2012 in review, part 1: Life happened.

I know it's not quite the end of the year yet, but since there is going to be absolutely nothing that changes anything I'd write in this post between now and New Year's, I thought I'd just get this out of the way early. (Gives me more time during the Christmas-New Year's week to focus on actually, you know, working on my wedding dress.)

One of my long-time favorite quotes is this one, from a John Lennon song: "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." I think he hit it pretty spot-on there (even if I tend to not like his post-Beatles music). Obviously, this year did not go as planned--but in the best possible way. If you'd told me this time last year that I'd be engaged, I probably would have laughed in your face. So since I generally review the goals and plans I made at the end of the previous year in this traditional post, I'm going into this with the disclaimer that life definitely had other plans. On with the show!

Since I basically have nothing crafty to show right now, in order to avoid this being a massive text-only post, I'm breaking this into two parts. So this part is basically a review of my goals from this year, and looking ahead to the next.

Part 1: My 2012 goals, as stated here: 
1. Continue chipping away at the fabric stash. And whatever other stashes.
 The verdict is: Mixed success. On the one hand, I did use up several pieces of fabric, including several that had been around for years. (The lining being the piece in the latter project.) On the other hand, I did end up purchasing several things. They're mostly things that will get turned into curtains for the townhouse, since I haven't really been in the habit of stashing home decor things. And, you know, yards and yards of fabric for a rather unplanned wedding dress. I'm ok with that, because like I said, these are special circumstances, and these high-yardage projects will take huge bites out of that total all at once. (After the dress, it's back on the wagon for sure!)

As for those other stashes--I think I used up one type of yarn. I did get rid of some beads by giving them away. So that counts, right? 

2. I have a handful of specific projects I'd like to sew. #1, the jeans. It WILL happen this time. #2, a jacket or two. #3, the Lonsdale dress I've been envisioning for at least six months. Aside from that, I want to leave things flexible for seasonal sewalongs and the like.

Now this one I totally nailed! Exhibit A) Jeans!! Exhibit B) Two jackets (and a raincoat!). Exhibit C) Lonsdale!

I guess it's a good thing I left that flexibility loophole in there, since I am now on month 3 of total sewing monogamy.

3. On the reconstruction end of things, I've had an idea simmering in my mind for a couple of months now. Since I'm already an Anthropologie fan, I'm setting a little mini-challenge for myself. Once a season, I'd like to choose a garment from the current catalog, and make a recycled piece inspired by it. Perhaps even with a tutorial, if the interest is there. (I was originally thinking once a month, but again, I'm trying to avoid over-committing myself. And once every 3 months sounds reasonable.) Also, I'd like to reconstruct often enough to stay a part of the Refashion Co-Op.

Total fail. Not only did I not do this mini-challenge at all, I got shuffled out of Refashion Co-Op months ago. Oh well.

4. Continue working on my knitting. Specifically, I'd like to make something with a cable that actually looks like a cable, something with multiple colors in the same project, and at least start that afghan that will take me years to finish.

I did not make a cable project. But I did make a striped hat.  In the most technical sense of the word, I did start the afghan one night.... I just had to rip the entire thing out because the gauge of the yarn was waaaaaay off with the size of needles that the original pattern had called for, and I haven't gotten smaller needles with a big enough cable yet.

5. Keep chipping away at the scrapbooks as I feel inspired to.

I did finish a couple of pages here and there. So I'll call this one a win.

6. Get better at picking projects that will help me make complete outfits. (I have a couple of orphan pieces that I still love and I want to wear them.)

I kind of feel like I haven't really had an opportunity to test this one out, to be honest. But I do think that things like Me-Made-May and my "fashion diet" this fall and winter has made me much more aware of what holes in my wardrobe need plugging.

7. Make some more things for others. I can be a terribly selfish crafter.

And for the most part, I still am. I did make a few gift projects this year, though, and I did spend some precious sewing time resizing t-shirts for my bestie and crafting a skirt for my sis-in-law (which is nowhere remotely close to being done, since I've only worked on it when she's been around.)

In 2013, I'd like to....

