Working on my personal curriculum for the end of 2025 was both fun and a good way for me to judge how much I could get through in a month. I am a chronic setter of large unrealistic goals so doing a trial run for the end of the year was a great way to help me be a little bit more realistic. I have however set lofty goals again for 2026 but I am also doing a low pressure personal curriculum so my main goal is just to make progress and adjust from there. Winter quarter will be January through the end of March with 12 weeks in total and five or so classes. Three of them will be my main classes of French, Spirituality and Writing and the last two of P.E. and Embroidery will be more loosely cultivated and not tracked with set weekly assignments.

For French I will be continuing with my books I used for fall 2025 with Learn French Fast, Short Stories in French and my dual language English and French version of Alice in Wonderland. All three are linked below.

Learn French Fast

Short Stories in French

Alice in Wonderland duo French and English

I got through most of chapter 6 in Learn French Fast for the end of 2025 so my plan for Q1 2026 is to finish chapter 6 and work my way through the end of the first section which is chapter 15. I want to do some reading in French each week so I will probably switch back and forth between Alice in Wonderland and the Short Stories book. I need some work understanding French when it is spoken to me so I will be watching at least an hour of television a week in French with English subtitles. I will listen in to more if I can but having the subtitles and actively trying to figure out what is being said requires a little more work and I can’t be stitching or working on my diamond paintings at the same time like I usually do when I am working on crafts.

One of the biggest helpers for pronunciation for our whole family has been our hour a week with a French tutor. I set this up last fall as a family activity and although the kids are taking French in school, having a tutor each week has been helpful for them as well. We are doing lessons online and she is covering a lot of the same things as the beginning section of my Learn French Fast book but having a resource for French has been super helpful. We are using the Preply app for lessons which I have linked a discount code below in case anyone is interested. We really love our tutor and the flexibility of having lessons online. She has been a huge resource for our family and well worth the cost!

Preply 70% off a trial lesson – I get a small comission at no cost to you if you book additional lessons.

Writing has always been a passion of mine and lately I have had a strong urge to get back into a more formal writing vibe so I decided to focus on reading about writing for Q1 2026 and practice some freehand with prompts to get the brain juices flowing.  For Winter quarter I will be reading through On Writing Well, Write Your Novel in a Month, and The Writer’s Journey. I found these three books at the used book store but I have linked them below in case you need a reference for the ISBN and such. I have also linked the free resource I found for creative writing prompts.

On Writing Well

Write Your Novel in a Month

The Writer’s Journey

Writer’s Digest – 100 Creative Writing Prompts for Writers

For winter quarter I will be reading at least all of On Writing Well and Write Your Novel in a Month as well as reading as much as I can of Writer’s Journey. Writer’s Journey does have some questions and activities in it so I may do a slower read of that one and work through any activities at the same time. I have started reading On Writing Well and it so far is a good book. I am also going to complete 10 writing prompts over the course of the quarter with hopefully about one a week done. I don’t have a specific word count in mind yet but I am going to aim for at least 500 words. My goal with this is to get the creative juices flowing and see what works for me. As there are 100 prompts in the list I am using I can also work through more over the year as needed and either leave them as a draft or rework them into something more depending how it goes.

I do also want to summarize On Writing Well and see if there are activities in the novel writing book but really this reading is prep work for when I start writing my own book. I have always wanted to write my own book ever since I got the bug after reading Baby Island when I was in third grade. And yes, I did start my first novel after reading it and I am sure I have the handwritten draft stored somewhere. If I can find it maybe I will post some photos but trust me, as a third grader I was very much into my friends and I believe it is just a list of them doing the same things as in the book but every writer has to start somewhere and this book inspired me like nothing else. I am going to try and find a used copy of it to read but below is the link to it Amazon. The older version I read with the green color looks like a collector item and is listed super high priced! Who new my cheap Scholastic paperback version would be worth something some day? Interestingly enough the author, Carol Ryrie Brink also wrote Caddie Woodlawn which I loved.

