One little goal // handmade

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Since everyone is going over their New Year's Resolutions this week, I thought I would share one of mine...buy more handmade/small biz!

I'm not going over my whole list this year. Especially after reading Elsie's post about keeping some things to yourself, I'm chosing to be a little more low key about my goals and lists. (I'll be sharing a 25 before 25 list in a few weeks, but thats a little different)

I don't know about you guys, but I'm a last minute shopper. And with my one word being focus, I'm going to try to do more planning this year. That should include intentional shopping, right?! I think its so important to buy handmade and support local small buisness, so I'll go ahead and lump that into this goal as well.

Making goals is my fffaavvvoorrrriiitteee! I think this one will be fun too!

focus: a word for 2013

Last year was the first year that I chose a ''word'' for the year. A word that described everything that I wanted the coming year to teach me....it was "self-sufficient". Maybe I cheated a little bit on the hyphen, but whatever. I'm not sure if I succeeded, but there were definitely days that pushed me into this and days that pushed me right back to where I started. I'm a very dependent person by nature, and I always have been....but I think what I realized was that sometimes its okay to need someone. On the other hand its good to have enough confidence in yourself to know that you can fill in the blank on your own. I wasn't very conscience of this as I was going through the year - honestly, I pretty much forgot that I chosen a word at all. This makes me think that maybe my word for this coming year should be ''intent'' - close, but not quite right. 

Focus.

This coming year I want to keep a steady focus.  I want to focus on my health, on my marriage, on my relationship with God. I want to focus on each day and not just "big picture'' things. I do want to live with intent, but I want it to be more than that. I want to do things because I chose to do them, not because they happened to me. I want to be proactive and not so reactive. This may sound silly to some of you, but for me its probably one of the hardest things for me to overcome.

I am pressing forward into 2013.... I have big plans and dreams and I'm feeling extremely optimistic.

Project 2012: The Craig Edition

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1Learn to play a song on the guitar

2Travel to five new cities

3Build a workshop

4Read 5 books

5Complete a 10K

6Write a short story

7Write 2 of Ash's blog posts

8Bench press 200lbs

9Go to 3 sporting events

10Try 5 new grilling recipes

11Volunteer on a day off work

12Take Ash dancing

13Try a new type of seafood

Two Thousand Twelve

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drum roll, please... 

It's time to announce Project 2012

In case you dont know, Project 2012 is my to-do list for the new year. I don't really make ''new years resolutions'' - I feel like no matter what you will never keep up with it. SO instead of putting "work out 4 times a week" I will change that to "run a 10k with Craig" it will produce the same results but at least I have a tangible goal to work towards. You can see last years list here.

1 Take a road trip to Gatlinburg

2 Read 5 new books

3 Re-upholster a sofa

4 Make a new dress

5 Run 10K with Craig & beat my previous time

6 Sit down with adoption agency

7 Knit full size blanket (see here)

8 Save up for a new camera (see here)

9 Develop and grow blog

10 Introduce Macy & friends

11 See 3 bands play

12 Buy a new house

13 Pick up playing piano again

14 try 10 new re-style projects

15 celebrate 6 years of marriage bliss

16 complete large paint by numbers project (see here and here)

17 enhance baking skills

18 commit to letting hair grow out

19 Start a new collection

20 complete 1 DIY project each month for blog

21 build new dining room table (see here)

22 visit boston in the fall

2011 in review

This time last year I made a '2011 to-do list' - I didnt complete everything on it, and honestly I didnt really want to finish some of the things by the end of the year. It's funny how things change like that. Let me show you what I did finish....

1. Knit a full sized blanket

Well, I kinda did this. I knitted a full-size baby blanket! Close enough right?? Actually no, its not the same  BUT I'm adding this to next years list. 

5. Make Jam

OKAY - I was totally going to do this...but....every single recipe that I found used pectin which comes from apples, which I'm allergic to. So I wasnt so sure it was safe for me to try and therefore I did not complete. boo!

6. Learn to make underwear

I don't really know why I put this on here last year...

...I saw an online shop that sold the sweetest undies and thought it would be a lot of fun to make them myself. well, it was kind-of fun - and they're really comfy!

7. Make Craig's bowtie for the wedding 

...and I did one better! I made all of the ties 

for the groomsmen too! 

Gooo Ashleigh!

8. Learn to make fabric flowers

this was my first attempt at making these...

....one of those things I lost interest in.

9. Sew a dress

oh this one was fun!

I just so happened to find a jersey knit fabric with a really complicated pattern that I loved for my new dress. Can you say most difficult fabric to work with ever - especially for a 1st time dress maker! (please note that you can barely tell that there are pocket on the side there because I lined up the pattern oh-so-well) Ive got an idea for my second dress, I just need to find a pattern that is similar to the shape to work off of.

