101 - My List

At the end of 2010 several people I knew, blog wise and in person, had set themselves the 101 in 1001 challenge. I am a bit of  fan of lists and challenges so I made my own 101 things to do list but decided not to set a time limit and just to see where I was a year or so later. I never blogged about the list as I was never sure how well I would get on and I didn't want to feel obligated to do it. Some of the items were fairly easy and may seem trivial to you and some were things that I knew may not happen for a fairly long time but that I would like to achieve at somepoint.
This morning after building a traintrack for the smallest munchkin I sat and had a look at the list. I was able to cross a few more off and to remember some of the things I had wanted to do way back last January.
I have decided to share this list with you and how I am getting on with it. Those in red are done, in green still to do.

1. Make a draft excluder for front door - now we have moved I don't need it as the door shuts properly!
2. Read top 200 BBC books (not including those already read) - I have started this
3. Craft an item a month (different crafts) x 12 - Cross stitch, beading, sugarcraft, resin jewellery, card making, hand sewing, bread making, basic knitting, jam making, beeswax candle, dressmaking (well a skirt) with a machine and knitting with Katia wool, (the wool is different but process the same so undecided about this one but I think it counts)
4. Use my rolling machine
5. Take a silver clay course
6. Use ultrasonic cleaner
7. Attend 6 table sales/craft fairs - 3 out of 6!
8. Finish neices cross stitch - I showed you a picture of this.
9. Make a Thomas cross stitch for No 1 son - he has now gone off Thomas so may have to rejig this one
10. Make Xmas baubles for boys - my mother bought me a kit to make beaded baubles
11. Complete No 1 son 1st yr frame
12. Make No 1 son baby album
13. Finish patchwork quilt
14. Grow own veg - we did this last year it wasn't a great year but we did eat our own food
15. Organise all beads and findings - started
16. Produce cost list for beads and findings - started
17. Use the Champneys spa treatments book I was given
18. Learn to use sewing machine - I'm no pro but I have cleaned, threaded, wound a bobbin and sewn!
19. Return to pre-baby size - have come to conclusion this may never happen!
20. Make cheese and butter
21. Go to America and meet inlaws
22. Scrap a wedding page
23. Finish Father Christmas - another cross stitch
24. Set up a website - started
25. Blog once a week for 10 weeks
26. Commit a random act of kindness every month x10 - These were mostly donating to charity fundraising events with jewellery or baking and giving away various items to people who needed, or again for charity, teaching jewellery making to a group of women and helping with children. Little things but I like to think they made a difference to someone.
27. Make No2 son baby album
28. Use knotting tool to make necklace/bracelet
29. Make a candle - I rolled a beeswax candle would still like to mould a candle
30. Use leaf whacking technique from garden programme
31. Raise money for YCT - I plan on doing this in the big Shave Off in September
32. Save each month x12, pay off any cards - This was a double one 8 out of 12 mth saved in then things like moving abroad eat into the savings.
33. Handmake cards x10 - 3 out of 10
34. Make items using techiniques from each book
35. Refresh silversmithing techniques
36. Go to a ballet
37. Go to a musical
38. Make 10 presents in 2011 - this has rolled into 2012 - 9 out of 12
39. Do more home baking with No1 son
40. Go on a family trip once a mth x12 - 9 out of 12
41. Take boys camping
42. Spend a weekend away with hubby
43. Document Bad Taste bear collection
44. Document Tatty Teddy collection
45. Document DVD collection
46. Bring boxes from parents and unpack - we started this then we moved abroad and took boxes back to parents for storage
47. See family at least once every 2 mth (x6) - now we are abroad this will be harder to keep up but we will keep in touch with them
48. Take 30 mins excersise a week - Not counting running round after children and doing housework this is not proving something I am keeping up with 6 specific episodes! Opps
49. Cook 5 new receipes - chocolate macaroons, chicken stew, fudge, lemon cake, homemade soup
50. Try 5 new foods - 3 out of 5
51. Have a night out with hubby once a mth when he is home - twice
52. Write menu plans for a month
53. Use Ipod for more then FB - now we use it for games and music too!
54. Upload CD collection to Ipod - started
55. Make a herb pot - we had to leave it when we moved as couldn't take plants with us
56. Write a proper will
57. Send hubby a care package a week when away
58. Make a list of places to visit and visit them
59. Make sure to have a relaxing bath once a mth x 6
60. Use slow cooker more
61. Clean out kitchen cupboards and reorganise - now we have moved this will need doing again!
62. Go out for walk once a wk with boys - we still do this now when we can
63. Take boys swimming
64. Return library books on time x3
65. Pay off sofa
66. Neice cross stitch (a different neice)
67. Make nephew cross stitch
68. Make nephew cross stitch
69. Make nephew cross stitch
70. Choose No 2 son cross stitch
71. Try lacemaking with Mum
72. Attend car event with Dad (not pub lunch)
73. Shop from grocery list no extras 3mth - 2 out of 3
74. Read thrift book, try 10 things suggested - 1 out of 10
75. Go on a residential jewellery course
76. Sell an item a month x5
77. Go to bed at 10 every night for a week
78. Sell in a shop - 2 months in a shop only 2 items sold so decided to wait and try another way rent was more than made
79. Have a facial every month - once
80. Have fresh flowers in house x5 mth
81. Clean out car and wash x3 - 1
82. Have hair cut every 2 mth x3
83. Sew an item of clothing - you saw a picture of my skirt last week!
84. Customise an item of clothing
85. Have a clothes swap party - this seemed a good idea at time but now we have moved and I am not sure
86. Make a housework schedule
87. Try quilling
88. Try encaustic art
89. Plant a garden with No1 son
90. Scan in old pictures and save to external harddrive
91. Make a paperchain with No1 son a link a day while Daddy is away
92. Make a jewellery item every week x10
93. Reorganise bedrooms clean and tidy - will need doing again in a few mth now we have moved
94. Get No1 son his own bookcase
95. Make a welcome home Daddy banner/flag for No2 son
96. Clear out clutter ebay/buy and sell etc - of course we have amassed more now
97. Live frugally for a month
98. Refurbish a piece of furniture
99. Make a soft toy - See post above.
100. Bake bread once a week x5
101. Have a night in with friends once a mth x10

