After our official Day of Great Laziness at home, it is time to get back to work and think about the year ahead. For me, this means a pretty new planner and a few changes from the norm.
Usually, I start the year with a nice long project list including some personal things and some shop things. This year, I’ve decided not to do that. Lists help me organize and plan. But, they can also stress me out and I become trapped by my lists. So, for now…. no list.
While I do have some UFOs, I figure we all do and I will get to them when I feel like I will get to them.
I need this year to be about me. Me happier. Me healthier.
What does this mean for my blogs and shop?
If you had a chance to read my 2017 review, you saw I have three simple overarching goals for 2018:
- Focus, Streamline, and Simplify – This goes for my millinery, FanU pieces, and the Etsy shop. I was considering adding shop sections for vintage pieces. Nope. That just doesn’t do it for me.
- Make time for the Joy. Some time around mid-November it hit me that I just wasn’t enjoying what I was making. Part of it may have been burn-out, part just the year. But, I became very aware that I need to take more time to do some projects that are just for the fun of it.
- Sink my teeth into something. What this is going to play out to be… we shall see.
I also have some simple framework goals for the blog that are rather open ended:
I have started a monthly project post that I hope to continue through the year. Each one will be something small with some guidance or direction on how to do it your self. They won’t quite be a thorough as the Sew Alongs.- Another blog goal is to write a Monthly Update. These updates will fall sometime during the month with a combination of, well, just about anything that is going on, including project information, personal updates, events, activities, who knows.
- One more I’ve added: I would like to hear from you, my readers, more. I enjoy reading your comments. If you make one of the monthly projects I would love to hear about it.
Then there are the two big writing projects that I will work on when the moments feel right:
- Wintering Warmly – There are some spacial, technical things I need to work out to get that on ‘paper’.
- To Net or Not to Net: Revisited is much closer to being available. I need to just lock myself away for a few days to get some solid writing and layout completed.
For now, I would like to know what events and activities you are looking forward to in the coming 2018. I have a couple nifty things I’ve been talking about with folks. When those details get worked out, I’ll be very excited to share.
When sewing on the go, I am doing one of two things: Either I am sewing small things with pieces already cut or I am sewing straw. This means I need two types of scissors – One for cutting thread and one for cutting straw. To the right are some of the scissors I use in my various sewing kits for the thread snipping part and the occasional ribbon cutting. Two are reproduction. Three are antique. My straw cutting scissors are roughly 5″ long, an estate sale find. To have a rounded visual interpretation I should carry a larger pair of scissors as well. Admittedly, I remember these when I take my large box, but tend to forget them when I have my smaller kits.
Small Scissors options:
The world of millinery went rather well this year. By the time the snow fell again, I made 57 straw millinery pieces this year. I lost track of the winter hoods. I also added a line of evening headdresses, focusing on simple, classic looks of the mid-nineteenth century.
Thanks to some wonderful people, a trio of original bonnet blocks arrived early in the summer. I’ve only been able to really work on one, 
I did make it to a couple events. I am aware that I made it out to the Independence Day celebration in modern clothes. Though, I don’t remember much at all. I did make it to the 
I set up my Millinery Shop and 
In November, I offered two very different workshops at the Museum’s Domestic Skills Symposium. On Friday, I offered Tools and Trims, a completely different, kinda crazy workshop looking at how to mimic the trims of the later 18th and 19th centuries. I spent much of the year acquiring pinking machines and dies for this workshop. On Sunday, I offered a favorite with a twist: A Pin Cushion Sampler. This year the sampler included Victorian favorites: a strawberry, a walnut, a seashell and and acorn.
Ah, the ugly. That which dictated much of my 2017. I mentioned in my 
On the other hand…. I did do pretty decent for someone who totally got her butt kicked by a 12mm stone. I actually feel pretty darn good about that. Despite utter exhaustion on many days and this weird pain in my side, I made some pretty great pieces this year, I kept the shop up, and learned a few things.
In and around my experiments with lazy, I’ve made a few things. I started the month with 
I designed a 
The shop had a nice December. After a crazy year, I was of two hearts on the shop going into December. Part of me wanted to stock it with all sorts of goodies. Part of me was in dire need of down time. See above to figure out which won. 
These pretty pin cushions combine two ribbons woven together either square on the cushion or on the diagonal. The ribbons are most often in contrasting colors, though not always.
The silk ribbon acts differently than the cotton. No surprise there. This is most apparent while weaving the ribbon. The silk is slipperier and doesn’t want to snug up to it neighbors as well as the cotton. It is lighter weight and possibly less thick, or least less dense then the cotton. This effects how the sides of the cushion sit. I find the silk makes a smoother edge than the cotton, which can have more fullness. I suspect the cotton would wear better over many repeated pin stickings as the weave of the ribbon itself is tighter. I can’t say that I like one over the other though. Each has its own advantages.
Trim the corners. Turn right side out.
This year, the museum’s annual appeal focuses on very special village residents – the animals:
If I Had My Own Blue Box: 