2015 Goals Review

I started 2015 with some pretty big goals, even if there were only 8 of them. Several of them were large and on-going.

I'll tell you know that I didn't finish them all. I accomplished some. Got close on some of them. And missed the mark on others.

BUT. But despite that, I did put forth a good faith effort. I did work hard. And as I look back, I did accomplish a lot! Since it's good to see the big picture, I thought I would round up what I did manage to accomplish this year here!

1. Make a granny square every weekday of 2015: This one was completed. I made two blankets for our house and one for a friend. I made a lot of granny squares and used up a lot of yarn! And I like the two blankets that are gracing our couches a lot!

2. Read 40 books, with 30 of them being from the Rory Gilmore Reading List: I blew this one out of the water. I read 56 books. A few were children's books, but it was over 18,000 pages that I read (or listened to). I did read 29 off the Rory Gilmore List. Even though it's not the 30 I wanted to read, I'm calling it finished anyway. I could split hairs, but I'm not going to. Because 29 is close enough!

Needlepoint on Jan 11

3. Organize three years worth of digital pictures: I was short 4 months of this goal. However, I went through thousands and thousands and thousands of pictures. I will carry this same goal through to the new year, but I'm going to modify it a bit. Instead of 36 months of pictures, my goal will be 36 folders. Some months have an extra folder for vacations/sporting pictures/etc. Those folders have as many pictures in them as a regular month, and many have even more! If I count folders, I did 37 this past year, so hence I'm calling this one done as well.

4. Organize scrap-booking items/keepsakes: I jumped in and tackled this in January last year so it was done, finished and out of the way for the rest of the year. It's nice to have something to cross off right away!

Needlepoint on Dec 31

5. Finish a train embroidery project: While I worked on this a lot this year, probably about 100 hours of needlepoint, it is not finished. And it still has a lot of work to go. So while this isn't finished, and maybe isn't even half-way finished, I'm happy of what I accomplished. And am quite driven to finish it in 2016!

6. Make money from my knitting: Technically I did. I made and sold one blanket. This isn't quite what I had in mind a year ago, selling things on a regular basis is not on my radar for the time being.

Blanket I made to order!

7. Blog twice a week: I had 92 posts in 2015. With 30 of them being in November. I fell short of this pretty consistently. And while the average overall, is kind of close (1.7 posts per week), I'm calling this not accomplished. And we'll try again next year!

8. Comment on other blogs more: While I did comment more than I had been, I did not comment enough either. But it's good to keep doing this, so in 2016, we'll see this goal again too, but with more direction. Comment more is pretty wide open ... if I left just one comment more than 2014, technically I've done it, right? But not what I had in mind. So hopefully less vagueness in 2016 will get me there!

In the next day or two, I will post 2016 goals. A lot will be the same, or similar. That might not be very exciting, but many of these projects are smaller chunks of larger goals, so I'm okay with repeating several goals for the next 2 or 3 or maybe 10 years (yes, one big goal will take me 10 years to accomplish!). I don't mind having long, long term goals. But I do need to break them down into smaller chunks, hence, each year's goal!

Did you set goals in 2015? How did you do with yours? Share in the comments!

Holiday Crafting

A quick craft I made today*

A few weeks ago I decided that for next Christmas (yes, that would be in 2016), I wanted to try to have completely handmade decorations.

I know. I know.

I can buy stuff at lots of stores. I can even get a lot of it discounted. It's not that we need more things. It's that I like making things. And to be surrounded by lots of decorations during the holidays that I or the kids made? That would be a wonderful treat!

Even though I want this next year - after all I do need to sleep between now and December 25 of this year, I wanted to start making things this year as I was able to.

So. Early this morning (which is code for not really even that early for most of the rest of the world but early for me!) I woke up, got my daughter, got my not-daughter-who-is-here-so-often-she's-like-another-child and we headed over to Jo-Ann's.

I'll admit, I was kind of scared. I didn't know what sort of crowd we'd be facing. I wasn't sure how many people there would be. And I didn't know how well the store would handle all the millions of people I envisioned would be there.

Thankfully, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be - thought definitely a lot busier than normal! And apparently, the store has done this before, because they were ready.

Before we went in the store, we joked around and made a "game plan". Our game plan was basically grab a ticket for the fabric cutting counter pretty quickly to walking in, then shop. That way if the line was really long, we wouldn't wait as long! Then we did a team hand stack and we were ready to head into the store. Right when the doors opened.

