Yearly Projects « karenika

June Projects – Fabric Keychain

This was inspired by these awesome keychains I saw here.

Mine is much simpler of course. But I love it nonetheless.

makes me happy.

June Projects – Portrait Workshop

I am almost embarrassed to post this since it certainly does not do any justice to Pam Carriker’s amazing portraits class but here is my first attempt at painting a portrait.

It can use so so much work.

But I will practice. I like doing these. I am excited to practice.

Weekly Gratitude – Putting My Album Together

I’ve been doing my art since the beginning of the year but I still hadn’t sat down to create an album for my Gratitude photos. I knew that I wanted to go with a simple album from Target or something but I didn’t go and buy one until last week. I knew I wanted a simple 4×6 album but nothing more than that.

As I walked down the album aisle in Target, I found exactly what I wanted. A simple 4×6 album with exactly 26 pages (so good for 52 photos) and it was a happy blue with a happy green strap. I took it home and put some pretty letters on it.

And I added my photos inside:

and voila! we’re done. I love the way it looks and it makes me happy each time I glance at it on my shelf.

June Projects – Crochet necklace

I had saved a link to this simple, pretty necklace a while back, way before I knew how to crochet. And then, just after I learned basic crochet Rebecca Sower posted this tutorial so I decided it was time for me to sit and make some.

I am not sure why but I wasn’t able to get good photos for these.

I first made this one:

And then wanted to make something more subtle and daintier.

I love wearing this one on my wrist.

simple, fun and sweet-looking. Nathaniel loves touching it, too.

52 Things – Draw everyday for a week

Here’s what I tackled this week:

9. Draw everyday for a week

For as long I can remember, I wished I could draw well. I still do. Watching people draw, this ability seems magical to me. Truly magical. I know it takes practice and time but I truly believe that some people have more inherent talent for it than others. Maybe it’s just a natural ability to see shadows and shapes and lines but either way.

I took a Paulette’s portrait class two years ago and even made a painting (two actually) but I have recently been a huge huge fan of Pam Carriker and when I saw that she was offering portrait lessons, I wanted to take it.

I told myself that I wasn’t going to paint until I practiced the drawing for a while first. So I decided to draw a face each night and here’s what I made:

The sad thing is that I don’t see any improvement from day to day. None at all. And some days, I regressed quite a bit.

But I need to practice a lot more. I think I should draw 100 faces and see if it gets better then. Maybe that will be my next project. Not a bad idea….

In the meantime, I plan to start the rest of her lessons today. The painting ones. I just went and bought my angular brushes yesterday and I am looking forward to playing with paint later today.

Weekly Gratitude – Video Monitor

Journaling Reads:
When my older son was two, he took to taking his clothes off during nap time. We’d often go in to find him stark naked, sleeping in the middle of his crib. This became more and more difficult since he wasn’t potty trained at the time.

We tried several things like putting a shirt over his pajamas, but it took him a few days to figure out all he had to do was put his arms under the shirt to open the zipper. Or undo the buttons, etc. So finally we bought a video monitor. This way, we could watch him as he hopped in his bed and catch him right as he started to take his clothes off. Not only did that work, but it also meant I got to watch my beautiful little boy while he slept without bothering him.

Since then, the video monitor is something I recommend to all new moms and I use it religiously with my little one. I love watching him and knowing that he’s still sleeping even when he sometimes screams. I know he’s safe. I don’t have to go in there to check on him and worry about waking him up each time. This little screen is a part of my day, it comes with me everywhere I go and I am so very thankful for it.

June Projects – Saartje’s Booties

When I saw the photo of these booties a long time ago (I don’t have the source of these particular ones, I am so sorry), I really wished I could make them but I also knew the chances were slim. I am not that proficient a knitter. I have only made scarves before. But this month, when I was making my list, I came upon them again and decided I would try to tackle them. Even as I was putting them on my list, I didn’t think the chances were high. But on they went.

With many many many thanks to YouTube and Google, I was able look up anything that stumped me (and there were several instances of that.) but I did manage to make a bootie.

and while it’s far from perfect and a bit super-sized, it’s here and done.

And there’s no way I’m making a second one 🙂

As it turns out, it wasn’t horribly difficult, just very. But I am a slow knitter so it took a long long time.

