2015 Goals: January Update

So I set some goals for 2015, and I thought, more to help keep me on track than anything else, I would post a monthly update to see where things stand. Since it's the last day of the month, it seems like a good time to see how it's going, so here we go!

1. Make a granny square every weekday of 2015: So far, so good! I've managed to make one each day. One day it was made minutes before midnight, but done, so it counts!

2. Read 40 books, with 30 of them being from the Rory Gilmore Reading List: I've read 6 books already total and 3 from the RGRL, so I think that's a pretty good pace!

3. Organize three years worth of digital pictures: I've been through three months this month. I figure if I can do 3 months of pictures each month this year, I'll get my three years of pictures done! I started with September 2006, so we'll see where I end!

4. Organize scrapbooking items/keepsakes: Done and done! Everything is done already. I thought it would take more time, but once I jumped in, I just kept going. Plus everything was all spread out and a big mess. Since I finished that, I went ahead and worked on organizing some other areas too and it's gorgeous and I love it and I hope we can keep it that way!

5. Finish a train embroidery project: I've spent quite some time stitching. I can tell that work has been done ... however, there's still so much to do. I will keep pushing though!

6. Make money from my knitting: I have one crochet "job" that I won't finish for a while, but it can count, right? And here's to hoping it opens some more doors?

7. On the blogging side of things, it's to blog twice a week: Nope, right now I'm averaging once a week. But I figure that's okay. At the end of the year, I hope the average will be twice a week!

8. Also related to blogging, I need to be a better commenter on other blogs: Yep, I've upped the comments I'm leaving and it feels good to do so!


Overall, things are going well. I'd like to blog more, but, also given my progress on the other goals (with one already done!) I'm not going to sweat it for now.

In general I'm also trying to stay on top of chores and just being more organized in general. This does not come naturally to me, so it's not always easy! I'm trying though. And really that's all I can do! And I've finally found a system that is helping me more than any other thing I've tried has helped. I've been using it for a few months now, so it's well tested.

Of course, I need to blog about that, and the books I've read, and share pictures of my granny-square-a-weekday, and of my embroidery. Wait, why aren't I blogging twice a week? I've got a lot to catch up on! 

Nearly Wordless Monday

I know, it's usually Wordless Wednesday. But, here we go.

This is the embroidery project I was working on this weekend. It doesn't look like much yet, but it's getting there!

I've been taking pictures of it since the beginning. When I'm all done, I think it will be kind of cool to put together a slide show of it!

Pillow!

One of my favorite things to make is a ring bearer's pillow for weddings. Ever since I discovered I love making them, I try to offer to make them for those I love if they are getting married. I've made quite a few and I love it. Weddings are so magical to me and to be able to contribute in a small way makes me so happy.

Recently a friend announced her upcoming wedding. Okay, maybe not so recently, but in the spring. I asked if she would allow me the honor of making her pillow and she said yes. That's when the questions really start: what do you want on it? What colors? Names? Dates? Nothing? What? Tell me more about your dream ring bearer's pillow than you ever thought possible!

This particular wedding is having an aviation theme, so I set to work and searched for embroidery designs and found what I thought was the perfect one. Then I looked for a few more so the bride would have some choices. Turns out, we both agreed on which one was perfect! Yay!

Then I turned to the embroidery machine (which I do not use enough at all and I need to start using a lot more!) and let it whiz away. After the embroidery, I sew up a pillow and I love how this one turned out. I hope the bride and groom like it as well. I hope they have an awesome wedding (that I will attend in spirit only). But most of all, I wish them a lifetime of happiness!

3/365

Pillow!

We have a wedding to attend this weekend. And so I asked a bit ago if the bride and groom would be interested in me making their ring bearer's pillow! I've done this for several weddings we've gone to and can honestly say I love it! I love getting to make something to be used in the wedding and the pillows are small enough that's it's pretty stress free for me to make them (although one time I made one with a lot of bead/hand ribbon embroidery and that did stress me a bit LOL!)

