cre8.

the past few weeks, our house has been filled with activity, as mark and I checked "to do" items off our lists. we've done time consuming projects like (finally) painting and decorating the downstairs' family room area for the boys to easier projects like (finally) ordering 5x7 photos to fill picture frames. we kept each other moving toward the finish line with words of encouragement and by finishing one project at a time.

{because it's our first day of school...} remember newton's first law of motion? an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. I can say I've been at rest.

I've always considered myself a finisher. that is until I was hit with the feelings that came after kris' death back in may. then something happened. I got stuck. do you ever get stuck? ever feel like you just don't have enough time or a project is too large or you don't have the skills to finish? if so, don't loose heart! you can finish those projects!!

here are a few of my finishing tips:

* make a written list of projects taking up space in your mind and consuming mental energy

* pick the most important task for you to finish to feel like you've made progress

* begin working on that one item for 15 minutes

{don't discount 15 minutes! you'd be amazed at what you can complete in that amount of time!!}

* as time permits, add time to the project in 15 minute increments

* don't focus on perfection, focus on completion

* celebrate each and every finished "to do" with a large check

* once you're moving...pick the next task and repeat

while many of our items were house related, I had plenty of things I wanted to cre8 as well. these are 8 of my favorites:

1. back-to-school card cre8tions

2. an idea that turned into a new fall decoration

3. a dropped stitch scarf

4. a set of laundry room curtains

5. a craft room curtain

6. an original lego cre8tion

7. pillowcases for connor.

8. and (the most important) part of the downstairs' family room

happy finishing my friends!

august ADVENTure

we've been busy tying up lots of loose ends in the home deco area this week, but I didn't want the 25th to slip by me without an ADVENTure update. Christmas is only four months away! can you feel the excitement and anticipation in my voice? here are my current completed projects:

Pattern: Dashing, by Cheryl Niamath

Yarn: Rowan Felted Tweed, color 147- Dragon (green); 1 ball

Needles: US 7 dpn

Mods: I made them a few rows shorter than the pattern.

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back in february, lisa sent me these for my birthday. I feel in love with them immediately and have used them on every trip away from home since. we travel... a lot. and these shoe bags were the perfect gift. in fact, I think they're the perfect gift for anyone on your list. there's something so special about putting your items into beautiful fabric bags instead of gallon ziploc bags, don't 'ya think?

with lisa's recommendation, I followed betz's tutorial for the bag and larissa's tutorial for the french seams. my fabric was purchased at joann's, and I used cording instead of the cotton twill tape. do you know how hard it is to find 100% cotton twill tape in black?? H A R D.

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seems like my cross stitch projects scream for me in the summer. during july and august I was able to stitch up these additional santas for my collection. I'll be sewing these into pillow ornaments just like the others. have I said how much I enjoy the small project size of these santas? perfect for toting around and stitching while I'm waiting for this or that. if you haven't picked up a hand stitching project in awhile, I encourage you to find a favorite and begin!

I'm anticipating a spectacular september, hope you are as well. blessings to you...

the collection:

finished gift count: 9

finished santa count: 5

finished home deco count: 1

felt fun

after reading the felt series over here, I had to join in on the fun. Sunday afternoon was the perfect time because:

~the boys were going to baseball practice

~it was bright and sunny with a light breeze- perfect for outdoor crafting

~I had all the supplies necessary

~I wanted to have some fun!

while I was creating, I realized I'm just a little girl in an adult body. if you have daughters, granddaughters, or nieces you can craft with, I can't recommend these projects enough. the number of applications is limitless. I can see felt flowers and pinwheels on everything!

Project Notes:

*I followed the directions given step by step.

*I made roses with the store brand (.29) sheets as well as felted wool from my stash. the store sheets were much thinner, easier to roll, and finished with more detail than the felted wool.

*I made all my roses and pinwheels with pin backs.

press play

remember when we played music using a boom box? one that had pause, play, fast forward, rewind, and record buttons? when kris' health started to quickly deteriorate three months ago, I pressed pause on my own life and became very present in hers. I felt like I was honoring her life in making that choice.

it wasn't obvious to me at the time, but on Monday I pressed play in my own life again...in the best way I know how.

I gave myself the gift of a day. a day to create, to celebrate special friends, to complete a project. oh, how good it felt to get back into my life again.

finish week::precious pillow

many, many years ago (when I was in girl scouts...that gives you a clue to how long ago), I made my first stitch project. our leaders had us stitch "I am Special" on a thin piece of loose weave (gauze like) cloth.

