Day One: 2013

Welcome 2013. I am looking forward to you.

There are so many things that I want to achieve in 2013 that just didn't happen in 2012. Like blogging. And making pretty things.

It is going to be a big year for me. Not only do Esther and Ellamay start grade 3 but Amelia is starting school. Grade Prep. I will be child free for school hours and I am looking forward to it. I will be a little lost for a couple of weeks probably. Prep kids get to have each Wednesday off as a rest day in the first month of school so that will make the transition for both Mum and Amelia a little easier.

This year, I am going to be more realistic with what I can achieve. I will get back to blogging and making. I will make a schedule that includes time for both, along side the rest of life. I will be busy sometimes but that is okay because there are times when that is life. I will tell myself I am doing okay even if I am having trouble believing it.

We are still renovating our house, so there will be more stories about that. Hopefully, it won't be quite as consuming as it has been. We have finished the kitchen, dining and lounge rooms now so everything else should be on a smaller scale - one room at a time (hopefully).

Looks like my previous years resolutions will continue to be goals. One of these years I will achieve some of them. :-)

I have already finished one project for 2013. That is pretty amazing. I will have to remember how to use my camera so I can share pictures. :-)

2012 had a total of 11 posts. I do hope 2013 has a few more than that.

God arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. Psalm 18:32

Happy New Year.

Well... Good morning, 2012

... You're here already. What shall we do together? Many things I hope. Last year kind of dragged on for me. I mean, it went fast, but I don't feel like I achieved a lot. I guess the last three months of the year were basically going from one sickness to another though. I think I was in survival mode. Now that we have made it to February, I am hoping for mundane and healthy times ahead. I won't hold my breathe.

 

So much has been happening, I had hoped to be back before now. I hope I can get into the swing of blogging again now that Esther and Ellamay have started back at school (Grade 2 people! How grown up!) and Amelia will start kindergarten next week. Basically, I will be in the car rather constantly this year.

I thought about what my goals are for this year and they are just about the same as they have been since I started this blog. I think they will be my constant resolutions. This year though, I am adding to the mix some other creative goals.

-Make one Christmas decoration from felt each month. I really wanted to make decorations last year but it was beyond me with all the sickness we had happening. I hope this way I can have a better chance of reaching my goal of more handmade decorations. I have already made 1 and a half :-)

-Get a new Visual Diary and draw regularly in it to work on techniques. I would really like to be able to draw little illustrations just because I can.

-Paint some of my drawings with the new watercolours I got for my birthday last year.

-Conquer crocheting. I started an apple cozy and I would like to finish it. It is such a ridiculous thing to make. I love it and want to make a bunch of them because I can.

-Do a 30 days of photos kind of project. I would like to work on my photography skills. I want to learn how to shoot in manual.

That about covers it. Not sure that I will get there but that's okay. I will just try again next year. :-)

I can't promise when I'll be back next. I have lots of things to share. Including the first room of our renovation (Yay! We finally started).

Hope your month (and year) has started off well.

Learning to crochet

One of my new years resolutions from last year which carried over to this year was to learn to crochet. I keep seeing all these very cool things that are crocheted and I haven't any idea how to make them. Last month, two things refreshed my determination to learn this craft. Finding this book for $2 at Spotlight and seeing this post about how to crochet an apple cozy. Now I feel an apple cozy is kind of pointless. But it does make ones apple not only cute but a bit silly and different and I am all for that.

Also, the book I mentioned above fills me of visions of whipping up little critters to leave around for Toy Society drops. I would love to have a go at that.

I got myself some necessary supplies and went to both my mum and my mum-in-law and got some lessons. My mum was a bit rusty. She got me started though. I practiced all that chain stitching above with help from her.

My mum-in-law got me started on a granny square. It was a bit tricky because she is left handed and I am right handed so we had to keep turning over the granny square to work out where we were up to. :-)

Not bad? I did another round on this one and ran out of yarn so I decided to have a go at starting one myself. It's fun. Things I've learnt so far though - I should really wear my glasses when I am doing this, I should have really good light to help with seeing what I am doing too, and it is going to take just a bit more practice to be able to work on the other projects I have spotted. :-) Also - No more projects, Glenyce! You are in the middle of enough now!

If you would like to have a go at crochet, here are a couple of links that may be helpful to you. Here is one with step by step photos. And here is a link to Meet me at Mike's which has a full run down on how to crochet a granny square. The other alternative would be to search out someone who knows how to crochet and have yourself some lessons off them. Happy hooking :-)

Thread of Sunshine

My life is but a weaving, between my Lord and me,

I do not choose the colours, He worketh steadily.

Oftimes He weaveth sorrow and I in foolish pride,

Forget He sees the upper, and I the underside.

