2010 Crafting Year in Review

For the last few weeks, I'd been seeing all sorts of year in review posts on flickr and blogs. It made me think about what I'd actually finished last year. Mostly what came to mind was house projects or gardening accomplishments. But, in making a mosaic of my crafting from last year, I realized that I'd actually done more that I thought I had. Good reason to do this kind of exercise!

I think I knit that first sweater last year rather than the year before last. I made curtains for my house (and learned about printing by hand in the process), scarves for my etsy shop, pincushions, a doll quilt, stockings, and potholders for various swaps (and improved my applique, paper piecing, machine quilting, pattern developing, and quilt binding skills in the process), and a pillow just for fun from some fabric from one of my favorite illustrators/crafters. There was also a cardigan just for me, and a quilt for my parent's Christmas gift.

I suppose that I did more than I thought I did, craft-wise, last year! (Although I did turn out to have read just as few books as I kind of suspected that I did -- Julie & Julia, The Making of a Marchioness, and Cheerful Weather for the Wedding are really the only books that I finished. I'll have to work on finishing books in 2011 -- I probably started 10 that I never finished!)

Book Excitement

Why are there so many wonderful craft books just out or about to come out right now? I can hardly stand it! I'm going to have to save all of my pennies to get at least part of these. And then I'll need materials to make things from them. . .

It's a vicious cycle.

First there's the Wee Wonderfuls book which is out already. I've been meaning to buy her patterns for Mr. and Mrs. Gnome but this book is a whole new dimension to the idea. And I have several friends with small children who will be needing Christmas gifts fairly soon. Perhaps it's justified?

(And while I'm on the subject of Hillary's wonderful-ness, how about this quilt? I'm completely obsessed with this color combo.)

Then there's Samantha's upcoming book. Eep! I purchased Maggie from her some time ago and do think she'd probably like to have a friend or perhaps a house? I can't imagine how anyone other than Samantha could draw so beautifully with a sewing machine but perhaps that is the point (for me) of the book?

And there's also Alicia Paulson's Embroidery Companion. I'm going to have to hunt around the internet for more previews of this one to see more of what's actually inside but it certainly looks promising. And I do love to embroider.

Even beyond the craft books, there are two book-books I'm very excited about due out at the end of this month.

How can I be asked to choose just a few of them??

Another Great Year

Yes, it's true that my birthday was about 2 weeks ago now. But it's also true that there's been a major holiday, a heat wave, and a visit from my parents since then. And that my gifts from Patrick were delayed in the mail and didn't make it to my house until Saturday. So, even though it is rather late, I give you my "thank you" birthday post!

This photo of my gifts wrapped is a little silly but I have to mention that my two friends who have very very definite styles wrapped these two gifts for me. I didn't realize until I got home that they're both done very much in my style but not at all in either of theirs. It was very thoughtful of them! They both also, independent of one another, bought gifts for me from one of my favorite stores. How well do they know me??

I also have here a hand-goccoed birthday card, photostrips from a favorite restaurant, and several very inspiring books from a generous mother-in-law.

Patrick found out that two of my favorites were putting out new albums right around my birthday. And who couldn't be completely excited upon hearing about either of these strange concepts? I'm especially having trouble turning off the Ben Folds album. There are so many crazy little things going on with it!

I've already posted about the wonderful kitchen faucet from my parents (my aunt tells me that getting a kitchen faucet as a birthday gift makes me officially and "adult").

And then, to put it all completely over-the-top, my friend the antique dealer gave me a sofa! I was certainly quite the lucky one this year. It's been a good one! Thanks everyone (and to all of my facebook friends for all of the lovely well-wishes).

Gallery Wall

I didn't realize that what I was working on could be termed a Gallery Wall exactly but, after seeing a lot of examples on Abbey Goes Design Scouting lately, I guess that that's what I have. And since I've finally finished it after getting the photo on the lower right framed (it is a 1915 photo of Bath which P & I bought on our trip there in 2005), and since it is an official Thing, I thought I'd share it here. It only took me 3 years to get it done.

The other photos, in case you're wondering are:

top row: 2 random prints whose matting I like very much (from Target, purchased when I got my first apartment) and then an antique portrait, in a convex-glass frame, of P's great aunt and grandfather as babies

center: a reproduction engraving of Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, which I bought at a bookstore when I was there for school in 2003, an antique print of Rome, looking from above the Piazza del Popolo, purchased on the same trip as the one above, and a Blackbird Designs cross-stitch that I did in 2003 at the height of my Blackbird Designs / cross-stitch mania.

bottom: another antique family portrait with convex glass, this one of P's other grandfather, an antique photograph of lumberjacks, including P's great-great grandfather and great-great-great uncle, and then the photo from Bath.

Pretentious Book Collection

I've lately been seeing a lot about this list on LibraryThing about the top books tagged unread by their users. It apparently started as the Top 106 and has since grown but I'll go with the 106 as that is what is in the meme around the blogs. This has given me quite a kick this morning as it turns out that I have a VERY pretentious book collection and it is funny to me to be labeled that way by some thing floating around the internet. So I thought I would, for my own further amusement, catalog all of the books in my collection which appear on this list (there are 40).

The best part about the whole thing though, I think, are the much more pretentious books appearing on my bookshelves at the edges of the photos. And the multiple copies that I own of some of the books. Some of the titles are my favorites and I have gathered multiples in my 12+ years of book collecting. I do have to say, in my own defense, between my husband and myself, we have read nearly all of these books. I'm sorry that the photos are so dark -- some of the books were in such dark rooms that they had to be moved to have their portraits taken.