1. ...finish my wedding dress, obviously. Nothing like an immovable deadline and the pressure of everybody that I know being aware that I'm making it to motivate me! There's also other handmade things planned as far as reception decor goes, so I'll lump that in here too. 
2. ..find a way to work craftiness in on a more daily basis. As I was preparing to write this, I was struck by how few things I've made this year, compared to every other year since I started this blog. I understand why, because I've never faced a year where I was dealing with starting a new relationship, getting engaged, starting the biggest sewing project of my entire life, and having virtually no time to sew for an entire season due to regular 6-day workweeks. But it still saddens me a bit. I know that things will get crazier right around the wedding, and I may not have time to sew or craft at all then. Aside from that, I think I'd like to try Tilly's thought about just taking 15 minutes every day. Surely I can do that, even if it's not necessarily sewing. (It'll probably be way more than that for awhile, now that I'm almost done with the retail job for a few months and will be sewing like my life depends on it so I can finish as much of The One Dress as possible before that starts up again. So this is more for when I go back to more regular work.)
3. ...get my craft stuff organized. It's pretty much a necessity, since I'm also going to be moving all of my stuff within the next 6 months. Some things, like the majority of my jewelry-making supplies, are already at my fiance's townhouse. Thankfully, I do get an entire room, and a guy who actually thinks organizing is fun and is excited about the challenge of getting my stuff in there in a way that is both neat and functional. (He already spent hours of evening time getting all of my beads organized and consolidated into a few containers, even though I told him that if he'd wait a few days until we could hang out again, I'd help him...did I get a great guy or what?)
4. ...make the townhouse ours. It's already started, since we've repainted several of the rooms, and as I just mentioned, I did move a few things there that I don't foresee needing before the wedding. I am looking forward to having a place to decorate, and already have fabric for two rooms' worth of curtains--as well as plans to reuse some stuff so I don't have to make all the curtains. So yes, I'll probably be talking decor a little more than usual, at least for a little while. Hope you all don't mind.
5. ...still keep chipping away at those scrapbooks. Which will probably be easier after the wedding, since we're setting up the closet in my sewing room to be a scrapbook/jewelry-making nook. Complete with a table so I can leave half-finished layouts out on it instead of putting everything away all the time!
6. ...sew a few basics--or cake, if you will--that will help tie various parts of my wardrobe together. I'm thinking specifically about some pants of the Thurlow variety, assuming that the pattern works on me, since I am in dire need of some pants that aren't too short for me. And maybe another pair of two of jeans, since I very well may wear these jeans out within the year from constant wearing! (I already have several pieces of fabric stashed for this purpose, so I shouldn't need to buy too much there.)
7. ...as mentioned before, get back on the stashbusting wagon. Some stash purging will definitely be in order!
8. ...IF time permits, try another mini-wardrobe. I'm thinking specifically for the honeymoon, and that I'd like to pull it together using mainly pieces that I already have in my wardrobe. If I finish the dress in enough time, making one or two things would be great. (You know, since I basically have zero pairs of shorts that fit me and we're going somewhere tropical. Thurlow test, anyone?)
9. On the knitting front--I started this sweater months and months ago, kept picking it up and putting it aside because it was giving me all sorts of issues, and finally just put it into complete hibernation once The One Dress came up. I know that if I can just get through this top part (enough to make sure this will look good), it will be a great learning project. So I would like to either finish this particular sweater, or find another use for that yarn that will work for me. (Either way, it would be nice to get through one sweater next year.)
10. On the blogging front, I really would like to make some changes around here--a new blog design, if I can figure out how, and most definitely improving my photographs. I know that's a huge weak point, and I'm hoping that having a little more space (and a better chance of having a photographer on call) will help me out there.

That seems like a lot, doesn't it? But I do know that at least some of these things will happen out of pure necessity. I'm trying to leave these goals mostly open-ended, since I don't really have much way of predicting what sort of effect this sort of Really Major Life Change is going to have on my crafty life!

Next part to come later this week...

A very browncoat weekend

I have to admit that I was getting a little frustrated last week over being two months into the year and having virtually no finished projects to show for it. (At least, not finished projects that I actually got to keep, other than that one reconstruction.) But it's ok, because I finished two things over the weekend. And yes, they are both of my brown coats!