But it wasn't that bad. People seemed to be in good moods. Most everyone seemed to expect there would be lines and waiting and lots of people, so no one was getting upset that it wasn't going faster. Most people seemed to know exactly what they want and there didn't seem to be a lot of just wandering around and seeing what there was (which is how I usually spend half my time in any craft store!). Despite lots of people, it seemed good to me. None of those images I've seen on tv of crazy crowds pushing and shoving and running and grabbing things out of people's carts!

I saved quite a bit of money between coupons and sales. And I've come home with many, many items so I can (hopefully) make lots and lots of fun things to decorate the house with. 

I'm excited about this. I don't know how far I'll get or how much I'll actually make. Or what I'll do with the things we already own.

But I do like making things. And I don't make hardly anything for our home, so I'm glad I will finally get a chance to do something crafty for our house!

*I saw this on pinterest. It was made slightly differently because they cut the letters out of vinyl and put it on the glass. I printed the words on a white paper ( a script font at size 100). I taped that to the back of a shadow box and put in three different sized silver bells inside the shadow box. It literally took me about 5 minutes! If I did it again, I'd move the words up higher so I could get more bells in. I'm also looking at that black frame and wondering if there's some way I can jazz it up. But I think what I will do is try to layer in decorations around it and leave the frame alone!

Needlepoint

At the start of the year, I set a goal to finish a needlepoint project I had started, oh, about 4 years ago from now.

Needless to say, it's been in progress for a long time, and this year, I was determined to finish it.

Despite my best efforts, I haven't made it quite as far as I wanted to. I set aside about 30-60 minutes a week to work on it, and have been able to do most weeks.

I think, that this goal will have to extend to next year honestly.

That said, I've done a lot of work on it and it's starting to come together.

How it looked January 10

How it looks today

I realize it doesn't look like much, but I assure you that this is a lot of stitching.

It's supposed to be for my son. As he grows older, I realize he might not be as into trains as he was 4 years ago. So I want to finish it in time to give it to him and have him love it.

He picked it out those four years ago. Every so often he asks me how it's going. And if he sees me working on it, he tells me "You're doing a great job mom!"

So, while another year might pass before I can give it to him, here's hoping that another year is all it needs!

A bit o' knitting

Pine Forest Baby Blanket

These days, it seems like all I knit are baby blankets and shawls. Mostly because I have been pretty much knitting blankets and shawls.

Thankfully, I love knitting these two things. And since it seems like everyone I know is having baby this year, there are lots of blankets that need to be made.

One blanket I knit was for a little girl who will be arriving in October. This precious baby will be her parent's first baby, which is a pretty special time for everyone. Every baby is special - I know, and I don't mean to imply something else - but a first baby is different because there's so much you just don't know yet!

Close-up of the stitches

Anyway, I decided to make the Pine Forest Baby Blanket (side note: you must be a member of ravelry to see this. And if you knit or crochet, I highly recommend you join, especially since it's free. And no, no one is paying me or comping me or anything to me to say this!)

I knit it up in Caron Simply Soft. I use this yarn often, which some of you have picked up on. It's soft, it's pretty, I've found it holds up well, and most importantly to me to give to parents-to-be, it's machine washable. Because who has time to hand wash and air dry a baby blanket with a sweet new baby in the house? Well, I certainly didn't.

I also knit it with a size 9 needle (one up from what the pattern recommends) and I added extra stitches to make it longer. I cast on 144 stitches and was really happy with it. I don't know how many rows I did, I just went until the yarn almost ran out (4 skeins) and when it looked big enough, but not too big.

I'm happy with how it turned out, though I'm not sure my pictures do the blanket justice.

My son holding it up for me!

The fun thing about this blanket is that I knit it EVERYWHERE. Mostly because the shower was coming up and I was running out of time. But this blanket was worked on at the pool, at the library, at softball games (both professional and when my daughters played), at lacrosse practice, in the car (not while I was driving, in case you think I'm that crazy!)

I'd like to think that as that blanket traveled around with me, that someday the baby who uses it will get to travel often, but yet not too far from home. That she might get to do a lot of fun things, have great times, and create some memories with her family and friends! I don't know if it's silly to think this way, but it is how I think and it makes me smile. Well, knitting in general makes me happy, so thinking good thoughts is just a bonus!

Knit-a-thon

basket of yarn ready to go!

It's here! It's here! It's finally here!

In about 12 hours I will sit down and begin part I of my knit-a-thon!