So there you have it my list of 101.
Now I have revisited it I am motivated to get more of the easier challenges completed and work at some of the tougher ones.
I have to collect No1 son from school now so I shall leave you with this.
Do any of you have a 'List'?

A make a month - Quick catch up

I signed up in December to this years Make a Month challenge. As some of you may remember I started off in January with a hat and scarf set for my son after being unable to find him an orange and black set which was what he really wanted.
Then with moving house things went on the back burner a little but in February I made a couple of sets of wine charms for a friend. Unfortunately I forgot to photograph them. I have others but these were a little different. I used more seed beads along with the charms rather than pearls or crystals as I have before. However there are no pics so you will have to take my word on this one.

Then in March I did some more knitting. This time with Katis Ondas wool. I found the instructions on the sheet a little sparse but after a few attempts and a little google help I was really pleased with the finished result. The pictures are not great today as I have had to use my phone. The sd card on my camera has come apart from over use!

You will have seen on my last post that since our move my sewing machine has put in an appearance or two. Last night I decided to mutilate an old quilt cover belonging to number one son and a towel of the husbands and combined them to create a quilt for number two sons cotbed. It was more fiddly than I thought as the 'patchwork' on the original quilt was all different sizes so after cutting out the pieces I was planning on using I had to rejig the pieces a little. Still it all worked out ok in the end and I was really pleased with the end result. I am even contemplating getting some real patterns and trying something a little more complex. So far I have not used a tape measure or pencil/pattern in my sewing so thats my latest challenge. It may be a while before you see the results of this though. :o)

So that brings us up to April. I have not thought about May yet. There are still a few days to go before I need to come up with something though. Maybe i'll have a look at my craft books and try something new.

And we made it!!

At last the internet here is up and running, I have been trying to use blogger with my phone but it would always freeze on the bit where I wanted to type. Not particularly helpful!
I have been missing my little corner of blogland. I have also been wondering if I should have a blog for the creating and a blog for the German adventures but I am not sure I would be good at keeping up two blogs. I know there are tmes when I leave this one for long breaks. What do you think?

The living area.

 This is actually the dining area nearest the patio doors and boys play area on the other side of the room. then behind me when I was taking the photo is the area we have made into our sitting room. It is on a whole other scale to the house we came from in the UK. Lots of hoovering but also space for the boys to play and us to relax without having toys everywhere. We had to make a special trip to Ikea to create the play area but I will show you that and more of the house another time.

One of the cellar rooms - My new space

This was actually the room I was most excited about when the housing guy showed us around the property. The cellar is divided into 4 rooms. A boiler room, a wash room, an odd extra bit and this room. I earmarked it straight away for a craft room/workshop. Apparently most people turn 'downstairs' into a bar or a gym. Well I guess I am not mst people. :o) Again more photos when thigs are a little more organised and I have things a little straighter.

The boys have been enjoying it here. We have found a huge soft play area the first couple of weeks of being here and there is a park outside our house. We back onto a river where there are plenty of ducks to feed and one direction will take you to another lovely outdoor play area the other to town and the ice cream parlour.