First off, the raincoat is now 100% finished. I got my Fashionable Stitch order of replacement eyelets in last week, and hammered them into the belt on Friday, just in time for heading out on the town on a somewhat rainy night. I did my best to get an action shot, since I'd already gotten the main detail pictures, but due to the rather useless clutch purse that I could barely even fit my phone and wallet into, all I had was my flash-less phone. But here's my attempt anyway, and my apologies for the blurriness. And the darkness. And the fact that you can't even really see the belt. But I promise you that I'm wearing it! The verdict: it's not quite as warm as I'd hoped, but it's still most certainly warmer than my store-bought raincoat that I use in the spring and summer months. So I guess mission accomplished?

I also finished my corduroy jacket over the weekend. It took me some time to figure out the vents in the sleeves, but with a great deal of help from Sigrid's tutorial, I finally managed to fudge my way through it. Not the best job ever, but hey, couture hand sewing! (It's there, buried among the interfacing and the frayed edge.)

Today's my birthday, and I really like to have something new and me-made to wear for that whenever possible. So I basically spent all day yesterday frantically sewing to try to get this done-- about 5 hours on the machine to get the lining/facings sewn together and into the jacket, and then another 4 hours hand-sewing the lower hem and the lining and all of the buttons while watching movies with my (very patient) boyfriend. But I finished it! I've already worn this two ways--jeans and my new Princess Bride t-shirt for low-key hanging out with my family this afternoon, and paired with tights, boots and this dress for church this morning. (Because, as I put it on Facebook this morning, it's my party and I'll wear tropical prints in February if I want to!)

I'm really happy with how this jacket turned out. The fit is great, it's super-comfortable, and the style details remind me a lot of this other brown corduroy jacket that I had and loved in high school, which was a vintage lighter brown one from the 70s that my mom had sewn for herself. It was a bit too small across the back for me and too short in the sleeves, so I eventually let it go, but the wide collar and patch pockets on this one bring it to mind. I think that the basted fitting method worked really well for this, since the fabric was tough enough to take it, so I'm not sorry that I didn't make a muslin.

The lining combined with the dark chocolate exterior still reminds me of the packaging for Junior Mints, though!

Don't you think?


One last note, since several of you commented on my last post about how organized I'm being with the bagged-up projects. Thank you, but this is actually rather unusual for me-- I'm generally not a very organized person at all! I'm usually the person who cuts something out and then realizes when I get to that step that I forgot to cut out my interfacing yet again or that I don't have a zipper or that I forgot to make sure I have the right color of thread or whatever. But I'm trying to plan ahead this time, especially knowing that my sewing time is going to be pretty limited over the next couple of months. I doubt I'll get any sewing in tomorrow since I'll have to work and all, but I'm hoping that they won't need me to come in on Tuesday-- all of my students that day have cancelled this week for one reason or another, so that leaves me with basically an entire free day. So I'm hoping to be able to spend it tracing out a couple of things and cutting out several of those projects so they're all ready to go!

Things left unblogged

Warning: This is going to be a rather picture-heavy post.

My raincoat has a sleeve now! Which I forgot to waterproof after I got done teaching last night like I'd meant to. I got sidetracked by finishing up the last two rows on the chart for the back of my shrug that I'm knitting, and swatching for another upcoming project. So I guess I'll have to do that today, and not sew on this. (It doesn't really have a lining in there yet, I just stuck it on the hanger with it so I could get an idea of what it looks like.)

And since there's not much more to say about that, I remembered that there are some things I've done more recently that I haven't written about yet. So I'm just going to put these up now.

#1: Yes, I know it's February, but I'm going to post about a Christmas ornament anyway!

The backstory: For the last few years, an out-of-town married couple that I'm friends with has hosted a game party around New Year's--basically, lots of board or card-type games and usually some kind of movie or tv-show watching that has some kind of geeky twist to it. (This year, it was a bunch of episodes of The Big Bang Theory.) And one of the first years, the guy closed the email invite with comparing Sauron (the big flaming eyeball bad guy from Lord of the Rings) to Santa, because they're both always watching. So that became kind of a running joke. This year, I had the thought one day while I was bored at work that this could become a pretty funny ornament. So I approached my best friend (who is also friends with them) with the proposal, and we agreed that I'd paint the ornaments, and she'd crochet the hats. (I made 3, because of course we each wanted one too.) Since we rode up to their house together, we had some pretty amusing moments of me gluing the hats to the balls in the car and hanging them from the rearview mirror to dry! Our friends thought it was hilarious, and so this is Sauron Claus hanging proudly near the top of their tree at the party.

