Can you believe that we're standing here at January 18th, half way through the first month of 2019? That first month always seems to zip right by, doesn't it? Or is that just me? Have you set any resolutions or goals for the new year? If so, how are they doing?
Mine seem to be on the back burner at the moment, but I'd like to change that, and I guess that's the reason why I'm writing today.
A new year is such a cool idea, isn't it? Technically, there's not much difference between December 31st and January 1st. The weather is probably the same, your house is the same, you probably are going to have pretty similar routines. But mentally, it's a fresh start, a chance to put a book end on one part of your life and start a brand new part.
When I look back to the year that's behind us, I see all the missed opportunities to do more in my life. I wonder, am I working hard enough? I probably could be taking my business to another level if I tried harder, worked longer, stopped being so lazy. So I set a bunch of goals at the beginning of this month with that in mind, goals to design more, blog more, and to become over all more successful.
And that's about the time when I started having anxiety attacks. Early in the morning, my heart would start racing and my stomach would churn, thinking about all of the goals I had laid out for myself and my ever expanding to-do list. I'm grateful that I'm a homemaker and stay home anyway, because it was debilitating. I spent three or four days sitting on the floor of my living room, trying to chill out, doing nothing on my to-do lists whatsoever.
Then of course I got sick, and I spent several days huddled on the couch and in bed. My body is much wiser than I am. It knows when I need a real rest, and makes me take it whether I want to or not.
I'm feeling better now thank goodness, and with my better health comes all this ambition to jump back onto the wagon and start working on all of those goals and long to-do lists again. Except, I can feel it. In the pit of my stomach, I can feel the inner resistance. I know that if I jump back in like I did before and try to give myself a nonstop 16 hour work day, I'm going to end up with anxiety attacks again and become completely useless. Is it worth it?
I have so many aspects of my life pulling me in all different directions, and being a perfectionist at heart, I want to put all of myself into each thing. I want to be a full time designer, I want to be the best homemaker, I want to have a big veggie garden, I want to take care of my mom full time, I want to be the best wife, I want to have a real social life and good friends, I want to be there for my niece and nephews, I want to be ultra frugal and DIY everything to save money, I want to have a sparklingly clean home. I want to sew, I want to travel, I want to buy a home in the country and have chickens, I want to volunteer, I want to exercise more, I want to read more.
But I'm just one person, and not even a very efficient or energetic one. I can never do all of the things I want to do as perfectly as I'd like to do them. Some things I'll never get to do. I have to admit these things to myself because holding onto the false notion that I can do everything if I just try harder is clearly hurting me.
So how do you find balance in this world? I guess it's a matter of setting priorities, but I think it's more complicated than that. If I only do what seems like is most important, I end up feeling hollow inside because I almost always leave out the activities that make me full of joy. I could spend my day homemaking and caring for my mom and my garden and my husband, but at the end of the day I feel like I've lost myself. I need to include those things that make me happy, like sewing or designing.
On the other hand, as much as I'd like to spend all day sewing or designing, if I don't include my daily routines of cleaning and cooking and taking care of my loved ones, I end up feeling disconnected from my life. Balance is so important. I just wish I knew how to reach it.
Now you all know where I am mentally and why I haven't been posting much on this blog lately. The truth is, I don't know what to do with myself now. I guess I'll keep muddling through life the best I can. One thing I read a while back does give me hope and makes me feel better; goals don't matter nearly as much as making progress every single day. So I guess that's my motto for 2019.
What does that mean for this blog? I don't know, honestly. I like blogging, and I enjoy designing small free patterns for the world. I just need some time to figure out my life and hopefully I'll get back into it soon. Thanks for sticking around while I work my way through!
Friday, January 18, 2019
Friday, January 11, 2019
Winter Jars
Hi everyone! I finally got to work today and finished up the winter jars pattern! Can you believe how much I procrastinate?
I'll probably move on to another project before I get back to work on finishing the jar series. But if you like this one, make sure to go check out my Fall Jars pattern too, and keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Spring and Summer jars too!
