This week I made some art:
52. Make art for Clark, Andee & Maya
I wanted to do something they could hang in their house or in Maya’s room. Clark is Jake’s brother and all three of them are wonderful people and I wish I could do something that’s superb. Alas I am only so-so at this art thing. My mother-in-law was coming and I wanted to have it done so I could give it to her to take to Boston.
Here’s the finished product:
It’s, of course, inspired by Rebecca Sower. The frame is from Ikea and it’s a 9×9 opening (I think the frame is 9.5×9.5). I just glued my art on the wooden back. Here it is without the frame:
Here are some more details:
It says “home is where love is”
I used all the wonderful fabric and beads my sister sent me from Turkey.
It’s hard to tell in the photo but the clouds have some transparent beads on the corners.
I learned how to make a French knot during this piece. It took me forever and I still mess it up every other time. My brain just could not get it.
I hope they like it.
This week’s project was made last week. I needed a full week for it so here it is:
47. Do a week-in-the-life project.
I’ve attempted to make this project several times before but I was never successful. I realized there were two things that held me back:
1. I felt my life wasn’t interesting enough. I was worried all my days were the same. I was worried I was going to have to spice it up for the week which killed the whole point. I decided that my boring life now would be so interesting to me years from now and would be worth preserving.
2. I felt like I had to keep track of every minute of everything. I’m anal and I always worried I wouldn’t have enough time for that. So I decided to just focus on a few activities each day. One day, our meals, routines. Another day, our play, etc. I didn’t stress. I just decided to go with the flow.
There are a lot (A LOT) of photos here so you’re warned. Feel free to skip.
I pre-made most this book in two days over a weekend. I picked all of my favorite things that I’d been saving. I sewed the stuff on, put almost all of the embellishments on ahead of time, too. During the actual week, all I did was print photos and glue them and do some manual journaling. I did add some final touches to each page but 85% of the work was done ahead of time. I promised myself I would hand journal the whole thing. I also wanted to print my photos small. I added a few large ones throughout and I love my whole book.
Here’s the overall look. Detail on each page to follow:
Here’s the cover:
and a little detail:
This is the inside of the front cover. In that little pouch is the embroidery sampler I did that week in Teresa’s class. Photo of that:
Monday: No big theme for Monday, just sentiments.
Tuesday: our routine, our walk, my grandmother, david’s ladybug.
Wednesday: Nathaniel’s recent milestones, kids playing, headshots of each boy.
Thursday: David’s 100 day celebration at school, goings on around the house – nathaniel playing, david coloring and watching pink panther, me embroidering and the cleaning lady.
Friday: chat with mom, more embroidering, david highlighting, my kids together, our trip to the park
Saturday: David and I did crafts, the directions for the craft are in the pouch, time with Daddy, haircut, Wii, and then a photo of Jake with Nathaniel and one of me with the boys.
Sunday: a trip to the craft store for beads (receipt in the little envelope) David playing with them, and Nathaniel playing, too.
Back cover inside: sorry for the blur. Just a recap of how much I cherished doing this project.
And finally the back cover:
I HIGHLY recommend doing this. Loved every minute of it.
This was another one of the items that got done during our trip to Big Bear/LA:
19. Learn to change a tire
My intention with this one was for me to actually change the tire but since I wanted every step, I am going to count it for now because I did learn to change one. I will still plan to change one by myself this year, too and if I do, I’ll come back and edit this.
When we went to Big Bear, our tire was being funny but we added air to it and got on the road. After the three days it sat in the driveway there, it was completely flat. So we had to change it.
As it turned out, we were missing the toolset for it, but thankfully Kendall’s car had what we needed the most. (Kendall and Holly were in Big Bear with us and had rented a car.)
The first thing was to take off the spare. We have a CRV so we had a full-sized spare.
He then unfastened the bolts in the tire (the flat one) one quarter turn and then jacked up the car (you had to find the part under the car that the jack hooks into to make sure the car doesn’t topple over.