#2: I'm easing myself back into scrapbooking, after basically not doing it for a couple of years. Admittedly, these aren't my most creative pages ever, and I certainly wouldn't win any prizes for them. But hey, they're done! Most of these fall into the category of "I just want to get something done so I'm just going to write on these pages that I'd already glued pictures to awhile ago and call it finished."

And you can't even see the writing on most of these, but since it's been sitting unfinished in the album for awhile, it's still better than nothing! I did have fun with making the wavy paper shapes on this one to kind of go along with the way the wall was painted in the restaurant, though.

Easiest page ever, and one that was truly made recently. I just slapped the pictures from the manicures we got for a friend's wedding, oh, 4 1/2 years ago onto a piece of patterned paper and just wrote on it. I don't know why I kept putting this off.

This one had been mostly done awhile ago, except for one thing...

See that writing? Yeah, bubble letters that I colored around with a black marker on top of the paper that was already there. I don't know why I didn't finish that one 3 years ago, either.

The actual layout took some effort, due to all of the little photos....the writing falls into the category of "it's getting kind of late and I don't feel like taking the time to type this and choose a font and print it and everything." Honestly, I'm thinking I'll just have to transfer all of my fonts to my laptop, because the printer is in the kitchen, and then I can just sit next to it and feed paper into it to print things. I'd be so much more productive that way.

I'm a little more proud of this one, from a concert I went to back in 2008. Same deal, just writing on the paper myself, but the gold pen makes it more fun.

And I did enjoy doodling on the patterned paper some to go along with that paisley printed scrap of paper that already had the gold on it.


I do have another page about halfway done, but this one actually will need stuff printed on the computer before I can glue it all down. Ok, so I have several pages about halfway done, but at least I'm starting to get some work done on them now!

Aside from the laptop for writing, I'm hoping this will help...one of my major deterrents has been that my scrapbook stuff is mostly put away, so every time I want to work on it, I have to haul a bunch of stuff out and figure out what I want to use and then put everything else away and then put what I actually did use away and it just takes so much time. I like things I can just pick up and work on. But when I was out running errands with my mom recently, we stopped at AC Moore and she found these little totes on clearance. It has all of these pockets and even a pull-out drawer at the bottom, so I can store a good number of the most basic tools I use (other than my computer for typing, obviously.)

See that box? That's about 2 years' worth of photos that I recently got printed. And that's not counting all of the photos from the 2-3 years before that where I either only halfway did a page or just stuck some paper with it to do later or never started at all. Kind of overwhelming, isn't it? But since the stuff is here now, that will make it easier to start chipping away at these and actually get some more albums done. If I can ever sort out once and for all whether it would be better to organize everything after my last fully completed album chronologically or by broader categories. (My last fully completed album stops at the end of spring 2006. And there's so many holes in the chronology from photos I never finished--or started--that I'd thought categories might make it easier. Either way, I have my work cut out for me, now that I've actually been in the mood to work on this again!)

branching out

As part of my self-imposed (or self-inflicted, if you prefer) wardrobe project, I'm making more of a conscious effort to put complete outfits together with thoughtfully-chosen accessories. (Wow, I sound so Tim Gunn there.) Since the majority of my accessories have been in a big tangled mess for the last several months, my first major attempt at this has been assembling an outfit for the wedding I'm attending this weekend. It's the first wedding I've been to since just after college where I wasn't either working as a musician or helping out as a bridesmaid, and the whole winter thing has made it a bit of a challenge. All in all, I've ended up with a completely new outfit for this, which I'm hoping to get a good picture of this weekend so I can post it up here at some point. But along with the dress came the realization last week or so that I didn't really have any good jewelry on hand that would go with it... oh darn, I'd have to make something. Fortunately, I was able to go with stuff that I basically had on-hand.