Baby Island by Carol Ryrie Brink

Spirituality is something I have never been really in touch with as my family did not participate in anything besides worshiping the land in a weird sort of way that only meant doing woodsy chores, learning about plants and taking care of “the land” which was my grandparent’s place on Whidbey Island. I did go to church quite a bit with my grandparents by choice but it was an off and on again thing and I never really got any sort of religious training on the regular. I have been feeling like I need to learn more about spirituality and religion so I am going to learn about different types throughout 2026. For winter quarter I am going to focus on more natural practices such as witchcraft although the more I look into it, the more questions I have as there seem to be so many types and ways of doing things. I did watch a video from Thorn Mooney which was very helpful. Her YouTube channel is located with this link and there are other YouTubers that cover witchcraft but she seems to be a long time YouTuber and very genuine. She also has a great video called Witch Books for the Absolute Beginner which has some great resources I need to look into as well. The three books I am reading are linked below.

The Witch’s Path

The Wheel of the Year

Scorpio Witch – Book 8 of the Witch’s Sun Sign Series

I bought The Witch’s Path and the Wheel of the Year as they were both highly recommended. I am going to read them and do a reflection paper on them, maybe try a few of the activities out or celebrate a major holiday just to see what they are about. I love the idea of celebrating the turning of the seasons in a meaningful way so maybe my final project will be something with the spring equinox? I am so new I don’t even know what to expect so I am kind of winging it with this class. I do plan on learning about Celtic myths and legends along with the Druids for spring quarter and possibly indigenous myths and legends for Western Canada in the fall. My goal this year is just to learn as much as possible about other ways of seeing the world and see if something sticks.

On a side note I did also by Scorpio Witch as a recommendation from Amazon but it might be a little too out there for me. I bought it on a whim to have three books to read and I will see how it goes. It is part of a series for each astrological sign and as you have guessed it, I am a Scorpio so there is that. They have one for each sign in the series and I am interested to see what it is all about. I will be reading it and writing a reflection on it for winter quarter.

Another class I am doing for my winter quarter curriculum is my Blue Birds embroidery project from the Royal School of Needlework. I started this last fall and I am loving working on it. My goal is to finish this piece by the end of March or be very close so I can start the next one for spring quarter. I want to take a bunch of classes from RSN to see if I want to pursue their BA in Needlework eventually and my goal is to finish three or four courses this year. This is an intro course as I am a very beginner and this is my first needlework piece. I also have the online class Introduction to Embroidery – Tulip as well and since these have a time limit on when you can access the online classes I want to finish them before the deadline. They have several other courses offered with the link below. I am going to try crewelwork next after I finish the tulips.

RSN Online Classes

I have found the videos and instructions very helpful and clear as to what I need to be doing. They are well thought out and I love how they show each stitch and let you know when to pause while you finish the section they just went over so you aren’t scrambling to pause and rewind to just the right spot to continue. RSN also has in person classes in England and if I ever visit there I would love to take some!

I am continuing my P.E. curriculum for winter quarter with the goal of upping my walking distances and frequency as the weather warms up. I was in downtown North Vancouver this weekend and captured this beautiful photo of the sun and fog across the water. We were so busy this fall we really didn’t get a chance to explore any of the local hikes in Canada and I am hoping to continue to explore everywhere we go and find some great places to walk around in nature!

I am pretty excited for winter quarter as I feel like it has a little more meat to it than what I worked on in the fall. I have a lot of goals though this year so I am not going to let this stress me too much, just enough to move along with the plan but not enough to cause any sort of anguish. I will do periodic check-ins on my YouTube channel, @cozyoscoeyhobbies so look there for more updates before the end of the quarter.

Happy learning!