I thought of this idea last month in an effort to help raise money for my Avon Walk (which is just over a month away! Yikes!)

Anyway, I started today very far from my final goal. But I'm going to go to bed much closer, which feels great!

Tomorrow I will knit.

Tomorrow is also the three-year-anniversary of my diagnosis.

My goodness. Three years. I'm hoping that tomorrow can be a way to help change the memory of that day.

Three years ago, April 26 was the Tuesday after Easter. Tomorrow is a week after Easter - they aren't perfectly matched, but pretty close.

So I will reclaim the day and at the same time try to do some good for the world.

Though, I admit, deciding to sit and knit all day is a very selfish decision, but it's also what I can do! So I will do it!

I will definitely be sharing pictures on instagram (you can follow me here). I still haven't decided if I will live blog the day or not. I know, not a lot of time to decide LOL!

Anyway, thanks in advance for all the support and love!

Balance

Me working on an embroidery project

Last night I finished a big project I have been working on. When it gets to where it is going, I will show you pictures and tell you more about it. But last night I finished.

I thought it would take me longer to finish and was worried it wouldn't be finished on time. Surprisingly to me, I finished with time to spare.

There's a huge amount of relief and pride in finishing a project. It's not perfect, people will know it was handmade for sure. Despite that, I can step back and be proud of it and feel pretty accomplished for making it.

It's also a bit sad that it's done. That was a lot of time and a lot of work. I suppose it's a bit like the post-Christmas blues. This project has consumed me, I've stayed up later than I should on more than one occasion. And yet, it has to end at some point, because if it trailed on forever, it would make me crazy. I'd get frustrated and walk away and maybe pick it back up in a couple of years.

I know. Because I might have more than one project laying around that has been laying around for more time than they should be.

So I finished the project, but quickly moved on. I've already started different projects - crafty and organizational. I'm half-way through a crochet blanket. I began organizing (tagging, deleting the bad ones, captioning, etc) my digital pictures. And at the start of this year, I decided this was the year to tackle all those half-finished, laying around, feeling forgotten about projects. Well, okay, I probably won't finish all of them, but I do plan to finish some of them.

I'm trying to limit the number of new projects I start to help me get to the end of the other projects. But there are always new projects to start, new tasks to tackle, new ideas that excite me - that grab hold of me and make me want to start right this very minute!

It's all about the balance - balancing the new with the old, balancing the time spent on these projects with the time spent with my family, cleaning, being at base/softball games, and the other million things that I should be doing daily (even though I don't always), so many thing to balance. I'm not good at all that balancing. I'm both literally and figuratively bad at balance. But I plod along, doing the best that I know how to do. Because at the end of the day, that's all I can do.

A wish list ....

I had stumbled upon YouCanMakeThis.com a little bit ago and then promptly forgot about it.
Today, being that I still am not feeling that great and had yet another bad day, I went back to the site and created a pretty decent wish list!
Anyway, if you are on the lookout for patterns or how-to's in the form of e-books, go visit the site and take a gander at my wish list because I think I have some pretty good items on it LOL!

Wedding things ...

About 6 weeks ago I mentioned I was asked to help with wedding things for my cousin. And well, I had good intentions to sit down and get it all done right away (I even started putting things together) but then so much happened and it got lost in the shuffle and I just wasn't into doing it.

Well, they are meeting again next Saturday - when I'll be in Florida which means I needed to get things done before we leave!
Yesterday I made two centerpieces for her to look at (we went to try on bridesmaids dresses and can I just tell you something? The dress she picked is just absolutely gorgeous. I am actually quite excited to wear it!) Anyway, this is what I was able to whip up yesterday afternoon:

choice a:

choice b:

(for this one, the candles are floating candles but since I had to drive with it, I did not fill it with water)

Today I made a few wedding invitation samples for her that I'll drop in the mail tomorrow and they only need to travel about 30 minutes so I hope that they get they within a week - and I'm pretty confident that they will

In some ways they are all pretty similar but I don't know. I hope she likes some of them or at least one part of each of them or maybe someone else will bring ones she likes better.
Anyway, I personally like almost all of them (one I just like the front of but the inside is sort of plain). I don't want to bore you with individual pictures of each card, but if you want to see them, you can look here.

And can I just say, this card is my favorite ... roses are a big part of the wedding so the paper is just perfect I think!

