Not Really Resolutions 2012 - The Results

How different things are from last year. 

My Not Really Resolutions of 2011 were, on the whole, successful and I was chock-a-block full of hopes for this year when I made my Not Really Resolutions for 2012. My goodness if I had known then what was coming I don't think I'd have bothered at all. In fact, if I knew what was coming this year I think I would have just found myself a cave and hidden until it was all over.

So needless to say, this year's Not Really Resolutions are not quite as successful as 2011's, but I've done the best I can and I actually think that this gave me something to at least aim for in what has been a shitty year.

Without further ado - this is the round-up of the Not Really Resolutions 2012.


1. Complete my France trip of 2010 album 

This was a hangover from last year's Not Really Resolutions so there was no way in all good faith that I could avoid finishing it this year. It was going to be a bit of a close call but I pulled my finger out and finally got it finished on the 14th October. 

I'm pleased I did it although it definitely would have been easier to just print the photos out and stick them in an album, I feel like I made life unnecessary difficult for myself.

But I'm pleased I did something that was a bit different by stitching on the photographs, it has made it that little bit more special. I took it home with me at Christmas to show my Dad and he really appreciated the effort I've made.

2. Furniture makeover

The idea here was to makeover/upcycle/whatever the trendy word is, two charity shop purchases that I'd made the year before - one a table and one a small chest of drawers.

I've only half completed this one - by performing a huge make over on my table which you can read all about here.

I have even bought the stuff to upcycle the chest of drawers but unfortunately time has run away with me and there's no way I'll get it done before the year is out. Guess I've already found the first thing to go on my list for next year...


3. Run 10km

Done and done - I ran the Preston 10k at the end of September and managed to fall back in love with running all at the same time. 

4. No buying of physical books for one whole year

Completed - read all about it here.

5. Learn how to do French knots and use them in an embroidered piece 

French Knots have been the bane of my life since I started dipping my toes into the field of embroidery. I looked at the instructions, I asked people to show me, but it just resulted in frustration and anger and a lot of throwing things across the room.

My salvation came in the form of the Feeling Stitchy blog - which is awesome by the way, you should read it - they had a link to a tutorial video on the Needle 'n' Thread website and after a few views I decided to be brave and give it a go.

And it worked! After a lot of swearing, and having to open a window because I was sweating, I managed to put the final touches to a Christmas present for a friend. 

 They are definitely something that requires a lot of practice. Even after practicing on a spare piece of evenweave and moved on to the real piece, there were still angry words and a few broken pieces of thread but by the time I'd done a few I was definitely getting in more of a groove and they were looking a little tidier and more uniform.

My best tip? Tension is important when making the knot, but don't get too over-zealous and  pull too hard once you've passed your needle back through the fabric - that's when you'll start swearing.

6. Use my alpaca wool 

Unfortunately not even a peep on this one. I'm still suffering from the fear when it comes to using it. I've decided to put two strands together to make it thicker to crochet with but I'm now panicking that I won't have enough to make a full blanket.

To be fair I've hardly crocheted at all this year - 2012 has been the Year of Cross Stitch - and I'm itching to get going with my hook in 2013.

7. Sell something at a craft fair 

Big fat no to this one. But I don't feel too badly, I guess you could say this one was cancelled due to life circumstances. What with losing my job, moving to Preston, being unemployed, having a crappy job, getting a new job and preparing to move out, I didn't really have time to source out a local craft fair, let alone make things in order to sell at one. 

Heck I haven't even registered at a GP yet.

8. Read 12 Classics 

Done - although you probably wouldn't know, given that I dropped doing my book reviews in 2013. I'm basically just not that good at writing book reviews I decided, I'd far rather leave it to the pros.

The list of Classics for this year then has been:

1. Northanger Abbey, 
2. The Magic Toyshop, 
3. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, 
4. Gone With the Wind, 
5. Cold Comfort Farm, 
6. The Virgin & The Gypsy, 
7. Brighton Rock, 
8. Heart of Darkness, 
9. The Turn of the Screw, 
10. Of Mice and Men, 
11. I Capture the Castle, 
12. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde.

Worst Classic of 2012? The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - I don't even know how I made it through that dirge. Absolutely awful.

Biggest disappointment of 2012? Cold Comfort Farm - I know people will be going apeshit at me saying that, maybe I just had too high expectations because everyone loves it so much but it just didn't do it for me at all and it certainly didn't make me laugh.

Biggest surprise of 2012? Gone with the Wind - I've never even seen the film so didn't know what to expect at all and I was pleasantly surprised, I absolutely gobbled this book up, couldn't get enough of it, and although it might appear a little daunting given its size I would definitely recommend it.

Scariest Classic of 2012? The Turn of the Screw - I was chilled people. Chilled.

Favourite Classic of 2012? Toss up between I Capture the Castle and Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. Two very different books but both totally absorbing.


