Tag Archives: growth charts

Goals for 2013: Factotum of Arts, Squeek Crafts

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All in all, I had a great last 4 months of 2012. For 2013, I would like to continue in much the same fashion. My goals are to:

Blog a minimum of 3 times a week.
Build up my stock in my Etsy store and sell $1000 worth of merchandise.
Participate in another craft fair.
Squeek Crafts section: Finish my four seasons quilt, a quilt for my son, and the orange and grey quilt for our room and my Christmas stocking.
Squeek Crafts section: Try 12 new sewing/quilt or patchwork projects e.g.. a weekender bag, something made from paper piecing.
Edible Delights section: Try three new recipes out per month and post them (36 in total for the year).
Framed section: Carve out some time to do some drawing and painting. I have 2 pieces in mind.
Home and Garden Design section: Finish our backyard, renovate our guest bathroom (as it desperately needs a lift).

Review of 2012: Squeek Crafts

I changed jobs to spend more time with my family (February)
Started my blog (September)
Opened my Etsy store – Squeek Crafts (October)
Participated in my first craft fair (December)
Sewing or Quilting Projects: Made chair bags (for my store), cushions/pillows, placemats, gift card pockets, Christmas stockings, lots and lots of coffee cup sleeves (for my store and craft fair), made my son a monster.
Craft Projects: Made recycled wine cork boards (for my store and craft fair), caterpillar wall display for a thank you gift at pre-school, and an Elmer growth chart (gift for a friend’s little girl), neck tie art piece (gift for my parents 40th wedding anniversary).

Review of 2012: Edible Delights

Shared some of my favorite recipes
Made pesto, bell pepper relish, bean salad from things in my first vegetable garden
Made Pies/Tarts – Bacon and egg pie, potato top pie, rhubarb apple pies, chocolate tarts, and pear tart
Stewed my first lot of fruit – cherries
Worked out to get the perfect chocolate coated strawberry without getting a flat edge
Got a new case of wine from my brothers vineyard – Moana Park

Growth charts: Keepsake record

So I am thinking I should make more of the growth charts and post them on my Etsy store…..What do you think?

I love the idea of keeping a record of your child’s height. I started making growth charts for our friends and one for our son, thinking that a door frame is not overly portable. Below are two of the growth charts I have made and have made photos of :-).

The first is the one I made for our son – its “Sam I am” from “Green Eggs and Ham”. The second is “Elmer” who is a patchwork elephant.

Sam I am’s body is made of about 100 pieces of felt, the plate made of tin foil. I try to use different textures, giving it more dimension and more visual interest. The Elmer growth chart also has a flexible multi-pieced stick to record the height, it’s not shown here in the picture.

It starts with an idea. I bring that alive using hardwood, draw a shape free hand, then cut around it and sand down the rough edges. I paint the hardwood white with a few coats of paint. I choose fabrics and other materials, spent time cutting, placing and gluing them on the cut shape.

Creative mind in overdrive

Have you every had those days where your mind will not stop thinking about something. I usually have problems sleeping as I can’t shut it off. Well, normally for me its usually work related, but since I started this blog and had time off work due to illness, my creative side of my mind has taken over. This is good news, but I do not have enough hours in the day do to everything.

To keep track of what I have been thinking here is a list of projects, in no particular order:

Crafts

Cork boards for my etsy store (frame purchased and backing board)
Caterpillar growth chart for etsy store (circles cut out and painted)
A stuffed elephant (pattern forming in my head – probably purple colored)
A t-shirt rug (in white, yellow, orange and red circular pattern)
Twin quilt for my son (material purchased)
Tie art feature in orange’s, grey’s and green’s (inspired by this art piece featured on sewingwithneckties.blogspot.com)
Modern Quilted placemats and table runner
Fabric design/printing using my son’s art work and www.spoonflower.com
Creating a side table (for the kitchen) and shelving (for my new craft table space, hopefully without blocking too much light from the window.) from my soon to be repurposed teak futon

Framed

Textured picture of airplane view of field (out of melted crayons, bought crayons and have photo to base it off)
Chalk drawing of a face (subject chosen)

Home and Garden Design (the most costly ideas)

Backyard: Planters, Circular area, Copper waterfall feature
Master Bathroom: Multi-colored wood wall feature, grey painted wall, new cabinets from the M collection of WetStyle, shower and bath also from WetStyle, grey glass tiles
Master Bedroom: Orange Chair (either this but in orange; or this one), tie art feature in orange’s, grey’s and green’s (see above).
Other Furniture I have been thinking about adding: Sofa for bonus room, Light for my new sewing desk (see photo’s above), Light above dining room table (I want a large box light but kind find one I like), Floor lamp (not sure what room, love the red cable).

Edible Delights

Bell Pepper Marmalade, Relish or Preserve, to use our own grown peppers

So as you can see, sooooo many ideas – let’s see what I can get done. I’ll post as I finish things (finish being the operative word).

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