Monday, June 23, 2008

2008 Crafty Resolutions - Mid Year Review

Hey folks! I haven't been real active over here for a while because I had to take a little break from the non-beading types of crafts. But I have started to get back into some non-bead crafting.

I've been bitten by the writing bug and now I have the itch to write, write,write. To me, that counts as a craft, as you are creating characters, worlds, and their stories. I've been working on some short fiction mostly, and I'm trying my hand at flash-fictions (less than 1000 words). That has been a real challenge. I'm thinking of entering a contest in August with a piece, but it must be no more than 500 words. Eeek. I'm way to wordy, but I'm determined to do it.

Swap-Bot has gotten me into zine writing though. I've already created a 4 Volume mini-zine series of haiku and 2 issues of The Dog Park, a zine for dogs and the people who love them. I'll be featuring that on my dog blog one of these days. Issue 3 will be coming up later this summer or in the early fall. Currently I'm working on a craft zine for a swap that will focus mostly on beadwork. So I've more than fulfilled that resolution. Yay me!

Crochet still aggravates my shoulder, so that has been slow going. One of my resolutions was to make a mat for my husband's laptop. Still not done with that, I may knit it instead. But I have started on the afghan. I completed one square, but it was not, well, square, so I put it aside as a "swatch" and started a new square. I completed that, but it ended up larger than expected. So I need more practice (gauge, it is my nemesis).

I picked up on knitting again. And now I love it. I totally get it. I can knit and purl with ease. Just don't ask me to do any increases or decreases. I'm just not ready yet, its too painful. But I am in the process of making a knitted washcloth. I plan to make a few more in a lovely variegated green to use to put our living room lamps on (to protect the end tables). Then again. I'm only half way through the first one, and I've been working on it for a month now, so the green ones may be a long way off....

I played with resin a couple months back, before it started to really get hot. Nothing to show you pictures of, I just set some simple buttons in them for practice. Smelly job, you really do need to be in a well ventilated area (we did it out on the patio, can't get much more ventilated). Fairly easy to use, but set much more quickly than I thought it would. My husband used resin to create pen blanks. He does wood turning and makes pens. They turned out okay. Another resolution can be checked off. I won't be playing with it again until fall, as its not way to hot outside here in Arizona.

As for the sewing, that's been on hold. I hope to get to that later this year though, and when I do, I'll post pictures.

Well, that's it for now. I just wanted to get an update on there, since I haven't posted in almost 6 months.


Thank you for joining me under the cactus today! Happy Crafting!

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