9. Cook/bake something new every 3 weeks 

Yeah this never happened either. Although....it probably actually did. What happened was I stopped keeping track of everything new I was making. Admittedly I stopped caring after the bad news and I found solace in eating just a whole load of crap as a way of dealing with my redundancy which was not good at all.

However, moving in with The Person re-invigorated my love of trying new things and making new things and together we've had a great time going through all my cookery books and finding new things to make - Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food has been well devoured. I know there have been weeks where I have made new things almost every day...

So I don't know - I reckon I probably did this one, but in the interests of fairness, I'll leave it unticked.


10. Keep a diary with photos for one whole year

Yeah this one was cancelled too. I'm going to say life circumstances again. In some ways maybe I should have, this year would have been interesting to document, but at the same time, I don't think it needed documenting for me to remember it.

I think I made it too difficult for myself by wanting to do photos as well - I couldn't write without the photos and when I got a backlog of photos I couldn't remember what happened. It just all got too complicated.

This one was inspired by doing Project365 in 2011 - I think I'll go back to that next year.

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So there we have it. I make that Five-and-a-half out of 10 (I'm giving myself a half for number 2 as I did upcycle at least one piece of furniture) which I'm counting as a win. Anything over 50% is a win, right?

I'm giving myself a pat on the back as well - there were a few times when I thought about just surreptitiously deleting the page listing the resolutions on and pretending that I'd never really set them, hoping that no-one would call me out on it. But I'm glad that I took a deep breath and decided to plunge on regardless, it makes me feel like I've at least achieved something this year.

Now, bring it on 2013.....

How I fell in love with a gold rhino

The internet is a funny ol' place isn't it? One day you're sat around with The Stitchettes, planning the Embroidering the Truth exhibition and the next, you're helping out Mr X Stitch at the Stitch & Craft show in the Olympia in London.

For those of you not in the know Mr X Stitch is the place you need to go to if you're looking for anything vaguely contemporary when it comes to stitching/embroidering. Every day there's a new post up featuring the latest person to be at the forefront of cool stitchiness and it's the place to go if you're looking for something a little bit different, a little bit inspirational and, if you happen to be looking on a Saturday, something that might make your head spin a little bit.

Mr X is also the man behind Push: Stitchery which is an almost painfully cool book showcasing those right at the edge of art - you know, pushing things on and moving things forward. I know there are many that would love it as a Christmas present.

And if you still don't know him, you may well have seen him without realising when he appeared on Kirstie's Handmade Britain, pitting his beautiful cross-stitched silhouette of Whitby Abbey up against her appliqued cushion in the Great Yorkshire Show. (He was robbed let me tell you.)

We had such a great time last year, that when Mr X Stitch said he needed some volunteers for the Knitting & Stitching show in Harrogate, myself and another Stitchette pootled across from Preston and Hull to hang out with the coolest stitchy person I know.

This time the exhibition was biggerer and betterer than ever before. This stall featured Art with a capital Ar and as Mr X becomes more well known on the scene, he has access to cooler pieces of work than ever before and some of the pieces in the exhibition are by artists featured in the Push: Stitchery book.

For instance. What better way to grab people's attention as they walk in than with this piece:

Yes. That would be cross stitch. On a car door.

It is the phenomenal work of Severija Incirauskaite-Kriauneviciene who not only has an unpronouncable name but has a ridiculous wealth of talent.

There were so many pictures taken of this door just in the 1 day that I was at the show - it must be popping up on blogs and social media sites all over the place and I hope I see more and more of her in the future.

But he didn't just stop at car doors. Why have just a car door when you could have an actual wooden door as well?

I was transfixed by this piece of total beauty from Manchester based artist Sarah Greaves - I spent a huge amount of time encouraging people to look behind the door as people were assuming that this was in some way stuck on the door and couldn't comprehend that this is 100% embroidery on wood - there are wee tiny little holes in there that she has made.

My head cannot get around it.

I should also mention at this point that I fell in love with a piece. And I really mean fell in love with. I couldn't leave him alone and stood jealously beside him any opportunity I got, sneering at those who pretended to like him when they couldn't conjure up a fraction of my feelings towards him.

Meet Humphrey.

Please note this is not his real name, merely the name I gave him. His show name is Gold Rhino and he is the work of Zoe Williams, a person, who I'm pretty sure if I ever met I would swoon away, overcome by the waves of talent that must emanate from her body.

Believe it or not, this is needle felting. No. I can't believe it either. I've seen people do a bit of needle felting and it looks fun - stabbing things very hard with a needle is the kind of craft I could get on board with - but never in all my days would I have thought that something as stunningly beautiful as this could be produced.

I swear I actually miss him now that I'm back home. Who needs a deer head?

