Unexpected

Sometimes, it’s nice when the weathermen gets it wrong.  We had an un-forecasted snow “event” last night.  It dropped a good 3” (or more) in most of our area.  It was wonderful to see, but of course I was at home.  The poor souls that had to try and drive home were probably not thinking it was so wonderful.  It was quite the snarled mess and still looked like rush hour on some of our roads at 11pm last night. 

 
I was so touched by everyone's comments on yesterday’s post.  It wasn’t my intent to inspire so many of you to set your own goals, but I'm glad that I did.  I have always thought goals were important – even if it’s just a goal of getting the laundry done.  We all need a sense of accomplishment in our lives, and goals help us to feel that.  I am excited to start my photo challenges…I know there will be times that I have to force myself to pick up the camera, but it will be worth it after a year to see 2010 through my lens.

What’s In Store For 2010

Lots.  Lots and lots.  But not too much. 

That’s really saying a lot, isn’t it. 

2010 will include a 365 photo-a-day challenge for myself.  It can be of anything.  Crafting, landscape, still life, favorite Brice moment, my car [Orange Chicken] on an adventure…anything.  Uploading them all to Flickr on time is a whole different story.

There will also be a 52 week photo-of-me challenge.  But it wont necessarily be my face, but just some aspect of myself (feet, elbow, hair, etc…).  I thought one a week would be better than once a day.  I don’t think I could photography myself everyday.  I’m not setting a day of the week to do it on, I just have to have one photo of myself between Sunday and Saturday. 

Both appropriate for the upcoming talks on photography, don’t you think.  It is a way to keep me active in my photography and to push myself to learn more and continue to improve my photos.  Perhaps one day I will call myself a photographer and have an honest to goodness profession with a real studio…but that would be several years down the line.  For now I want to enjoy and play and learn and grow. 

In 2010 I will print my favorite photos and frame them, instead of letting them linger on my hard drive.  I will put photos up for sale in my shop on my personal website.  I will create calendars in time for 2011 sales. 

I will continue to exercise at least three times a week and go at least two miles on the elliptical (two months of that under my belt now).  I will also fight the urge to worry on my nails and let them grow so they are prettier to look at in step-by-step photographs (two weeks down and they are looking great!).  I will learn to love my toe-thumbs just the way they are.  It’s a sign of royalty, after all. 

I will keep my promise to Liz to complete a project that has been talked about for over six months now. 

But none of these are resolutions.  I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions because I am only setting myself up for failure.  These are goals that I hope to achieve.  In the 5th grade I had a teacher that told us how important it was for us to write down our goals in list form and keep them with us.  He would pull out his list from his wallet and show us that he did just that.  I always took that to heart.  While I don’t usually write my goals on paper, I keep a running list in my head of the important things.  But I do think lists are important.  If you write a list, things get done and there is a great sense of accomplishment when you get to cross them off as finished.  I love making lists and I always go back to them and make sure there is SOMETHING I can cross off.  So here is my list for 2010.  If I don’t succeed 100% in everything, that is okay, at least I know that I set some “goals” for myself for the coming year.  That is what’s more important for me. 

I look back on this last year of my life, a side of my life that I don’t share here and I find that I am very proud of myself and that I am a much stronger woman than I gave myself credit for (believe me, I've always known I was strong, so that is saying something).  Maybe one day I will be able to share everything with you, but for now I like to reflect on how positive I’ve kept myself and I really couldn’t have done it without this space and everyone that stops by to offer their encouragement to me in the form of a comment.  So thank you to everyone for stopping by in 2009 and I look forward to sharing my adventure (and following all of yours) in 2010.

Last Minute Crafting

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope that it was as wonderful as mine was.  Other than the fact that I did not see my dad, stepmom and sisters this year (and that my monthly visitor showed up Christmas Eve afternoon in full, painful force) it was a wonderful Christmas.  I can’t remember a Christmas that I enjoyed more, and that was in large part due to my son (and lots and lots of IB Profen).  While last year was his first Christmas, I really feel like this year was the first since he was old enough to enjoy it.  Swing on over to my family blog to see all the fun we had with Brice. 

Now that Christmas is over I can show you some of my last minute projects.  Pillows!  One was with Brice and for my Grandma…

…and the other was for my brother’s girlfriend, with photos of him from the last year.  He has been away at school on the other side of the country since July, receiving new training (he’s in the air force), and she leaves to do the same training one month after he’s home again…so I thought this pillow would be something for her to take when she goes, and this way she still has my brother with her. 

