A head full of dreams

I love this time of year, I'm slowly easing myself into the new year. We have been away on a beachy holiday so there is a super relaxed feel going on here. What I love most about this time of year is dreaming up all the wonderful things that I might like to do in the year ahead. For me over time I have realized that there is just no point in making restrictive resolutions, it only hurts my soul. So instead I love to dream up all the wonderful things I would like to do and if they don't happen, oh well! Its not a problem! This year I am dreaming of lots of fun crafty things. Last year my crafty goal was to complete 180 ornaments and that I did, more or less. And I am so glad that I didn't make any more because they didn't quite all make it onto my tree, don't worry though they will not go to waste!

 They totally would have if I had just stuck to the tree that I was going to put them on but when the chance to have my own first real life Christmas tree came up I just couldn't pass up the chance and I must say it was totally MAGICAL and there were happy tears ( a total dream come true) and it will be happening again because I LOVED IT!!!! But it didn't need quite that many ornaments. Anyway I digress, the 180 ornament project took up a lot of my crafting time last year and I spent a lot of time from September till Christmas making so many Christmas crafty things, I quite possibly got a little obsessive about it and I  pretty much forgot about this space! So I am really looking forward to doing some other fun crafty things this year and getting back into the swing of things.

Some things I am looking forward to doing this year are:

Finishing my December Daily Album

Getting some fun snail mail happening

Using my memory planner- though I am still deciding on how to document this year

I have some fun felt plans and gifts to make

Id love to try doing some cross stitch

I'm dying to finish some travelers notebooks that were supposed to be xmas gifts (reminder finish making things early!!)

Scrapbooking

and I miss sewing!!

And I have a year long project that I am still deciding weather to attempt or not!

So that's where I am at, still dreaming of all the fab things that I might or might not do this year and just enjoying the beautiful dreamy stage.

180 Ornaments or 200 ornaments

 I had a moment recently: I wondered why I didn't I just make two extra of each ornament then I would have had 200? So I have gone back and I am hoping to make up to 200 ornaments!

 In the past few months I have made..... Birds

 Cupcakes

 Gingerbread Girls and Guys

 I think I have done about 136 all up. This is a photo of a lot of them but not all of them. 

There are Houses, Stockings, Hearts, Stars, Tea Cups, Birds, Cup Cakes, and Gingerbread people!

I'm thinking the next lot are going to be some reindeer, a baby deer may be?

The Evolution of Stars

I did happen to get super behind with my 180 ornaments I feel like it was mostly because I got stuck on March's stars.

I had really wanted to add in another colour but nothing really seemed to work or feel just right.

 I finally ended up making these plain stars and for now I am happy with them.

 I am still catching up with April's ornaments, I am nearly there with three to go. 

 Then I will be able to get a good go at getting Mays ornaments done before June arrives, although the months feel like they are whizzing by!

180 Ornament Progress

Well its well into march and I am at 43/180 ornaments!

Still quite a way to go.

 I finally decided on making star ornaments for march and I began making some felt ones but the grey and neon pink polka dot fabric was calling my name much too loudly and I couldn't resist it any longer! Yes the fabric will fray a little the way I am sewing them but that is ok with me at the moment.

I'm still not sure that they go perfectly with the other ornaments but I am happy with them on there own so I am going with that. Somehow they make my heart happy and really that's all that matters :-)

In My Craft Bag

Its Sunday evening here and I have just packed up my craft bag all ready for the weekend so I thought I'd share it with you.

 I've decided on Stars for my 18 ornaments for March and I have  cut a few out and popped some green in the bag too, mostly because that happened to be the only other colour felt that I had here, I think a felt shopping trip is in order! There is also a left over heart ornament to finish off, it is an extra one that I would like to give away, I may have a whole extra set (one of each ornament) at the end that I would love to give away too!

 I've also added in a felt bunny softie that I am making, I'm hoping to share more about it with you soon. I have been brainstorming lots of fun things to make for Easter and I will share them here over March, some are quick makes and a few like the bunny softie take a little more time, not much though and if you are looking for some inspiration its best to start a little early, I usually end up waiting too long and then never get half of what I want to do done. 

So I am all packed up and ready to go with some crafting this week, I am not organised with anything else though, luches and school clothes will probably wait until the morning, whoops!

180 Ornament Progress

I just finished up my March ornaments and I'm feeling kinda happy about it!

 The last few stitched up really easily over chatting and tea, which is of course always lovely.

I'm undecided about what ornament I am making for March, decisions decisions!

 Here is all 36 ornaments, I'm really happy with where this is heading but I'm still debating weather to add in another colour or not and if so I have no idea what colour to add in....aqua, a light limey green or grey are all contenders.

So I guess I have two questions for you, do you think I should add in a different colour? what colour? and What ornament should I make for March? ( can you believe we are already marching into March!!??)

On My Table

I've got so much to do today ahhhh! Some of it is get organised for tomorrow- Valentines Day! Since its on a Saturday my little boys are expecting me to decorate and create a Valentines Breakfast. Yup its my own fault for creating traditions, as soon as I told them it was valentines day they were expecting me to create some magic!