These are just three of the artists with pieces on display at the show and I fear I have lost many of you already so I will stop gushing here. But if you were interested in some of the other pieces that were on display you can go here for a full list.

It was a day for enjoying people. For sitting or standing and chatting to people about a shared love - that of stitchiness. It was great to watch people being amazed by the car door or standing back to admire the various pieces and stopping to have a chat about how blown away they were by what they were seeing and all the idea they now had in their head floating about.

Places like the Knitting & Stitching show can tend towards the traditional shall we say and it felt good to be a very minor part of something new and a bit different.

So here's to Mr X Stitch and all those people who continue to be at the Stitchy edge of things, bringing a little bit of magic to common folk like me.

The Craft List

What do you say we stop talking about jobs and redundancies and leaving Hull and all that kind of depressing stuff and focus on something totally frivolous? I can sense your wildly nodding heads from here.

There was an awful lot of crafting that's been going on these here parts. Well at least there was until the R-word came up and during all the uncertainty I seemed to develop a complete crafting paralysis. I would have thought that crafting would have been great as a way of channelling my efforts away from thinking up various job scenarios but instead my coping mechanism seemed to consist of a regimen of sitting and staring at the TV and a lot of sleeping.

But before that there was a lot going on and I feel it would be remiss not to document it in some way.

Crocheting
Now. Who else saw Heather's baby blanket and went into paroxysms of delight? Me too! I developed an overwhelming urge to just crochet these filled in granny squares, using any spare wool I could get my hands on. I was a woman possessed for some time and I swear at one point I became convinced that I was in the crochet version of The Red Shoes and I was literally going to not be able to put my crochet hook down until I died from exhaustion.

They are now sat in a stack where they shall remain because I really have no idea what I'm doing. I feel this might be something I have a flurry of activity on before it lies dormant. Perhaps I should call it the Mount Etna blanket.

Embroidery
I feel I've been bitten by some kind of embroidery bug lately and there is so much I want to do that's embroidery based. My head is bursting full of ideas about various things I could do. So much so that I might have to buy shares in the stock of embroidery hoop manufacturers if I ever actually carry out all of the things in my head.

Mostly in my head however is that I really want to learn how to do some new stitches. Especially inspired by the fact that one of my Not Really Resolutions this year is to learn how to do French Knots.

Whilst all these vague notions were spinning round my head, the Feeling Stitchy blog launched their January Stitch-along which was all about couching. I had bookmarked it to come back to later and when it was suddenly a few days away from Valentine's Day and I realised I hadn't made a card for The Person I whipped out some aida, yarn and thread and made something up on the spot. It was far from perfect and most definitely resembled something a child would do but it wasn't bad for a first attempt I thought. Especially a first attempt which probably took a grand total of 30 minutes, if that.

But then this sparked off something in my head and out of nowhere it came to me. I could quite easily do one piece of work and demonstrate lots of different stitches....

Now granted the picture below doesn't look like anything. That's because it was started in a flurry and I haven't picked it up since, but the idea is to fill the fabric inside this hoop with many many hearts of different sizes and shapes and in different embroidery stitches. There will be a stem stitch heart and a chain stitch heart and a running stitch heart and a backstitch heart...get where I'm going?

I got so incredibly excited about my idea that I had to start on it immediately and I thought that it would be cool to have, as a centre point, a fabric heart, which would be stitched in place. Now I realise why people are always bleating on about bondaweb. I decided to just cut out the heart and stitch it straight on. Not a good idea, you can see it's kind of wrinkled and baggy. I should have not been cheap and got hold of some bondweb, adhered it properly to the fabric and then stitched round it. I'm kind of undecided whether to start again with this one. But the idea is still bloody awesome and I'm getting it down now in case someone else thinks of it (which I'm sure they have by the way, it's highly unlikely I would have an original idea).

Cross Stitch
The biggest piece of cross stitch I've ever worked on is coming along very nicely. As you can see from the picture below I am officially finished cross stitching the main design and I am over the moon crazy in love with it.

I was actually dreading the back stitch part of it because it's really detailed in places and let's face it, backstitch is a pain in the proverbial at the best of times, let alone when you're doing it all over a piece like this. Plus I decided I would be a good girl and would backstitch over each individual square, instead of taking it over a few like I might be tempted to do for a card.

However, once I began the backstitch I could see the design really come to life. The windows immediately looked darker and stood out more. The brick work, which kind of made me want to die when I was doing it, makes the tower on the right look amazing.

This picture was taken at the end of February and I've done a lot more since then, but I think I'll wait until I'm done for a big reveal.

I also immediately began cross stitching the needle felt case which came with the January issue of CrossStitcher magazine. It's got soluble aida in it - brilliant! I went all kinds of wrong though in the beginning. Like I can't even explain to you how wrong I went. But thanks to my experience as a cross stitcher I didn't lose all faith and have a fit about it, I just made efforts to work around it and now I'm just pretending it never happened.