Additional Links:

Personal Curriculum Playlist

Personal Curriculum Wrap Up – End of Q4 2025

It’s that time of year again! The new patterns for the 2026 HAED SAL have been released and sign ups are open through December 14, 2025. Don’t miss your chance to join me in stitching a new pattern this year! There is a Facebook group full of lovely people to stitch along with and if you meet the goals set by Heaven and Earth Designs you will receive free patterns at the end of the year. They also are giving out free patterns based on how many stitchers sign up for the SAL so sign up if you are interested!

For reference, I am just now barely finished with my first page of Innocent Dreams by L&L Designs for the 2025 SAL. I am stitching this on 25 count Evenweave 1×1 and it goes really fast when I am actually stitching it but I had to put it down for many many months this year due to our move and some life circumstances. I have been stitching on it most days for the past month and made significant progress. I usually can stitch about 300-500 stitches a day and Innocent Dreams is 85,264 stitches total so if my pace is 300 stitches a day it would take just over 284 days to complete which is totally doable. You would need to average 200 stitches a day to complete this piece in one year but HAED did release it early over the Christmas holiday so I feel like as long as you put in a longer day once a month it is feasible to finish Innocent Dreams within a year for even a slower stitcher. Keep in mind that even just finishing 6 of the 12 full pages is enough to win the prize of all the other pattern choices for 2025.

The patterns HAED chose for 2026 are all gorgeous! I am having a really hard time choosing which one to do so it will hopefully motivate me to work through my piece next year and finish it so I can receive all 12 patterns a the end of the year. Some of the pieces this year are cropped versions of larger kits and others are new never been seen before designs. The panda with wings is part of a larger piece that I absolutely love so I will try and do the larger piece. Same goes for the tower on the top right.

Once of the pieces I am seriously considering is Glistening Wings by L&L Designs. This pattern is by the same designer as Innocent Dreams which I was really happy with this year but it is a little bit more colorful and I think it would look great if I added in some sparkly stitches along with the called for threads. To be part of the contest you do need to use called for threads in the design by HAED but I will need to check if it will be ok to then also add in some sparkles to make the wings shine. I would double check though if you are doing a pattern to see if your substitutions are following the rules.

This design finishes to the above dimensions on 25 count with 87,020 stitches total. You would need to stitch an average of 240 stitches a day in 2026 to finish this piece by the end of December deadline. I looked at the floss usage chart and there is a lot of black in this piece which looks to be mostly in the outlines. It is beautiful and I do like the rendering so it will be a fun piece to stitch. It would be especially fun to stitch the flower on the bottom right after doing so much background with the leaves and sunshine on the rest of the edges.

The other piece I am strongly considering is Stone Cottage Keep also by L&L Designs. I love the flowers and have not done a landscape pattern yet so I would love to try one. In looking over the floss usage chart it also looks like this pattern does not have any black (310) in it which is fascinating to me as I have never seen a pattern without any black at all in it!

I was thinking that Stone Cottage Keep would finish a little bit smaller than Glistening Wings but it is actually slightly larger at 88,145 stitches. You would need to only complete one or two extra stitches a day at 241.5 stitches daily to complete it within one year so the extra stitches are not significant in terms of how much longer it will take to complete if you look at the daily rate. If you are nearing the end of December though and facing a time crunch that extra thousand or so stitches will make a difference in your completion success possibility for sure!

I will probably be on the fence for at least a couple of more weeks while I try and figure out which piece to stitch. Both are good choices and I love them. Hopefully next year I will finish mine and then receive all 12 pieces so theoretically it won’t matter because I will finish and receive all of them right? I will announce which piece I choose on my new YouTube channel Cozy Oscoey in another week or two so stay tuned!

Which piece is your favorite?

Please Note: HAED deadlines are firm and having a Facebook account is required. Please also read through all of the requirements as if you do not fill out surveys as required HAED will refund your chart purchase and you won’t be able to participate.

Links:

2026 Heaven and Earth Designs SAL

Cozy Oscoey

2025 SAL for Heaven and Earth Designs