All that aside, I have everything for the kids packed up. Most of the stuff for the car packed up. I just need to towels/bathing suits and pretty much everything for me. And of course, food for the drive but I won't do that until tomorrow night. I am feeling more ready than I thought I would tonight, but it also still feels like I have a million and one things to do! =)

Happy Valentine's Day!

It is now officially Valentine's Day.
I have to admit, we rarely make a big deal out of this day. Just a few simple cards to pass out where necessary and that's it.
Well, my husband informed me he got me a gift this year! So, I had to go out and get him something. And went tonight! Nothing like the last minute. But I put together a nice little bag of goodies for him - and not that he reads this, but in case he does, I won't share yet what it is because he won't get it until after the kids go to bed tomorrow night (and no, not because it's what you're thinking it is but because that will be the first time all day we will spend more than a few moments with each other!)

But I did whip up a few goodies for the girls and I can't wait to see what they think of them!!
First I made some lovely magnets (which I've been dying to make but it's taken forever to get to the store, buy the supplies and then finally sit down and make them).

Okay, I admit, a few of them are for me and not the girls, but aren't they cute? They saw the pictures I was gathering earlier of Hannah and the HSM crew and were SO curious as to why I would want those pictures! It was kind of funny to hear them try and guess!

Then I used those magnets (and some stickers) to decorate these lovely little boxes:

I can't wait to get some mail in my box! and I have left some in theirs already as well =) I hope they are as excited about all of this as I am!

But now, now, it is SO late. And I need to get some sleep!

I wish all of you a GREAT Valentine's Day =)

Good and bad ....

Good: I saw this recently:



And, it does indeed look very fun. So much in fact, I'm going to sign up for it. I'm also dragging my two darling daughters in on the fun. No, I"m not really dragging them ... I'm teasing. They are both very excited about it. So all three of us will be creating something new every day for the month of February.

From their website:

For 29 days starting on February 1st, participants are invited to create one thing every day and post it on the thing-a-day.com blog.
Knit, cook, draw, paint, tape, write, install, destroy, invent, document.
Choose your media.
Commit half an hour a day.
And experience the most exiting creative challenge you’ll face all year.
Sign-up is open to anyone and starts on January 21st right here at Thing-a-day.com.
Attention: Deadline to commit to the sprint is January 31st at midnight.
Thing-a-day for newbies

• Thing-a-day a month long online event where people take on the challenge to create one new thing every day for a month and post their work on this blog. It’s also a place to exchange thoughts, ideas and comments on the nature of this creative process.
• Anyone can participate and no one will bug you if you don’t post every day. You’re free to sign up, you’re free to give up and you’re free to succeed.
• No rewards or prizes but the pleasure of knowing you’ll have made 29 bran new things by the end of February –and a few new friends (or fans) if you’re lucky.
• Daily creations can be in any medium. The suggested time for creating a thing is around 30 minutes so most people will post sketches, drawings or exercises rather than actual finished pieces.

We are trying to brainstorm things to do, only because the girls are so afraid that they won't think of enough things to do (which is so funny because they have been drawing and creating every day for the last two weeks and I see no sign of them slowing down at all LOL). I briefly mentioned ATC's to them and they went nuts with the idea. One dd promptly cut up pieces into small squares (not really knowing the dimensions of an actual ATC, just knowing that they were small). And went to town decorating all of them. So I have a feeling that there will be lots of ATC's coming up and I promised to show them a bunch of samples (and I'm crossing my fingers the library has some ATC books that we can look at!).

So there is something very fun to look forward to. I also ordered yarn today to make a sweater for me (finally! Something for me hooray!) and to make my sister her birthday present.

Bad news: The cold I thought had left me yesterday returned to me today. This is now the second time it has "left and returned" I am so very sick of this cold. I have no had it for about 9 days. Seriously, it is really starting to tick me off. I want it gone.

Anyway, that is all for today.

Phew!

Well, I did it. All things that needed to be finished for today and tomorrow were in fact finished (actually I did the last thing at about 10:30 pm December 23 which is a miracle!)



We also managed to whip out a whole bunch of cookies!



I would like to point out, all of this was in fact pulled off with the help of my darling husband, who helped out as much as he could. Have I mentioned just how much I love this man? Well, if I haven't let me tell you - I REALLY love this man.

Proof:


Anyway, I am so excited that everything was able to be finished ... it was close and I was feeling nervous about getting it all done. I really did enjoy making it all - but I didn't enjoy the rush. I am going to try to do this next year again, but hopefully start MUCH sooner (at this point, I might just start in February LOL!)

Merry Christmas everyone! I will be spending the next week doing laundry and cleaning since I haven't kept up in the rush to finish everything LOL! So with that, I will "see" you all next year! =)

Rerun: The E-bay "It"

This was originally posted on December 9, 2006 ...


Two gifts made tonight ... I am going to be participating in 2 grab bag gift exchanges. I love exchanges but yet they are hard to buy for because you aren't quite sure who exactly is getting your gift so it's hard to personalize it.
I was trying to figure out what to give ... gift certificates seem to be the best idea because most people can find some use for them. I joked with dh that it was too bad they didn't make e-bay ones, and lo and behold, paypal does give gift certificates! So that clinched it - I'm giving "it" for Christmas this year and a 25 dollar gift certificate to help pay for whatever "it" is! =)


Added now -
This might be a great way to add a little flare to a gift certificate you might want to give. It was pretty easy to make as well ... I just got some of the crayola model magic and some wire. I simply shaped the clay (the t with the curve was the hardest part). You can see most of where I used the wire (between the dot of the i and the i, and to put the i and t together). I also used the wire to attach the cross part of the t (although it's hidden). I'm not sure if they would have stayed stuck together without the wire through them, but I had plenty of wire left to do this.

Anyway, although the gift certificate is not handmade, the little it adds a nice personal touch to the certificate. I will say my it was a hit last year and if I hadn't already used it, I would do it again! LOL!

So, if you are looking for a quick, easy gift ... I suggest this one!

My craft room!

I gladly present to you, my office! I am in love with this room. I was able, between yesterday and today, to get it in pretty decent shape! I doubt it will look this clean until we have a party or something like that here! LOL!



The door to the office!




The corner ... (you can see the hinges to the door on the left edge there).




My ribbon holder ... dh made it for me. I have to say, I do love it. Mostly because he made it and I think that is sweet. There is also under cabinet lighting there that he put in for me =)



moving down the counter ...




close-up of the fabric stash ... they should all be ironed and refolded, but well, I'm a bit lazy!




Embroidery corner!
The machine fits perfectly in this space and the thread for it hangs right behind it!




The other sewing machine. Not nearly as great of a spot, but a workable spot. Some more thread hanging on the wall (again, dh did that for me). And you can't see the cabinets above this counter, but he also put under-cabinet lighting on these as well. It really made a huge difference in the room truthfully. It was on the dark side before he did it all.




Another corner. The little tv is actually sitting in a corner designed for a computer, but I like my little tv there. I watch a lot of hgtv down there, but I also watch mtv and other shows I wouldn't watch with the kids around LOL!
Also, the cabinets/lights show up in this picture that I was talking about before ...




The other wall .... I think the picture makes it look cluttered, but when I am in the room, it doesn't feel cluttered to me. There is the one window in the room. It does let in some light, but not much as it's a window well.
That's the only bummer about being in the basement - lack of sunlight, but I am so excited to have my own space and get it all organized, that I'm not complaining just yet lol!




Secret knitting hide-out! LOL!
This is just a small sample of knitting yarns ... mostly the yarn is stuff I have projects in progress on. Most of my yarn is in 3 containers in the laundry room. But I did want some of it to be a bit more easy access, so hence this idea.

Aargh!

This is what you get when your dd tells you 5 minutes before bedtime "oh yeah, tomorrow, at awana it's pirate night so I need to look like a pirate and it's supposed to be a homemade costume. So the next day we woke and spent the morning making the costume ...

The white and blue were t-shirts donated by daddy for the costume. With a pair of scissors and a tiny bit of sewing we had a shirt and a vest. The yellow was just extra fabric laying around. The pants, hat, and bird we owned. We made the patch from construction paper. The bird is on her shoulder with the help of a bit of wire!

16: Craft time

Painting ornaments to hang on the tree ... I try very hard to make at least one ornament with the kids each year. This year we painted the glass ornaments while at a Christmas party we threw at our house for our mom's club.
It was a lot of fun!

21: It

Two gifts made tonight ... I am going to be participating in 2 grab bag gift exchanges. I love exchanges but yet they are hard to buy for because you aren't quite sure who exactly is getting your gift so it's hard to personalize it.
I was trying to figure out what to give ... gift certificates seem to be the best idea because most people can find some use for them. I joked with dh that it was too bad they didn't make e-bay ones, and lo and behold, paypal does give gift certificates! So that clinched it - I'm giving "it" for Christmas this year and a 25 dollar gift certificate to help pay for whatever "it" is! =)