One bad thing though, that kit had absolutely nowhere near enough thread to complete the project. I'm a pretty frugal stitcher when it comes to thread and the red that was part of the kit barely did half the design. Luckily I had the matching colour already in my thread box but it seems to defeat the object of having a free gift if you don't provide people with the materials to actually stitch it.

I'm looking forward to finishing this because then I can finally stop finding needles stuck in random pieces of aida all over the place.

Oh and in between all of this I've also been working on another couple of mobiles that someone at work has asked me to do. Busy busy busy.

Now all I need to do is actually pick some of this stuff back up, instead of just sitting and staring at it and feeling overwhelmed. I'm almost feeling the need for another Gantt Chart here.

So. What have you been doing lately you crafty little lot?

Things and Things and Things

I’m not a huge one for just generally bumming around the interweb and finding things. I’m often sent links by The Person which always force me to ask him what the hell he was doing on there that made him arrive at a video of a dog wearing boots.

 

I’m pretty standard, I come home, check e-mails, Facebook, Google Reader and that’s about it really. I don’t browse Etsy, I’m still not on Twitter (I don’t need anything else to distract me thank you very much), I don’t frequent cool online stores, I haven’t requested an invite to Pinterest.

 

I read link posts that people do and I often wonder how they find so many, how they see so much cool stuff, I’m clearly failing at the internet here.

 

But I thought I would show you some things that I’ve been clicking on this week (and I apologise that 2 of them are to do with cats).

 

Cat Scan - Cats + Scanning machines. For reals. And my Mum totally has a scanner – I’m thinking I know what I can do when I look after the cats next week...

And in other cat news - Larry the cat that was adopted by Number 10 Downing Street from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home to be a mouser, has been doing his job for one whole year today. Not only is that cool, but he also has his own photoset on Flickr where you can see him getting ready for his party. There is a photo of him at the top of the stairs that made me screech with laughter it looks so cool. Good work Larry!

Did I ever tell you one of the Stitchettes got married in November last year? Well she did and her wedding was so homemade (obvs) and awesome that it’s been featured on Rock N’ Roll Bride, the most awesomest wedding website ever.

You may remember that it’s one of my Not Really Resolutions this year to learn how to do French Knots. But I’m also feeling the need to expand my embroidery techniques generally and learn some new stuff. Enter the Feeling Stitchy blog which showcases all the coolest stitchery out there. They Stitchalongs every month and January’s was all about couching. This stuck in my head and I decided to give it a go for The Person’s Valentine’s Day Card this year – but I forgot to take a photo of it, sorry. But expect to see more couching in these here parts because it is a) fun and b) quite quick to do.

I’ve been merrily cross stitching away at my fairy castle but then managed to run out of thread. Mostly because I was too lazy to go out and get more. When I had to stop I had a mild panic attack at the realisation that I didn’t have anything crafty in my hands, but then Heather’s Elmer-inspired baby blanket popped into my head and ever since then I have been feverishly hooking up solid granny squares....I don’t even know why, I just can’t stop!

I wish I had longer hair. If I did I would do things like this to it.  (Incidentally this blog is awesomecakes and her hair tutorials are brilliant, in particular the half up fat twist and full up fat twist which is a way of getting super classy looking hair quickly.)

That American Girl knows me well. She sent me this for Valentine's Day - 14 Ways an Economist Says I Love You. These are pretty hardcore Economics things, I had to dig into the recesses of my brain to work out what half of them were originally based on.


 Right that's your lot, get off the internet, you'll use it all up!

Not Really Resolutions 2012

So here we go. Not Really Resolutions 2012. Eek.

I think last year went pretty well. 9 out of 10 is a success in my book anyway, certainly as close to perfection as I’ll ever get.

So what’s on the list for this year? And more importantly, why?

1. Complete France 2010 trip album. Ha. Well it has to be on here doesn’t it really, given that it’s the only thing I didn’t complete last year. Shame on me. But this way it will definitely get done so it’s time for me to get my head down!

2. Furniture make-over. I have 2 items of charity shop furniture that need a make-over. One is a drop-leaf table and the other is this scabby looking chest of drawers that I picked up for £5 a few days after Christmas. They are very good at their jobs, but they’re not exactly pretty. I even know what I want to do with them, after getting inspiration from Tete en l’air last year, so it’s just a case of getting on with it. Think it might have to wait for more clement weather though!

3. Run 10km. A tricky one to put on the list as I’m still not overly sure if I am able to run 10km without my shin imploding. But if I don’t put it on the list I won’t push myself to try and achieve it so it’s going on here. I need something to aim for because once I’d run the 5km last year I stopped having the impetus to go running and as a result I’ve become a reet lazy so and so and I’m piling on the pounds as a result.