Have a great weekend!
 |
| Winter Jars pattern, $4 on Etsy |
I'll probably move on to another project before I get back to work on finishing the jar series. But if you like this one, make sure to go check out my Fall Jars pattern too, and keep your eyes peeled for the upcoming Spring and Summer jars too!
Have a great weekend!
Thursday, January 3, 2019
Craftsy Heads Up
Hi everyone. I wanted to give you all a heads up that almost all of my patterns on Craftsy have disappeared. In case you haven't heard (and they didn't really make much of an announcement or even warned anybody about it), Craftsy is overhauling its pattern section and has essentially wiped their slate clean with the exception of highly popular patterns. They promised that their pattern section would return "later in 2019", but who knows when that will be? You can read more about the update here if you're interested.
So for me, that means I lost all but one of my 80+ patterns that I had on Craftsy. If you had bought any of my patterns on Craftsy, they are still available to you, this just means you can't buy any more. Craftsy is also where I stored all of my free patterns in PDF form. You can still access all of my free patterns here on my blog though, they're just in blog post form instead of PDF.
I guess I need to start looking for another place to host my free PDF patterns. Does anyone have any good suggestions? I'll let you know when I figure something out!
So for me, that means I lost all but one of my 80+ patterns that I had on Craftsy. If you had bought any of my patterns on Craftsy, they are still available to you, this just means you can't buy any more. Craftsy is also where I stored all of my free patterns in PDF form. You can still access all of my free patterns here on my blog though, they're just in blog post form instead of PDF.
I guess I need to start looking for another place to host my free PDF patterns. Does anyone have any good suggestions? I'll let you know when I figure something out!
Wednesday, January 2, 2019
What's Up Wednesday
Happy New Year! Happy very first Wednesday of 2019! Oh, a brand new year, what a precious gift that is. A new beginning, a whole year of possibilities. It's like Monday morning, only a whole lot better!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. If you're anything like me, though, I bet you're really glad that it's all behind us and we can get back to our normal lives. Or is that just me? I love the celebrations and getting together with family and such, but it's so exhausting. After six family get together, stuffing myself silly more times than I can count, and eleven days of my husband being off from work (he took a few vacation days), I'm ready for a rest! I almost didn't write this blog post because all I really want to do now is sew!
But here I am! Since I have holiday hangover, how about I just show pictures this week? I promise to be more alive next Wednesday :)
Decorating all the cookies we made this year (I made a few Dala horse sugar cookies for my Swedish MIL).
Sunshine is helping me wrap presents.
My nephew Gabe giving his best Christmas face.
My fur-brother Gary (my mom's cat).
My adorable hubby with my equally adorable nephew Maliki.
My mom's Christmas tree.
My nephew Benji, actively throwing toys out of the playpen.
My nephew Joey and his mom (plus Benji in the back).
Maliki and his grandpa.
Maliki playing with the present we gave him.
Hubby and my FIL chilling on the couch on Christmas day.
The lovely jello mold I made for Christmas dinner.
My MIL's Christmas tree.
The most amazing new (to me) retro cook book.
Our traditional New Year's Eve nachos and a movie!
My fancy New Year's jello mold! Yes, yes, I do love a good jello mold.
And Sunshine chilling in bed with me.
Happy 2019 everyone! I hope this year brings you blessings overflowing!
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's Eve celebrations. If you're anything like me, though, I bet you're really glad that it's all behind us and we can get back to our normal lives. Or is that just me? I love the celebrations and getting together with family and such, but it's so exhausting. After six family get together, stuffing myself silly more times than I can count, and eleven days of my husband being off from work (he took a few vacation days), I'm ready for a rest! I almost didn't write this blog post because all I really want to do now is sew!
But here I am! Since I have holiday hangover, how about I just show pictures this week? I promise to be more alive next Wednesday :)
Decorating all the cookies we made this year (I made a few Dala horse sugar cookies for my Swedish MIL).
Sunshine is helping me wrap presents.
My nephew Gabe giving his best Christmas face.
My fur-brother Gary (my mom's cat).
My adorable hubby with my equally adorable nephew Maliki.
My mom's Christmas tree.