But I did it.

I Can Never Thank You Enough

I know I said I was taking a scrappy break but yesterday I was on My Mind’s Eye’s blog and I saw this sketch and I never work from sketches but this one spoke to me and I had an idea immediately. So much so that even though I’d planend to do it this morning, I sat down and did most of it last night. Since my photo was landscape, I rotated the sketch clockwise by 90 degrees.

I made this layout to remember that David helps out a lot around here. With the food, diapers, cleaning, playing and anything else I might need. He’s a truly amazing little boy and I don’t thank him nearly often enough. So that in my weaker moments when he’s driving me insane, I can remember how amazing he is. And so he remembers that I do appreciate him. so very much.

All products except for the letters are My Mind’s Eye. I put my border punch collection to good use.

details:

Weekly Gratitude – The Benefit of Routine

I am not a morning person. I can be chipper and alert and happy and productive and anything else you need me to be at night but I am not a happy camper in the morning. Before I had kids, I slept in as much as I possibly could and routinely stayed up late.

But then I had kids.

My kids wake up early. And I mean early. Most mornings, the little one is up by 5:15am. Even though I’ve learned to go to bed early, I am still bleary-eyed and miserable at that time of the day. And it used to take me quite a few hours to wake up and find my balance. Often times, it would be 9am before I felt awake and alert. That meant that I wasted almost four hours of my day every single day, feeling groggy and tired.

Since trying to convince my son to sleep longer didn’t work out, I decided to try a new routine. For the last month and a half, I created a list of projects for myself that I “schedule” for first thing in the morning. I give myself until 6:30 or so to wake up and then I sit at my table and work on my project. This project might be art, scrapbooking, journaling, sewing, stitching, knitting, or crocheting. It’s often something visual and something I do with my hands. It generally takes anywhere from 30 minutes to 90 minutes (depending on the project and on my kids’ patience). By the end of the allotted time, I have a lovely project I just created and I am fully awake. And, more significantly, I feel a sense of accomplishment and I am in my happy place.

This has become the most wonderful new routine. It starts all my days in the best way possible. It means I’m wasting less time, trying more of the projects I’ve wanted to do, and I am even more patient and kinder with my kids since I feel more awake and happier.

If, like me, you’re not a morning person, I urge you to try this. If 90 minutes is too long for you, try 30 minutes. Make a list of techniques you’ve wanted to try and try each of them for 15-30 minutes every morning. You’d be amazed what you can learn in that little time.

The following is cross-posted from the Weekly Gratitude Blog. I will post there every Tuesday and decided to post those posts here, too. For those of you who read both blogs, I apologize in advance. Some weeks the content might be different and other weeks, exactly the same.

June Projects – Fabric Ball

I moved my schedule around for June but it seems I haven’t saved it, so while I fix that, here’s the project from this morning.

Here’s the link to the tutorial for these fun and super-simple balls.

And here’s mine:

I literally did it while I was waiting for Jake to pickup the baby sitter.

David’s a fan.

And so is Nathaniel.

Love easy peasy projects that are also fun for everyone!

52 Things – Learn to Crochet

Here’s this week’s item:

44. Learn to crochet.

My first few attempts to learn to crochet were immediately aborted. I couldn’t find a video that was clear and kept messing up over and over again. And then finally I got lucky about ten days ago and found these amazing videos (thanks to this post) and they finally helped me unlock all I needed to know. So, then, I went searching for a doily which is all I’ve wanted to do.

I found these videos and here’s the motif I picked. And here’s my finished one.

a bit crooked but for my first project ever, not terrible.

Then I decided to get more adventurous and make a butterfly:

And finally I went back to this heart I’d bookmarked a long time ago and even did one of those (I used it on an upcoming catalyst which is why it’s glued to paper.)

I am still FAR from a crochet expert and have yet to join threads but it’s certainly a start and I do know how to crochet now.

June Projects – Counting Bean Bags

When I saw these counting bags I knew I wanted to make them.

I didn’t have any fusible webbing so I just glued and I am not nearly as good at hand stitching as I should be but it doesn’t matter. Also, I didn’t have any beans to stuff them with so I just used the stuffing I had at hand. They look like mini pillows.

Since they are for David, he got to choose the fabric. Since his favorite color is green, there’s a lot of green.