But I’m not going to beat myself up if I don’t achieve this one because it’ll be because I physically can’t do it. Note that I’ve just said run 10km, not enter in a race, I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself because then I’ll end up in pain – if I manage to run 10km, whether that be on a treadmill or running up and down my street a million times, I’ll count it as a win.

4. No buying of physical books for one whole year. Yeah you read right. I’m going hardcore for 2012. There is good reason for this. Namely that I do not need any more books. There are currently 92 books waiting to be read on my bookshelves. I read about 45 books this year, and 44 the year before that. Do the maths. Also I just don’t have the space to be buying books.

Which brings me to why it says no physical book buying. I decided this would be my resolution a couple of months ago and was all settled until Christmas Day when I opened up my present from my Dad and discovered I am the proud owner of a Kindle. I’ve had mixed feelings about these for some time now but I was mostly pleased because I saw a loophole in my resolution. I can’t buy any physical books but I’m allowing myself to buy books for my Kindle. I mean otherwise it would just be a waste wouldn’t it?

This one is going to be a tough one because I have a bit of a compulsion with book buying, as evidenced by the problem in the first place.

5. Learn how to do French knots and use them in an embroidered piece. These guys are the bane of my life. I literally cannot do them. Many have tried to teach me and many have wanted to poke me in the eye with the needle due to my complete inability to do it. But this year I am determined. If anyone has any links to any tutorials or videos that are good please tell me about them! I think French knots are going to be to 2012 what learning to crochet a ripple blanket was to 2011.

6. Use my alpaca wool. American Girl went all the way to South America to get me this wool (there’s a chance she also went for a holiday but we all know it was about me) and all I’ve done with it is turn from skeins into very neat balls of wool. This is bad behaviour. The main reason I haven’t used it is because I’m a giant scaredy cat because it’s not Stylecraft DK so I don’t know what to do with it. It is thin thinny thin thin and it frightens me. Any suggestions for what I can do with it (keep it clean please) then let me know!

7. Sell something at a craft fair. This requires me to be organised and get a stockpile together. Of what I have no idea but I like the thought of making money. Remember the mobile that I made for my niece? Since that one I’ve made 4 more for friends and it’s earned me some lovely cash. Now obviously I can’t make those – not unless I develop psychic powers and learn the names of my potential shoppers beforehand – but I’ve been bitten by greed and want to make pocket money for myself. I can feel a Gantt chart coming on...

8. Read 12 Classics. I had such a good time last year that I definitely want to carry this on this year. Mostly because of the stockpile I have – remember those 92 books? Yeah well 17 of them are Classics that I bought on speculation. And I can download Classics for free on my Kindle so no excuses.

9. Cook/bake something new every 3 weeks. When I was doing Weightwatchers in 2010/2011 I really started to enjoy being in the kitchen much more as I was always making myself new things. Since reaching my goal weight in February 2010 I’ve been lazy and that, plus the lack of exercise (see Resolution 3) has meant that slowly but ever so surely the weight is creeping back on. It’s not a big deal, I’ve just fallen into some bad habits, but I know what I need to do to change them so there’s no stressing to be done. But I thought this might help give me a kick up the bum.

Why 3 weeks? Well I knew that if I said fortnightly I’d never keep it up and if I said monthly well that’s just a big fat cop out isn’t it really? So every 3 weeks it is. God knows how I’ll keep track of this one.

10. Keep a diary with photos for one whole year. I loved doing Project 365 last year because it allowed me to look back over a year in my life and remember all the little things that happened. However it was a little limiting because I try to be as private as possible on the blog and not have other people’s faces in my photos etc. So I have decided that I will keep an actual physical diary for a year that will include photos. I’m not pressuring myself to write something every single day or take a photo every single day but I do want to keep a record of the little things that happen day to day. I even bought myself a cool book from Paperchase to do it in. Anything to oblige my stationary addiction.

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So there we have it. I am locked in. Bring it on 2012.

It's actually kind of scary. I think I might start thinking of valid reasons why I haven't completed these now, just in case...

Crafting Geekdom

You may kick and scream and shout and grow very angry at the fact that I’m about to mention Christmas on this blog but I think we’re allowed now. We're getting towards the end of September and I’m sure anyone crafty knows that if you have a full time job, Christmas crafting really needs to have begun by now.

Well at least if you craft at my pace it does. (Plus you have to allow for lost time due to hangovers.)

I’ve had ideas swimming about in my head for some time about things I would like to make for people at Christmas but I realised a while ago that I needed to get these ideas down and on paper, otherwise I would find myself in the middle of December with absolutely zilch done.

Enter.....the Gantt Chart.

Ok. It’s not really a Gantt Chart. I just messed about on Excel to make something that vaguely looks like a Gantt Chart.