After he jacked up the car so the tire was completely off the ground, he took of the bolts and the tire and put the new one on. Then he fastened the bolts (not too tight cause it will break the rim and it will make it hard to remove the next time.) Then we slowly put the car back down and put the flat tire in the place where the spare was sitting and bolted it back and we were pretty much set.
It all sounds easy and Kendall made it look easy but I think it’s pretty hard and I just hope never to have to do it by myself.
I didn’t intend to do this one, this week. But, as always, the incredible Rebecca inspired me with her heart sessions so I thought this would be as good a week as any to do some stitching. So I did:
10. Sew everyday for a week
I thought this would be as good an opportunity as any to learn to do some hand-stitching. I’ve never done that before so I used these amazing tutorials.
On Saturday, I did this to practice my French Knots:
On Sunday, I did this to practice the chain-stitch (hard to see in the photo, sorry!) and putting beads.
On Monday, I learned how to do a blanket stitch.
Tuesday was too stressful so I did something simple and you can’t see it but there are two beads on the button holes.
Wednesday, I wanted to learn how to do the buttonhole wheels so I made one with the hear and then added some beads to the other one.
Thursday, I just had fun. Yes they are all over the place and crooked but I still love them.
And Friday, I grabbed some of my favorite fabric and just had fun. I didn’t stress about how the fabrics don’t line up on top of each other. I was wiped from a long long week.
And here they all are:
During this super-stressful week, these little hearts were the only few minutes I took for myself everyday. They are simple but I still love them.
Thank you, again, Rebecca, for the inspiration.
This was another one of the items that got done during our trip to Big Bear/LA:
20. Stay up all night
When I originally made this list, I had intended this to be one of those “stay up all night and have fun” items.
And yet, it didn’t work out that way.
As I already mentioned a few weeks ago, when we were in Big Bear, we lost power and I had to stay up all night to feed the fire to make sure it didn’t get too cold in the house and the kids would be ok.
David slept on the couch, Nathaniel in his pack and play and Jake made this concoction from the pillows of the couch and all the leftover sheets and blankets. While they all slept, I stared at the fire in the dark. I tried to read my book but the light was not strong enough. I tried to play games on my iPhone but I was worried it would run out of battery. I told myself just another 20 minutes since I put a new log every 20 minutes.
At midnight, I set the alarm on my phone and told myself I’d lie down for 8 minutes. I woke up 20 minutes later and the fire was almost out. I freaked out and woke up Jake who fixed it. Then I went back to staring at it.
In the middle of the night, Nathaniel woke up and cried for a while. We stared at the fire and then as he fell asleep, David started having bad dreams and woke up. After a while he fell back asleep too.
From 3-4am, Jake was also awake (which was really helpful because by then I was really getting tired.) The last few hours were the roughest as everyone slept and I was too tired to read or even play. My eyes kept closing and I had to walk around to keep myself from falling asleep.
At 6am, I finally woke up Jake and told him I had to sleep or I would pass out. And I fell into a deep sleep from 6-7 even though I could hear Nathaniel shrieking.
It was one of the toughest nights of my life and I have no intention to repeating it aver again. I hope that I don’t ever have to.
This was one of the items that got done during our trip to Big Bear/LA:
21. Finish all the consulate work in LA
I’ve been married almost eight years, had a kid 5 years ago, and became a citizen 4.5 years ago and had another baby 9 months ago. As these things happened, I was supposed to notify the Turkish government so they were aware of it.
Then Turkey changed their social security cards and mine became obsolete. And then my passport expired. So now, none of my paperwork is valid. My kids are not Turkish citizens and I have been putting off taking care of this for a long, long time.
During our trip to Anaheim for CHA, I decided to finally take care of it all. I had done the marriage part through New York (we got married in Boston) so I brought all the paperwork they needed, some photos, some cash and I was ready.
Except they had no internet so none of their systems were working. My kids were sick and grouchy and we all wanted to go home already.
Thankfully a very kind woman who works there felt sorry for me, gave me all the forms to fill out and took my money and my details and said she’d take care of it all for me and to call her in a month to follow up but I should be all set.
