My word for 2016

This went around last year and I know I thought about it but decided to go with the phrase live, laugh, love and for me that's been very difficult. I haven't talked about this too much as I tryed to stay positive as much as possible but I have been really depressed this past year.  The search and lack of job for me had hit me really hard. I was feeling like I'd let everyone down.  I was feeling guilty, lonely and basically really bad. I was constantly on the edge. My family has been wonderful dealing with me and truly I'm so grateful to them. But laughing and taking on life and just living, it wasn't happening.  I wasn't able to let go.  If you've ever been there you know just how bad you feel.  I was nowhere near as bad as some but I still struggled some days to do anything much.  You realise how much time you waste when you get home and realise you have to leave again to pick the kids up and all you have achieved is 10 episodes of NCIS.

Oh gosh! This post has gone where I wasn't intending it to go but I want to talk about this with you.  Because at home I really struggled to talk about it I just became more angry and isolated.

So with all the changes in my life over the last month I wanted to talk about my changed outlook.  I look forward to the day ahead.  I view it as a challenge a fun one.  I'm smiling and laughing more.  Yes I'm tired but it's a good tired.  I feel much more like me.  Next year I want to keep this going. Work is long hours but it's fun. The people are nice and it's a good challenge.  I want to keep this feeling going.  Something to make me look forward. To set goals for the future and feel like I can!

I've thrown words around something that is the goal for me next year. 

Spirit
Hope
Believe
Focus
Calm
Destress

All these are great words but they didn't quite work for me and now I have to decide what calls to me!

In the end it all came down to one word. This coming year will be ALL about one word for me. That word is 

LEARN

I know next year is going to be a year of learning. Learning with my job and absorbing all that I can. Learning how to let go and be happy with where I am. Learning how to make lots of clothes. Basically I want to take all the opportunities that come my way to branch out and learn and be amazing. I want to take those opportunies and move forward. 

So what is you year going to be? 

Next year is going to be Awesome :D Join me for the fun!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

This week on instagram

So while I haven't been blogging much I have been sharing a lot over at instagram as it is such an easy way to share. Those posts to there also automatically share to my facebook but I know a lot of you just read my blog. So I am going to try sharing as often as I can here now as well.

I have been doing lots of random crafts coming up to Christmas. Many little activities as I have to work around work :D Hope you enjoy the collection of photos. Warning VERY photo heavy!

Day 15: I love visiting my mother's house and borrowing her quilting table to cut out fabric. It makes cutting so much easier! This is the start of my Akita top. I have three pretty fabrics to play with and make some work clothes. 
Who else makes their own work clothes?

I'm cutting out more inserts for work. I've worked out the ones I like the most. 
They sit in my kmart organiser. And are great for keeping basic track of tasks to do.

Post it notes crafting 😀 my office may have many drawings over time!

Day 20: I'm crafting at lunch. I'm finally starting to feel like I'm getting a routine happening.

It's still day 20 and I'm stitching as well. I just finished one of my carolers. When I finish it as an ornament it will become a swap gift. Soooo excited to get this finished as time is running out. If you want to stitch one of these today you can buy it from my etsy store. I love this cute little set of christmas carollers.

What do you do on your lunch break? I sat down and started drawing a tardis. I need to work on my perspective again!

I've continued to work on my quick sketch that I made at lunch. I've inked in the tardis and added some zentangles around the outside. I love how it's turning out.

Trialing ideas for christmas cards. I need to fiddle it a bit more. I'm not sure about my Christmas tree topper. But the basic idea is there

I'm making an ornament for a swap. Soooo excited with how it's turning out. I love this little design. It's one of my Christmas angels.

My doctor who picture is progressing. Definitely a fun was to spend some of my lunch. Hope your week is going great. I'm about to go have some more fun doing accounts.

I was up at 5.30 this morning so I finished up the sewing I meant to do on sunday. All that's left to do is stuff and sew the gap. So close! I hope the lady that gets it likes it. 😀

Dinner at my parents house has Lana and I downstairs sawing the pieces for our Christmas tree. It is going to look awesome! 

My Christmas tree is now up 😀 we just have to decorate tonight. I'm so excited!

Taking some time on this rainy day to do some entirely selfish sewing. I'm making a top for work as I'm sick of wearing the same 5 tops every week. 

I almost finished my new shirt. I just need to finish the neckline when I can get onto my mum's overlocker. It is a lovely fit and really comfortable. The next one, though I may add about half an inch around the hips just to give a bit more wiggle room. This is such a simple top to sew up.

