I had a plan

Some of the to be decluttered toys

So after my blogging blahness, I decided I would blog twice a week.  The idea was to be a bit more regular and give myself a bit of incentive.  Then we had a long weekend, and all my plans have gone out the window.  So my finished projects from last week will have to wait a couple of days, although good news - I have finished projects! And knitting!!

My project for this week coming up is winter sorting and maybe some winter sewing for the girls if they are in desperate need of anything (I seriously doubt it, since they have so many clothes).  But in order to sort out their drawers I first need to tidy their room.  Its only taken three days so far.

Birthday present cheating

 Since I have come to my senses about P's birthday presents, I realised that there is no way I am going to be able to make her some little peg dolls to go with her felt playmat (that may or may not even be finished in time).  So I took a detour to the Hospice Shop on my way home from the supermarket today to pick up some little toys to go with the playmat.  Look away now if you have an aversion to plastic children's toys.

The Hospice Shop bags up little toys and you have to buy the whole bag to gcet what you want.  While this is good, because you don't have to sift through huge amounts of toys, its also a pain because I didn't want all the toys in the bag.  I came away with two $1.50 bags (so $3 worth in total).  They include a selection of small plastic dolls - including Cabbage Patch Dolls - does any one else remember these? And some little plastic babies.  I haven't yet put the babies in water so I don't know if they are the kind that change colours or not (I am totally showing my age here).

 I also got a miscellaneous collection of combs (you can never have too many), and a 'power' ring.

And the main reason I bought the bags, two my little ponies.  These will go down a treat with P with or without a playmat for them to canter on.  The rest of the toys in the bags have gone back to the Hospice Shop.

I'm joining up with The Op Shop show off today, over at Blackbird has spoken.  Check it out for other thrifty finds.

This week

I am going to complete something for P's birthday! I am reinvigorated after my mighty success of fabric numbers, and I am determined to have something to show for this weeks crafting.

So in the spirit of success I am going to start out with something small and easily achievable.  I am making P some hair scrunchies.  Hardly momentous but a great place to start.

Birthday numbers

We had a 2nd birthday party to go to this weekend, and I wanted to make something for the little girl in question.  These fabric numbers seemed like just the right thing, so I made up a set.  I really like the texture of these numbers, and they fluffed up really well in the washing machine.  Once again I used this tutorial.

As a mark of how good they are, P declared that she wanted these for herself, and I couldn't give them as a present, despite the fact that she already has a set of fabric numbers.

On the subject of blogging

I've been MIA lately because I had to go across the other side of the island to visit my parents.  We had a family bereavement so I took the three girls on my own.  Its about 7 hours in the car, and with three kids by myself (all of whom are bad car sleepers) it was a little bit of a mission.

The hardest part logistically was when we stopped at playgrounds.  At one point I let them run off to play while I was changing C (the play equipment was a long way away from the toilet), and came out to find them seesawing by themselves!

Anyway, I have been a little ambivalent about blogging lately.  I did consider not coming back to my blog after being away at my parents.  I'm struggling to achieve what I want, and rather than the blog being a great motivator, it feels a bit like a big slab of concrete hanging over my head when I don't have anything to show for my time.

But I have a plan, and hopefully it will be the way back into enjoying blogging, and enjoying being a part of the blogging community.

Baby gifts

Well, gifts anyway.  One of my friends is coming up for her daughter's 2nd birthday, and I really want to make her something for her present.  Something non plastic (even BPA free plastic), because I know she'll really appreciate it.  However, since she reads this blog I will have to be a little secret squirrel about it.

I'm also hoping to knit a couple of little snakes for my sister's second baby.  She's due in August, so that's enough time right? Although I had guests last night and I have lost my knitting mojo so seriously that I didn't even get my needles out - even though everyone else was knitting.

Ever lost all motivation to do something? How did you get it back?

Birthday presents and other dilemmas

This is how far I have got with P's felt playmat.  It might look like a reasonable amount, but since it is as far as I was before last week, I am pretty concerned that I'm not going to get it done in time.

I'm really disappointed with myself for not doing more, but the last few weeks have been a little difficult.  C has started waking at night, and then staying awake for an hour or more in the middle of the night, and it is really wearying.  Its not the exhaustion so much.  Being awake from 4am til 5.30am this morning, I can cope with being really tired by having an extra cup of tea, or letting P and J watch some TV, and by only doing the minimum I need to get by housework wise.  Its the weariness that accompanies the night wakings that is the problem.  The inability to concentrate on something.  The sitting down for 5 minutes that turns into 30 minutes of listlessly browsing the internet.  The dead tiredness and lack of motivation at the end of the day that makes it so hard to even get off the couch let alone get my craft stuff out of the cupboard.  And underlying it all is the feeling that I'm never going to feel rested again, or manage to do any of the things I really want to.

So what I'm saying is that I'm tired.  Time to rethink the presents, and really some bought stuff will be just as appreciated by P, and if I don't get the playmat done, there is always Christmas.

Weekly projects revisited

So I looked at my project for this week, and it is more selfish sewing.  When I put together my projects at the beginning of the year, I really wanted to include more sewing for myself.  But since I completed my circle skirt last week I kind of feel like sewing for myself again this week is cheating a little bit.  I've also found that sewing for myself is much more involved than many of my projects, and to be honest, I'm just not feeling that love this week (it may be the result of the great unsleeping baby's antics).  So I've rejigged my list of upcoming projects:

  4/03: P's birthday presents
11/03: Baby gifts
18/03: Selfish sewing
25/03: P's birthday presents
  1/04: Winter sewing/sorting
  8/04: Knitting
15/04: Birthday prep