Happy New Year! Welcome 2011!

We seem to all mention to each other how time is flying, and it flew again. So after having a rad fun filled party (Thank you Ria, Alex, Ron & Nick for organizing all that, I especially loved launching the big paper lanterns with our wishes for the new year. That was so much better than the usual plethora of fireworks that the Dutch tend to set off at New Years.) And now it is new years morning and I am in awe.........or just stunned.....hihi.

My housekeeper, who is the dearest soul, even showed up today to help me enter the new year with a relatively organized (my part of the deal) and at least clean house (her part of the deal). Luckily she showed up a little later than usual........ahum....but I was up and adam and breathing and drinking tea before she showed..... ;-) Albeit in my jam-mies, but that is okay for today. I tend to stay that way as long as I can today. Tomorrow morning I will be all active and teach my first yoga lesson of the year. I promise to be gentle with my participants.

I'm taking a short break from knitting and crochet production as I have bursitis in both shoulders and that got so bad that I had to have a shot in it (which is no fun but my orthopedic GP is a wizard at giving injections without pain). It's just a very intrusive nasty procedure to have done. And that is all that I'm gonna say about it.

Last weekend I immersed myself in the grand art of Tunisian crochet, which I hadn't done in years. Tried out all kinds of different stitches and ended up making a cute little pram blanket instead of just a few swatches. I was quite pleased. I will do more delving and later in the year I will teach a workshop in Tunisian at Woool. That will be fun. Throughout the year I have been teaching beginners and intermediate workshops in crochet for Pauline. And she is doing so well with the shop, I love dropping in on Saturdays to help her out,

just because it's fun! This worldwide revival of the needles arts has really taken off and hasn't passed as a fad.

I took a day trip on a Wednesday in December with Jennifer to Hoorn to meet Will Schouten and visit his shop, which resulted in a small increase of my stash, but still was great fun.

On the business level 2010 has been a good but challenging year for me and the practice. I think it is due to "intimidation" by the media over the crisis that makes people decide to keep their purses closed and not enjoy regular preventative treatments, although these treatments for the most part were still being reimbursed by the health insu

rance firms. Or maybe there are other reasons that I'm not smart enough to pick up on? So there was about a 40% drop in income for me. I must admit that I am developing more and more of a sense of Laisser Faire with all this, trusting the universe to provide for me and being immensely grateful for the support and concrete assistance that my friends and family give me when I really get into a bind. I'm still working two mornings a week at the guitar store, I'm still doing translation jobs and I also still am teaching workshops at the Pauline's yarn shop. So altogether all activities that I love and enjoy, keeping me basically covered, but still demanding work weeks of 60 hours and up sometimes. What I hope and trust for in the New Year is income just a bit above and beyond that, so I may relax a little more and maybe take some time off now and then for a breather, be it at home or on little or big trips. On that topic there are some wishes for the new year, visiting my friends in Goa (India), going to Glasgow again and swimming with wild dolphins in Bimini, and of course returning to Hawaii. Hope springs eternal!

Health-wise there are still a lot of challenges for me, but nothing that will keep me from achieving the above and more. So that will remain a work in progress. Happy to say that I'm on a diet that is working for me (anti-Candida diet) and that I've lost 13 kgs since oktober. Yeehaa, so if my body allows me I will keep shedding slowly........

I wish you all Health, Happiness and abundance for all of those you love, and ofcourse for yourself (and me!!).

In love and light

Yoff