With the binding at the neckline the way it was, I didn't think my usual go-to necklace length (a choker) would work so well, so I decided to go trendy and make one of those longer necklaces that's in style at the moment. I had these textured metal rings that I picked up recently (on clearance!), and basically just put them together in a pattern, attaching them with those key ring-esque jump rings so it would stay together well. And then decided last night that just one big long loop of it was boring, so I added the additional piece close to the neck so it looks more like a choker anyway. Oh well--at least I'm somewhat branching out from my usual style choices! (And mode of crafting-- I've been wanting to try some more work with wire and metals and such instead of just stringing beads all the time!) And then I made the matching earrings, and only have two rings left over. Which is actually pretty good for me.
And here's a close-up of the texture.

I've been thinking lately too about how to get these jewelry pieces in some kind of organization so I can actually start wearing them all again, and I may have an idea, so I've been killing some of my pre-teaching time today with untangling my necklaces in my box and taking a bit of an inventory so I can figure out how to make this work (and what pieces I need to fix while I'm at it--the tangle box has caused several casualties). While I was at it, I did a quickie upgrade-- I had this ball chain that I used to wear in my punkier moods as a teen, and this pendant I got off of Etsy awhile back that didn't really have a home. I think they make a cute couple.

paring down

Another picture-less post... as of Friday, my computer is completely dead. Friday is also when my new hard drive came in, so now it just needs to wait until my brother can swap them out. (Hopefully this afternoon.) I'm on the family computer in the kitchen right now.

I made a top almost in its entirety yesterday-- I probably would have finished it, except I got a later start than I'd anticipated. My original plan was to give my car a long-overdue washing and waxing--I think the last time I'd washed it was 2007! Working at a garden center, it'll get dirty again really fast, so I figured there was no point... until my brother reminded me that I was overdue for waxing it. Turns out he was right... my car had a couple of small chips in the paint that had gotten rusted, and I had to spend some extra time with rust-remover gel trying to get it off, with mixed success. And then, just as I was 3/4 0f the way done getting the wax off, it started to thunder, and so I couldn't plug my machine in until 5 or so. I wasn't a total slacker with the time, though-- did some reading, and sorted through several old bins of fabric and scraps. I'm in a mood to just downsize my stuff lately, and recently a request came over the local Freecycle for some fabric and sewing patterns from a new sewer. I got in touch with her, and she's not in a rush (3 young kids), so that gave me time to really look around. So between that and pulling out some clothes from my refashion stash that I'll probably never get to, I managed to empty one huge bin and one smaller bin! (I also went through my book stash, and am getting rid of something like 85 books...now I just need to go through my closet and drawers, and take a trip to Goodwill. Also considering going through my beads and scrapbook paper and then making an offer on Freecycle or something.)

So, anyway, I don't think I'll finish the top today because I hardly ever have time to sew on Sundays, between church activities and flute orchestra. Maybe on Tuesday or something. Also plotting a new side project... I'll need something hand-workish to do at the beach the weekend after next, and I'm thinking about bringing an Alabama Stitch-inspired project to work on in lieu of scrapbooking stuff this time-- I haven't printed any photos since October, and while I'm in the process of uploading them to a website for that, I obviously haven't been able to work on that with the computer issues. And so, with losing this coming weekend for craft purposes (helping a friend move), I don't think I'll have the time to get those printed out/choose the papers/do the prepwork/get everything ready to go in time for the trip to just assemble pages. Might be a lot faster to just cut out some knit, grab some beads and go! I'm thinking of a skirt similar to this one.

the jewelry organizer, in progress

I'm glad I was finally able to get this started, since I'd been saying for years that I needed to do this! And it's pretty obvious why...

Yes, this is what my jewelry collection currently looks like. Scary, isn't it? It's frustrating-- not only does it make it impossibly difficult to get the necklaces out that I want, or to find a matching pair of earrings, but I've also had a lot of jewelry that I've broken from having to store them in the two boxes like this and then trying to get them out. And conventional jewelry boxes just don't cut it for me--not enough slots or pegs!.