10. Sign up for Twitter

okay - that one was easy. Click on the button on the right hand side to follow :)

11. Sign up for graphic design classes

As you can tell - these are not pictures from a graphic design class....Its like I was saying at the beginning of this post - sometimes what you want changes by the time you get to it. Instead of graphic design classes I started Upholstery classes - and I am looovviinng it!

13. Run a 5K

If I had to pick one of my goals this year that I wouldnt complete it would definitely be this one! But thats why its so nice to have best friends to push you to do things you didnt think you could do.

aaanndd then I did one better! I ran a 10K! I'm not going to lie..I almost died and my time was horrible BUT I did it, and I have to say that I'm really proud of myself for it.

Thanks for pushing me Rach - love you xox

15. Learn to use Craig's Jigsaw

I feel like I look a little scary holding that in this picture - haha!

my adorable teacher and I built the sign for my very first craft show this year! 

16. Limber up

Don't pay attention to how horrible I look in this picture...the important part is that I am touching my toes. This was actually taken a few months ago - I can do it a lot better now!

It was such a fun year - I think 2011 has been my favorite out of all 23 that I've had! 

I really really cant wait for 2012! 

#13 - Run a 5K

I did it!!

To be perfectly honest with you guys, I really did not think a month ago that I would have crossed this off my list...

I ran my very first 5K!

It may not seem like a lot to most of you but it was a goal that I would have never completed with out a new years resolution. 

I made some pretty poor choices during this race - let me break it down for you:

1. I did not work out one single day for 2 months before the run

2. I did not stretch (baaaaddddd decision!)

3. I did not drink water before running

why..why?!!

well, I was running a bit late for the race and should have taken a few extra minutes to AT LEAST stretch. seriously. 

but I did make one great decision....

I took this girl with me :)

we really had a blast and I finished in 40:01 minutes.

not great but not too bad - at least I have a goal to beat next time!

Go out there and make some goals - even if you think you'll never accomplish them, you just might surprise yourself!

xox

#7 - Make Craig's Bowtie for the Wedding

I've completed a few tasks over the past few weeks off my
2011 To Do List
slowly, yet surely, I will tell you all about them...

#7 was to make Craigs bowtie for the wedding

To be honest, I didn't really know if think that this was going to happen, but to my own surprise I kicked butt and knocked it out! 

and not only did I make Craigy's bowtie, but I also made all of the ties for the guys! It was such a fun learning experience....I had worked with patterns before, but only with someone else. This was my first crack at it by myself, and I feel quite proud of myself!

here's Craig modeling the first one that I made

isn't he so handsome!?

and of course, all my boys together!

xox

#15 Learn to use Craig's Jigsaw

Crossing off one more thing on my to do list this year!

Before I show you all my pictures and tell you my story let me take a second to say that I might have the best husband in exsistance. Its really true. He took my vision for all of our pieces for the show and made them a reality. He worked in the 100 degree weather in the middle of the day for hours and then got up on his day off at 6:00 to help us set up. Such a rockstar!

And then on top of that he took time out to teach me something....

 

Anyways enough about how much I looooove my husband - let me just show you the pictures

It was getting towards the end of the day so the pics are a little grainy, but you get the idea...

he's definitely the cutest teacher I've ever had.....

Success!!

I will show you some pics of the finished pieces later...

#9 Sew a Dress

I have definitly not forgot about my 2011 to do list!!

In fact I was able to check off one huge item already! I completed this one a few weeks ago and have been a total slacker about telling you guys about it!! 

I made my very first dress :)

Actually it was quite difficult. I had never tried anything like it before...and of course I decided to use this very specific print (so everything had to line up ever so perfectly) and its a jersey material (so it moved and shifted every time I tried to make a stitch!) Also, it has a cowl neck and drawstrings at the top and bottom....and if you look real hard you can see the pockets (I think I did a pretty dynamite job of lining up the pattern so you can hardly see them) 

aaaaaannnnddd.....Ta Da!!!  After several hours of hard work -and with a little help- I made this. I know the picture is poor quality, I desperately need a new camera, but you get the idea. 

So, there you go....what do you think?? 

#16 Limber UP

Officially working on my very first New Years Resolution of 2011!

You would think that as a 21 year old I would be able to touch my toes or kick higher than my knee. But no, its actually quite sad. I can't hold a yoga pose for more than 10 seconds. I'm way over due for some stretches, so I found a few to do every day (okay, I can't make that a solid commitment...) and 

before I work out. 

I'm feeling better already :)