In early November last year after my first ever attempt at Blogtober, I decided to write a review post to chat about my experience of taking part in a whole month of daily blogging. It was a really enjoyable post to put together, and I got a lot of satisfaction from looking back through all my photos and creating a visual overview of the month. You can read my 2020 blogtober review ((here)). I had so many comments after that post (131 of you wrote to me) that I guessed you enjoyed it and and hopefully you'll enjoy this year's offering just as much. I spent this afternoon looking back through my photos and creating some collages to share, so it's been a whole lot of creative fun for me too.
October will always have a little bit of a celebratory flavour because it's my birthday month, and I turned 53 this year.
We also had a much needed week-long break from school towards the end of the month, and there was Halloween to celebrate too.
Looking back through my photos today I realised that October was a much busier month than usual with quite a few outings and day trips. I really enjoyed every single jaunt that we made out of town, and realised (not for the first time) that I positively thrive when I'm out and about. Even if we are visiting familiar places, there's still a certain level of anticipation and excitement when there are walks and picnics and lots of lovely photogenic vistas to lift my spirits.
We walked at Bolton Abbey on Day 3.
On Day 11 we drove to the west Lancashire coast to spend a few sunny hours by the sea.
Day 9 was an exciting train journey to visit Newcastle university with Little Lady and it was wonderful to see and experience a completely new city.
I had the pleasure of Christine's company on a gloriously sunny Day 21 and we visited RHS Harlow Carr which was absolutely magnificent. Looking back at the post I wrote on that day fills me with joy, oh the colours were something else! Such a lovely day, and I know the memories will stay with me for a long time.
The most out of the ordinary thing I did in October was to travel south to Dorset to spend some time with my Dad. After my holiday back in August, I made a promise to myself that I would try and visit every season, and I'm so, so glad that I made an Autumn jaunt happen. I think I've mentioned before that my Dad has aged quite a lot since the start of the pandemic and without being morbid about it, I do really feel that I need to make the most of the time we have left together - who knows how long we have? With any luck it'll be many, many years, but something in my heart tells me not to take any of this time for granted.
I had a really lovely time in Dorset, but to be perfectly honest it was a major challenge to carry on with Blogtober each day while I was away. I mean, I took loads of photos so always had plenty of things to share but it was the extreme end-of-day tiredness that was the hardest thing for me. I'm telling you, the air down there is potent and makes me sooooooooo sleepy! Anyhow, reading back through my Dorset posts I'm so happy that I have my memories preserved for the future. You can find my Dorset Blogtobers here, here, here and here.
Creatively, October was a really good month and I found a lot of comfort and happiness in designing and making. I worked on an idea for a new mandala based on the Yuletide blanket stitch pattern and I love love love the results.
You can find the blog post on Day 7....
....and the tutorial and pattern can be found ((here)).
October was also a month where I dusted off my knitting skills, specifically the joy of knitting a pair of gloriously stripy socks. I treated myself to this lush Regia yarn, the colours expertly put together by Kaffe Fassett, and cast on on Day 13.
I tend to knit in short bursts as and when the mood takes me, so progress can be a bit on the slow, stop-starting side. By the end of October I'd managed to knit one and a half legs (I knit both socks at the same time) and with any luck I'll have them on my feet by the end of this month.
Throughout Blogtober I showed some snippets here and there of my other main project of the moment which you can see in the above photo. I actually did a LOT of crochet throughout the month and am absolutely beside myself with the feelings I have for the colour palette and these delicious little ripples. So. Much. JOY!!
I'm going to be writing more about it to share with you tomorrow (the 4th) so I'm really looking forward to that. It's been hard not to blab about it allll the time, since I first began working on the design ideas back in May.
Aside from the daytrips and holidays, the celebrations and creative endeavours, Blogtober is mostly all about the ordinary every day stuff. It's about sharing daily routines and capturing the little snippets of life that spark inspiration and emotion. Confession :: it's actually a pretty tough challenge in terms of the space it takes up inside ones head! When I'm blogging every day it's constantly on my mind and I find myself writing sentences in my head and searching for visual inspiration pretty much all the time. But my goodness, it's worth it. SO, so worth it. All those thoughts, emotions, ideas and inspirations are like food for my soul and I absolutely love the process of allowing them to eventually filter out into the world via my Attic window.
Daily blogging is a constant reminder to practice gratitude, and to really open your eyes and see the world around you. It's an opportunity to search out the things that bring happiness, to train your eye to see and appreciate a moment in time that will make a good photograph or tell an honest story. Using photos and words to capture all those memories and experiences that flow through each day is such a rewarding thing to do, and even after all these years I still absolutely love it.
Blogging daily life also provides a beautiful snapshot of the season, and year after year it's fascinating to see the rhythms of nature play out as the months pass.
A lot of my photos during Blogtober captured the early days of Autumn and the seasonal changes happening in my local neighbourhood. Each month of the year has it's own "flavour" and I find it fascinating to see how the light and colours change as the year passes.
I also enjoyed sharing many snippets of daily home life too, although I did often worry that the sameyness might get a bit repetitive. October was definitely a month of home comforts - blogging by candlelight and the warmth of the fire, hand knitted woolly socks on my feet and on my needles. Mugs of milky coffee and bowls of nourishing home made soup. Cosying up under layers of blankets, and enjoying the comfort of having the kitty close by. Fresh flowers are a constant here in the Attic and October gave me colourful shop bought blooms as well as little posies of back yard flowers. There was baking and of course there was crochet, there is rarely a time when I don't have any hooky going on!
So that about sums up Blogtober 2021, it's been a good month, hasn't it? I know from the hundreds of comments I've received here and on Facebook that you've enjoyed your daily visits, and I'm so thankful for your company. Thank you for being here with me as I jaunt through my days.
I thought it would be fun to share this years stats with you, just as I did last year.....
Number of daily blogs completed : 31 (yay for one hundred percent attendance)
Total number of photographs shared : 350 (out of 442 taken in total)
Total number of beautiful comments : 1,049 (thank you so very much)
Total number of blog views : 884,848 (ooo, that's a lot of eyeballs)
Total number of words written by me : 27,276 (yes, I added them all up, took me aaaages)
Will I do it again next year? : oh yes indeedy, #blogtober2022 is already on my to-do list.
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ps huge gratitude also for these wonderful bloggers who took part in Blogtober 2021 alongside me :
Christine at Winwick Mum
CJ at Above the River
Barbara and Coastal Ripples
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