I made this little number with some of my mom’s fabric that my Grandma covets.  She has been doing a little hand sewing lately, and we thought a little travel case was just perfect.  I just love the little gnome on the front.  I’ll tell you, it was very hard to cut into this fabric, I think that is why my mom made me do it.  She couldn’t bring herself to.  It was no easier cutting into it, even though it was hers. 

My mother-in-law got teary eyed when she saw her quilt and she did actually start to cry when she saw the photo of my husband and our son that I printed and framed for her.  I had a feeling she would.  I’m about half way done sewing the binding to the back by hand, as machine stitching it down did not go well.  I’ll have to work on that one.

I got lots of goodies (fabric, books, lotions, antiques…including that beautiful, yellow Hall teapot from my recent shopping trip – that sneaky mother of mine) but my favorite gift this year would have to be this one from my husband.  It is the first year we’ve gotten gifts for each other and he got me the two things that were on the top of my list – a Polaroid camera (still on its way here) and a new keyboard for my desktop computer (with low profile keys like a laptop…since I spilled tea on my last one).  It’s the simple things that make me happy.  Now that the holidays are over it’s time to stress about reflect on turning 30 in one more week.  …and find Polaroid #600 film at a reasonable price.

I’m Pretty Much Amazing

I got it [almost] done!  I loaded it last night and quilted it this morning and I'm gong to get the binding sewn on the front and work on tacking it down to the back tonight after it’s opened. 

Or maybe I’ll try machine stitching it down to the front and back…  I have until four this afternoon, but I still need to shower and try and get a few more things done as well as clean house.  Thanks for all the “you can do it’s” yesterday – I think that helped push me forward.

 
I love the quilting on this one – it just worked perfect.  I was looking online trying to decide how I wanted to quilt it and feathers just wouldn’t leave my head.  So feathers it was.  And I think it’s perfect for the quilt. 

I probably could have had it ALL done yesterday, if I wasn’t such a good procrastinator.  At some point I decided these little canvases needed to be black.  Why?  I don’t know.  They just called out “paint me black, don’t quilt” as I walked passed.  So throughout the day they got coats of paint.  Not sure what I'll paint on them yet, but red mushrooms might look cool.  Alright, I’m off to finish everything on my list.

Christmas Eve Eve

I’m starting to get a little panic-y.  I don’t think I usually get that way at Christmas.  It could have something to do with the fact I started cutting a quilt last night at midnight and that I still have to piece it today and load it on the longarm and quilt it and bind it….all by tomorrow afternoon.  I don’t delude myself into thinking I will get it all done.  But it would be nice to at least have it quilted before I go to sleep tonight.  I know most bloggers are signing off for the rest of the year, but this is my only sanity during this crazy time of year.  So I'll be right here as time allows. 

Mushrooms + Terrarium

Here is another shot of that oh-so-cute mushroom and a little gnome that I made.  This mushroom went to Terri and the gnome went to Sarah with a few little mushrooms for a cute little shadow/treasure box I made for her.  Unfortunately, I didn’t take a photo of it.  So, these really were very simple to make.  The rest of the mushrooms I made went into two different terrariums.  So they had floral wire in the centers of them to help stick in the dirt.  For those, I found this tutorial via a post from Orange Flower Sketchbook. 

 
I made mine slightly different.  I used Polymer Clay and baked it in the oven.  Then, after painting I put a glaze on them to help seal them.  Since some of them would be going in humid, enclosed environments (terrariums) I didn’t want them to rot.  Plus, the glaze makes them all shinny and pretty.  One of these little blocks of Polymer Clay was $1.19 at Michaels and it made a TON of mushrooms and gnome.  (By the way, I did not use floral wire in the gnome or freestanding mushrooms.)  They were really easy to make and I can’t wait to make a few more creations from my left over blocks of clay.   

 

So then I had to construct the terrarium.  I first found this website with some good, basic information.  I found this jar at IKEA for around $2.50 and then I thought about buying small plants for inside of it for weeks.  But never did it.  Finally, the day before it was to be gifted, I went out in to the forest behind the house and gathered up moss, ferns and then a small little plant from one of the pots on the front porch. 

I used pebbles left over from a fish tank that was no longer in use, then added in some activated charcoal from fish tank filters that were sitting around (unused of course).  Luckily we had Sphagnum moss from summer planter decorating and then some left over potting soil. 

 

After that was done some larger river rocks (from the yard) were added in and the moss draped over them as well as laid on to the dirt.  Add in the tiny fern and other plant and mushrooms and it’s a cute little terrarium! 

