Umm, it's possible that this is another random and gratuitous family photo from Christmas. Baking with the toddler is mainly a battle to stop him using the spatula to shovel cake mix into his mouth as fast as possible.
I mentioned on Saturday that 2011 is the year in which I shall attempt to keep my hand making (and other family activities) just a teensy bit more organised and on track than I have in the past. I'm not planning on sucking all the fun out of it by scheduling every last minute of crafting and family time, but I am hoping that I'll achieve more of the things I want to by having a rough schedule in mind, instead of being taken by surprise by every single season change, festive event or family party.
I decided that some things were more ongoing projects than tasks that could be slotted into a monthly schedule, so there's a little section of aims for the year, but beyond that I've roughly thought about the months. You'll notice that beyond about March things get progressively more vague. That's partly because of the new baby arriving around the beginning of April (I've learned my lesson the hard way about over-estimating how much I can achieve with a small baby), partly due to the wedding in July (again, not sure how much time/energy I'm going to have around then) and partly due to the fact that I don't want to stress myself out with a year's worth of plans that could be thrown off by any number of changes (like, oh, I don't know, the arrival of a new baby?). My vague aim is to always be planning at least a handful of months ahead in order to retain the benefits of planning without panicking myself about how much I'm trying to achieve.
And so, without further ado, here you go.
Aims for the year (I hate the word resolution)
- Blog more regularly and more thoughtfully – I’m aiming for somewhere in the region of 4-5 times a week, and actually spending some time over those posts so they say all of what I want to say
- Carry the camera everywhere – I have missed so many shots this year simply through getting out of the habit of carrying it with me. Also we have a shiny new camera (this one) so I ought to make the most of it
- Try to make even more of our food from scratch – I currently make most of our bread and treats, but I’d like to increase what I'm doing. I used to make granola and breakfast foods, maybe that's a good place to start.
- Waste less time – I have an almost limitless ability to idle away hours on the internet or just pottering in my workroom. I’m sure I could increase my hand-making time by about 20% simply by being more efficient
- Master colourwork – I’m not sure why, but I am suddenly determined to be able to knit colourwork. I think it’s all the cute baby fair isle projects I keep seeing on Ravelry
- Think about seasonal making more than a week in advance, so I can actually make some of the lovely projects that always inspire me on other blogs come Easter, Halloween or Christmas
- Spend more time outside, whether it’s in the garden or at the park. Just generally appreciate the natural world a bit more and hopefully instill a bit of that appreciation in Teddy
- Spend more time crafting, baking and hand making with Teddy – we got quite into this in the run up to Christmas and it was a huge success. Definitely need more where that came from, especially in order to keep Teddy happy and occupied when the new arrival shows up.
January
- Finish Teddy’s big bed quilt (hoped to finish it in the run up to Christmas, but it never happened)
- Organise the crafting/art supplies cupboard – it all got a little out of hand towards Christmas. Also I think there's quite a lot more we could be doing in the way of arts and crafts, and I have nowhere to put more supplies
- Knit Teddy another pair of socks
- Make quilt tops/blankets for the wedding (the aim is to have a handful of quilts to drape over hay bales and as picnic blankets to sit on, as there won't be any formal seating for the meal)
- Design and print the wedding invitations (loving the save-the-dates we made, blog post coming soon on them)
- Quilt half of the sunshine quilt
- Start a tea leaves cardigan for myself (just as soon as the yarn arrives from the States. Fingers crossed it makes it over the pond soon)
- Make Teddy an outfit from Ottobre magazine (I've had a handful in mind for months now)
- Make maternity dress from Handmade Beginnings
(Anna Maria Horner’s lovely sewing-for-baby book)
- Knit a baby cardigan (once I've narrowed it down from the not-very-shortlist of about 30 patterns)
- Knit a baby hat (I am always sad that Teddy didn't have any hand knitted baby hats. Not sure why)