My nephew Benji, actively throwing toys out of the playpen.
My nephew Joey and his mom (plus Benji in the back).
Maliki and his grandpa.
Maliki playing with the present we gave him.
Hubby and my FIL chilling on the couch on Christmas day.
The lovely jello mold I made for Christmas dinner.
My MIL's Christmas tree.
The most amazing new (to me) retro cook book.
Our traditional New Year's Eve nachos and a movie!
My fancy New Year's jello mold! Yes, yes, I do love a good jello mold.
Happy 2019 everyone! I hope this year brings you blessings overflowing!
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
What's Up Wednesday
Happy Wednesday, everyone! I know I said I wouldn't be blogging for a while, but I had a cup of tea that made me feel kind of peppy, and I'm between loads of laundry, so here I am! Sometimes I just need a creative outlet.
It's the 19th of December which means we have just 6 days left before Christmas. Are you excited? Are you ready? Are you pulling out your hair yet? Over the years, I've crafted a plan of slowly building up to Christmas by making gifts and writing lists and generally planning far in advance, so that by the time mid-December gets here, I'm all set for the big day. I highly recommend this path for everyone who finds themselves frantic this time of year. It's much less stressful, but requires more planning of course. Which I understand for some people is half the effort!
Chad and I started baking around Thanksgiving, one or two recipes a weekend. We managed to get four kinds of quick bread made to give away as presents (gingerbread, orange nut bread, chocolate tea bread, and banana bread), plus three kinds of cookies so far (pepparkakor, spritz, and cinnamon bun cookies). We have one more baking weekend to go! We're doing my grandma's sugar cookies, and we're making a pumpkin roll too. Have you ever had pumpkin roll? It's a bit of work, but oh goodness, so good! For me, it's very nostalgic. The older ladies in my family would make up several pumpkin rolls and give them away for Christmas. They're a spicy pumpkin sponge cake smeared with what is essentially cream cheese frosting, and then rolled up into log form and chilled until firm. Then you slice it and eat a small piece of heaven.
We decided to cut back on Christmas gifts this year for several reasons. I'm not really sure which of these reasons are first or most important, honestly. One reason is because this year we started seriously saving money, for our future country home. We set aside $600 for Christmas every year, which is actually less than the American average (which is $800), but I felt like we could spend less than that. Which brings us to our second reason, which is that spending so much money on Christmas gifts ends up feeling hollow to me. I don't want Christmas to be about commercialism and consumerism. I don't want to try to prove my love of someone by buying them stuff. I want Christmas to be about family, tradition, and spiritual celebrations. We're trying to cut down on our daily consumption of commercial goods, so it only makes sense to do that at Christmas.
By talking to my family about my ideas and by carefully planning homemade gifts, we were able to cut our Christmas spending down to around $250 for 13 people. STILL.... even though we spent very little and got very few gifts this year, THIS is what our Christmas tree looks like:
(I realize that was a long story for one picture, but I didn't want you to think that we spent a ton of money when we didn't!)
The bulk of the presents under the tree are canned goods; I made tons of jelly and pickles to gift this year, plus I canned a half a bushel of apples in the form of apple sauce for my dad. Yay canning!
For comparison, here's what the tree looked like last year. Yes, I do take this picture every year.
The blue packages are homemade bread, which hasn't showed up under the tree yet this year, but it will be there!
So I have some other things going on other than Christmas this week. Between loads of laundry, I'm working on my hexie quilt. This is taking so long to complete! But it's getting there, slowly but surely.
I'm working on it in sections so that it feels like less work. Eventially, it's going to be this size:
That's the backing for it behind it. I'm going to turn it into a cover for one of my sewing machines. Next time I make a hexie quilt, I'm going to do half hexies and sew them on the machine :P This is tedious work!
I'm starting to get that itch that I get this time of year... no, not eczema (which actually I do have right now, but never mind that). I mean I'm starting to get the desire to start organizing! That lovely urge to sort my life into neat little boxes. I'm probably feeling that way because my crafting spaces look like this at the moment.
Yikes. My studio (the top picture) is especially bad right now. I've probably done 10 projects without fully putting all of the supplies away! Once Christmas is over, I'm going to dive into that mess.
Chad and I went to a cool indoor flea market last weekend, on a futile search for a cassette player. Do you know how hard those are to come by these days? I thought flea markets and thrift shops would be overflowing with them, but nope, not a one. Well, there was one massive one from the 80s, but I want something a tad smaller than an economy car.
I may not have found what I was looking for, but that doesn't mean I didn't find something worth getting. I love looking at cool junk from yesteryear, and that place has so much of it. I usually start feeling cross eyed before I get through the whole store. My favorite things to hunt down are copper jello molds (I have quite the collection), and mid-century recipe books. I only found one ugly looking rooster copper mold, which I left behind, but I came out with these:
So charmingly cheesy! Especially the milk book.
I think my favorite is the Spry book, though. Mmmm-mmm, partially hydrogenated cotton seed oil...
I don't use vegetable shortening at all, but I love how quirky this book is anyway. I also got four new additions to my collection of Pillsbury bake-off books. It's an odd collection, and I already have probably hundreds of books, but at least it's a small and easy to store collection! (And unlike my sewing machine collection, I don't get any worried looks from Chad when I pick up a new cook book.)
On the request of a fan, I have been working on an addition to my seasonal jar patterns. She asked if I would make any more seasons like my Fall Jar pattern:
It's a very popular pattern in my shop, so I decided that yes, I would continue making the rest of the seasons. I have the winter jars all stitched, and now I'm just working on the pattern. Here's a sneak peak!
She also asked if I would make the alphabet available, which I probably will do as well. Keep your eyes peeled for these patterns to show up in the future!
And on closing, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And so does my mom's cat, Maui.
It's the 19th of December which means we have just 6 days left before Christmas. Are you excited? Are you ready? Are you pulling out your hair yet? Over the years, I've crafted a plan of slowly building up to Christmas by making gifts and writing lists and generally planning far in advance, so that by the time mid-December gets here, I'm all set for the big day. I highly recommend this path for everyone who finds themselves frantic this time of year. It's much less stressful, but requires more planning of course. Which I understand for some people is half the effort!
Chad and I started baking around Thanksgiving, one or two recipes a weekend. We managed to get four kinds of quick bread made to give away as presents (gingerbread, orange nut bread, chocolate tea bread, and banana bread), plus three kinds of cookies so far (pepparkakor, spritz, and cinnamon bun cookies). We have one more baking weekend to go! We're doing my grandma's sugar cookies, and we're making a pumpkin roll too. Have you ever had pumpkin roll? It's a bit of work, but oh goodness, so good! For me, it's very nostalgic. The older ladies in my family would make up several pumpkin rolls and give them away for Christmas. They're a spicy pumpkin sponge cake smeared with what is essentially cream cheese frosting, and then rolled up into log form and chilled until firm. Then you slice it and eat a small piece of heaven.
We decided to cut back on Christmas gifts this year for several reasons. I'm not really sure which of these reasons are first or most important, honestly. One reason is because this year we started seriously saving money, for our future country home. We set aside $600 for Christmas every year, which is actually less than the American average (which is $800), but I felt like we could spend less than that. Which brings us to our second reason, which is that spending so much money on Christmas gifts ends up feeling hollow to me. I don't want Christmas to be about commercialism and consumerism. I don't want to try to prove my love of someone by buying them stuff. I want Christmas to be about family, tradition, and spiritual celebrations. We're trying to cut down on our daily consumption of commercial goods, so it only makes sense to do that at Christmas.
By talking to my family about my ideas and by carefully planning homemade gifts, we were able to cut our Christmas spending down to around $250 for 13 people. STILL.... even though we spent very little and got very few gifts this year, THIS is what our Christmas tree looks like:
(I realize that was a long story for one picture, but I didn't want you to think that we spent a ton of money when we didn't!)
The bulk of the presents under the tree are canned goods; I made tons of jelly and pickles to gift this year, plus I canned a half a bushel of apples in the form of apple sauce for my dad. Yay canning!
For comparison, here's what the tree looked like last year. Yes, I do take this picture every year.
