Thursday, March 1, 2012

End of the month resolution accountability check!


I want to make this pillow.
And I want to own this whole shelf.


So another month in 2012 has come and gone. I'm awake past 1 am because I got one of my frequent urges to bake at a late hour. Making bread that requires rising not just once, but twice, means that you have to stay up even longer. Bonus? My apartment smells heavenly.

January saw me recording a respectable number of successes already in my resolutions. What did February bring? 

Sewing and life goals for 2012:
  • Find a job that I love! Or just a job that pays me :) Um. I'm still unemployed. It's still very upsetting, as you might imagine. I'm trying to stay positive!
  • Be ok with possibly having to move away from family and friends for that job. I am pretty sure that I won't be moving, as for the past month all of my job applications have been in the area that I live in. However, I will be moving out of my apartment in 2 months [I've moved every year since I started college...plus a lifetime of moves from a dad in the Army...I am tired of boxes]
  • Make a king-size quilt for my bed [got some design choices]. I think I'm leaning way more traditional on this...maybe an Irish chain in modern fabrics?
  • Get better at FMQ other than stippling. Ok so I've been FMQing, but not anything other than stippling. I think I might try something on my Modern Mini Challenge piece!
  • Make some clothing [already have a dress pattern and the Schoolhouse Tunic pattern!] I have another Schoolhouse Tunic pattern cut out, and I cut out the fabric for my Lisette dress. I'm just waiting for more progress to show it off. Although, I think it's too big. I wish I was a perfect size across the board, because that would make this clothing thing way easier.
  • Bake more. Not just desserts. Because I do that plenty. Breads and healthier stuff. I promise I didn't plan to be baking healthy bread while I was typing this! I've made lots of muffins recently, and my boyfriend and I were very health-conscious at our only grocery outing in February. Neither of us is overweight but we would both like to start making smarter choices food-wise. 
  • Have a smoothie in the morning at least every other day [almost to this frequency!] And add things like spinach to them. Darn, I forgot spinach at the store today! I think my boyfriend planned that [note to self: do not tell people you're going to add spinach to smoothies if they are not veggie fans to begin with]. But we still drink a lot of smoothies. I always make them with Carnation Instant Breakfast for added nutrients. And now that it's getting hot we will be drinking even more smoothies!
  • I'd love to learn to knit, but have tried many many times, and it hasn't clicked yet. I just discovered that Craftsy has knitting classes on video...any thoughts on this? Do you think it would be hard to learn via that method? I'm seriously thinking about it because I've wanted to be able to knit for so long.
  • Purchase all new living room furniture. Yeah, until my first goal is complete this isn't happening.
  • Join a sewing bee [this is amusing, because almost every blogger that I've read has said they want to decrease the number of bees and swaps they're in. Makes room for me I guess!] When do sewing bees start? How do you find them? Am I out of luck for 2012 already?
  • Would absolutely love to be able to attend the Sewing Summit. And hopefully by October I'll get over fears of going somewhere to meet people that I've never met in person :) So I know registration opens in early March, and I believe they're announcing it later today. My boyfriend offered to buy my actual Sewing Summit ticket for my birthday, meaning I'd just have to pay the $500 for a plane ticket and then $99 a night for the hotel...I'm currently weighing my desire to go against an unbiased assessment as to whether $1000 for 3 days is worth it.
  • Project 366. I've become a lot more comfortable with just pulling out my phone and taking a picture, and the camera isn't half bad, so I'm hoping that a combo of phone and real camera photos will document 2012! Check! I've only forgotten one day, and luckily I went to the movies that day so I took a photo the next day of my ticket stub. So I have my 59 pictures. I am pretty bad about loading them onto Flickr...I used to do it once a week, but I haven't really done it since February started...good thing they're all date stamped!
Ok so I've really only done the same things I did last month. I'm going to call this a 3.5 out of 12 [the half a point is for the clothing, because they're not finished items yet, but I am working on them]. I guess it's good that I'm still working on the resolutions that I can, and hopefully the ones that I have no control over will fall into place. 

And now, as your reward, I'll cut you a virtual slice of English Muffin Toastable Bread:


 Enjoy!

5 comments:

  1. Ok, first I think you should definitely go to sewing summit. Sure it will be $1000 for 3 days, but how often do you get to do something that's just for you? And the meeting people you don't know in person? Heck everyone in this world starts out as a stranger sometime, even your boyfriend was at one time! (I'm going, rooming with someone I only from blogging!)
    Also check the amount of sugar in those Carnation instant breakfast things. You'll die when you realize how much processed sugar you're taking in! Aaaccckkkk!
    For bees, look here http://www.flickr.com/groups/quiltingbeeblocks/discuss/ I always wondered how people found their bees too, finally someone shared this with me and now I'm in two!

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  2. That bread looks delicious! I'd like to do some more baking too :)

    Check out the Stash Bee (http://stashbee.blogspot.com/) They're taking people for their 4th hive hoping to start in April. I just signed up!

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  3. Sounds like you're making some progress at least! Good luck with the knitting - I picked it up fairly quickly, but I had my mum showing me. I think it would definitely be easier to learn by video than just pictures!

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  4. Sounds like you're making good progress on these! I may steal your smoothie goal - though I have to wait until I get a new blender as I burned out the old one...

    How fun is the Project 366?! I did that a couple years ago for my 25th bday year and it definitely got easier to snap pix anywhere as the year went on.
    I'd recommend renaming the pix with the date so you don't get confused later or when uploading them. Also, I found that it was helpful to write down (or type up) what picture I took and why for each day so that if i missed one or had several options, I could match it up & keep 'em in order. :)

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  5. ooh, that bread looks amazing!! That's quite a list you've got there! Regarding the knitting, I have never tried learning from video, but I imagine it's worth a shot. I come from a couple of generations of knitters, but it never took with me until I found a specific pattern that I REALLY wanted to make! I first tried translating to crochet, but it just wasn't right, so I decided to learn to knit so I could make it. My favorite reference book for the basics is "Stitch 'n Bitch - the knitter's handbook" by Debbie Stoller. It has very readable / easy-to-follow written instructions, and excellent diagrams!

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