For those not in the know and who can’t be bothered to click on that nice little link I embedded for you, a Gantt Chart is the ultimate in organisational geekdom. It’s a bar chart that can track progress on a particular project or projects –the chart can show at which point you’d expect everything to be done by and how long each bit would take.

This is basically a visual tool which I can look at and go “OH MY GOD I SHOULD HAVE STARTED THAT BY NOW!” And stop me from faffing around doing something irrelevant and nonsensical. (Like reading. Seriously. Reading has taken a big hit now that I’m getting my creativity on.)

I know that some of you are shaking your heads in amusement at my ridiculous ways but I know that there will be a few like-minded freaks who are getting very excited right now.

This is like organisation on steroids.

And you might call me crazy and you might think I’m a little tapped in the head and you might say “What’s wrong with just having a list like a normal person?” and I would concede on all of those points but for me the visual works. Maybe instead of it meaning I’m super anal it means that I’m just ever so slightly retarded and need it all spelled out for me.

Either way. It’s working. The chart has meant that I am committed to getting things done in a certain time and actually the first three things on the list have been completed. And not just completed, but completed ahead of schedule. Now that's a good feeling.

It means I can get a grip on just how many Christmas cards I’m making. Obviously I made a resolution to make at least 1 a month but I feel that now I can step it up a notch, so I’m aiming for one every couple of weeks. I’ve added gift tags to the list as well, they only take an hour or so to make up, it’s easy peasy to squeeze one of those out per week and have a nice little stockpile to dive into when it comes to wrapping presents day.

It should also hopefully mean that I can plug away nicely at the blanket I’m planning to crochet for my Dad and his wife for Christmas. When the other little tasks are done I can crochet away on that until the point on my chart where the next project should be started. Or I can start a project earlier than I planned to and get it out of the way.

The possibilities are endless.

Except that they’re not really because December 25^th is definitely going to come in just over 3 month’s time and everything needs to be finished by then.

And see? Even the album that I’m supposed to be making for France, which I started with such gusto is still on there. It needs to be finished by the 31^st December if I’m to have not failed at my Not Really Resolutions this year. It will most likely be completed in the week between Christmas and New Year when all this silly Christmas crafting nonsense is completed.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go and consult my Gantt Chart and find out what it is I'm supposed to be doing next...

Something New

So you may remember that one of my Not Really Resolutions for this year was to finally get all my photos from my holiday in France last year in an album of some sorts.

I didn't want to just put them in some plastic sleeve photo album but I equally didn't want to go down the route of mega-serious scrapbooking involving bits of lace and embossing powders. So (as I usually am in my life) I decided to try and tread some kind of middle ground and create something that was part photo album, part diary and not boring.

I'd had a couple of ideas of how I wanted it to go, I purchased a big map of the region while I was out there, along with a notebook that I wanted to use as the basis for things but I still wasn't feeling it was special enough.

Then one of The Stitchettes told us about something cool she'd seen - that people were embroidering on to postcards and the like, either random patterns or as a kind of doodling or as a way of adding fun details. This idea took route in my brain and stayed there until eventually, with a bit of a quiet day ahead of me a couple of weekends ago, I got all my tools together and made a bit of a start.

My tools consisted of:

- Photos

- Notebook

- Map

- Thread box - specifically red, blue and white embroidery threads

- Ruler

- Scissors

- Pen

- Glue

- Pointy stick thing for putting holes in things (gosh I wish I knew the real name for this but it's brilliant, I got it from Hobbycraft)

- Cup of tea

You know those times when you pick up something that's new to you and you just run and run with it and get incredibly over-excited about it? This was definitely one of those times. I ran with things like a wild embroidery woman.

I've tried out a few things so far. Things like putting borders around photos....

...And adding embellishments to other photos...

For this one I drew the flower on with pen and then put strategic holes in it with the pointy sticky thing 

...And I've used it to add fun parts to the diary side of things. Instead of just a boring list of places we went to, I used the threads on a postcard to pick out all the places we went...

...And I used the embroidery instead of the pen. Look! It's like writing!...

...And for picking out detail already on photos. You can't see it very well on this photo but I've picked out some of the girders on the Viaduc de Garabit in red thread to make it come alive a little bit...

All in all? I've been having a lot of fun. And hell I'm not even a little bit done with it yet. As with a lot of things creative, I had a mad splurge and then haven't really touched it for a week (but I had to pay attention to my ripple blanket, it's been so neglected lately!). But everything's all laid out and ready for me to start again when the mood grabs me.

Mostly I'm just excited. Like, really excited. 

Can you tell?

Baby Etiquette

I'm at that stage in life where everyone around me is getting married and having babies. This is all good fun but it is requiring a certain amount of organisation in my life as I try to get ready for all these upcoming events.

Hen dos and weddings require much saving for (whatever happened to just having a nice night out in town, why is the minimum spend now about £200?!), making sure diaries are free, possibly booking days off work, booking hotels, sorting out gifts and outfits.

