Resolutions

I have two:
"Old Year Resolution" - I am determined to organise my rather large bookshelf in the lounge. It hosts the majority of my "library" plus silver frames and vases. When we moved in, the packers simply shoved any and all books they could find onto the shelves as they took them out of the boxes and the books have remained in that disorder ever since.

Usually, I separate cook books from travel guides, biographies, and "coffee table books" and group each lot together. Then I alphabetise the rest. Sounds like a horrendous amount of work but actually isn't all that bad.

And I am planning to have that done by the end of the year, meaning ideally December 29 because we'll have guests from December 30 into the New Year.

"New Year Resolution" - a gratitude journal with minimum one entry per day. A few days ago, I bought Park Avenue, a magazine featuring interviews of celebrities. It came with a neat little black diary, which gave me the idea. My plan is to keep this in the drawer of my nightstand together with a pen and make my entry before I switch off the lights. So much to be grateful for ... I'd like to be able to look back on all those little things to stop them slipping from my consciousness.

Fiddle-dee-dee

Instead of folding laundry last night, I attempted to mark the swirly lines with my aforementioned colour pencils, no dice! Apparently, they only really work on plain FLAT cotton. Oh well, so I wielded my needle and used thread to mark the lines. I'm quite pleased with the result, less so with the photo:

Chemical Solution

Also, I have sort of found a solution to my "attachment" and "bunching" issues with the dragon quilt: spray on glue from Prym. It should arrive on Friday ... yet another reason to dread continuing working on that quilt.

Such a fiddler

I am! I found a few spots on my Turning Twenty quilt where more of the white thread was showing than I would have liked. So I added more beads. And at the rate I am going, I have to un-declare it done, because I just know I will add beading to the center.

Ages ago, I bought cheap-oh coloured pencils at our local Aldi in Didsbury, Manchester. They smell funny but they are just GREAT for marking fabric. I guess it is because they are a bit soft ... but the yellow works really well on dark fabrics. And I will probably add a swirly design picking up on the lines pre-determined by the earlier bits of beading.

So the TT saga continues.

Future Gifts - yet another addition to my list of UFOS

UFO - redefined as unstarted fabric object. Oh well ... I was going through some of the links I added a few weeks back and decided I was going to drop those. But I wanted to hold onto the Rice Heat Therapy Bag Tutorial over on Sew Mama Sew. One day I will turn them into a gift for my god-daugher, for whom I also plan on doing a Chinese Coin quilt from some of that Kaffe Fassett extravaganza I purchased when I was bored time before last.

Can you see a pattern: links or ebay ... I'm bored.

Christmas Preparations

are full and well underway. I also remembered to order gifts for myself ... such as a Daylight Company lamp for my soon to be set-up craft area:

and a new bigger cutting mat.

I'm more than halfway through my Christmas correspondence:

but need to take a photo of the girls to include in the cards.

My Advent wreath is done as well:

Before: the new trend appears to be needles and leaves ...


and I think I'm getting a bit sick of this "design" that I had for about five years. I may try something new next year.


And my little helpers were manufacturing gifts.

Snug as a bug in a rug

Last year I made my hubby lug most of my potted plants into our garage, where he then had to construct a contraption holding a plant light set by a timer. I then constantly forgot watering so that he had to do that too ...

This year I went and bought bubble wrap and red gift wrapping bows et voilà:



I hear it's all the rage amongst plants this year.