Hi there, me again; Happy New Year.

I know, 2025 was a bit hit and miss, really, when it came to me writing anything other than my dissertation. And that was finished back at the end May. Very sporadic since.

Of course, it didn’t help that it took basically the whole of the last six months of the year to get my craft corner up and organised enough for me to use my desk. Every time I thought I was there, more things would magically appear on my desk. The trouble, I think, of it being in a corner of the main room downstairs.

It’s still not quite complete (I have two pegboards waiting to be attached to the walls, and the desk still isn’t as clear and tidy as I’d ideally like), but it’s good enough for those odd moments when I have some time to myself. And the pegboards will be up soon. I hope. I was mostly just pleased with myself for managing to reduce and reorganise several large boxes of supplies which had been tripping people up as they passed my shelves. Still not perfectly organised, but I can work with it and organise more as I go.

Anyway.

I didn’t really get very far with 2025’s goals, other than completing my MA. The Heyer Challenge fizzled out as I got stuck into the Heyer dissertation, and I haven’t really read one since. Partly for a break, and partly because of other distracting books, like the new Galbraith, and the Skandar and the unicorn ones, and the second of Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures (and the last Skandar paperback is out in a couple of weeks, and I see there’s a third Impossible Creatures in the Autumn; yay!). Perhaps I’m ready to return to Heyer again.

Goals for 2026.

Let’s start with the big ones: Writing and Crafting.

After the fiasco of 2025, my main goals for 2026 are to get back to writing and crafting regularly.
Naturally, despite not actually doing much crafting last year, I did continue to purchase supplies. I’d been ruthless about getting rid while organising, you see, so obviously I had space that needed filling…

I also now have three scrapbooks to get caught up with: the Family Scrapbook, Tiny’s scrapbook, and there was a new arrival at the tail-end of the year, so Tiny 2’s scrapbook too. And I need to replenish my card-stash for all the 2026 birthdays and Christmas (gosh it feels wrong to be thinking about next Christmas when we aren’t yet done with this Christmas!). I’ve also been perusing YouTube tutorials for non-card papercrafting: scrapbook layouts and mini journal-folios, among other things.

I’ll try to fit some crochet and cross-stitch in between.

As for writing, I’ll start by trying to get back to showing up here once a week. Hopefully with some amusing words about the week just gone, or the reading or crafting I’ve done, but I’ll start with just some words. I’m out of practice. On the other hand, I have neither dissertation nor work to distract me this year, at least while I re-establish writing routines. Just Tiny and Tiny 2. But what’s life without a little challenge, hey?

So those are my goals for 2026. Have you any?