So I gave her all my documentation and we got back in the car to go home.
Assuming they don’t lose all my identification, this was a very successful and short trip.
And most significantly, it’s done. Done. Done. Done.
You know how sometimes you put something off so long that it feels like a huge burden. That’s what this was, so it’s a big deal that it’s done.
yey!
For my third 52 Things, I decided to do:
46. Knit a hat or a sock or mittens.
I used this simple YouTube movie to figure out how to make a hat.
I already knew how to decrease and there’s nothing else new here except for knitting in the round which I happened to have the needles for but I had never done before. I used some yarn I had and since the yarn was bulky, I used 64 stitches.
Here’s the hat:
The hat took me about a week on and off. I really didn’t spend much regular time on it. It was quite easy to be honest. The hardest part of the very ending cause I was down to like six stitches and it was getting really hard to keep knitting. And I don’t have a crochet hook so I had to improvise for the very ending.
Here’s me wearing it.
I think it ended up being a tiny bit too short for my liking. I would have liked it an inch longer. But the great thing is both David and I can wear it (I have a small head.) and it’s soft and warm.
I’m not a hat person but I might actually wear this around. I like it.
Even though it was one item, I think I might still like to learn how to knit socks, too. Looks pretty hard!
For my second 52 Things, I decided to do:
13. Create my own camera strap
There are several tutorials online for camera straps, but I like this one the best because:
1. It’s removable so I can wash my strap if it gets dirty and since I carry my camera around all the time, chances are, it might.
2. It covers all of the strap, including the leather ends.
3. The stitches are on the sides and not in the middle (which bothers me for some reason.
4. It’s really simple. (really important cause I suck at sewing.)
The hardest part of this whole thing was choosing the fabric. I had several ideas and I couldn’t decide for the longest time. Finally I went with the one I loved the most. The one I loved touching. I felt bad using the fabric. I wanted to save it. But I am trying to let go of that “I should save this for a special occasion” habit. Life is now. I use my camera all the time. This means that I will get to see and touch this fabric every single day, why shouldn’t it be the fabric I love?
So I picked the one I loved the most. Then I measured. I measured 100 more times. I was so scared of cutting. I kept thinking I was going to get it wrong and I didn’t have more of this fabric if I messed up. I should have done a trial run with another fabric but I don’t have a lot of time on my hands and I wanted to just go for it and have faith in myself. So I just took the plunge and cut.
The directions have a bunch of ironing which I knew I wasn’t going to do since I have no idea where my iron is. (Still packed I think.) The nice thing about this fabric was that it didn’t really require ironing. I folded and stitched the opening through which the strap goes in and out.
I didn’t do the pockets in the tutorial cause I didn’t want them, so I just went ahead and stitched the whole thing. I then turned it the right side, checked that it was fitting and then stitched on the edges which made it a much tighter fit, but, thankfully, it still fit!
And here it is on my camera. Low quality photo cause I had to take it with my other camera.
I love it! I love touching it. I am so glad I used this fabric I love.
Yey for cameras straps!
The first one of the 52 Things is one I did in the last few weeks of 2009. It’s:
#30. Redo webpage with WordPress
I’ve had this blog for 10 years. When I first started, the only blogging software was Blogger (this was way before Google bought them) and I used it for a while but then decided I didn’t like it. So I wrote my own code and created my website and for the last ten years, I’ve been maintaining it and updating it. It’s a lot of time-consuming work and if I want a feature (like “let me reply to comments”) I have to code it myself. This can get old really quickly. I was also getting a lot of comment spam and didn’t want to write my own code to battle it.
I’ve been meaning to move to hosted WordPress for several years but I wanted to do it right. I wanted to be able to move all my previous posts and comments and several other features I wanted. I also wanted my side pane back (I’d changed my blog to a single column during the last design about a year ago.) so I’ve spent the better part of the last three weeks doing this webpage.