Happy Stitching, 

Caitlin

Mulberry Pop Planner

I know I talked about being happy with the planner I had and I'd started to organise inserts and thinking about what I wanted then work started. I also have been thinking that I want my planning this year STUCK in one book. As cool as it is to be able to pull information in and out there is a beauty and simplicity in something that is just your year. 

I'm using the kmart organiser it's a personal sized planner for work and it's great. Portable, simple and easy to plan with and suits me great.  But that leaves my private planning.  I really don't want them in the same planner and my work planner is too small and needs to be kept private. I am actually thinking as I get to know what I need to make myself a travellers notebook for work. It just depends on the books I think....But that is another story. I want to talk about another planner.

The Mulberry Pop Planner. 

Oh gosh I'm in love! This lady is an Australian lady making a planner the quality of Erin condren and inkwell press. It has Australian holidays and seasons which is just amazing. I'm so used to just ignoring the dates I don't know what I'll do! 

When I opened the box it came so beautifully packaged. 

It has a laminated cover I think like the Erin Condren. With a page marker that you can pull out.


The planner starts with a yearly overview and a goals page. So PRETTY :D I love all the purple in this planner! Can I say instant LOVE!!!! There is also a 2017 yearly overview at the back which is always useful.


It's set out in a weekly horizontal view. 

With a monthly view at the beginning of each month. I like that it's only one page. As I don't like my month view big I just need enough to have an idea of what's coming.



The monthly tabs are small down the side but the colours match the months. They do exactly what they need to.

Oh and there is a pocket at the back to hold you stickers and stuff.

Other interesting information:

The paper is 120gsm which is gorgeous to write on. It isn't glossy it has a nice matte finish which makes it nice to touch. It's a 8x6 sort of size so bigger than an A5 but when I put it up beside my A5 planner it appears smaller as it doesn't have the bulk that the binder gets.

You can buy your own from her website and just so you know I am in no way affiliated with her I just love the planner and had to share it with you :D It will be my one and only personal planner for next year... not including my work one.

Now I need to go make myself a pouch to put it in to keep safe for the year. I am so excited to be using this over the year :D

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

More Changes

So I have removed disqus comments ... at least I think I have... unfortunately I have lost the comments made using that system. They are saved on disqus thankfully but they can't currently be synced back here. That makes me a bit annoyed as in the time since I've put disqus on my blog they went from being able to sync properly with blogger to not.... oh well.

It just wasn't doing what I wanted it to do and I think it was scaring too many people away from commenting.



Also while working I was trying to use the blogger app from my phone and thought that I just wasn't getting the comments from everyone just because of my comment system but then I realised that you guys weren't getting the posts at all! I was really good and had all sorts of things scheduled but some of them it's deleted and some it just didn't post. Some updates have been lost and all sorts of stuff like that. So I won't be using that app anymore!

These are just little changes but hopefully they will make a bigger difference in how the posts come onto the blog. Isn't it frustrating when things don't go according to plan!

Can I say I'm sorry that you didn't get the posts when I intended you to as it does make it less fun for everyone.

So I am now scheduling a review post of my new planner for tomorrow.... it was meant to post 2 weeks ago! So you will be able to comment easily on it and you will be able to see it when I intend for you to!

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Christmas Cards and New Stamps

I bought myself some stamps from Hoffee and a Nuffin. I do love her stamps. She hand carves them herself and the quality is absolutely amazing. I was looking at some of her other stamps ... think about the doctor who ones and saw these and knew they would be perfect for Christmas. I had vague ideas about what they would become.

They always come in this absolutely gorgeous little bag!

When I saw this set I knew I just had to have it. Those gum leaves and gum nuts were just calling to me. Such an Australian design from an American lady.

and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them too. I think they make a fine Christmas tree.

Please excuse the spelling on Merry Christmas. All the letters are actually there they just got squished a bit together. I misjudged the gaps a LOT. This was one of my tester cards and I think I love it. So pretty and sparkly at the top (that is silver for the button) but so rustic with the leaves and gum nut. Now to find the time to make a bunch of them to send out. 

Does anyone else make Christmas cards? 

Does anyone want to receive a special Christmas card from Australia? 

Happy stitching,

Caitlin 

I am crafting... but life....