I've never really been a fancy jewelry girl. I'll gladly take a funky beaded piece of jewelry over an expensive precious gemstone any day. (Ok, I'll make an exception for semiprecious--they often come in the form of funky beads! And two of my favorite necklaces in my collection are moonstone and green amber, respectively.) Honestly, if I ever manage to get engaged, I don't even want a diamond ring. It's just not me--everybody does it, and I like color. (That, and watching Blood Diamond pretty much killed any desire I'd have to own one.) I guess it also helps that I can make the funky beaded jewelry myself! But of course that means I ended up with a lot of it.

Anyway, I finally finished the first "page" of my new jewelry organizer, and here's the pics.
Nothing fancy-- just two rectangles of pieced-together muslin with pockets sewn on, and another strip of muslin sewn on the side with buttonholes to put the rings through. The rings themselves are just cheap binder rings from Staples. I'm going to make a book "cover" at some point with something I can fold over the top to keep those first couple of rows of jewelry in.
And here's the close-up. I'm sorting the necklaces and their matching earrings in the same pocket. I'm going to have a lot of earrings that don't have matching necklaces, and I'm still trying to figure out what exactly to do with them-- I've had an idea in my mind for some time now for an earring tree, but I'll have to see if I can make it work. (Meaning I need to find some wire sturdy enough to build it from, but pliable enough that I can actually bend it.) But I think this is a pretty good start-- I was able to fit nine necklaces on each side! I won't get that many with all the pages, since I'll need to make some with larger pockets for larger pendants or beads. It looks very homemade, but I'm ok with that-- it's kind of charming, I think, and I like the idea that I'm able to use up muslin scraps and mostly used-up spools of thread and bobbins that I'd otherwise be throwing out. (The thread on the bobbins, anyway.) Plus that will make it really easy to keep adding to it-- I'm sure I'm going to have to keep making muslins for garments!

Scrapbusting!

It's not the prettiest thing I've put up here. But right now, I am all about using stuff up. And this has the dual function of using up scraps cut from muslin pattern tests (and eventually the test runs themselves) and spools of almost-empty thread. I used up two tonight on just this little piece.

So what is this for, you may ask? This is me finally starting an organizer for my jewelry stash, because I'm tired of digging through a jumbled pile of earrings and untangling 15 different necklaces every time I put an outfit together. I've been neglecting my accessories out of sheer laziness/frustration with it as of late, and that's just not right because I have so many fun hand-crafted pieces of jewelry. So I'm taking advantage of my current organizing mood as of late. (Not to mention wanting to procrastinate on those bridesmaid shrugs.) And hoping that this ends up being one of those things that is so ugly that it's kind of cool. :D

I think I created a monster with that craft supply organization day. Since then, I finished cataloging my fabric stash on Saturday. (The grand total was something like 70 pieces of fabric that need to get used up! But I'm happy because I gave the two pieces I wasn't willing to even catalog to my fellow sewing bridesmaid on Sunday. She actually wears pinkish stuff, and I never do, so hopefully she'll find some good use for them.) And, since I still didn't really have the time or inclination to start on those shrugs, I've also started making myself a catalog of my pattern stash. I have 3 bins full of patterns. (I should have 4, possibly 5, because I also have a bunch that just sit on the shelf on top of one of said bins.) I made myself a little form in Word for stuff like pattern # and description, required yardage and notions, etc. And then I've been scanning in the technical drawings and bringing those into the doc and printing it out. (On the recycled paper that wasn't working so hot in large quantities for BurdaStyle patterns, so yay for that.) I'm writing in the info on the printed form because it's just easier than retyping and deleting everything every time. And then they're going in a binder with dividers for what type of pattern it is. It's kind of fun to see what all I have, and have already found a couple of patterns in my stash that just might work for using up some of the smaller yardages I have, so yay for that!

Otherwise, let's see... I've almost finished tearing apart 2 pairs of jeans for a reconstructed skirt, and pretty much busted a seam ripper in the process. I got some fabric in the mail today (some Amy Butler that I'm going to make a new spring/summer purse out of, as soon as I make up or find a pattern to adapt. I might have to raid my mom's stash, because she has a ton of funky purse patterns!) So let's see... that brings my total so far up to 2 stash pieces I have to use. I also stopped procrastinating, somewhat, and cut out the three shrugs and linings today. And started sewing the muslin scraps-- that was because I was between students and didn't have a whole lot of time.

