june at noon

Is it the middle of January already? Huh.

After Christmas I like to do a little “year end review” and assess what I’ve accomplished, creatively speaking. This year I’ve seen a few month-by-month review posts on other blogs, and I liked that idea, so I hope you’ll bear with me through a photo-heavy post as we take a little tour through the creativity of the past year.

January was a bust when it came to creativity, if you don’t count the kind of creativity required to simultaneously feed, burp, and diaper a newborn while drawing with markers with a toddler and throwing in a load of laundry. But if you step back just a couple of weeks into the previous month, you could count one of my greatest creations to date.

In February I learned how to do chicken scratch embroidery and experimented with taking it “outside the box” with the Stitch Explorer. (Sadly, I abandoned the project and never got restarted with it.) I also drew up some chicken scratch snowflake patterns.

March saw a little bit of renewed crafty energy with the making of a hooded doll towel (and tutorial), some sushi cat toys, an organizer for a toddler’s bed (complete with tutorial), and a couple of toddler pillow cases.

I slowed down again in April, but I took time to enjoy the first blooms outside and created a “mini Boppy” pillow for my daughter to use with her baby dolls.

May took off with a roar of engines with a crocheted racetrack rug. I then tackled some sushi-themed embroidered napkins, embellished chopstick rests, some mixed media greeting cards (paint, machine embroidery, toddler art, photos), and embroidered drawstring bags for organizing toys. I also carved my first rubber stamp.

In June I finished embroidering a BMW for my husband. I also carved some more rubber stamps, created an embroidered memory pouch for my daughter, and began participating in kootoyoo’s Creative Space project. But the biggest news of all was my move to this new web space and a site redesign.

In July I created another embroidered memory pouch, this one for my son. I also made some lemon-sugar hand scrub (still being requested by friends and family!), a handful of greeting cards, and a small embroidered pillow. This month also marked the beginning of a tour of my creative space and the introduction of Jane Ann.

In August I constructed a light box and played with the camera a little, and I made a wallet and some felt mail for my toddler, drawstring backpacks for both of my kiddos (tutorials here and here), and a laptop cozy for myself. I also enjoyed some creative time with my daughter, already the budding artist, and began furiously working on my redwork embroidery piece for The Quilt Project.

September saw the completion of my redwork doll’s house for The Quilt Project and a subsequent lull in crafting. I hosted my first giveaway with an embroidered pin cushion and a very tiny embroidered pillow. I began making preparations to open an Etsy shop and enjoyed the live display of The Quilt Project from afar.

In October I continued preparing for my eventual shop opening. I also introduced my “Buttons for Pearls” collection, stitched an Eiffel Tower, and created a few more lavender sachets, some tiny embroidered pillows, and some homemade deodorant. (Phew!) I wrote a tutorial on lacing embroidered pieces and bemoaned a hard drive crash.

November started off slow as I procrastinated but finally finished drawing a pattern for my dollhouse embroidery. I finally began to really push to open up my Etsy shop, which included drawing some free embroidery patterns and making some embroidered greeting cards for a giveaway. The shop opened and, to my delight, sold out of physical inventory almost immediately. (Woohoo!) I stitched a Matryoshka for a swap and suddenly realized I hadn’t started making Christmas gifts yet.

1. Let’s Eat!, 2. For Riley, 3. Three Brooches, 4. Pretty Pins, 5. Magnetic (7), 6. Bejeweled, 7. Top Hat (2), 8. Circle Cuff (3), 9. For Hanging, 10. Raaaawrrrr!, 11. Magnetic (2), 12. Babushka (2), 13. Bucket List, 14. Feed the Birds (6), 15. Cmas DIY (2), 16. For Willi (2)

And then there was December. Ah, December. Besides enjoying our Handmade Holiday with homemade garlands and kid-created gift wrap, I scrambled to complete a total of 24 handmade gifts and 10 “goodie boxes” for family and friends. (And I must note that I spent just around $70 for all of these gifts, a point of pride for me. Averaged out, that’s a little less than $3 per gift, which, if it can be done while still creating quality gifts, is pretty good in my book!)

I made, in no particular order:

• 1 crocheted ring cuff bracelet
• 2 crocheted twine bird feeders (tutorial)
• 1 wallet for another toddler
• 10 “goodie boxes” with tiger fudge, peppermint marshmallows, pie crust cookies, and cinnamon-applesauce ornaments
• 2 last-minute quick kid-art magnets
• 6 decorative beaded sewing pins
• 1 doily-and-hoop jewelry holder
• 1 embroidered snowman decoration
• 10 plush bird- and quilt-themed magnets
• 3 embroidered brooches
• 2 reusable lunch sets complete with lunch bags, snack bags, sandwich wraps, and napkins
• 7 beaded necklace and earring sets
• 1 reverse appliqued and embroidered dinosaur pillow
• 1 knit scarf
• 1 embroidered mini quilt
• 2 lavender sachets

… And a partridge in a pear tree!

Needless to say, it was a busy last month and a very full year despite the occasional creative slump. I was able to work with a variety of materials and types of projects, experimenting with new crafts while remaining true to my main loves. I was able to give heartfelt gifts to people I care about and see the appreciation on their faces. And I was able to enjoy a successful shop opening in a very hectic time of life. All in all, I’d say I’m pretty satisfied.

As for the new year, I’m forming a list of goals in my head, and I’ll share those with you too, but I think we’ll save that for another post, shall we? For now I’m back to working up a small update for my too-long-neglected little shop and thinking over that mental list. Back soon!