Anyway, this time I whipped up this little pillow. I can't lie. I am absolutely in love with this one! Don't get me wrong, I have loved all the pillows I made - but I don't know, this might just be my favorite! (Okay, okay. So I say that after every pillow I make. It's true). I love the embroidery design (which I got from Urban Threads). I think the rings will look gorgeous tied in the center.

The ribbon to hold the rings is secure enough to hold the rings, but not overly stitched so it can be cut off after the wedding should they want to save the pillow.

I'm bringing at least the groom the pillow tomorrow. This is always nerve wracking for me - what if they hate it? I don't want something they hate in the wedding. I always ask the bride/groom to tell me if they don't like it and I'll make something else if there's time. I never had anyone actually say that. So no one has disliked their pillow OR they didn't want to hurt my feelings. Although, seriously, I'd rather know so I can give them something they will love than not know and give them something I love - if that makes sense.

Anyway, I really do love this pillow. =)

Happy Pi Day!

You probably didn't know, but today (March 14) is Pi Day. 3-14 is perfect since pi = 3.14 I'd say!
We celebrated this on Friday by eating some pie with some friends. We enjoyed cherry and apply pie. We also ate some very yummy pasta dinner. My friend was insistent my family brought only hunger to her house - and it's always nice to be treated to a home cooked meal by others, but to celebrate Pi Day and her baking us some pies, I whipped this little apron up for her!



The pocket though, has my favorite part -



(the embroidery was being offered for free at Urban Threads in honor of Pi day! And also they have a lot of really awesome embroidery - both machine and hand - patterns!)

I have enough of the apple fabric that I might have to whip one up for me to have one too!

Anyway, hope you all had a good Pi Day and if you mssed it, I say for sure, eat some pie this week to celebrate! =)

Some towels!

A friend needed some towels embroidered, which is easy enough to do! So she left them here with the promise I would get them back to her right away - except I couldn't return then as fast as I had hoped, so I ended up finishing the whole thing for her.

These towels were her idea, and they are just too cute I think!

I did the embroidery and then sewed the Elmo fabric along the bottom. I might have to make my kids some really cute towels like this to have as well.

Learning to embroider ...

This week I learned, well, am learning, how to hand embroider.
I saw a project a while ago on craftzine and wanted to copy it. Of course I saw it forever ago and didn't bookmark it, so I can't give credit to the original creator, but I needed to embroider to complete it.

What I am making is a gift (which means you can't see pictures until it's been given and opened. Sorry) and I thought the gift would be even better if I got the kids in on it too. So not only have I been stitching away this week, but so have the girls.

Now, I won't tell you that our stitches are perfect and uniform and even. They are not. But they are turning out really well. And the girls are doing a great job with it. Miss M is already planning out her next few projects. I believe Miss A might have another one in the works as well. They've made great progress this week though and it's neat to sit down and be able to do this with them!









I love having this to do with them. And maybe their other projects will come to fruition and maybe not, but at least for now I'll have this week to remember stitching and learning along right beside them!



My project is done now. But never fear - it was so great, I have another project on the list! =)

Life ...

has been on the busy side around here lately. I guess I needed to take a bit of a bloggy break for a few days there. I think the entire month of October will be this hit or miss kind of period for me. Between ALL the time my dh is working, the time I am working, taking care of kids, errands, cleaning, cooking, there isn't much time left in the day!

I did manage to do some embroidery yesterday for a friend:
These little duckies:

Added to this shirt:


Mom and daughter were happy with it so that's good!

I also had about, oh 3-4 inches of a new sock knit, when I decided the pattern was not working with the yarn I had. The yarn I have is gorgeous and the pattern was not showing that, so I frogged it all back and now have nothing to show for it. But that's okay. I found another pattern last night which I hope will be much better. But, back to the yarn, I bought it from WhimzyPinzy (a fellow etsymom) and well, I'm digging the yarn. It is so gorgeous. The socks I am making are actually not going to my feet, and I'm kind of sad about that LOL! Maybe next time I order from her it will be for myself, but for now, I am digging her yarn. So anyway, if you like yarn, go visit her and see what she has!

