Happy January and 2014 want-to-do's

Hey everyone!!

The sun is shining and it makes me feel happy even if the temperature makes me feel cold and the several times I was awake in the night make me feel exhausted.

So have been thinking again of "resolutions" for the new year, maybe more like want-to-do's though some are need-to-do's.

In 2014, I want to:

• make at least one sweater -- maybe more.
• make one project a month for my charity crafting group (well 12 items for charity this year), it's a Yahoo group called All Crafts For Charity or AC4C.
• do more with Tunisian crochet
• make a quilt for each child (if I finish the binding on the purple quilt for E, I will count that) -- strip piecing would be quick and easy.
• toilet train K,
• do my Physical Therapy faithfully no matter how much it hurts.
• open last of boxes from moving in -- lol, we bought the house 4 years ago, it's long past time I did all this.
• save money to buy bookcases -- very badly want to get my good books up higher above K, T, and E's reach so keep them from being torn up so much.  I do enjoy reading books and I would really like to see what we have.
• hang pictures on the walls -- I'll do it myself this time if I have to.
• Did I mention that I need to de-clutter a bunch of "stuff"?  Oh yeah, I've got to go through everything!!  Get rid of some fabric and yarn (oh heaven forbid), plus heaven only knows what else around the house.  Some of those glass items-still-in-the-boxes from my what my Mom gave me and wedding gifts that have never been used, well they can go too -- perhaps I shall list them on the the online yard sale places on Facebook.
• Move K into E's room, maybe do a bit of light decorating to show that girls live in there.
• Get my boys and hubby to help me more with the garden, and then with canning this summer & fall.  Last year taught me that I really cannot do it all alone.
• lol, and  ... well bickering kids helped to forget whatever it was.
• but maybe do more baking from scratch yet again.

Well, that's plenty.  I have already begun to do some of these things.

Plans for the new year

I don't like to do resolutions, because I can't seem to keep them, however, I do like to make plans (maybe not always write them down, but definitely little ones that I keep in my mind from time to time).

So plans for 2013 include:

• Make 1 whole complete Quilt -- not very optimistic am I, huh?  But I know my track record, I have lots of half-finished or completely finished quilt tops but very few quilts to my credit that have been completely finished.  Most of these completed quilts have been for gifts for friends or family members, like wedding gifts.
• Actually it should be make 2 quilts, I need to sew the blocks together and complete the Peel Family Reunion quilt.
• Need to watch my spending more carefully -- friends of mine on the FL forum (frugalliving.about.com/mpboards.htm) have been talking about tracking their monthly expenses on spreadsheets.  This is a pretty good idea, and I need to think about doing this too -- plus maybe make up a 
• Price book.  I think that I could do this at about the same time, or along the same lines, as the track spending worksheet.
• Spend less time on the internet and/or on the computer.  Of course when baby #5 comes, there won't be as much time to do stuff, but then I'll want to sit and admire my cute new baby too.
• Refashion some of my shirts into tops or dresses for Dd2.
• Work on making stuff to sell in my Etsy shop again.  Dd2 has some cute little tops that were given to us, I've been thinking about taking patterns from them and making some to sell.
• Make a new blessing outfit for Baby #5 -- just been thinking of making one of each, and trying to sell the other one in my Etsy shop.  Now you may notice that I'm not putting a link to my Etsy shop, well that is because I have it on vacation mode as I've been so sick and out of sorts with this pregnancy.
• Oh yeah, and I need to clean my house (it's not filthy, just doesn't get a thorough cleaning as often as it should).  Maybe I'll even
• Hang some pictures on the walls.  Not to mention, get Dh to
• put shelves in my linen closet, so that everything isn't piled up on the floor -- which offers Dd2 excellent access to everything!
• I would also like to have a nice-looking shelf that I can use to display some cute stuff that I've got hanging around -- it would also come in very handy next Christmas to put my nativity on.
• Did I mention that I've been feeling a hankering to sew again?  I have lots of fabric, I should either make clothes for my 4 beautiful children (yes even for the boys though is more fun to sew for Dd2) or make some quilts.  The very first technique I ever learned from my Quilting Guild friends was string piecing (go here for a great tutorial), just the same thing as shown on the tute except I used 6 inch foundation blocks (5-1/2 completed blocks) of plain muslin -- I have lots of ugly fabric, some of which is outdated stuff I inherited from my Mom's fabric stash, have been thinking about making some quilts (yes more tops) out of it, because ugly quilts can be just as warm.
• Oh yeah, I should hang more clothes to dry on my drying racks, and even on hangers in the spare bedroom closet. Ya'know, save some electricity and all that.

Well I know there were more things that I've been thinking on, but I should think that is plenty for now.  I can certainly add more later.

Have a good evening, y'all.  Dh and Ds10 are busy playing the new hunting game from Cabella's that was Dh's Christmas gift to the family, and I need to get Ds4 and Dd ready for bed (plus check on the clothes in the dryer).

=) Gayle

Enveloping a quilt

Never before have i done this, though a few friends have told me time and again how easy it it is.  So when I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wanted to make quilts for my boys for Christmas (I've still got bit over two months), well I knew I needed to find an easier way to do them.  And I remembered about the quilt enveloping technique (some people call it "bagging a quilt").  After much hunting, I found this tutorial and I think the author did a fairly good  job of explaining.

Someday I will have pictures to post on here of the quilts I make for my boys.  If I get really ambitious, maybe I will make quilts for Miss K as well as for the new baby.  I really ought to make a couple of blessing outfits for the new baby, one of each and then either give away or sell the one that doesn't get used.

=)  Gayle