Yesterday I unearthed the sewing machine. We had a huge amount of plastic bags lying around mostly collecting on the bottom few steps but all over the house so I decided it was time to do something about it. When we were little we stayed with my granny a lot in the south of France and she had a sac-a-sac for keeping her bags in. This I decided was just what we needed. So I set about creating one.

sac-a-sac

The material was given to me by my sister years ago. I used part of it to make her youngest a dolls quilt one christmas. This seemed like a good way to use some more of it up. The ribbon handle was actually part of the ribbon from our wedding cake. I was really pleased with the finished product. I may even use the last piece of material to make a coordinating peg bag. I hand sewed one last year but a new one wouldn't be a bad thing. :o)

After my success I decided to branch out a little and attempt my first item of clothing. I had already decided a skirt couldn't be that hard and had bought a piece of material from ebay before we moved. I found a piece of 1.5" elastic in my sewing box and decided that was all I needed. I had to wind a fresh bobbin, something completely new to me but fascinating how it knew what to do and when to stop and I even gave the machine a little clean. I took my shiny new sewing scissors and cut the material in two. Sewed them end to end so the selvedge ran around the bottom of the skirt and created a casing for the elastic. Sewed it all up and this is what I ended up with. (Well actually it was about 5 sizes bigger and I had to open the seam and cut the elastic and re sew it all but after that. . . )

gathered skirt 1st attempt

I shall leave you with that for now as there is a lot to catch up on but I will be back again soon. Now I must spend some time catching up on what all of you have been up to while I have been internet-less!

We're off on a journey. . .

Facebook is a wonderful thing. I have been sent theses pictures by my neighbour to be of my new house.

Front of house.

I have worked out the kitchen is on the right, the first two small windows are downstairs toilet and the third is the hall. I haven't been able to establish upstairs layout yet though. 

Huge back garden.

The garden is really, really long! I think we may need a new lawnmower.

Only a couple of weeks until we get packed up here and start our new adventure.

Quite exciting and a bit of a hurry. . .

As you may or may not already know my husband is in the forces. You may or may not support him, thats your choice but it's his job and I am very proud of him and his colleagues and what they do.

Anyway the exciting news is we have just received a 2 year posting to Germany which will be a really good experience for us and the boys. I am very happy that we have been given the opportunity to do this before the German barracks are closed down and return to the UK.

The bit of a rush comes into it as hubby reports for duty on the 5th March which actually isn't that far away.

Excited very, anxious slightly, concerned about the amount of 'stuff' to do YES!

I am just going to finish my cup of tea and I am going to start on the garage.

Until next time. :o)

UFO to FO!!

I have been trying to remember who it was that posted about UFO's but I can't for the life of me remember. UFO's for those of you not sure what i'm chatting about are Unfinished Objects. I had a bag full of unfinished things but the post that I can't recall properly gave me a boost to start finishing things off. 

Mini pictures to Xmas tags

I think I started Peter Rabbit way back when I was a little girl and I was learning to cross stitch so about 23/4 years ago perhaps. I was gutted I didn't have a card quite the right size to make him into a tag as I did with the other two but he sat in the top of Dad's stocking much to the boys delight.

The other two I started much more recently though still sometime ago. Probably about 2004. They went down very well as gift tags from Father Christmas.



Sampler and Bookmark

The little sampler needs a frame to finish it off. Again I started this when I was quite young maybe 9? I am really not sure but a good 23/4 years ago again. The bookmark I started about 10 or 11 years ago and lost interest in. I finished it for the Advent swap and in my haste to post the package forgot to post it. I need to mount it and get it posted as I don't really know any other Jenny's.

Neices birth sampler - Started 2001

Finally this Peter Rabbit picture. It's from a kit by Anchor but I adapted it for my own use. I first made my nephew a birth announcement for a GCSE project and then I found myself with a niece whom I created a Beatrix Potter scene for. My nephew then had a little brother who received a Noddy creation and his younger sister a washing line of dolls clothes in pretty girls colours. This is only 10 years late for my neice and I have just started an elephant picture for my nephew, after that I have two more nephews and my own two boys to create for. And all because I needed a project for my textile GCSE!

It has made a little dent in my pile of UFO's and I'm looking forward to finishing off some more. It's not all cross stitch but I do have a lot of it tucked away.

Have you any UFO's that you need to turn into FO's?

A Make A Month - January

Ok so I only made the scarf in January the hat was knitted in December but I thought as it was a set i'd picture them both. Son was after orange and black and you think I could find one. So I dusted off my knitting brain and came up with these. I am contemplating a pair of mittens too but I need a pair of smaller needles for the wrists or they will just fall off. This is the first knitting i've done in years and I was quite pleased with the results as i'm glad to say was the young man in question.

Looking forward to seeing all the other monthly makes. If you've not signed up yet just click on the link on my side bar and add yourself.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!