- Knit Teddy a new winter hat (the last one had a minor run in with a hot wash, courtesy of Adam being in a bit of a rush to get a laundry on, and is now more fit for use as an egg cosy)
- Make curtains for the sitting room (we really need to stop being open to stares from everyone walking down the street)
- Organise my workroom and plan any sewing, making or shopping that needs to happen to keep it under control
- Knit some practice colourwork swatches
- Finish my father’s Christmas (ahem) socks
- Plan what’s going in the garden this year (mainly very simple things that can be planted and forgotten for a few months, thanks to the rather busy summer we have planned)
- Make marmalade (January tradition in this family)
- Plan what other wedding hand making needs doing before the baby arrives
- Sew zippered bags for crayons, pencils etc
February
- Finish tea leaves cardigan, if it’s not already done
- Baste and quilt wedding quilts (yup, any and all of them. That'll happen)
- Finish quilting sunshine quilt (along with those wedding quilts)
- Knit baby bootees
- Knit a cotton baby vest or sweater for summer
- Make curtains for our bedroom
- Plan Easter/spring related hand making
- Organise the bedroom for the new arrival and plan any hand making that needs to be done
- Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for baby (maybe the cardigan from Vintage Baby Knits
)
- Make a change bag (mine is nowhere near appropriate for two children, as well as being deeply unstylish)
- Sew a needle wrap for circular needles
March
- Make baby toys (I’m thinking possibly some felted balls, or some stacking blocks. We got rid of loads of Teddy’s toys because they were too plastic/noisy/broken, so we’re a bit short on that front now)
- Go through the baby clothes bags and plan what needs making/buying
- Finish quilting wedding quilts if not done yet
- Start knitting wedding shawl/wrap (even if I'm not going to manage the dress, it would be nice to wear something handmade)
- Find a space to make a nature/seasons table for the house
- Make curtains for workroom
- Finish any Easter/spring related making
- Knit another baby blanket (I have ambitions to make this brightly coloured one and back it with jolly fabric like this one, first seen on Soulemama's blog but who knows)
April
- Mainly we’ll settle for having a very new baby this month. Anything else achieved is a bonus, including getting dressed
May
- A bit of more baby knitting maybe
- Change seasons table at the end of the month
- Finish piecing charm quilt (remember that one?)
June
- Make some summer clothes for Teddy (maybe some more Huck Finn style pants and a couple of t-shirts, or maybe a wedding outfit, depending on how much sleep I'm getting)
- Finish knitting wedding shawl/wrap
July
- Get married! There will probably be enough hustle and bustle this month not to add more
August
- Make a winter coat for Teddy
- Plan and knit a colourwork sweater for Teddy
- Knit winter jumper for baby
September
- Change seasons table at beginning of the month
- Make a round of baby clothes for winter
- Make a round of Teddy clothes for winter
- Plan any Halloween making
- Plan the Christmas/winter solstice time making season, including
- Wrapping paper
- Tree decorations
- Winter table cloth
October
- Knit two pairs socks for baby
- Knit two pairs socks for Teddy
- Make a start on Christmas making
- Finish Halloween making
November
- More Christmas making
December
- Finish Christmas making
See, told you it got vague after the spring! I'm really enjoying reading on other blogs about new projects starting and crafty aims being set (gosh, the temptation to join things like the 365 project, but I know how stressed I'd get when I inevitably missed a day or two), so if you've made some resolutions, I'd love to hear about them.
Incidentally, this list is going to take the place of the list that normally loiters in the menu bar above for the forseeable future. I'm keeping that original list (which is more of a general list of things I want to achieve) updated and all links to it live, but all the things from it that I'm hoping to achieve this year are on the new list. As with the old list, I'll update with links to appropriate posts as projects are tackled and finished (I'll only update the list in the top menu bar - this post will remain as it is today, for the sake of posterity!).
Apologies for the mammoth post, I have some less epic ones coming up to show you all the things I managed to get made over the holiday period (it's actually a bit embarrassing how much more I got made when I was away from home and the lure of the internet. Whoops).
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