2012 - in review

I know we've still got a couple of weeks left in 2012 but they're shaping up to be rather busy - finishing off xmas presents, squeezing in a few more cheeky festive drinks with friends, sorting out the final few bits and bobs for New York and packing for the Christmas break in the New Forest. So I thought now was a good time to think about the list I wrote for 2012...

Back in January I set myself 3 very simple goals for the year:
1. SAVE!
2. Exercise
3. Be creative

So, how did they turn out....
1. Obviously I didn't want to save in order to sit on a lovely nest egg, to occasionally check my savings account and feel smug about the large figure displayed on the screen. This simple goal was actually the grown-up facade of a much more frivolous intention: to spend said saved money. This, I can happily say, was most certainly achieved. Although Mitch and I are yet to buy that new sofa, we did buy a desk for the living room and more importantly we booked a holiday. So, in theory I did save, I saved enough to buy two of the things I really wanted :)

2. This did not go quite to plan. As with most of my attempts to stick to a regular exercise routine, I was super motivated in the first couple of months and took up running. This petered out but then a new burst of enthusiasm took place around May and more convincingly throughout July, August and September. But there at the end of September it stopped completely. I can't say why I stopped (it probably rained too many nights in a row) or why I can't seem to stick to it (the longer the gap between runs the harder it was to go...), I even downloaded the nike+ app to chart my progress which was great, but obviously not great enough. I think next year I might join the gym and get Mitch to come with me. We went for a couple of runs together and I loved it. I think company whilst exercising might be the key...

3. The important part of this goal was that I not only needed to make but also finish one craft project every month. I am appalling at starting things and never finishing them (don't get me started on my writing) and this is definitely something I wanted to address, in a creative way, throughout 2012. And I did pretty well. I may be crap at exercising but by god I like to make stuff.

April and October appear to be absent in terms of projects completed but I think the extra creativity in the other months (most notably March - god know what I was on, some sort of crafter's cocaine*) more than makes up for this. I also got to try out a couple of new things - screen printing, dressmaking and knitting - as well as returning to one of my favourite creative outlets from childhood - plasticine. 

*not a real drug (as far as I know)

In conclusion, a fairly good effort was made throughout 2012 - better in some areas than others. I'd like to keep these three goals for 2013 – I clearly need to push a lot harder with the exercising and improve on this year's feeble attempts, and the sewing and saving just seem to me like good things to keep up – but I do have some other resolutions for the fast approaching new year...I'll share them soon!

christmassy place cards

Today I wrote a post over at ivy and neat with a super simple tutorial about how to make your own place cards. My sister and I used to make them when we were little and I thought that it'd be a great way to get little ones involved with the Christmas table setting, alternatively it's just as nice a thing to do as an adult too! To see how to make your own click here.

Tuesday's Tees - the digital age with YEL

My most recent tee crush is courtesy of the excellent clothing brand Your Eyes Lie. They've got lots of great graphic prints on their website but today I'm swooning over their digital prints.

See what I mean? The first two are my favourites. The one on the left is called 'thanks iceland' and (i think) depicts the icelandic volcano eruption in 2010. Even if it's not, the tee is pretty rad.

a golden half wedding

Back in September one of my v.good friends who I've known since secondary school got married on one of the hottest days of the year. Not only was the weather perfect, but the ceremony went smoothly, the bride looked beautiful, the food was amazing (much curry was consumed) and the party afterwards was so much fun, the music was especially awesome, a mixture of bhangra and well known chart stuff - I danced continuously for hours. Best of all, aside from the fact that my friend got to marry her lovely boyfriend of 7 years (I think it's 7...), the wedding brought (almost) all of my bestest buds from secondary school together. I still see them fairly regularly but rarely as one big group. It really was one of the best days ever - I couldn't stop smiling all day.

Mitch and I didn't bring a digital camera to the wedding, so we were completely relying on my little golden half and until last week I still didn't know whether they'd come out alright... Thankfully most of them did :) 

experiments in dressmaking #take 3

A couple of weeks ago an excellent tweet appeared in my news feed - How to make an easy elastic-waist skirt - with a link to this tutorial. And I thought, why not! Ina from Sky Turtle posts up quite a lot of tutorials to make both clothes and other bits and bobs but I'd never had a go at one until now... here's the result.

I'm pretty happy with it, although next time I might try and use a thicker bit of elastic. Ina's instructions are easy to follow and there are diagrams to help.

I got the fabric in the summer when the V&A were having a sale (they have some amazing reproductions in their shop) and I hadn't got around to using a leftover half metre piece. Turned out it was perfect for this skirt! Here's yours truly modelling it :) I do apologise for the mirror shot. Look at the concentration on my face, ha!