I'm sorry to say I have no photos to show you particularly.  If you follow my instagram you will see the photos from day to day as I manage to take photos. I have just been trying to get through the days and finish and enjoy what I can. I am loving my work but I find at the moment that I don't have much energy outside it.  I'm crazy busy and am loving all the new knowledge and am thoroughly enjoying myself. It's one of those times where I realise I'm finally finding what I want to continue doing I love the accounting and should have done this first.

I will always craft and make but this will give me the opportunity to afford to make. And if I need to be working I may as well enjoy it. It's still work but it's challenging and interesting and I love it.

So this note is to say I'm going to try to post as much as possible over the next couple of months but a lot of my plans are slowing as I learn how to cope with full time work and balancing everything else. I will continue to blog because I love this place and everything it means to me and the community I'm building here I just need to work out how to make everything work.  I want to bring you quality as well as quantity and quality takes time which is in short supply.

So happy stitching my blogging friends and I will be back as often as I can over the next couple of months as I work this out. It's come at the best time and I'm so excited by all the opportunities.

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 11,12,13

Oh gosh I'm not doing a great job with posting everyday. I'm trying to at least make sure I keep up with my crafting and with a couple of hitches I am. Some days all I manage is two lines of knitting but I figure that's better than nothing.  Other days though I do craft the act of getting any where near my computer let alone loading stuff is waaaaaay too difficult.  As it is I'm typing this on my phone so I know the photos won't come through right. Because the app doesn't let you place photos as you go it puts them all at the end. 

Now what have I achieved these last couple of days?

As I said I've done a couple more rows of knitting but it looks pretty much the same as before. 

I baked some Banana bread on thursday night since the act of going out to band was too exhausting.  I've been dropping off to sleep on the couch at 8. I'm absolutely exhausted.  This full time work thing takes a lot out of you. That said I'm loving the job!

I also started getting organised with a pattern to make myself a couple of tops for work.  Or at least we shall see how that goes. My grand plans and all 😀 isn't washi tape the most useful tool? It works so well to keep everything all neat and tidy. The picture of the paper is me taping the pattern together.

I'm also using my new planner a lot.  It's great to see where everything goes and find uses for it.  It's not in full use yet but it's happening.  I will get photos of how I'm using it tomorrow in better light. 

I apologise for this jumbled rambling post today. It says a lot for how my head's been this week a bit everywhere!

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 9 & 10

So I've been keeping a little secret from everyone.  I hinted a little at it through this last week and I've been talking about how I'll have no time. Well that's entirely true. I will have no time. I started full time work this week as an accountant trainee. I kinda do some of the administration tasks at the moment and I'll take on more of the accountant stuff as the months go on and I complete my course. So crafting won't be as often as I'd like unfortunately but I will be trying to get some crafting everyday in November still. I may just be posting less frequently than I wanted to at first. 

Day 9:

I sewed the button on the back of the dress and sewed up the back seam. All I have to do now to finish it is to finish the threads off.... there are a lot of those.... I really should do that as I go!

Here is the button at the back. I got a pretty blue button from my grandma's collection. I realise that I don't have a collection of my own...hmmmm

Day 10:
I started work today so I knew I wouldn't have much head space or time to think. In working with that I cast on a Granny's Favourite dishcloth. It is such an easy pattern that you don't have to think about to do. I didn't get very far.

Happy Stitching,

I'm off to work now! 

Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 7 & 8

Day 7 

Ohk so Saturday was a bust crafting wise. I did nothing that could be called crafting. I didn't even do something like make dinner. But I have been getting highly distracted on pinterest. Gosh that website should be banned.... or at least limited so that instead of just looking I actually do.

Well I went searching through the patterns I have on my computer and found some stuff that I'll have to attemptfor myself. Is it scary how many patterns can just sit and hide on your computer?

Now time is going to become a commodity around here very soon. But I had a couple of big projects I wanted to do before the kids finished school for the year. One of them was make Lana a top out of the rest of the flower fabric. So my craft counts as finding the pattern on my computer to make her a top. This is an A line type dress/tunic with or without sleeves and I can see myself making a couple of these in various variations. Called the Norah Dress and Tunic by Mouse House Creations. 

Day 8 

I sat down and printed out a pattern in the morning and pieced it all together and taped it up. Then after lunch I started cutting and then sewing up. I didn't have enough of the blue flower fabric so I went ALL fancy and created a diagonal line down the fabric with dark blue. Even better is I managed to match up ALL the seams so they are perfect on all sides. 