Okay, now I'm off to cook a ton of chili (okay, not a ton, but about 6 pounds LOL!) and then cleaning and if I'm lucky, I'll get to recast those socks on again!

Random pictures ...

I pulled out another UFO item recently. This is a sweater that was supposed to be given to someone for Christmas last year. I never finished it (obviously) mostly because the more I knit it last year, the more I kind of didn't like it. Actually, I started to hate it.
I don't hate it anymore, but I'm not really liking it!
Anyway here is where it was when I pulled it out:



I have almost finished the front piece at this point. I kind of want to put it away again though. But I'm going to try to push myself to just completely finish it and be done with it! Anyway, we'll count it towards my UFO Resurrection Challenge.

I also had the pleasure to do a bit of embroidery. This person requested this for a bridal shower gift. The bride and groom are taking a honeymoon to a warm place on the beach.

I think the towels turned out so cute! I will have to steal this idea for the future!

Busy day ..

First of all, I apologize to all of those here looking for knitting content. Really, I think my knitting is going to be taking a break for a while. I don't know how long. Maybe I'll be motivated to start a new project tomorrow, but I feel like I need a break from it for maybe the summer. Besides it is getting warm out and having yarn on your lap right now isn't so high on the list, especially while sitting outside chasing children around!

But, on to all I have managed to do today!

First of all, I have to show you my apron on a model! I love it even more now that I have seen a child wear it. The children also love it! My oldest dd placed an order for her very own apron tonight ...

And so I wasted no time in cutting out pieces for three more of them today! Yes, I really do love them that much. The one of the far right (yellow and flowers) is the fabric my dd picked out for hers. This is no shock as yellow has been her favorite color for as long as she knew about favorite colors!

I even managed to embroider hers. Again, all the colors and stuff were chosen by her. She is so excited to get her very own and I love making them, so this is making everyone quite happy around this house LOL!

Here is a cross stitch piece I decided to start on Monday night. I bet I bought this 7 years ago, if not longer and just now pulled it out. The good news, the sticker on it was a sale sticker and it apparently cost me an entire 1.50 when I bought it LOL! This is nice - it is portable enough to go with me most places and I can work on it as my embroidery machine is whirling away. Sometimes I feel okay walking away from it to do something else, but other times it is important for me to stay very close!

a close-up just in case you haven't looked at enough pictures yet today! It certainly doesn't look like much yet, but hey, I only started it 3 nights ago! I wonder how long I will actually want to work on it before packing it up though? Because I do in fact tend to do that a lot. I just from one craft to the next and leave lots of UFO's in my wake. Someday I will have to just throw all those UFO's away or sit down and make myself finish them!

Last, but not least, 2 shirts I managed to embroider today as well! It was a productive day in my crafting room, that is for sure!

Aprons!

I made this tonight. I just finished (so sorry for the por lighting - it's 2 am so there is no natural light around here! LOL!) Seriously, this is one of the most favorite thing I've made in a long time. ::sigh:: to bad it's kid sized! I completely love it!
I love the colors, I love the embroidery, I love that it is reversible, I love that there are pockets on both sides. I just love this! LOL!

Close-up of the embroidery! I saw this design and just knew it had to be on an apron. Oh, it's so perfect. I'm glad I followed through with my first thoughts!

Close-up of pocket against background fabric. I felt like these fabrics might be risky to put together. But really, I love it now that it is done! I wanted something bold and bright and colorful and funky and I feel like I got exactly what I wanted!