 

And now it lives at it’s new home in Liz’s kitchen window.  In the enclosed environment, they really only need to be opened and spritzed once every three weeks or so.  I can’t wait to see how it does over the next year.

 
Oh yeah, then there is the mess to clean up.  And the spiders to put back outside that decided to come in on the moss.  Fun.

Color Week :: Black (or white)

My own drawing, digitalized and made into an iron-on transfer.  I love doing this.  I also want to try block printing fabric in 2010…and screen printing…

I always forget how much I hate sewing circular bottoms onto things until I do it again.  Such a pain in the you-know-what.  I was hugely inspired by this bucket.  Next time I'll pay the $30.

 
I bought a bucket pattern the other night off Etsy from Designs by Maya*Made but didn’t end up using it on this one.  (I actually just looked at it before writing this post.)  I do that a lot – buy patterns and never use them.  Terrible habit.  I think it has something to do with not liking to follow directions…  I am looking forward to trying her pattern after the holidays to make a bucket like this one.  I did some things slightly different (mine has that handy pocket for hooks and needles), but I'm always up for trying new ways and I think she did a great job of getting right to the point with her pattern (always a big plus in my book). 

Color Week :: Red

A little red mushroom painting for Liz.  It wasn’t quite dry yesterday, so will be delivered late.  But I gave her a sneak peak of this photo on my camera when we met up for coffee.  I still have two more to make…sorry girls, those will probably be delivered after the holidays…maybe at our next coffee meet up?

Remember the red mushroom?  Well, I couldn’t say anything about it because I made a bunch for gifts!  So now that they are all gifted to the girlfriends, I can share with you how I did them and what I did with them.  How about Tuesday…after color week is all done.  Tomorrow is the last day – black or white (or maybe black + white…?). 

Color Week :: Orange

I was lazy about photos yesterday.  Just too much going on.  But I did snap these orange scarves while shopping with my friends.  We met for coffee and exchanged gifts and then finished up a little last minute holiday shopping.  I of course didn’t get photos taken of everything I did – but I can share a little bit with you, including the mushrooms.  So later today for RED. 

Color Week :: Brown

I’ve got BROWN dirt for you.  Brown was a hard one today.  I’m not sure how much more of the terrible two’s I can take.  No more shopping with kid.  I don’t often direct you to the family blog, but you really must visit today.

Some fungus on a BROWN log.

The country “meow”.  She’s not brown – just cute. 

Color Week :: Blue

These were in our driveway yesterday.  Rather than be upset that our [not so favorite] neighbors had left their garbage floating around our drive, I thought I would take advantage of the colors.  I decided to leave it there yesterday to see if they would pick it up.  They didn’t.  They even drove right by it today while I was standing out there.  I know it was them – they use balloons for EVERYTHING. 

I would never do something like that.  We are a very small neighborhood on a private road with only 10 owners.  My grandpa lives across the way and his “office” is the house to the right behind the blue barn…my “aunt” lives in the house ahead and to the left (can’t see) and next door is my great grandparents house that is now a rental.  My grandpa never uses balloons.  Neither does my “aunt”.  That leaves one neighbor.  We don’t do stuff like that out here – we’re a small community.  We all know each other, wave, greet the kids, check in and help out (and be nosey if your a busy body whose name starts with G and ends in –race).  Just one more reason to not be happy with the neighbor.  But hey…I got a pretty blue photo out of it!  I just really had to get that off of my chest…and try and see the positive side of things.

I did most of my Christmas shopping today.  One trip sans kid and another with.  At least the second trip included grandma’s help.  Having Cars on my cell phone didn’t hurt either.  I’m tired and I still have more to do tomorrow…and then some last minute, frenzied crafting.  I’m exhausted just thinking about it!  I’ll have to remind myself to watch out for some brown tomorrow…

Color Week :: Pink

It was a bit of a scramble to find some pink the fading light today.  But I already knew I wanted this pink pot to be one of the photos.  Unfortunately, nothing else turned out.  But that’s okay.  This was the most “pink” of the things I found.

The of course there is my quilt that is just sitting, waiting for me to put binding on it.  After the holidays. 

Color Week :: Green

 
Sometimes I have a very hard time choosing an edit that I like.  Each of these appealed to me individually  - although grouped together none of them really stands out.  Funny how that works.

I had more green around then I thought!  I think I struggle with green the most of all the colors.  It’s such a pretty color – but just hard for me to find around.  I think it has something to do with the fact that green is my least favorite color on cars.  What that has to do with anything else green is beyond me.  Find more Color Week blogs here.