Happy New Years

 
Wow, well that's 2014 over and we had one hell of a year in the Fox household. Trips to Greece, Norfolk and Denmark. Many days out with friends and family and most importantly we made a mini Mr Fox! That's right, Master Fox was born on 10th December and how our life has changed since then, ignoring the sleep deprivation, for the better of course. He is by far the most awesome thing I have ever made and in the true meaning of a yearly round up I would say he is definitely the best thing I made last year. I know making a baby doesn't count as 'craft' but well I still made him from nothing so in my books this is totally acceptable.

So I suppose I should do a round up of 2014. A year a go I wrote this post about what I aimed to achieve in 2014. In the most part I think I managed to achieve most of this so lets have a look at the key points:

1. Set up a regular blogging schedule. There is no doubt about the fact that this is a bit of a failure. I did, for the most part, manage to run a bi weekly posting schedule which I was very good at sticking too. However late pregnancy, and the recent arrival of our little monkey has completely shot this out the window. I think my best aim now is just to try and blog as much as possible. I think I should aim for once weekly, even if there is no craft, as I think it will help me and you lot know what to expect a bit more. It all got a bit sporadic at the end of the year.

2. Improve my dressmaking skills. I definitely achieved this. There is still much room for improvement but I learnt about Full Bust Adjustments, started using an overlocker and experimented with some more difficult fabrics.

Chestnut Shorts

 

 Ava

Zinnia

Sewing Bee Prom

Lady Skater

3. Make 5 items I will actually wear. When I set this goal I thought it might be a bit of a tall order, but do you know what I actually achieved this really easily. Check out my top 5 wearable makes of 2014 above (Just in case you wanted to know AVA makes a really good maternity dress).

4. Knit a Jumper. The aim of this goal was to knit a jumper for myself. Something I completely didn't do. But on the bright side I knitted a jumper for Master Fox so I say that's a tick for this box!

Norton Jumper

5. Think about Christmas early. I definitely did this this year, and good job with Master Fox being 10 days early! I don't think there would have been a Christmas this year if it hadn't been for me starting in November.

6. Be a good wife. Well obviously I aced this, but truthfully, apart from Mr Fox having to do a lot due to me being pregnant I think we managed to strike a pretty good harmony in 2014, long may it continue.

So what goals am I setting for 2015? Well I want to keep it pretty simple this year as my time will be pretty taken up with the boy but there are a couple of things on my mind. Firstly is to obviously be as good a mum as I can be. Second is to get my figure back and get back to sewing clothes again. I just need to get all the chocolate out the house first!! I think the key for 2015 is to accept that small projects are best, and that larger ones may take some time to complete.

How did you find 2014, and do you have any crafty resolutions for 2015? Please do feel free to share, we would all love to hear about your goals as well as mine.

Happy Christmas Puds for a Crafty Christmas Fair

 

The world is definitely split in two when it comes to this time of year and the Christmas stuff starts to appear in the shops. There are those that grumble and groan about it being far to early and then there are the others, like me, who start jumping up and down with excitement at the prospect. To say I LOVE Christmas is a bit of an understatement, I just find the whole countdown really exiting and I still have sleepless nights the night before because I just can't wait. I guess I'm just a big kid at heart. Having my birthday so close to Christmas though probably doesn't help, its just a whole season of celebration and now I have the birth of the little man to look forward to, who is due just just 7 days before! Bets on whether it will end up being a Christmas day baby? Who knows, we will just have to watch this space. 

For a lot of us creative types Christmas really does usually start in August when you start thinking about Christmas craft fairs, Christmas related inspiration prepared in advance etc and so I am obviously no exception to this. In addition this year we are also going to be re-running the charity craft fair we did at Easter to see if we can raise even more money for a good cause. The idea is to make handmade items out of the goodness of your heart and donate them to the fair so that others can purchase them, all funds raised going to charity. With that going on I am obviously thinking about what I can make to contribute and these little guys are perfect no? You will remember my Christmas Pudding Tutorial from last year? Well if not check it out. This is just a slight modification on that where I stitched a tiny little happy face on to the icing because we all know food should have a face!

I hope you like these little guys, and are not offended by their appearance on the blog in September! You should so have a go at making some of these yourselves with your little ones for Christmas using my tutorial I linked above.

I don't really have much to tell you about my weekend this week, we had a lovely quiet one at home for a change and I really haven't done a lot at all. I don't know why quiet weekends go so quickly, they should be slow and dull but somehow they just aren't. I also didn't do any of the jobs I intended to but I did enjoy spending time with Mr Fox so I'm not going to beat myself up about it at all. I hope you had a lovely one whatever you have been up to and I wish you a productive crafty week ahead.

Looking to the Year Ahead:

Last year was full of its ups and downs. The biggest up was obviously being wed to my wonderful new husband. However we did suffer a number of losses in both our families, and what with that, the wedding planning, and the stresses of work it wasn't the easiest of years.

So with that in mind it's time to start the new year off with a clean slate, to look forward and to try to shape 2014 into something much better. I do love this time of year because it give's you the time to reflect and think about where you are headed. I know there is a lot of stigma about resolutions at this time of year, lots of grand gestures and empty promises, but I am determined not to go down this route. How to go about that? Well I think that setting some realistic achievable goals is probably the best way forward. So here are my resolutions for the year ahead:

1. To set up a regular blogging schedule, and to review this monthy to make sure that the content is frequent enough, but also good quality. I would rather be writing twice a week with good content than just quick posts with no depth.
2. Improve my dressmaking skills.
3. To make 5 items which I can actually wear.
4. To knit a jumper
5. To start thinking about Christmas early
6. And finally, to try and be a good wife. Now this isn't a very specific goal,but its the little things I want to concentrate on. Things like trying to clear up after myself, spend more 1 on 1 time with Mr Fox, and to remember that he has a stressful job and to try and be a bit more understanding when he comes home and is not in the best of moods.

They don't seem too scary right? The problem is I have just blogged them for the world to see so you will all know whether I managed to achieve these, or whether I threw them out the window in a rage come 31st January. However I think getting them out in the public eye is a good thing as it means that I can't just decide to not bother, just because I didn't actually tell anyone what they were. Do you have any resolutions which you would like to share with the group, get it out your system, you know it will feel good to tell someone. 

On that note I want to wish you all a Happy New Year... here is to hoping 2014 brings you just enough of the things which you really wanted.