Organization woes

I have this kind of like-hate relationship with organization. Admittedly, I'm nowhere close to being a neat freak. (I'm not even sure that gene even exists in my family!) And I tend to be the person who doesn't clean up after a project-- either I run out of time, or I'm just ready to go on to something else and don't bother. So things tend to get really, really messy (as you can see here). And I have this weird thing going where I like things to be organized because then I can find stuff, but at the same time I hate it because the predominant creative side of my brain thinks it's kind of anal.

Anyway, the point of this story is that I pretty much spent all day yesterday doing just that-- organizing. My parents are rather cool about letting me keep my craft supplies in their storage space, since there's no way I can fit any of that stuff in my room. But it was kind of out of control, as you can see, and since I'm trying to get things together in preparation for a scrapbook binge and need to know what supplies I have to work with, figured this would be a good time to sort it out.

This is the after shot. Yeah, it took pretty much literally all day for me to pull everything off the shelves, sort it out, and put it back. Other than a few hours in the afternoon when I was out of the house. And I'm going to have to do some organizing within the organizing-- like all of my jewelry stuff is pretty much either in that plain wood crate or the greenish plastic bin with no rhyme or reason to it. But overall, it's much better.
Had a little fun with the labelmaker, as you can see (thus the feeling of anal-ness), so that should help with being able to find my stuff...and if I can keep up with it, hopefully that'll mean more time for crafting and less time digging around for it!

Also, seriously... I really should not buy any more scrapbook paper for the next three years, at least. (Unless I really run out of a color of cardstock. Like completely out of black.) And I'm probably set for albums until I'm 35. And page protectors for awhile. My mom and one of my good friends both ended up passing a bunch of supplies on to me, because both of them tried it and decided it wasn't for them, so I've seriously got something like 7 unused albums down there.

But I guess that's a good thing, because I found a bunch of stuff down there that needs to go into them, too. Like the half-finished album from my Chile trip, which was almost exactly 2 years ago. (I stopped working on it because I wasn't happy with how it was turning out and took a hiatus... good thing I wrote the journaling first thing!) And another envelope of half-finished scrapbook, this one being one I started making during my senior year of college to celebrate all the things that made my life what it is, like my friends and family and locations that were important to me and stuff. (I was coming off of a bad relationship and worse breakup, and it was kind of a therapy thing. But I didn't actually finish assembling it because I got caught up in stuff like preparing for my senior recital, and then grad school hit, and...yeah.) And even a bunch of stuff from high school that I meant to put into an album, like the school photos my friends and I would exchange every year where we'd write messages to each other on the back, some of the more creative projects (illustrated German children's book, anyone?), stuff like that which I ended up keeping but didn't make it into the scrapbook I had at the time that encompassed all of high school. (It was just starting to get popular, and one of my crafty aunts gave me a kit for Christmas when I was a freshman or something. I'm glad I had it then because then I had a way to keep track of the fun stuff I did with my friends, but it was one of the ones where it was basically just sheets of this heavy tan paper in an odd-sized album, and I would just glue pieces of 8.5x11" paper onto it and then layer my photos and stuff on top of that with no page protectors or anything. I didn't even have the slightest clue about 12x12" albums and page protectors until I started reading some of the scrapbook magazines at AC Moore once!) And then there's a bunch of photos I took when I was a kid, and an album full of pictures from a missions trip my church took to Jamaica when I was in junior high that should probably go into something better than that photo-rotting magnetic album thing...

But, yeah. Suffice to say, I will not run out of stuff to try and catch up on any time soon. Guess I'd better get off of here so I can start making a dent in that. Should I say this is a bad thing about organization, too? Ignorance might have been bliss!

The mid-week update...

First off, I'm probably going to disappoint a couple of you who were kind enough to comment on my last entry... this probably isn't the band camp you're thinking of! What I've been doing all week is working as the flute instructor for a concert band camp for middle-schoolers. In other words, not marching band. It's been a pretty good week so far, though I have the quietest bunch of middle-school female flute players that I've ever had in the six years I've been doing this now-- usually by this time of the week, it's all I can do to get them to shut up and play during the all-flute rehearsal portion of the day! I have this theory that flute attracts two completely opposite personality types-- the divas who want to be the center of attention and pick it because it's one of the highest instruments (like a soprano) and tends to get a lot of melody parts, and the introverts who want to play music, but are content to hide within what is inevitably a large group of the same instrument. I think this year, I got all the latter. So that's been interesting. Oh yeah, and I'm getting paid to play music from Star Wars, since the instructors play along with the students in the concert. So life is good.