The other side - it's reversible! i might have already mentioned that once. I might have even already said there was a pocket here as well. But forgive me for repeating, I'm just so proud of this! LOL! I was not originally going to make it reversible. That was not the plan. But then I thought for as wild as the other side was, maybe it needed a more toned-down side to it. Maybe it needed a side to wear on a quiet day. Or maybe when my children didn't want to be my helping hands, but wanted to just wear it for the heck of it. I don't know, but as I cut the first piece, I just knew it needed to have two sides to it. And really, I love how it came out. I am so pleased!

Close-up of fabric on other side - and I just love
this fabric. It's not as wild, but it's not plain either.
It's still cute and still has character, it's just a slightly
quieter version!

So yes, I love this apron that I made. Seriously, I do believe every little girl I know will probably get at least one from me over the course of the next year. And I think I'll be whipping out quite a few more for my store I really don't want to mention all the time! But I am so in love with this apron. You can not believe how much I love it. I can't believe how much I love it! I told my dh I needed to go buy more fabric and make a matching mommy sized one! And tonight Little Man was playing with the kitchen things, trying to "help" me out, so now I have to try to get some boyish fabrics and make him his one little man sized apron! Okay. Now I must sleep!

Finally ....

So here what was brewing ...
a darling little tooth fairy pillow that I made. I think it turned out pretty cute (and yes, I am aware the little tooth/coin holder is a tad off, but I think it makes it even more cute!)

Sorry for the wait in showing it, but I personally believe it was worth the wait LOL!

Close-up
The poem says:
little fairy
as I sleep
take my tooth
the coin I'll keep

Something's brewing ...

Over in my craft room. What could it be? Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a finished project to show! =)

Some orange and blue

combined with an embroidery machine and a sewing maching, become a banner that I was proud to hang up in my house today ... reading "GO BEARS #1". Apparently though, it wasn't big enough to make them win and should instead read "GO BEARS #2". :::sigh:::

In some more blue and orange projects, a bib I made babyboy for the game ... it says "I may be little, but I'm a BIG fan." It really did look adorable on him I have to say that. And it is officially the first bib I have ever made. It was actually quite simple if I do say so myself. I think I may have to make him some more cute bibs like that!

A little sampling ...

Here is a little something for you to look at ... a bit of blue fabric in the embroidery machine ....

and let's not forget the orange fabric I used .... a project made and finished Thursday night through early Friday morning. Yes, I stayed up way to late to make it ... but trust me, it looks very nice. You'll see ... tomorrow if you're lucky!

X

x is for my
XL-6000 Embroidery/Sewing machine that was a Christmas present! And I love it!! =)

Embroidery

Some embroidery I did for a friend.
Please note: ALL I did was the name ... I did not do the fairy or the animals! She bought them like that and I added the name for her =)

Again ... I just did the name =)
I haven't used my machine nearly as much as I had dreamed of doing. To think I have almost owned it for one year ... I hope that during the next year I can get a lot more embroidery done. I really do enjoy using the machine and I am getting pretty darn good at hooping!

Pictures

One basket down and ready to go ...




Close-up of the embroidery (the dove is extremely similar to the one on the ring bearer's pillow)




inside of basket (the ribbon is in case I need to pop out the bottom before it's used!)

In knitting news ...




baby bunting blocking! Finally almost done!
Just need to join pieces and add hood to it! Yeah!




Close-up of the pattern. Let me tell you something ... I HATE bobbles. After the hood is done, I will try to avoid ever making another bobble in my life. LOL

And I just started piecing together ballet sweater for my dd. I can't wait to give it to her! And I did one side of the sleeve last night ... my first time ever. Doens't look to shabby if I do say so myself ;-)

Wedding items ...

two pillows ... finished!


So glad they are done, and I think they look pretty darn good if I do say so myself!

The baskets are 85% done as well ... the handles are currently in the process of being attatched, but after the glue is dry, I basically need to secure the inside fabric at the bottom and then push down the satin covered bottom.

So glad, the wedding is 13 days from now! So not a minute too late on them being finished!