I will get some better photos when it is all finished as the back seam is still open and I haven't hemmed it here at all. 

Hope you enjoyed your weekend, 

Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 6

This is a quick post. It's the weekend and I'm running from one thing to another. I went to play make up model yesterday and I got done up all fancy. I will share photos but not right now I have to go through them properly.

I'm still fiddling with my planner and I made up a couple of washi tape cards so I don't have to carry tape around and some inserts to try different stuff,

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 5

Now I'm becoming a bit of a planner fanatic. Nowhere near as bad as many who have collections with more than they could ever use. But I do frequent the planner boards on facebook including a couple of Australian ones. This is awesome because when Australian specials come up you hear about them and this one I HAD to jump on. Kmart is selling a personal sized organiser for $12 which is absolutely amazing.

Now I bought this planner this morning while I was out looking for other items. Of course I didn't like it as it was and although some sections interest me others were a waste. So because it's a RING binder style I pulled out the guts and grabbed out all the dividers. I then used some paper that I had to create dividers. I traced two pieces of paper (making sure one was backwards) and cut out the dividers and glued them together. I then traced and punched the holes. The only thing I think I will do is to laminate them so they stay in better condition as they are still a little flimsy.

So there is my craft for day 5 :D nothing is quite going as planned but I'm enjoying this experiment. I do like being conscious about the crafts I am doing. It makes them mean a lot more to me.

Happy Stitching
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 4

I did some odd crafts yesterday. I spent a bit of time cleaning and organising and doing assignments. So in that vein my craft was organising and playing with my threads. They were in desperate need of fixing up and I was so happy to be cleaning.

Before:

After:

So much prettier after I cleaned up the mess. That is what happens when you finish a couple of projects and start pulling the threads out of the little bags/containers they were spread around in.

I think I want to stitch again next. More doctor who or maybe something bigger.... hmmm lots of thoughts ....

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 3

I made it 3 days already we shall see what happens as the week goes on. Next week will be the challenge but I'm not going to explain yet.

I wanted to remind myself to calm down and breathe yesterday so out came my pens and paper.

After working on it all day on and off I finished the evening with this:

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 2

So I  started today at the same point I ended yesterday.

Then I went backwards. I realised that the last flower I'd stitched was 1 stitch from where it should have been and the stem wasn't lining up.

Then I finally finished here. It's getting really close to a finish for the top. 

Not sure what I'm working on for day 3 though, I may change it up. But right now I'm off to a job interview so wish me luck!

Happy stitching,
Caitlin

Craft Every Day: Day 1

Woohoo :D It's now November :D It's my sister's birthday today and yesterday I went to her birthday party which was all of us dressing up because it's an excuse to wear costumes. I went as a purple Alice in Wonderland. I spent a couple of hours Friday evening sewing up the apron. I love the way it turned out!

 The cat in the hat costume got a work out again. Also out came a pirate zombie ninja mask thingy. He didn't really know what or who he was.

I also started my craft every day with sitting and working on my Doctor Who Biscornu. I got some great work done on my cross stitch and it's looking amazing. I'm not far from a finish for the top at least.

Before:

After:

What did you make today?

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

Christmas List Sign-up

Hello everyone,
This is just a quick run through in the midst of everything else I have to get done today. I just wanted to share this Christmas list with you. If you're interested in a pile of Christmas crafts delivered straight to your email inbox then this is for you.

And Sew We Craft is doing a daily newsletter for the month of November offering a tutorial/craft each day. I will have a couple of my patterns available in that newsletter as well as many other crafts. There is quilting and sewing and crochet and all sorts of fun stuff. I've only seen part of the list but it's looking pretty good. So follow this LINK and sign up for a month of free crafts. Who doesn't like free patterns :D

And as I say that I'm going to make sure I sign up so that I get the emails as well.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

WIP Wednesday

It's coming up to Christmas and I'm going to have to start hiding some projects I'm doing again as I know my family read this blog though how often is debateable but knowing my luck they will see what I post only on the day I post something about their gift. That's how it works isn't it?

So this is the first and last post of this project that you will see as you can't tell what it is so make as many guesses as you want but you will have to wait until Christmas to have it confirmed. Maybe I might have to give a prize if someone actually guesses the project properly....

I have also made some progress on my Doctor Who Biscornu since last week.

This piece just makes me happy. Doctor Who and cross stitch all combined :D

What are you working on this week? 

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin