Balance

This weeks art journal prompt was about balance.
How do you attain balance in your life?

I feel like I always have a lot of balls in the air. Every now and then I let them drop and get quickly overwhelmed.
Generally I try and focus on what is important. I prioritise, organise and schedule.
When it comes to how I spend my time and what I do – I do what screams at me the loudest. It might be sewing, chores around the house or just sitting in front of the computer.
Time wasted doing something you want to do is not wasted time.

For my crafting this year I have tried to avoid making to do lists and now work on what I feel like doing. This week my dress sat without buttons because I wanted to paint these little people.

 

I hate changing the cotton on my machine

I have had a stack of little things that I wanted to make, fix or do. The main reason that I put these things off is that I hate changing the cotton colour in my sewing machine. Even worse is changing the cotton in my overlocker.

I have come up with a strategy for the overlocker now. I tie a knot from the base of the old cotton (on the spool) to the new colour. Then I pull the new colour through the machine. This works fine until I get to the eyes of the needles.

So last week I changed the thread from white to black to white on the overlocker and got these projects done.

I made the little girl two new nighties. She loves these. Well the pink floral one not so much because it doesn’t touch the floor.

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Other little projects that I wanted to make we’re these earphone cases (tutorial by dog under my desk)

and these headbands that Susie showed me by Happy Together.

Other things that I got around to was modifying this shirt for a friend to a singlet.

I also played with some more lace and turned this mission maxi singlet that I made ages ago into a slip of sorts.

I got the idea from this extender slip (by icandy handmade) that I saw on pinterst.

It will be perfect to wear under this “lab” coat I made. (that is a whole other post)

So now that I have got all of that stuff done, hopefully the cotton on the overlocker and sewing machine can stay the same colour for a little while.

 

Health art journal

I am still plodding along with my art journal. Rebecca (fitmumma) has given some good thought provoking prompts.

The first was about our favorite sweaty workouts. Mine would have to be pump and my Running Squad.

I get such a good workout during a pump class and I am continuously trying the increase my weights. The best part is the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), it reminds me days later how hard I worked.
I do running squad twice a week. Basically the coach sends us on interval runs (of varying distances) which are timed. The next interval generally has to be quicker. I am learning a lot about adjusting my pace. They have just started doing a third run on the weekends which is a long run. If I can, I try and make it to those too. At the moment I run an average about 24km per week.

Week 4 asked what are you hardest on yourself about. To be honest I am not hard on myself enough. I really can do better. My results have been good, but I know that if I made more of an effort I could achieve so much more.

The latest prompt asked who inspired you. It is no secret that Michelle Bridges is my hero. She is the most inspirational person I have ever been near. She radiates confidence and success.

And I am lucky to be  surrounded by people that inspire, motivate and amaze me. My husband inspires me. Sheridan, Karen and Susie inspire me. My little FB 12WBT group inspires me. My ironwoman lil shiela inspires me. My boys at work – the three ironmen, three triathletes and the marathon runner inspire me.

I have written these things in journal and tried to make them arty, but not with much success. I will keep going though and I am sure they will improve.

I also started a training diary this year.  I got Miss Meg (Sydney) to customise one of her diaries for me and hubby.

I got extra note pages inserted each fortnight and a month in view at the start of each month.  It has been great to plan my upcoming exercises and then to document what I actually did and how I went.

Ruby slip

This one I wouldn’t answer the door in. This is my latest lace effort.

This is the ruby slip. I stumbled across this pattern by Pattern scissors cloth. The pattern is very well drafted and the instructions are extremely well written. Did I mention FREE!

She has also done a series of posts about making the slip.  She goes into a lot of detail for each step along the way.  Paired with the instructions they made this really easy to make.

I used stretch lace for the bodice and made the “long” version. Because the lace has a dense pattern I didnt need to fuss too much with the seaming and making the lace motifs line up.

I cut a size 10 for the bodice and a 12 for the skirt. The bodice ended up being a little wide and I needed to take the side seams in.

Apart from that it turned out …. AWESOME!.

