why

• choose a scaled down version of your tradition

• change the timing

Your why is how you took an activity from a random thing to a tradition, maybe you just need to remind yourself of what the tradition means, what value and emotion it applies to. This small reminder can help you motivate yourself.

Scale it down. If you normally cook an elaborate meal or dish try just one dish or a simplified version of your recipe. Buy the dish, get takeout or try a restaurant with a similar vibe to your normal tradition. You can still get a similar experience without needing to skip the entire tradition.

Change the timing. Even if it is associated with a holiday, or specific part of the calendar, you can change it. One year I was super ill the same weekend that I normally make a very involved cinnamon roll recipe for a holiday. What did I do? I postponed the holiday all together. Pretended it didn’t exist on the correct weekend and instead made the cinnamon rolls a few weekends later. We did all the other things I associated with that holiday as well. Was it convenient? Not even a little, but I really value the traditions associated and I didn’t want to miss out on them entirely.

This week’s roundup is my weekly attempt to share things from around the web. Sometimes it will include affiliate links, but it will never include something I am not enjoying already.

I do not enjoy shoveling snow, but I do adore Snow on Dead Trees. It’s is so beautiful in an ephemeral, delicate, contrasty sort of way.

Watching:

Still watching Lost, but really looking forward to a couple of different movies

• The Substance

• You’re Cordially Invited

• Nickel Boys

Making:

Working on binding for yet another quilt. Finished the Lucky Log Cabin quilt top! The never ending Fairy Tale Forest Quilt. I am in love with that quilt, but I find paper piecing VERY VERY slow

Still working on the stocking for my nephew

• pattern: The middle one in this set of three stockings

• yarn: Knitpicks Brava Sport in Wine and Almond

And almost done with the border on Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Arctic Animals stitch

Reading:

My book clubs are reading the following this mongth:

• All the things I never told you

• The Husbands

• The Italian Ballerina

• Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

• The Fetishists

Cooking:

Made this family favorite recipe, we do 1/2 the peanut butter centers

Planning:

-Halloween Quilt, debating between

These

Three

Patterns

Maybe this Seamwork Pattern for these two fabrics

Buying:

Swim caps as I train up for an aqua bike in 2026

Other Random:
Love this art

When you go from an activity to a tradition, you have decided you want to repeat an experience. The first thing to figure out is your scheduled. Do you want to do it regularly each day, week, month, year? Then figure out how to organize both your time and you supplies. If your tradition is a creative one, you will no doubt have supplies. To keep stress down put your supplies in one place, dedicate one shelf, box, bag, closet, etc. If it can’t all be in one place write a “recipe” for what you will need in order to do the tradition. The recipe should be a list of supplies and maybe even a note about how to set up for success.

Give yourself grace. You do not have to perform your tradition perfectly every time. The idea of practicing a tradition highlights exactly that. We do not perfect yoga, we practice. Humans do not perfect a religion, we practice. One does not perfect an instrument, they practice.

The best way to ensure that you are able to keep your tradition is to practice it.

One of my strongest beliefs about traditions is that they don’t need to last forever. There are as many, or more, reasons to end a tradition as there are to start them. Let me give you just a handful. Is the tradition harmful? Harmful to you, harmful to others, harmful to your energy, time, health, etc. Harm is hard to completely avoid, so do not inflect pain upon yourself or others for the sake of a tradition.

Is the tradition no longer serving you? If you always celebrate a specific religious holiday, but you have left or distanced yourself from that religion maybe that holiday no longer serves you either. Is it possible to change your tradition to fit your current life? Of course, there are plenty of non-religious extrapolations that can be made for/from holidays even if the holiday originates with a religion, but it’s also important to leave those things that no longer work for you. Stop celebrating that holiday, stop making that dish, stop spending your time on the things that no longer serve you.

Is this tradition for someone else? Did you get the tradition from another generation of your family? Sometimes that makes them even more meaningful, but sometimes they were great for that generation, but don’t make sense in your time.

All in all traditions should enhance, not burden your life. If you are feeling burdened by a tradition, let it go. End it, don’t bother feeling guilty, don’t bother harboring bitterness, just let it go. Stop the tradition

This week’s roundup is my weekly attempt to share things from around the web. Sometimes it will include affiliate links, but it will never include something I am not enjoying already.

Watching:

My significant other and I have decided to go back and watch Lost. Lost came out while I was in college and somewhere I am sure someone has written something about its weird relationship with its viewers. We just watched maybe the saddest of episode in the entire show and the tears were flowing.

