Looking Forward....

We’re deep in 2025 and starting Fiberuary. Yesterday’s prompt was looking forward, and I thought a lot about it because, well, I’ve been moving forward quite quickly. A lot has changed, and I think you’re well due for an update.

First thing first: I moved! I loved living in Lithuania and Vilnius will always be one of my favourite places in the entire world but there just wasn’t a lot of opportunity to grow in my husband’s career. We had been looking for new opportunities for a while and he finally secured a job in Malta. We had both been here before and absolutely loved the culture, the history, and, most importantly, the food! I’m firmly a winter girl so moving to the warmest country in Europe has been tough. I get my seasonal depression in the summer so being in a more tropical climate is something that I’ve been slow to get used to.

I was talking to my friend and he asked a very simple question, “Do you think there’s anything you can do that will make you like the sunshine?”. Realistically, I don’t think I’ll ever love the heat. I don’t like being sweaty, I don’t like having my phone on full brightness, and I don’t like being too warm for winter clothes and cosy blankets. Luckily I love a good thought exercise so I started thinking maybe the answer isn’t to make myself like the sun, but to find ways to appreciate it. I need to take my approach to movie musicals- love them for what they are instead of hating them for what they’re not- and apply it to every part of my life, but specifically this one.

With that attitude, I landed on one big thing: citrus trees.

The thing is, I love gardening. I think it’s a truly magical thing to put a seed in the ground and have it come out completely unrecognizable. I also love cooking with things I’ve grown. Take peas- they start to turn their sugars into starches the second you pluck them off the plant. Few things in this world taste better than a just-picked pea. Truthfully I have no idea how to garden here. All my planting schedules have usually been determined by the frost but here frost just… doesn’t happen. Isn’t that an opportunity for some fun? I’m just going to grow everything and see what works when, because why not? Not to mention all the things I never thought I’d be able to grow at home- lemons, oranges, limes… I could get a chinotto orange plant and naturally ferment my own chinotto with my ginger bug. I could get a key lime tree and make proper key lime pie. I could get really into growing tomatoes.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how I structure this space. I can see all the stats and I don’t think anyone is coming to me to read a once-a-week update or for thought pieces like this, though I will keep doing it on YouTube for those who like more podcast-style content. Realistically what I think people want is the information and opinion on whatever specific thing I’m talking about. If I’m being honest, that’s what I’m looking for in terms of pattern reviews either.

Going forward I’m going to try having one post per pattern and updating it with different views as I make them. I also think I’m going to branch out and write more about my experiments in cooking, gardening, and fermentation. These are things I mention when I do posts and videos and get questions about constantly through Instagram and email. If you’re one of the ones that does like a weekly check I hope you’ll be okay with this new format. If you’ve been with me for the span of this whole craft journey I hope that you’ll be excited and curious for more. I know algorithmically I might be tanking myself, but I also think that I need to celebrate all the facets of me, SEO be damned.

I can’t wait to start updating you with all the new stuff I’m doing. Thanks for (still) being here x