Tag Archives: crafts

Goals update

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Since we are at about 1/4 of the way through 2012, I thought that I would revisit my goals for the year to see what my progress is as well as whether or not I should make any changes. Overall, I’ve been pretty good with sticking with my goals, but I am going to drop the Sprite Stitch Challenge. I just don’t have the time/resources that I thought I would at the beginning of the year.

Health

  • Lose at least 75 lbs by the end of the year (totally doable and will leave me at a still healthy weight): I am already at -25 and am working on the rest of it. May have to make another goal once I reach this one, though.
  • Exercise regularly (weekdays; alternating between cardio and strength exercises): Exercising regularly, but I have not been doing the strength training exercises like I had wanted to. I will have to make a concentrated effort to work on this.
  • Drink recommended daily amount of water every day (even the weekends, which is where I usually drop the ball). I’ve been doing really well with this and have completely eliminated soda from my diet and have been drinking tea, coffee, and water.
  • Pay attention to portions: Again, I have been doing really well with this and plan to stick with it.
  • Get physicals done at least twice this year: Already scheduled my first physical of the year.
  • Get a cleaning at the dentist at least twice this year: Also just scheduled my first cleaning of the year.
  • Keep up with blood work to keep OBGYN/Oncologist off my back Yeah….I should probably do that….
  • Whiten teeth regularly: About to do my second round of whitening (four/year)
  • Don’t drink soda: Mission accomplished!

Finances

  • Pay off all of 2010′s medical bills by year’s end
  • Put money into savings after each pay period: Starting to do this.
  • Pay off last credit card
  • Start retirement fund and put money in it monthly: Yeah…haven’t done this yet.
  • Make monthly budgets and stick to them: Getting good with this one.

Social (ness? ability?)

  • Update blog every week day: I need to get better about this, but have already blogged more than I did all of last year.
  • Write a letter to any friend at least once a month: Done!
  • Initiate conversations with your friends (I kinda suck at that): Doing a lot better with this.
  • Call mom and dad at least once a week: I was doing really well with this until my new schedule at work started. Will have to get back on the ball.
  • Visit Florida for at least a week: Done! And trying to see if I can’t make another trip.
  • Visit with Nikita more often: Done. And I think I’ve already seen her more this past few months than I did all last year :<

Projects

  • Do/make at least 1 thing a month (outside of sprite stitch challenge): I have not been doing this at all…
  • Document (photograph) everything that I make: Will do if I make anything.
  • Don’t over-commit: Mission accomplished!
  • Do monthly sprite stitch challenges Scratched off the list because I just don’t have the time to do them.
  • Hand make presents more often than buy them: Done this a few times already :D

Organization

  • Find a way to organize mail and bills: Done. Getting a mail organizer once we move.
  • Donate clothes I don’t wear at least twice a year: I have four bags of clothes that I need to drop off to the donation center.
  • Donate books I know I won’t re-read: I also have a box of books to drop off…
  • Find a way to organize badges, closet, make up, shoes and accessories that won’t drive the bf crazy or look tacky: Will be looking more into this once we make the move. I am leaning toward framing them.

Knowledge

  • Go through electronics textbook
  • Get a cert
  • Do something that’s mentally challenging and not mentally challenged

Misc.

  • Read at least two books a month: Up to about 4 books a month now, so I would say that this has no problem being met.
  • Stick with the ISBC throughout the year: So far, so good!
  • Do something good for yourself just because at least once a month: I kind of have been doing this. I skipped last month, though, since I spent time with family (even though that can arguable be considered a good thing for me).
  • Have at least a monthly date night with the bf: Done!

December pattern

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I have been procrastinating on making a digital copy of the pattern I made for this month’s Sprite Stitch challenge. I’m terribly lazy and I figured that if I pushed it back far enough, something would happen and clicking individual squares in a pattern making software would magically become less tedious/boring. It didn’t happen that way, unfortunately. But I did manage to make/upload/resize the pattern. Yay me. Even if I did mean to post this yesterday (waited until early this morning to edit. Good thing I waited, too, there were a lot of errors….).

So far, I have completed “It’s dangerous to go alone!” as well as the left fire and the red bits of the right fire. Will update on this again when I finish the darn thing and submit it to the challenge.

Slowly getting there

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As previously stated, one of my goals is to participate in the monthly sprite stitch challenges this year and then make updates to show how I’m progressing (mostly to make sure that I don’t forget about it/slack off). I posted earlier this month with a picture of what I want to make for this month’s challenge (the theme being “video game mash ups”) and now since it is the middle of the month, I figured I’d do the update on how the progress is going now.

First thing I did was (based on the picture that I shopped) was make a pattern. The letters were the easy part, but the fire, old man, invincibility star, and mario? They were kind of a pain in the butt.

            Pattern for the old man and the invincibility star

Pattern for Mario

I started off with doing the first string of text (“It’s dangerous to”) and the first line of the second string of text (“go alone! Take this.) so that I knew more or less how to center everything. I then made the first fire (there’s one on each side of the old man):

Close-up of the fire. Boyfriend is playing Dark Souls in the background.

And, finally, here is a shot of what I have done so far:

It’s dangerous to go alone!

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One of the goals for next year that I’m test-driving this month is participating in the Sprite Stitch Forum’s monthly challenge. At the beginning of every month, they post in their forum the theme for the month and participants post their submissions by the end of the month. Pretty simple/standard stuff.

This month, the theme is: video game mash ups. I went through a couple of ideas that were cute (but were a little cliche), until I finally settled on this:

Two of my favorite (classic) game franchises are The Legend of Zelda and (of course) Mario. So, I decided to take the classic “It’s dangerous to go alone! Take this” scene from The Legend of Zelda. Just swap Link and his sword with Mario and the invincibility star. Now all I have to do is make the pattern (the software I’m using is being more annoying than useful and I really don’t want to do it on graphing paper) and then stitch! I will post an update later on in the month with the pattern and my progress. And hopefully I’ll be able to get it finished/posted by the end of the month.