The blue packages are homemade bread, which hasn't showed up under the tree yet this year, but it will be there!
So I have some other things going on other than Christmas this week. Between loads of laundry, I'm working on my hexie quilt. This is taking so long to complete! But it's getting there, slowly but surely.
I'm working on it in sections so that it feels like less work. Eventially, it's going to be this size:
That's the backing for it behind it. I'm going to turn it into a cover for one of my sewing machines. Next time I make a hexie quilt, I'm going to do half hexies and sew them on the machine :P This is tedious work!
I'm starting to get that itch that I get this time of year... no, not eczema (which actually I do have right now, but never mind that). I mean I'm starting to get the desire to start organizing! That lovely urge to sort my life into neat little boxes. I'm probably feeling that way because my crafting spaces look like this at the moment.
Yikes. My studio (the top picture) is especially bad right now. I've probably done 10 projects without fully putting all of the supplies away! Once Christmas is over, I'm going to dive into that mess.
Chad and I went to a cool indoor flea market last weekend, on a futile search for a cassette player. Do you know how hard those are to come by these days? I thought flea markets and thrift shops would be overflowing with them, but nope, not a one. Well, there was one massive one from the 80s, but I want something a tad smaller than an economy car.
I may not have found what I was looking for, but that doesn't mean I didn't find something worth getting. I love looking at cool junk from yesteryear, and that place has so much of it. I usually start feeling cross eyed before I get through the whole store. My favorite things to hunt down are copper jello molds (I have quite the collection), and mid-century recipe books. I only found one ugly looking rooster copper mold, which I left behind, but I came out with these:
So charmingly cheesy! Especially the milk book.
I think my favorite is the Spry book, though. Mmmm-mmm, partially hydrogenated cotton seed oil...
I don't use vegetable shortening at all, but I love how quirky this book is anyway. I also got four new additions to my collection of Pillsbury bake-off books. It's an odd collection, and I already have probably hundreds of books, but at least it's a small and easy to store collection! (And unlike my sewing machine collection, I don't get any worried looks from Chad when I pick up a new cook book.)
On the request of a fan, I have been working on an addition to my seasonal jar patterns. She asked if I would make any more seasons like my Fall Jar pattern:
She also asked if I would make the alphabet available, which I probably will do as well. Keep your eyes peeled for these patterns to show up in the future!
And on closing, I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And so does my mom's cat, Maui.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Free Friday: Christmas Collection
Happy Friday, everyone! We're speeding right through December, aren't we? It's just 11 more days until Christmas and I feel like it's going to be here before we blink twice.
That's why today I'm bringing you a different kind of Free Friday post. Instead of posting a new pattern, I'm putting all of my Christmas patterns all together in one place. These are quick and easy patterns that you can whip up between now and Christmas in case you need an extra present or just want to make your gift a little extra special!
Charming Christmas Tag
Candy Cane Ornament
Small Box
Poinsettia Basket
Poinsettia Ornament
Christmas Present Coaster
Winter Coaster
Cheery Snowman Wall Hanging
My life is going to be pretty busy between here and New Years, so I'm going to bow out of blogging for the next two weeks so I can focus on my family and our celebrations. I'll be back in 2019 though! I hope you all have a beautiful Christmas and a blessed New Year!
Tuesday, December 11, 2018
Cheery Snowman Wall Hanging PDF
Happy Tuesday everyone! I'm gonna make this quick because I have quite the to-do list today!
I wanted to let you all know that I added the Cheery Snowman Wall Hanging to my Craftsy shop in PDF form! In case you forgot or haven't seen it yet, I held a 4-week plastic canvas stitch-along and this adorable wall hanging was the result!
If you want to make him yourself, you can go back and check out the stitch-along posts, or you can go grab the PDF over in my Craftsy shop!
Have a great week everyone!
I wanted to let you all know that I added the Cheery Snowman Wall Hanging to my Craftsy shop in PDF form! In case you forgot or haven't seen it yet, I held a 4-week plastic canvas stitch-along and this adorable wall hanging was the result!
Have a great week everyone!
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