It was just the little steps that made this special to make and I learned a lot.  Things like leaving it hang to let the bias seams settle, making the bias spaghetti straps and finishing with a  handkerchief hem.

The skirt is made from a light voile. It is dreamy to wear and quite sheer. That and the lace bodice makes this one fail the answer the door test.

The slip isn’t quite red, a little pink – watermelon’ish. Really hard to photograph too.

I tried to take a photo of me wearing it.  I left my bra and black shorts on, not a great look but you get the idea.

 

Maxi wrap – Butterick 5486

I got this pattern because I wanted to Make this Look.

If you haven’t come across Mena’s (from Sew Weekly) collection of Make this Look it is well worth a browse.

When the pattern arrived I saw that it had a maxi version with a wrap front.  I had a look at a few reviews of it on pattern review and thought it was worth a go.  It turned out really really well.

The plan was to do it in a nice drapey knit fabric.  But then I came across this crepe/chiffon stuff at spotlight on the bargain table for $2/m.

Because the fabric is see through I had to add a lining to the whole dress.  The pattern has just the top lined so it really wasn’t a stretch to add it to the skirt.

The wrap around top is not part of the foundation of the dress.  It is kind of just added on to the front.  But is is so very effective.  And because you know that the drapey bit is on top of the dress, there are no concerns of it slipping and being too revealing.

The only modification I made was to reduce the amount of fabric in the skirt by almost half.  I did this because I read a post on Styling You (about finding a Maxi dress that flatters) that said you should avoid dresses “billowing with meters of fabric”.  It turned out perfect.  Though to enable walking I needed to add a back slit to both the dress and the lining.

lacy experiments

One of the things that I wanted to do this year was to experiment sewing with different fabrics.

So moving away from quilting cotton I went to knit fabrics.  I seem to have got the hang of them now.  I made yet another Mission Maxi dress.

I love that pattern – it the 5th time I have used it.  This is my favourite one yet and I wear it all the time.

So next,  for something different I thought about sewing with lace.  Susie lent me this book (Sweet nothings) which has lots of great patterns.  There were at least 5 or 6 in there that I would make.

I first attempted the camisole.  It is made with a knit fabric for the bodice, fold over elastic for the arms and stretch lace trim for the neck and hem.

Unfortunately it turned out a little big across the chest as I think I stretched it when sewing the elastic on.  Then because I had nothing to lose and had written it off as a learning project, I got a bit carried away.

I added a wide band of stretch elastic to the bottom hem, thinking that it would look cute.  It just made a short top look stupid.  So then I decided the add the rest of the knit fabric to the bottom and finished it off with the stretch lace hem.

And viola – I have a new nightie.

It is still a little big around the arms and chest.  I wouldn’t wear it to the shops, but for bed it is fine.  It even passes the Would you answer the door in it? test (not clingy or see through).  This is something I consider when buying my PJs – I do like to spend as long as possible in them.

The other two things I made from the book so far were a pair of undies

and a cami in some 18cm wide stretch lace.

I am waiting for some elastic for the straps to finish the cami.  They both turned out fine. And I was surprised how simple and forgiving sewing with lace is.  Not sure how much wear these two items will get.  I am very much a Bonds/Triumph black, beige and white kind of girl.  So I don’t think that I am going to start making my underwear but it is nice to know that I could if I wanted to!

another first day of school

Today was my little boys first day of school.

He was very excited. We have been talking about it all week.

After breakfast I told him he had to get ready for school.  His face went blank with shock – “Big school” he said “I’m going to Big School?”.

Then it was time for photos.  I just wanted one decent one.  And I think that was all I got!

the goals for 2012

The next prompt from fitmumma was goals and aspirations.

(It is a bit messy, but it does look better IRL)

Mine are fairly straightforward.  Basically keep going and don’t fall off the wagon.

I have mentioned before that my goal is to complete 10 events this year.  I find that having an event like a race looming is a really great motivation for me.

