Thursday, January 17, 2013

2013 resolutions

It's taken me 17 days, but I've finally decided on my resolutions. Completely doable resolutions. Last year's were a bit too abstract and too numerous, but now I've got better goals.

1. Clean the kitchen every night before going to bed. Including the dishes. I want an empty sink by bedtime. I can do that, I swear.

2. Starting today, yoga everyday. I just bought some DVDs that have 10-minute routines. I can spare ten minutes.

3. Eat less, exercise more.

4. Compliment at least one person every day.

5. File mail and other documents as soon as I receive them. I currently have a "to-file" stack about a foot high. It's ridiculous. But no more!

There, five completely do-able things that will make my life (and hopefully the lives of the people around me) a little bit better. It's going to happen.

Friday, January 4, 2013

2011 Craft Recap

This year I set a crazy goal of reading 75 books. I did it, but kind of let a lot of my other hobbies fall by the wayside. My goal for 2013 is still to read, just not as much. I want to really focus on crafting. And getting our house ready to sell. And finding a new house. And being able to pay for a new house. Without ending up with no money. 

Because you really don't want to read the list of books I read, instead, I wanted to share the completed crafts I did this year that I haven't posted before. I think y'all have seen all the wreaths so here are the other things I've been up to.

Matt and I went to Mexico for our honeymoon and brought back a whole bunch of tangible memories. While trying to clean things out for the big move, I came across them and made a shadowbox display. I'm quite pleased with it.



Here's a quilt I made for Whitney for Christmas. She mentioned on Pinterest how she wanted a quilt like this, so I tried my best to make it for her. It's not big enough to cover a twin bed, but should be a good curl-up quilt. I had fun picking the patterns for this one, while still trying to use as much fabric as I could with what I already had. 




This behemoth of a quilt is now Drew's. He got it for his birthday. He has this weird obsession with polo-style shirts. You know, the knit variety. He wanted a quilt made out of the shirts that he couldn't wear anymore (like stained shirts, too small, wonky collars). I volunteered. And then went back on my crazy meds. It took months, but I did it. It fits a queen-sized bed, which it what he wanted. I think my sewing machine still hates me for it. 

And that little piece of cheer is my first completed cross-stitch. Well, my first real one. I made another small one last year for our gallery wall, but I don't really consider that one real. This one is a wedding record. The "Love Never Fails" is a little wonky because I free-handed it while listening to the last five chapters of "Life of Pi." If you've read that book (I don't know about the movie), you know why I might have been distracted. I plan to give it  as a gift, but we'll see. It may be too wonky.

There. The four projects that you might not have seen yet. I'm hoping to have a whole heck of a lot more in 2013. I know, you can hardly wait to see what I churn out.