Babies should in theory be just as easy to sort out - you know when they're coming (or thereabouts) you know what you can get them, and yet somehow, it always seems to take me by surprise. I decide what I'm buying/making and they're pregnant, and I see them getting bigger and bigger and yet somehow the two don't connect in my brain and suddenly I get the text announcing the birth of another bouncing bundle of joy and I panic.

This latest baby most definitely shouldn't have taken me by surprise. My friend's actually had a pretty terrible pregnancy and has been laid up for about 18 weeks of it. As in laid up. Every time she so much as sat up she would pass out and she ended up in hospital for a couple of months, whilst they ran a barrage of tests to try and work out what it was. The Doctors were stumped and all they could do was put it down to "one of those pregnancy things" would should clear up when she gave birth.

Luckily it did all clear up once the little man had arrived. Unfortunately for me though, the Doctors decided to bring the little person's arrival forward by a couple of weeks and induced my friend. This most definitely caught me on the hop and suddenly I had one baby and no present. Eek.

My plan? Take some babygros. Take my Sublime Stitching craft pad. Take my thread box. Take one bank holiday. Make something cool.

And you know what? I totally did make something cool. In fact I made two something cools.

Then comes the part I hate. I'm never sure what the right thing is to do as a friend/family member when someone has just had a baby. I'm conscious that I don't want to appear uncaring about the new addition to their family but I also don't want to appear that I have no idea how much time and work a new baby takes.

In short I have to walk the tricksy tightrope. Do I text straight away and I say I'd like to come and see the baby? Do I not text at all? If I've text once and asked do I text again?

I get far too stressed about whether or not I'm a good friend.

Anyway I have sent my text saying I would love to see the baby and I will now retreat to a safe distance. But, I want to make sure that the babygros still fit, I know how fast these little suckers can grow and it's bad enough that I've embroidered something he's only going to get to wear once, let alone something he's never going to get to wear because I didn't see him in time, so they have flown off in the post to hopefully be enjoyed.

Now the next baby is due at the end of August. I know it's due. So obviously I will have this present ready on time. Right?

April Flickr Favourites

This was a good month for photos. The sudden appearance of the sun, a bit of craftiness, and a couple of bank holidays make for lots of photo opportunities.  

9th April - This was the first weekend that was gloriously sunny. I, like the rest of the UK, got completely caught up in it and I bought myself a summer skirt and went to sit in a park and read my book. However I failed to remember that blue skies do not a warm day make - it's still the beginning of April and all the sun in the world isn't going to make the temperature rise that far. But I sat and shivered it out like everyone else and made a secret little prayer to the weather gods that this weather will continue into summer.

12th April - Ok so I still almost shed a tear any time I think about the demise of my poor duck babies but instead I will try and focus on the good times. Even if they were only around for a week, I loved them so much it almost made my teeth hurt. And actually it's ok because I have discovered more duck babies, but they're for another post...

17th April - My first proper bit of embroidery and very proud I am of it too. Blogged about here, it still needs to be framed properly and I swear I will get around to it. Probably.

25th April - I don't even know if there are words for this one. Those cats crack me up something rotten and this is Fred at his very best. We excuse their poor behaviour on the fact that they are still babies, but they'll actually be three years old in August. I envy those people who have well behaved cats that don't jump on work surfaces and scavenge for food even though they're well fed - I have no idea why these two are such minxes. But I love them for it.

27th April - Oh hi. I can ripple now. WOOOOOOOO!! (I'll tell you more another time I promise.)

29th April - You may have missed this but there was a Royal Wedding recently. I had a tea party and it is officially one of the most fun things I've ever done and this photo will keep me smilling for many years to come. It's the product of a huge amount of blood, sweat and tears but an example of hard work paying off.

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Can't believe I've made it through four months of taking photos every day. I marvel at myself, I really do. (Mainly because if I don't, then no-one else will.)

All Project 365 photos can be found here if you wanted to have a gander.

Feeling Stitchy: April Stitch-a-long - Finished!

And so I have finally finished my second ever little piece of embroidery. I am feeling mighty pleased with both it and myself. She is such a pretty little dancey lady.

Just in case anyone is interested in the breakdown of the things I've done for this piece then this post is going to be full of lovely information. If embroidery's not your thing then you might want to come back another day.

All the colours I've used are DMC threads. The name's of the stitches might not be right because I'm not an expert at these kinds of things. I have a little book called The Embroidery Stitch Bible - and indeed it is, it's jam packed full of stitches with handy little diagrams. I've used this piece to practice some new stitches - you never know when these things might come in useful.

The umbrella - Red- 606,  Yellow - 726, Orange - 741, Purple - 209, Green - 704, Blue - 798, Pink - 3806, Grey (umbrella handle) - 414.

Stitches used - Back stitch to outline, Brick stitch to fill in, Stem stitch for the umbrella handle.

