Last year I set myself
a de-stashing challenge but otherwise didn't give myself any specific goals for the year. Instead I wrote that I'd "just be focusing on working hard to grow my business and
doing my best to fill my year with designing, making, writing, cuppas
and catch ups with friends,
decluttering, good books, tasty cake, happy post,
Nice Days Out... and lots of other good stuff."
2015 was a little quiet but it was filled with all those things, so I am counting it as a success :)
I might not be a huge fan of New Year's Resolutions but I am a big fan of using this time of year to look back at the previous 12 months and take stock of the ups and downs, ready to re-focus and move forwards into the new year.
I'll be blogging about my Nice Days Out in a separate post (it was a busy year of travels!) but first, here's what I got up to on the crafty, bloggy side of things...
In JANUARY...
... I made a start on my "Use It or Lose It" destashing challenge: "to either get on and
actually make stuff with the supplies in my stash, or admit to myself that I'm never going to use them for anything and just get rid of them."
I'd envisioned a year of making things inspired by random supplies in my crafty stash, with lots of blogging about the projects, but I didn't use up as many of my supplies as I'd hoped. I did clear out a
lot of stuff though and my studio is looking all the better for it! The disconnect between my visions of all the projects I'd like to make and the reality of the amount of time I have available to actually make things is, of course, why I had all these unused craft supplies sitting around in the first place.
In January I made
lavender sachets (completing 29 in total!), worked on
my patchwork mini squares blanket and shared the
felt bird mobile I made for
Creativity magazine.
I
celebrated whole years of blogging (almost nine years now, eek!),
vented some printer rage after doing my accounts, blogged about
things I need to stop buying and some
very tempting fabric, reviewed
Knitting Smitten, and featured Crafty Ladies
Kate from Made by Mrs M and
Nicole from Follow the White Bunny.
I also finally blogged about
my trip to the Thread festival of textiles, way back in September of 2014! I might have been blogging for 8+ years but I am still a bad, slow blogger, haha.
In FEBRUARY...
... I blogged about
a colourful floral belt and headband I'd stitched for
Creativity magazine, started
an old/new floral embroidery project, shared some of the wonderful
sky blankets inspired by mine, and
organized lots of magazine clippings (for what I pretentiously refer to as "my archive", which makes me feel much more important than I actually am!).
I also featured Crafty Ladies
Laura from Made Peachy and
Wendi from Shiny Happy World, reviewed
Studio Life, and got excited about some awesome
sewing-themed clothing and
a visiting trio of goldfinches (I
love goldfinches).
In MARCH...
... I worked on a
floral cross stitch, a
scrappy cross stitch and my
floral embroidery project, then
finished the embroidered flower but wasn't 100% happy with it so decided to stitch another version... and I confessed to
abandoning my sky pompoms project (so many feeeeeeeeelings).
My work popped up in a new issue of
Made in Felt (which also included a kind, surprise mention of my blog!) and in
Love Sewing Australia. I was also delighted to announce
German and Italian editions of my books (so thrilling).
I also
resolved to try and read more books (this was semi- but not super-successful!) reviewed
Crafty Dolls and featured Crafty Ladies
Gretel Parker and
Laura from Laurafallulah.
In APRIL...
... I finished
the second version of my embroidered flower and
shared the pattern. I blogged about the
biscuit-themed mug mat I'd stitched for
Creativity magazine and shared
a tutorial for making a box of sunshine, celebrating the release of
Annie on DVD (this was a sponsored post which I know some people aren't huge fans of but this was actually one of my fave projects of the year - it was a huge amount of fun to make and I was so pleased with how it turned out!)
I also reviewed
Ladies of Letterpress, got excited about the upcoming
London Craft Week and lined up all my finished
sky pompoms so I could share some photos of them in all their fluffy glory along with tips on making your own sky pompoms should you decide to record the weather in pompom form.
In MAY...
... I blogged about
my childhood eraser collection! I wanted to keep a few special pieces with particular sentimental meaning and to record the whole collection before finding a new home for some or all of it. I ended up selling all but my few favourite pieces to someone with an eraser collection of their own (they were thrilled) and donating the money to a charity of my mum's choice (she'd bought most of the erasers for me when I was a kid, after all!). The money ended up going to a children's charity, so something once-beloved-but-no-longer-wanted from my childhood has ended up helping kids enjoy theirs. Perfect.
There was more nostalgia as I found
She-Ra books and a trio of Keypers in my parents attic, and my eraser collection
made an appearance in Mollie Makes.
I also blogged about
two projects I'd designed for
Creativity magazine - a button cushion and a village of felt houses (
the felt houses tutorial can now be found online, here). I shared tutorials for two projects I'd made for
Creativity the year before -
a cute cat pincushion and
a folk flower brooch - and finally bought the missing yarn needed to re-start
a neglected woodland-themed project ("I'm resolving to get this finished
by Christmas 2015 at the very latest", I wrote, but it's still very much a work in progress. I will eventually finish this project! I will! I swear!)
In JUNE...
... I shared
a tutorial for making felt swan brooches or collar clips, got hold of a copy of
the Italian edition of Super-Cute Felt (my first book), and admitted to myself that I was never going to finish a couple of long neglected "in-progress" knitting projects and
unravelled them to make mini squares for my patchwork blanket.
I also did more destashing, explored the different names and animal noises in
the German edition of Super-Cute Felt Animals (my second book) and blogged about
the start of London Craft Week (so awesome!).
In JULY...
... things were a little quiet on my blog as I suffered
an attack of blogger's block (ugh). Luckily the kitties were on hand to cheer me up and keep me company as I took some time off.
I blogged about
a couple of recent projects for Creativity magazine - a festival-inspired bag and an embroidered heart which the
Creativity team turned into a lovely card (
the tutorial is now available online, here) - and my decision to turn my in-progress brightly coloured "happy" blanket into
a happy rainbow blanket (mmm... rainbows...).
I also wrote about
turning 33, and
a wonderfully busy afternoon at London Craft Week (I have realised writing this that my final London Craft Week recap is still sitting in my drafts folder! Oh dear!).
In AUGUST...
... I realised I'd knitted a bunch of squares
the wrong size and had to unravel them all and begin the slow process of re-knitting them. Ugh.
In happier crafty news, I got to blog about two projects I designed for a new kids craft book,
Craft Camp, and some
felt ice lollies and felt fruit I made for
Creativity magazine (
the felt fruit tutorial is now available online, here).
I also designed
a heart for a
Mollie Makes feature about the Craftivist Collective's latest campaign, took part in a summer
postcard swap,
shared lots of awesome things people have been making from my patterns and supplies bought from me and blogged about
my childhood shell collection.
My shells found a new home with
Polly, who is
practically a mermaid so was the perfect person to take charge of these! She's already used some of the shells
for a crafty project, which was awesome to see after so many years of them sitting forgotten and neglected in a box.
My look back at my crafty 2015 will continue in part two, later this week...