Making:

I am hand stitching some binding to the back of my most recent quilt finishes. Yes, I do typically machine stitch to one side and hand stitch to the other, but we had a great Quilt Guild meeting last night that featured many different binding options. We even had Deonn give us many tips straight from her book (it’s a great one!) I might try a different method of binding for my next quilt

Still working on the stocking for my nephew

• pattern: The middle one in this set of three stockings

• yarn: Knitpicks Brava Sport in Wine and Almond

And finished my narwhal on my Frosted Pumpkin Stitchery Arctic Animals stitch

Reading:

My very favorite read this entire week starts out seeming very “don’t let technology ruin” or “get off my lawn” but ends with a sentiment that could have been the tagline for Make Traditions:

As our world becomes ever more saturated with images and virtualisations, we shouldn’t let our desire for alluring technologies eclipse the human need to see, touch and make things with our hands.

My book clubs are reading the following this mongth:

• Weyward

• All the things I never told you

• The Husbands

• The Italian Ballerina

• Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

• Luminaries

Cooking:

I’m just back from travel, but have plans to make something beany and delicious. I’m leaning toward this one right now, but will probably add chicken thighs

Planning:

Lucky Log Cabin quilt - making this one on saturday!

I want to make a version of this old navy dress out of some insane fabric Still on a hunt for this pattern

Buying:

The Best headphones (I buy an older version to save $$)

My current fidget obsession

This week’s roundup is my weekly attempt to share things from around the web. Sometimes it will include affiliate links, but it will never include something I am not enjoying already.

Watching:

I recently did a re-watch of ER on max. I can say confidently that the first 6-8 seasons of that show are excellent. I recommend you go back and visit it!

So much youtube. I’ve been on a run of flosstube watching mostly because I love WIP parades (look for my version in my next weekly update)
Cross Stitch the Globe

Thread Gremlins

Adelaide Stitches

Making:

I took my most recent two quilts to my mom’s house and we are about to load them on the longarm to get them going. Have not decided on the panto, but if you are looking for great ones take a look at The Quilting Mill (full disclosure, I know the owner, but I loved her pantograph designs well before I met her)

I am knitting a stocking for my nephew from the same patterns I used for the rest of his family

• pattern: The middle one in this set of three stockings

• yarn: Knitpicks Brava Sport in Wine and Almond

Reading:

My book clubs are reading the following this mongth:

• Weyward

• All the things I never told you

• Bear

• The Italian Ballerina

• Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

• Luminaries

Cooking:

All the beans. I make a batch at the beginning of the week and then eat through them for lunches and add them to dinners. At this point I have even checked out this book from the library

Planning:

Lucky Log Cabin quilt

I want to make a version of this old navy dress out of some insane fabric but can’t decide if I want to try and self-draft the pattern from my garment or find an already existing pattern. If you have a recommendation for a pattern let me know

Events:

Quiltcon!

Buying:

This headache helper

This Lego Cat

Starting a tradition is simply beginning something you want to do multiple times. This can be super specific or pretty generic. Example: I want to serve this specific recipe every Christmas Eve at 4 pm (specific) or I would like to begin creating art (generic)

I tend to land somewhere in the middle with my traditions. I am not great at super specific traditions because I find that adds too much pressure and has an air of perfection included, but I don’t appreciate that kind of approach to almost anything in my life. I have also found that the best traditions have a why behind them. I cook many meals at home because I think home cooked food is the overall healthiest way to fuel our bodies. Healthy because you are in control of the ingredients, nutrients, energy, and methods, but also healthy because you are the one making, the one saving money, you are welcoming an energy of creation, you are proving your own abilities and improving your skills. So the why behind that traditions is multi-faceted for me, but there is a strong why. A weak why does not tend to support a new tradition, but may instead support a good habit. I brush my teeth not for any feeling or emotional reason but simply to avoid cavities. Maybe you have a much more involved reason to brush, maybe you then have a tradition. I do not.

Sometimes you need to try something out a couple of times before it becomes a tradition! That’s I fine too. I consider trying new things a tradition of its own!

The real steps:

1. Pick a tradition

2. Find your why

3. Decide on schedule (specific or generic)

4. Do you tradition

When I am thinking of traditions I think first of holidays, but when you really dig into traditions what I am talking about is some combination of the many definitions from a dictionary.

• elements of a culture

• behavior and customs

• beliefs held to be true, not necessarily from a religious text (but can be)

• methods of practice

• activities

Most people also believe that traditions must be passed through generations, and while I don’t disagree, traditions can also start and end in your own lifetime.

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