Welcoming in 2011

How were your holidays? Ours were delightfully spent with family and friends. Christmas was split between Iowa and Minnesota (which was wonderful, but exhausting), and New Years was spent with our potluck crew - probably the most fun Husband and I have had on New Years Eve. Now that the holidays are past, I can finally share some of my crafty projects with you!

First up, Christmas stockings! Admittedly, there is no reason why these couldn't have been shared earlier. This lady was just busy, busy, busy and very tired. Anyway...I think they turned out perfectly!

Here they are under our tree. I didn't get a picture of them hanging before Mr. S packed them away.

After reading an article last year about different ways to decorate for Christmas (I cannot for the life of me remember what magazine this was in - Real Simple, Good Housekeeping, or Martha Stewart Living), Mr. S and I had a conversation about what color we wanted to emphasize in our decorating. The article mentioned how there is usually a large focus on red, but there are so many other ways to decorate for Christmas that incorporate some red without letting that color take over everything. So we decided on green, a color both of us like a lot.

I knew I wanted to make our stockings, so made a trip to my local Joanne's and found a McCall's pattern I liked that looked easy enough. The hard part was finding the fabric. I've mentioned Crafty Planet before - they're my favorite fabric store in the Twin Cities. Without a doubt, I wanted to get the fabric for our stockings there, but it took a lot of patience and multiple trips before I found what I wanted. Nice, Christmasy greens were hard to find, so I decided on a slivery gray for the main body that would allow me to easily accent with green. The final result was so satisfying! The only problem - I only made two. Here's hoping Crafty Planet stocks the same fabrics around Christmas time next year so I can make two more for future children. However, I'm open to kids' stockings being slightly different from ours. We'll just have to see.

Next up: Secret Santa gift! We did a Secret Santa/Snowman exchange at work in December. Being in a crafty mood, I decided to make the first gift for my gift recipient. This clutch was made using two matching quilting remnants I'd picked up from Joanne's a few years ago. I sewed a simple rectangle, tacked up one half, sewed the sides, and added a button from my button box. Needing a little extra touch, I found some pretty green yarn from my stash and two extra ornaments to add a bit of flair. Inside, my recipient found some dark Lindt chocolate with a hint of orange and almonds (SO yummy!) and a Christmas cd of an artist she enjoys.

"A little music to make the mood merry,
A little chocolate to make your day bright!"
Secret Santa

Now Christmas is over and presents have been given. Not to worry, though! The need to craft isn't gone. In fact, we'll be moving to a new place at the end of the month and I already have plans for curtains, place mats, table cloths, maybe a shower curtain, and such. Oh, and did I mention we'll be within walking distance of Crafty Planet? Mr. S is (understandably) concerned about the effect that will have on our pocketbook. I, however, am not! :)

Things to look forward to in the coming weeks:
1) Pictures of the monstrous snow storm we had the weekend before Christmas
2) Guest post (maybe two!) from Mr. S
3) Organizing and cleaning tips for moving
4) How to be creative with living spaces
5) A little surprise! :)

Keep coming back! I've missed this place.

~Ms. S

Change is in the air

I have intentionally left this place for a while in order to give some serious thought to what I want this space to be and how I want it to function. After reading a guest post on a friend's blog a while back about starting a blog, I decided it would be beneficial to:
1. Think about my subject and decide whether or not that was the direction I wanted to go
2. Think about my audience
3. Revisit how often I post
4. Start my new job and evaluate how much energy I would have at the end of the day to create posts

There are some changes in the air for this little space of mine. In thinking about my subject matter, it occurred to me that I still really dislike cleaning, and that this blog hasn't really inspired me back into the neat-freak I happened to be when I met my husband. What has happened since starting this blog is a growth in my craft projects. And I enjoy sharing them here because I'm proud of the work I do, and like sharing pretty things with you. But...I don't want to simply focus on my projects because that's not me, and because I'm also proud of some of the home fix-it, cleaning, and organizing tasks I accomplish. I'll get to what this means for the blog in a minute - after addressing numbers 2-4 above.

Thinking about my audience was the hardest part for me. Who reads my blog now? Who do I want to read my blog? How do I get those people to follow my blog? Those are big questions to answer, and my (albeit short) experience working at a branding firm reiterates the importance of answering those questions. As far as I know, friends and family are the only people who read this regularly, but I don't actually know that since visitors rarely comment (I don't hold that against anyone, by the way, though comments always make my day). And I could say that I want people who enjoy Martha Stewart, Design*Sponge, Amy Butler, Hygge & West, etc to find my blog. But I started this blog for myself, and if this place isn't about me first and what I feel compelled to share, I will quickly lose motivation to update it. So...I blog for me. Is that a bad thing?

Three and four kind of go hand-in-hand. I have traditionally been posting when motivated and when I had the energy. My new job doesn't leave me nearly as exhausted at the end of the day as was the case last year. So having the energy to whip out a post is quite likely and completely reasonable. I will be starting classes this spring, but I don't anticipate that being so overwhelming I can't maintain this space.

So what does this mean? It means I will be sharing home organizing/cleaning/and fix-it stories and tips as I see fit - reviewing things I try, sharing my (often creative) steps to fixing certain items, and sharing solutions to issues I find helpful and useful. In trying to get away from the monotony of telling you about how many dishes I had to wash, or how, yet again, I failed to stick to my 'chores' schedule, or how the bathroom really needs to be cleaned, I've decided it would be a welcome break for me to be able to focus more on sharing my sewing and craft projects. With the Holidays coming up, you can expect to see more crafty things here. :) I still plan on only promising one post/week. Mostly because weekends are when I have the most time to work on my projects. But that's not to say I'll hold back if I have more to share.

Hopefully these changes will be just what's needed for a fresh start here. With snow on the ground here, I'm off to finish and begin some Christmas projects...and dig out our Christmas music (inspiration never hurts, you know)! Enjoy your Sunday.

~ Ms. S