Thursday, December 27, 2018

2017 was a year (well, nearly) of trying new arts and crafts, of learning and of expanding my creative horizons. It was awesome. My ulterior motive was to get my creative juices flowing so that I would once again feel the urge to write, and it worked very well. After a hiatus around Ada Lovelace Day, I started writing on a new book that I’d been researching for a couple of years, and continued working on that through November and December.

2018 was supposed to be a year of writing and finishing off my craft projects, but after a productive January, things all went a bit to pot when Kevin got a new job in the February and all my time went into moving house, travel to the UK, unpacking, and then Ada Lovelace Day came round once again. I didn’t write much at all, or do much more than knit basic things.

So for 2019 I have two goals: Keep writing, maybe even to the point of finishing up a first draft, and start finishing off my craft projects. I have so many works in progress that just need to be polished off, it’s ridiculous. To aid my resolve in this latter goal, here’s my list of half-finished projects in no particular order (completed projects are struck through):

• Knitted scarf for Kevin
• Knitted blanket for the cats
• Small picture frame that needs restoring and gilding, and a tintype going into it – in progress
• Very badly broken plaster mirror that I need to finish mending and gilding
• Sister mirror to the above that will need refinishing and gilding to match
• Large mirror that needs restoring and gilding
• Medium sized picture frame that needs possibly refinishing, but certainly needs a picture going into it – in progress
• Knight and snail embroidery that needs finishing off, for my friend Steph (I’m very delayed on this!) – in progress
• Large frame that needs restoring and then I need to decide wtf to do with it. Might put a mirror in it.
• Nisse (Christmas gnome) army needs expanding
• This year’s Christmas decorations – crocheted snowflakes – need doing (quite behind on this given Christmas is soon to be over)
• Refurbish an old chest of drawers – nearly finished

In addition to this, I need or want to:

• Hang our art, plates and mirrors
• Get two pieces of artwork framed (been putting this off for about 3  years)
• Get two new mats for two pieces of artwork that are framed, but not neatly enough for my sensibilities
• Hang a rug
• Hang a Malaysian wall hanging (both of the rug and the hanging need to be somewhere out of direct sunlight, which is hard in this house)
• Find another chest of drawers to refurbish as we don’t have enough drawer space
• Knit a cardigan
• Steek two jumpers that were gifts, that I don’t wear because I don’t really like jumpers (steeking is to cut knitting, eg to insert a zip or fastenings)
• Do some embroidery for a half dozen frames that I bought from Ikea a couple of years ago for some artwork that turned out to be too big for them. Oops
• Paint the dining room
• Sew some curtains for the bedroom

I shall report back on every success, starting, I hope, with finishing Kevin’s scarf!

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