The wrists are getting better-- my right hand is almost completely back to normal, though I'm not giving up on the braces yet, and they still have their moments of stiffness/tinglyness. Left hand is still a little more on the stiff/painful side, but in theory, if I'm a good girl for the rest of this week, I might be able to pick up on stuff like, say, craftiness, and my own personal practicing, by next week. As long as I take breaks to rest them. Here's hoping.

Ok, now for the stuff that's actually interesting to you all!

• I ended up getting beach towels for my seat covers again. Nice ones, so hopefully they'll last. But need to start working on that some soon.
• The pages aren't done by any means--have to go back and add stuff like the stamping and machine stitching--but I spent a good amount of time over the weekend just sticking photos to paper for the road trip album. By that count, half my pictures are now on paper, at least. So that's progress.
• No actual sewing this week, as I'm not willing to risk scissor-work until the concert's over. But hopefully after that.
• What I've been doing on weeknights instead is some organization of supplies. My mom had a whole bunch of scrapbook supplies that she'd gotten-- I'd been helping her put some of our old family photos in an album. But then I got busy with grad school or something, and they've been in bins for years, and she decided she just wanted to put them in a nice acid-free album with pockets that she could just slide the pics into. The result of this is that I am now in possession of a lot of paper and stickers (and a few albums) that need to be sorted into my stash, which I am slowly working on getting more organized. So between this and the stuff that C gave me when she decided she was more of a yarncraft girl, I will probably not need to buy another album for, oh, the next five years. And I have so much paper that I'm seriously considering a Wardrobe Refashion-style pledge for my scrapbook supplies--like not to buy any new supplies (with some obvious exceptions like, say, adhesive when I run out, or photo development) for a certain period of time. And if I don't have something that immediately works, especially on the paper/embellishment side, take a cue from Tim Gunn and "make it work"! Not a formal pledge yet, will keep you posted.
• Speaking of Tim Gunn, I did NOT know until this morning, when reading the entertainment/comics section of the newspaper, that Project Runway premieres tonight! Hopefully tomorrow I'll find some time to review the episode...and my hands will cooperate!

A writer is me!

Couldn't resist the title... despite the bad grammar, such phrasings always amused me back when I was playing Kingdom of Loathing. (Such a great way to mindlessly entertain myself for a bit while I was in grad school!)

Anyway, I decided to forego the sewing today in favor of prepwork for this weekend's crafty fest with Cassie and Tracey. So I've been doing a lot of writing, in the "type up the journaling on the computer" sense, today. You have no idea how grateful I am that I kept a LiveJournal during the majority of my grad school-and-on life. (Even though I know it's probably bad form to link to another blogsite!) But that's where I've kept the more personal blog for years now, and it's been a world of help in trying to figure out what I need to write for things that happened even recently, let alone 3-4 years ago! What I'm really hoping to accomplish this weekend, though it'll probably end up being more a case of scrapping as the muse leads, is to finish up the last couple of layouts that need to be done for my two albums from my grad school days. I'm on my third year out now. They need to get done. Though, admittedly, at the rate I tend to go when I have these scrap-dedicated weekends like I've been doing, both here and with Nicole, I just might attain my dream of catching up. At least, until trying to finish my two travel albums get me behind again.


I've been able to get stuff written for about 13 layouts so far. Some of them are slowing me down quite a bit, due to that end-of-season roundup habit I mentioned in the last post, so considering that, not too shabby. Then after that comes the fun part, which I have to admit I've already done on several of them--playing with fonts!


On a random and not-so-fun note, I've come to the conclusion that I need to completely reorganize my fabric stash so I can effectively use some of it up. I keep stumbling across fabrics I forgot I had, and being unable to find the ones I think of. That's gotta stop. It's going to be such a pain though!