I did the resolution run with Susie on Sunday.  It was 11km (2 laps city to southbank) and it was quite hot.  We run really well together. It was our best time and we finished strong.  The run for me was more about keeping up my running over the Christmas period than the actual race.

So that is one down! For the rest of them the majority will be 10km runs but not all events are offering that distance.

So far I have decided that I want to do

Jan – Resolution Run

24 Feb – Brisbane City Raid

18 Mar – Brisbane Twilight Run (10km)

6 May – Noosa Winter Festival (10km)

27 May – Hawaii Hibiscus Half Marathon (5 miler)

30 June – Gold Coast Marathon (10km)

15 July – Jetty to Jetty (10km)

5 Aug – Brisbane Marathon (10km)

Sept – Bridge to Brisbane

Nov – Inaugural Currumbin Classic (10km)

But there is also the City to Surf (12 Aug), Sydney marathon (16 Sep) and Melbourne Marathon (Oct) to consider if I can convince Hubby that we need a weekend away.

If I can’t get out of my shifts to do any of these events the plan is to substitute it with a city run with Susie.  We would probably try and do the Resolution Run course again to see if we can  improve our time.

Do you Zentangle?

Recently I stumbled across the art of Zentangle (on an online booktstore looking for kids learn to draw books).  The books I got were Zentangle basics and Totally tangled.

I can’t explain it, but it appeals to me. I can’t draw particularly well but I can create “art like” pieces using Zentangle principles. I am really enjoying it.

Zentangle.com and  Tangle Patterns are two fantastic sites with lots of help and inspiration. Not surprisingly there is a big Zentangle blog and Flickr community.

I have been spending a fair chunk of time researching, creating my own Zentangle folder and sketchbook.

Rebecca (fitmumma) also provided me with inspiration to create an art journal with her that has a fitness/health theme. She is going to provide weekly prompts on her blog. I haven’t ever done anything creatively like this before but I am going to take up the challenge. So with an old A5 sketchbook I tangled a title page.

(I thought I would try an instagream photo to make it look more creative!)

Then using what I had on hand (the kids wind up crayons) I attacked the first prompt which was 2011 achievements.

I am not sure how I will go with this challenge. I think it could become quite personal and not sure if I will post each weeks efforts. So we will see how I go and how long I last.

Wow – it’s 2012

Happy new Year.

2011 was a huge year for me. Basically I think I upgraded to donna 2.0 over the last 12 months. I am fit and healthy, happy and confident. I lost 20kgs and I can run 12km.

On the crafty side of things, 2011 saw me do a stash challenge with Susie. It motivated me to finish lots of projects that were neglected and work through a huge to do list of things I wanted to make. The challenge pretty much cured me of any further stash enhancing and now I have adopted a buy to use NOW philosophy.

My sewing skills have improved and began making more complex items and wearable garments for me.

So what is in store for me in 2012.

I have a shiny new gym membership that I plan to abuse. They hold challenges through out the year that I am keen to participate in.

I am undecided if I will do another round of the 12WBT. I haven’t ruled it out though – maybe round 2, Lean and Strong.

I have a lofty running goal of completing 10, 10km races. My only obstacle I can see at this stage is not having shifts that suit on the race days. I might have to adjust my goal to either 100km or just 10 races. Then I can do some of the shorter events to make them count.

Craft wise – firstly, I have 4 projects that need some attention (one for each craft)

- a half knit jumper

- a crochet hexagon blanket that is still in its infancy

- a quilt that needs binding

- and a few stitching projects.

I would like to think that I will finish these before I move on to something new in that craft. eg. finish knitting the jumper before I start knitting something else. All other projects that I had started, were in queues or on lists have been discarded and forgotten.

For my sewing – I am slowly working my way through the collette sewing handbook in an attempt to improve my sewing and finishing techniques. I would love to make some more clothes that are a little more detailed (advanced) and not made from quilters cotton. I need to explore and use different types of fabric. I am also going to try and be more mindful about what I make and how it will fit into my wardrobe.

I am looking forward to sharing my 2012 achievements and crafty projects with you. Here is to a fabulous 2012!