Sunday, November 26, 2006

A Tiny HD


Yesterday I spent a lovelly day with two stitching friends - chatting, stitching and visiting a new to me stitching shop. Not only did I have a wonderful time but I managed to finish a small project and to visit a stitching shop without buying anything although there were several things that I was tempted by. Thank you Liz and Karen for a wonderful day. The scissor fob is from CA Well's Cottage Etui which I attended the class for last weekend, fingers crossed one day I shall get around to completing the other two pieces which complete the collection.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Further Thoughts on my 50 Projects Challenge

I have been giving a lot of thought to the projects that I would like to finish as part of the 50 Projects Challenge (its more fun than working). Since I want the finished list to contain a mixture of small, medium and large projects rather than just small projects this means that according to my calculations I shall finish the challenge sometime around the end of 2008. The calculations that I have done have been based on the assumption that I do not make any gifts for people and do not participate in any more round robins or exchanges. Since I love giving gifts the thought of not making any for over two years is not a good one but I do not want to make this challenge unrealistically long. So I have decided that provided at least 75% of the supplies for a gift come from my huge pile of supplies waiting to be turned into project kits the finished gift item can count towards the 50 Projects Challenge total. For example: I am about to start a small knitted gift for a dear friend, the pattern that I will be using is from a magazine that I already have and the wool is currently sitting in a box underneath my bed the only thing that I need to buy is a few beads. So although this project is not listed on my fully kitted stash list it will count towards my challenge total. I think this new rule of mine only slightly bends the existing rules since I will still be reducing my stash and the original rules state that items brought as a gift or to be used to create a gift do not count as stash purchases.

So far I have been doing this challenge for three months and have only completed one project but hopefully that will all change this weekend. Recently I have been a bit of a butterfly flitting from one project to another spending just a couple of hours on each one before getting bored and moving onto something else. I have decided that for the rest of the month of November, other than when I am working on the two RRs that I am currently participating in, I shall try and finish a project before moving onto something else. I have 5 or 6 projects which probably only need about 4 hours work each to be completed so am hoping to have at least 3 happy dances before the end of November.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Weekend Report

This past weekend I travelled down to London to attend a stitching class arranged by Susan Albury of Hanging by a Thread and taught by CA Wells. The class was great fun although I was the only person not to finish anything but since I have the day off work today I hope to actually finish one of the smaller class pieces today.
The above, very bad, photo is of Snow Forrest by Just Nan which I completed last week as part of the Just Nan Round Robin that I am currently participating in.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Productive Weekend

After last weekend which was super relaxing this weekend was hard work but great fun. I looked after my niece and nephew for almost the whole weekend. I have looked after my niece over night before and both of them for a few hours but this was the first time that my sister has spent a night away from her son since he was born six months ago. I had great fun but am now exhausted. Both little ones behaved wonderfully - the only tears we had where when I needed to go home.
Since I was looking after a baby and a toddler I had pretty much decided that I would get no crafting done this weekend but got a surprising amount done. Right at the end of last week I managed to finish off a piece for the Just Nan Round Robin that I am participating in. I have also made a start on the stitching for the CA Wells class that I am taking next weekend and have managed to complete all the outline stitching & the stitching on the one of the pieces. I then gave in to the urge to start something new and have start knitting a new scarf, I decided that I needed a no brain project so have started a simple ribbed scarf. The only problem is that when I digged out the yarn for the scarf I found three balls of sock yarn that I had forgotten that I had. I think on my next free weekend I need to go through all the boxes of stash that I have and list it all out, not just the fully kitted up projects and I might even see if I can find suitable projects for some of the supplies (without buying anything new of course).
Sorry for the lack of photos but I have left my camera at my sisters, I shall upload photos just as soon as I get it back.

Friday, November 10, 2006

Jumping In

I've seen this on a number of blogs now and think it is a neat idea so have decided to join in. The only rider is that it may take me a few months to complete but I will get it done. I am positive that I can manage to find enough supplies in my enormous stash piles to complete the five gifts so will not be breaking my no purchases rules.
The first five people to respond to this post (via the comments section)
will get some form of "art" made by me. An original hand crafted item, made with
one of the many mediums I use - stitching, knitting, beading etc. I will work to fit this to you and your likes. After you comment, please email me your snail mail
address (alicebazen@yahoo.co.uk). Think of it as something to look
forward to getting in the mail.

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Its the Weekend

This week has dragged on for ever but finally the weekend has arrived and boy do I need a few days off. The week ended with a minor scare when I could not get the central heating to work but finally figured out that the pilot light on the boiler had gone out and after about a dozen attempts I managed to get it re-lit.

This weekend is all about me. Mum and Dad have flown over to Ireland to hide away in a friends holiday home over there since they feel that some quiet time alone together will do them both the world of good. So this means that I can focus on me. In a moment I am off to a full day beading workshop and then the rest of today and all of tomorrow will be spent stitching and watching all the programmes that I have recorded recently and not gotten around to watching (about 32 hours worth). On Monday I have a day off and am going to a health spa with a very close friend.