Not til the loom is silent and shuttles cease to fly,

Will God unroll the canvas and explain the reason why

The dark threads are as needful in the skillful weavers hand,

As the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned.

Things have been getting the best of me lately. This life we have is full of stress. It can be so wearing. When I was having a bad day recently, my mum happened to show me some family history stuff she had been working on about my Nanny. Mum showed me this poem which had been in the front of Nanny's bible. It brought tears to my eyes. How true are these words. Even though things seem to be a bit of a mess, "the dark threads are as needful in the skillful weavers hand, as the threads of gold and silver in the pattern He has planned."

I can't control what happens in this life but I can change the way I look at things in this life. I know I am a bit late for new years resolutions but I want this year to be different. I want to spend more time looking at the blessings and gifts that God has given to me instead of getting weighed down by the grief in our life. I want to make the most of what we have and not need things to be different to make me happy.

It's a lot to aim for in an unpredictable life but you know what? I have everything I need to get there. I just have to work out how to use it.

Visual diary

In the beginning of the Crisis, I made a list of my Resolutions for 2010. One of them was to start using the visual diary and fineliners I had bought. Well, I have been using them. I am not an artist and I struggle to get what is in my head onto my page, but I am working on it. I guess I don't really care that it is just a lot of scribble because it is developing ideas. And I am satisfied knowing that the great idea that I had the other day is recorded and I can work on it more rather than forgetting things in the busyness of life.

This page has a few ideas scribbled down about the cloud mobile that I wanted to make. I had a general idea and I worked on it in the book before it came to doing anything.

When things have been too busy or the kids are sick or if don't feel like getting out projects to work on, I can just get out my book and scribble away. It is a quick hit of creativity and a great way to remember what I am up to. I hope if I keep it up, that my drawing abilities (or lack thereof) will of course improve. In the meantime, this is what my book looks like. It makes me feel clever. And that makes me feel good.

Project 52 - Date Nights

One of my New Years Resolutions was to be a better wife. Tim and I are going to be ten in May this year. What a great roller coaster of a life it has been. I am so blessed to have the husband I have. And even though he drives me crazy sometimes and I, in turn, drive him crazy, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Life has always been super busy. The levels just change. Looking after our relationship has been hard work and often is the last thing we worry about. So this year, we are commiting to making a change. We are going to follow the Project 52 over on Simply Modern Mom. What a great idea. Commiting to having a date night once a week for a year.

We have tried to have date nights at home in the past but we have always been a bit half hearted about it and let other stuff get in the way.

This time, we have set the ground rules. We will follow the first ones suggested in the pledge.

- Can't do the same thing twice in one month

- We will rotate being in charge of date nights on a monthly basis

- No children allowed

- Must create a date-like atmosphere. No frumpy clothes or pajamas. Make it a special event. Mind the details. But most of all, keep it simple

Our additions:

- Must take a photo of the date activity including us

- Cannot go outside the house block

- No computers, TV, Phones, Blogs, CFA, etc to get in the way!

Now that I have written about it here, it will make us accountable to actually do it. So the plan is that I will post about what we did and our photo. Should be fun.

2010 Resolutions

Starting a New Year. A great gift. I figure since I sort of spoke about New Years Resolutions in my last post, perhaps I should record a list (dangerous I know) about some things I want to achieve this year.

Creatively

- Learn to crochet

- Improve my sewing

- Make some kind of embroided cushion

- Start doodling in a book (I bought myself a A5 Visual Diary today) and make fun pictures because drawing with fine liners is fun

- Improve my photography.

- Make myself some skirts. They would be A-line of course.

- Start wearing flowers in my hair again. They would have to be well placed to cover the grey that seems to be creeping through my hair though...

Personally

- The usual - Get healthy

- Be a better Mum

- Be a better Wife

- Get my house decluttered and beautiful

That about covers it really. I want achieve stuff this year that has been on hold while the kids have been around so much. I would love to make things different in lots of ways. So I had better start small.

Get off the computer...

Something happy... Fine liners and a fresh new book to draw in.

New Year - New Blog

One of my New Years Resolutions was to start my own blog. Well. Big tick for me! I didn't specify in my resolutions that I had to actually keep writing in it!

I hope to be able to record all kinds of things on here. I use to keep journals but haven't been much good at it since I had kids. Something about sleep deprivation and no time... Perhaps the world of blogging will motivate me to do it again. In the very least, I hope to be able to record my makings... all in my Mid-Craft Crisis.

I have so many projects on the go at once, I never seem to get them finished. And with our twin girls off to school this year and youngest at day care for one day a week, I have high hopes of getting things in check.

Now, all I have to do is juggle everything into some kind of order and I will achieve another thing on my list of New Years Resolutions... a Super Mum!

Happy thought for today.

Ellamay asking when I was getting dressed ready to go shopping in town today - "Mummy are you going to be all beautiful today?"