 Well I'm not there yet, in all reality I didn't have anything much planned and most of what I do will be last minute, tonight when they are in bed. But in general the things they are expecting aren't too hard to do. Set the table for a lovely breakfast, my lovely in-laws gave me a heart shaped pancake fry pan for Christmas so hubby can cook up some pancakes and of course my boys love balloons so I always have some on hand for days like this. Simple. I really want to stress that setting the table with a little more thought than normal is really all it takes and it makes everything feel special, it is so nice when you can just use what you have to make something a little more magical.

 I am hoping to add some cupcakes to the mix, if I don't run out of time today and I have half made a valentines mobile, I've misplaced my staples so if i find them today I might just be able to finish that off too. We are super lucky this year that timing has worked out with our baby sitter and so we wont have the boys overnight, this means that we are doing breakfast with them rather than a dinner.

Anyway I did end up hanging the ornaments on my stick tree and that was a lovely way to make things start to feel a bit lovey around here. So that's whats on my hall table today! 

180 ornaments - hearts

I finally managed to get a start on my 18 ornaments for February, it seems that February is flying past me at the speed of light so I better get a jump on these ornaments. I was hoping to get some more done with my lovely friend Emma ( Hello Emma) but alas there was far too much tea drinking and chatter to get any crafting done ;-)

 I figured that since its Valentines day soon hearts would be just the ornament to make this month, an obvious choice I know but hearts would have made it into the mix at some point so why not now!

 I started off with this one above and have since progressed to add an extra colour of felt sometimes that's how it works, to just dive right into it. Unlike the little houses which began after a few drawings and then evolved (still I want to make some larger ones!) they may even evolve again.

 As you can see the hearts are a little bigger than the houses, it will be nice to have a variety of sizes when I am all done. I'm thinking that they would be cute hung on my stick tree during valentines day too, its always good when things have a double use. Do you put up any valentines decorations? Any chance for me to celebrate love and I'm sure gonna do it, what is better than  a huge sprinkling of love?!

This years Christmas tree sure is going to have a lot of different shades of pink, I really cant wait to see it, it will be fab! 

I will be back tomorrow with some valentines day craft! See you then.

January's 18 Ornaments

January is gone and February is here, gosh it goes so fast! 

I managed easily to finish up 18 ornaments for January and I am loving these little houses, though I am still yet to make some large ones that might come later.

 I did manage to whip up one little lonely house in more christmassy colours. I think some little red and white ones would look cute too. I am hoping to do a few extra each month so that I have a few to give as gifts.

I'm thinking that I will make some sort of heart ornament for February it seems kind of fitting. I should be able to get started on them in the next few days.

180 Ornaments

So this week I've been working on making some little house ornaments for my Christmas tree. And can I tell you that I am loving these, they are pretty cute!

 I've made eight so far and I am just mixing up colours and having fun with them. They are pretty small though which would be great for a small tree but since mine is large I think its time that I made some larger ones to go with these. When I drew up the pattern I had a little scalloped edge under the roof  that I couldn't fit on these small ones but if I make some larger ones I should be able to fit it on.

I think I might make a few in some different colours simply because I think these little houses would look cute on gifts. I've also made some white and pink stockings, so I now have eight stockings and eight houses.

That takes my total to 16, two off of what I need to make this month.

Which leaves me with 164 to go!

Mamie Made: Crotchet Hearts

I've been crocheting up a little pile of little hearts. I'm not exactly sure what I am going to use them for yet, but they are so quick to whip up and I really haven't had anything to do while watching a bit of tv lately so this has been a fun little project.

 Obviously I could use them for some decorating this valentines day , I thought a little garland could be cute. Or since they are (mostly) pink I could add them to my 180 ornaments and hang them on the Christmas tree.

 

I've been making them with a 3.5mm hook but I did start out using a 6.5mm hook, they were bigger but more holey, so I'm going with the smaller ones for now but I may end up with some of both sizes.

If you'd like the pattern you can find it here. They are super quick and simple and fun to make.

Hope you had a lovely weekend.

180 ornaments

I have began one of the bigger goals for the year, to create 180 handmade ornaments for my Christmas tree this year. While I am super motivated I think its a great time to start. I hope that I make it to 180 well I am going to give it a go!

 So I am making all the ornaments with pink because I want them to go on my 'pink tree' which is actually a white tree that will have pink ornaments on it. This last cChristmasI had pink and gold ornaments on it but since I am thinking of making as many of the ornaments as I can out of felt I think that gold might be a super hard colour to find in felt so I may end up choosing another colour to go with the pink- may be an aqua or a greeny aqua colour that would go with my bedroom too.

So I thought I should show you what my 'pink tree' looked like so here it is! It was super hard to photograph I had it up on a little table and right in the window so that it could be seen from the road in the bay window of our bedroom. Also don't mind my unfinished curtains, I really need to get around to finishing them off.

 It was so lovely at night lying in bed looking at the twinkling lights and looking at the pretty ornaments. The lovely Dee (the old fat hen) sent me those large gold baubles with our names written on them- they will be treasured for years to come :-) Next Christmas the gold ornaments will go on my traditional tree.

I hope I haven't bothered you with my Christmas talk, its going to be going on throughout the year, sorry!! LOL

175 to go!