I have held onto this project ever since. I remember storing it in my bottom dresser drawer between yearbooks, when I lived at home. and then transferred it to my hope chest, when I got married. a few months ago, I went searching for my sock monkey, and found it again. I brought it out and began making mental project plans.

have you ever wanted to do something but just not known what or how? that has described this project for me. I obviously wanted to make it into something even more special...I've saved it for nearly thirty years! and something inside of me knew it could be something wonderful...I decided on a pillow for my craft room.

follow the journey with me ...
::I knew the fabric was too delicate alone, so I fused the piece onto white muslin
::trimmed the edges
::mapped out a plan for my fabric backing
::sewed it up
::attached front to back
::stuffed my pillow
::and hand stitched the opening to close.
I cried when I showed mark the finished piece. have you ever done that? been so proud of yourself on the inside that it spilled out?

mark insisted that the pillow be displayed in our living room, not the craft room downstairs. so for now, it sits on our petite antique rocker in the living room. a long overdue finish is now complete and making me smile with pride at every glance.

finish week::sleep well

back in December, I pulled out my sewing machine for the first time in many, many years. I've never felt comfortable sewing. it may have been the perfectionist in me, but looking back, my first projects were all garments that made the learning process totally frustrating! with encouragement from lisa to try again and inspiration from larissa to make a quilt top, I made it a personal challenge to begin learning how to use my machine in the crafting arena.

my first adventure was successful! I made this stack of pillowcases (all except the bottom cloud case...mark made his own) one afternoon before the holidays. three for my "guys" and three for Christmas gifts:

you'll notice that I said three for my "guys" and not "four for us!" I totally missed the opportunity to make myself a holiday travel pillowcase. so after Christmas, I purchased this pink holly fabric for myself and the other for my sister. she's a pink and green kind of girl who loves flamingos, so you can guess which one is hers!last week, the fabric had been screaming at me long enough...I sewed them up! happy finishing everyone!! **you'll want to visit lisa's blog to download her simple pillowcase pdf.**

finishing

so, larissa asked this question: "why is it so difficult to finish something that you know will bring you so much joy when it's complete?"

I've been carrying that innocent little question around with me over the past few weeks. each moment I was able to take time out to create, I asked myself "what project could I work to finish?"

completing my february lady sweater last week was a major wip checked off the list. I can remember back to the start...when I was so excited, full of anticipation of completing my first sweater. yet when the hard work of knitting each and every row, frogging mistakes, and learning new techniques came, I just couldn't make the time to finish...until larissa's question got me thinking about myself and why finishing can sometimes be so difficult.

my personal discoveries:

*just finish it! when I look at my list of finished projects, I realize they took less time to finish than the amount of time I invested thinking about finishing them!

*don't let fear get in the way! when I'm unsure of a new technique or next step, I can become paralyzed with fear (fear of making a mistake that I won't know how to correct or fear of "messing it up").

*"you can do anything for 15 minutes!" (says FlyLady) investing small amounts of time really add up. just like saving small amounts of money each month add up to a retirement fund, spending just 15 minutes a day can bring significant weekly progress.

*anticipate the completed! anticipate the finish just as much as the start, while taking time to enjoy the process along the way.

*keep the ratio 2:1! I now know I can only have two projects in progress for every one I complete. when too many things are calling my name, I become immobilized. what should I work on first?

thanks, larissa, for the one little question that led to a lot of personal insight, future personal growth, and a few completed projects, which I look forward to sharing with all of you this week.

living full

my hopes for the weekend include

completing pillowcases

sewing burp cloths
finding moments to stitch

posting for ADVENTure 2010

blocking and buttoning up my february lady

and watching march madness with my boys

happy weekend everyone!

I hope you have moments of living full.

heart collage

this was the inspiration for my final valentine's day project. I loved how ali turned a few favorite papers into a framed piece of artwork and knew I wanted to try to create one as well.

so I took these:

and turned them into these:

with the help of this:

**my mods**

I started the process by being really tempted to send mark to target to buy a larger frame (so it could be just like ali's), but in the end I decided to use frames from my stash. and the idea to change the red and blue frames into beautiful black frames is thanks to this post. I'm blessed to own a cricut machine, so I was able to cut 1" hearts instead of using a heart punch.

I used pop dots to adhere the hearts to the white card stock and simply eyeballed the line up of hearts. in addition to the framed pieces, I used the same repetition idea to whip up some new cards.

I enjoyed making and sharing these fun projects! I hope you'll try a new idea that inspires you as well!