The coat and dress - Blue - 3843, Purple (stripes) - 3839, Yellow - 744.

Stitches used - Coat outlined in back stitch. Lapels, pockets and buttons in satin stitch and dress in brick stitch.

The hair - Dark brown - 434, Medium brown - 436, Light brown - 437

Stitches used - Chain stitch. This was time consuming but oh so oh so worth it because I think I love her hair the most of all. I was initially just going  to do it all one colour but thought I would be brave and try something a bit different. There wasn't any particular method, I just stuck a lighter brown in whenever I felt like it but I was really pleased with the overall effect.

From beginning to end.

The rain was done in a loopy kind of stitch, for which I have no idea what the name is. I don't even know how I know to do it, it must have sunk into my brain as a result of reading too many stitchy type blogs.

The flowers were also cool but I can't get a decent enough picture of them close up to show the detail, but I used a stitch I've never done before called a Herringbone Stitch which was great for the leaves, it is being stored in the memory bank in case I embroider flowers in the future.

So there we have it. I've no idea what I'm going to do with her. I've got some tutorials saved so I can properly frame her in the hoop she's in now and I guess I'll get some ribbon and string her up somewhere and look at her and feel proud of myself.

A huge thank you needs to go to Feeling Stitchy for hosting the April Stitch-a-long - the pattern for this month was free and can be found here.

Feeling Stitchy: April Stitch-a-long

Ever since I did my first little bit of embroidery for a Christmas present last year, I have been itching to give it another go. But finding time has been difficult and selecting the right project has been even harder so I've been left to daydream for the beginning of 2011.

But then Feeling Stitchy started doing stitch-a-longs. I figured that this could be my chance to get my needle on and I was desperate to join in but couldn't find the time. I had already decided that April was the month I would go for it. As luck would have it this month's pattern was absolutely beautiful so I grabbed a nice cloth napkin I had lying around, borrowed Dorothy's washable pen and set about tracing like a mad woman.

This is where a lightbox would come in handy, instead of squinting at a piece of fabric and lifting it up occasionally to work out where you were supposed to be drawing whilst not moving the picture underneath, you could have a much less stressful time, but such is life. I did the best I could do and tried not to freak out too much when a few lines weren't in the right places. I have to constantly remind myself that this is supposed to be artistic, I can do what I like, it doesn't matter if that raindrop is 2cm to the left or not.

What is most enjoyable about this kind of embroidery is that once the pattern had been traced, I was on my own to do what I wanted with it. This is still a little daunting for me, I struggle artistically, I'm not great at thinking things up on my own and choosing my own colours. I think that's why cross stitch appeals to me, everything is so much more ordered. Here, not only do I have to think about colours but I also have an unthinkably large amount of stitches on offer to me. It's almost too much!

But I knew straight away that I wanted to the umbrella to be a rainbow coloured one. It just seemed obvious to me, I couldn't have done it any other way. So after a quick consult of the embroidery thread box of dreams I was well on my way.

When I finished the umbrella (staying up far too late one night to do so because I was totally unable to put it down) I sat and stared at it for a good 10 minutes straight, feeling pretty damn pleased with myself because I thought it was so beautiful.

After that I was on my way and the process really took hold for me. Raindrops were completely as single big loopy stitches, secured at the bottom with one little stitch. I am sure there's a technical name for this stitch but I'll be damned if I know what it is.

Her jacket presented me with the opportunity to stick a new kind of stitch in so I went for some satin stitch on her lapels, buttons and pockets. Although I love that turquoise colour, I figured the coat would be too overpowering if it was all that colour (I think the umbrella needs to be the focal point) so I held myself back and just did a few simple stripes in purple.

I figured her dress had to be done in yellow because this is a springy kind of pattern - she is experiencing an April shower after all, and what could be more spring-like than a lovely lemon yellow dress?

I am absolutely loving watching this piece take form. I have been religiously taking photos as she progresses so I can compare them properly when I'm all done. And I have been a good girl and have been adding my photos to Feeling Stitchy's Embroidery pool on Flickr so they could see what people were up to with the pattern.

And this led to me becoming a famous person, when one of my photos was featured in a progress post on Feeling Stitchy earlier in the week. Fame! Amazing. There was my stuff on a real life blog about stitchy stuff. Amazeballs. That photo has now had over 150 views on Flickr which is, you know, freaking brilliant, it makes me feel popular and loved and I love a bit of that.

I've been beavering away on this when I can and will be taking more pictures (obvs) as I go along, ready to share with you in a later post when I'm all finished and will have officially completed my first little embroidery hanging to go on a wall somewhere. I have been keeping a track of the colours I've used along the way, just in case anyone would like to know (I'm pretty much a huge DMC whore you know) and I'll be including those in the final post.

Hurray for embroidery!