For those of you who care about the details: It’s using the Atahualpa theme and I’ve customized it quite a bit. I have several plugins installed but the ones I am using most actively are:
- Akismet(for spam)
- Broken Link Checker
- Extended Category Widget(so I can exclude some categories on the side panel)
- FeedBurner FeedSmith (so I can use FeedBurner for my RSS feed)
- Flickr Manager (so I can post from WP to Flickr)
- Inline Ajax Comments (I hacked this plugin a lot so you can leave quick comments from the main page)
- ReplyMe (this emails you when I reply to one of your comments)
- Sociable (This allows you to send my post to a social network of your choice)
- Tumblr Recent Photos Widget (This is how I display the inspiration section on the side panel)
- WordPress.com Stats
- WordPress Database Backup (just in case)
- WP to Twitter (this posts my posts to my twitter stream)
There were a few features on my old webpage which WP doesn’t do elegantly. For example, I wanted to be able to display my tags so you could look at all of them as photos and click on the one you like to see the post. But I didn’t want to upload the photos several times or make a gallery. This took A LOT of hacking but I finally got it to work. Here’s an example. It doesn’t look perfect but it’s pretty close to what I wanted so I am happy with it for now.
That’s about it, I think.
There are still many many things I haven’t done and I will likely tinker with it for the next few months but the large, daunting task is done and I am pretty pleased. I hope you are, too.
For 2010, I decided I wanted to try some new things and push my personal boundaries a bit. So I made a list of things I want to try and I will attempt one each week. Some are things I am planning on doing anyway and others scare me. Of course, I reserve the right to change my mind, add to the list, etc. But here’s my first attempt at the list.
- Host a dinner party
- Host and/or attend a retreat – (done)
- Renew my wardrobe – (done)
- Walk in a 5K…and finish. (done)
- Bake a pie from scratch – (done)
- Write a love letter to my husband and mail it to him (done)
- Watch the sun rise
- Buy someone a present (unexpected and for no reason)
- Draw everyday for a week (done)
- Sew everyday for a week – (done and done again)
- Finish a journal – fill it up by writing daily or at least frequently
- Walk across the golden gate bridge (done)
- Create my own camera strap – (done and done again) (tutorial)
- Write a letter to someone I admire
- Decorate my living room wall – (done)
- Decorate my bedroom walls (done)
- Decorate my entryway walls – (done)
- Put up photos of the kids in their rooms – (done)
- Learn to change a tire – (done)
- Stay up all night – (done)
- Finish all the consulate work in LA – (done)
- Wreck a journal
- Fill a jar with magical thinking (I might do this on my blog instead of in a jar.)
- Spend a day with just nathaniel
- Spend a day with just david
- Spend a day by myself (done)
- Take a trip with just the kids and me
- Drive to santa cruz by myself
- Spend a day with just jake
- Redo webpage with wordpress – (done)
- Make art for Yona (done)
- Sew something for myself (done)
- Make art for the new baby (not mine!) (done)
- Take a workshop on something I’ve never done – (done)
- Make 3 things for my etsy shop
- Go camping with my whole family (done)
- Take photos in a photobooth (done)
- Make a wreath (done)
- Donate $100 to a charity of my choice
- Find a decaf coffee I like
- Go somewhere I’ve never been
- Find something to volunteer with (even if online) (done)
- Put together and teach my BOS BPS class (done)
- Learn to crochet (done)
- Make an inspiration board for my crafting/design area. – (done)
- Knit a hat or a sock or mittens. (tutorial for hat) – (done)
- Do a week-in-the-life project – (done)
- Learn how to make bread
- Photograph the same spot the 1st and 15th of every month. (Put together a video.)
- Make a painting for myself
- Find a reading group (done)
- Make art for Clark, Andee & Maya – (done)
Edited to Add:
- Finish Nathaniel’s Baby album (done)
- Decorate the staircase landings – (done)
- Put up art in the bathrooms (done)
- Create an art journal and fill all the pages
- Document a day in my life
- Do a Layout a Day for a Month (done)
- Do Something Special for Jake’s Birthday
- Do over the garage
I know most people make these lists for their birthdays but a calendar year works better for me. Let’s see how well I do.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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