#yearofmaking, the third year

I decided that this, my third year participating in the #yearofmaking creativity challenge is my final year. I have loved every minute of it and see significant growth in my ability to create. However, taking the photos and sharing to social media has begun to be a drag.

I don’t doubt I’ll continue to make every.single.day. It’s a part of who I am.

I just won’t necessarily post daily.

That said, I don’t see myself stopping from some of my themed days anytime soon, the #tuesdaysareforspinning, #wednesdaysareforweaving, #psgswatches on Saturdays, and the watercolouring I post on Fridays, but I might not do them every week and if a week or more goes by, a week or more goes by.

I’ve thought long and hard how to organize this post as there are almost 1096 photos to sift through. Therefore, I decided today to focus only on the fiber & needle arts. It was hard to leave others out, but these photos spoke to me those most.

I love cooking and cook almost every meal we eat. However, I have not made much progress on the art of photographing food and would rather not make you loose your appetite.

If you want to view the image larger than the gallery view, please click to see the attachment page.

Test & Sample work

Being confident enough to post my work on Instagram made me confident to take on more testing and sample work.

Spinning, Weaving, Swatches

Thanks to #tuesdaysareforspinning and Spinzilla, I gained enough confidence to take on sample spinning work! Those swatches are still my favourites to date.

Weaving is a new way for me to enjoy yarns and fibers in different ways. With my rigid heddle and swatchmaker looms I’ve finally begun to feel the rhythm of weaving and I’m in love.

Doodling and Painting

This was a surprise. I discovered I was unable to doodle in my notes or while on conference calls. This was paralyzing to me. I undertook a special 30 day project to draw and doodle and during this learned I loved watercolouring. It’s wonderful to have a creative hobby.

If you want to learn more about the #yearofmaking project, I highly suggest checking out Kim Werker’s ebook. Kim took Miriam‘s brilliant idea and nurtured and grew it. I highly encourage you to participate in this or some other challenge. I know I will reap the benefits of these three years of deliberate daily practice for a long time to come.

#yearofmaking progress

How’s my #yearofmaking project holding up in its second year? Today is day 106.

I’m finding it very difficult!

Why?

I make every day. I make many things every day. I wear things I’ve made every day. I want to try to choose one thing each day to celebrate. Yes, I can easily make collages, but I want to try to be more mindful and thankful about all that I make. I’m also trying not to post progress of the same thing or the same type of thing two days in a row.

For example, tonight I posted dinner … it’s nothing special but I didn’t just make pasta with jarred sauce. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I took the time to dice up zucchini and zest a lemon and grate some parmesan. What else have I made today? I’m wearing socks I knitted 7 years ago. I worked on a new pair of socks while we ran errands this morning. After completing another draft of an essay that has been my focus for the past month and a half, I treated myself to spinning for 15 minutes. During my lunch break I worked on reworking the ribbing of hat I thought I’d finished and petted some handspun that I’m longing to knit up.

2014-04-16-yearofmaking

How’s your #yearofmaking progressing? If you haven’t started yet, why not? Today’s a good day!

#yearofmaking the Maker

I honestly didn’t know how this year-long project would impact me when I posted the first picture a year ago.

I have a love hate relationship with labels, probably because they often have negative connotations and well, I’ve been difficult to label for a long time.

I was surprised to realize as I posted yesterday’s #yearofmaking image how it really does define me, and I continued with that theme in today’s photo, ending and beginning as I mean to go on.

In the past year, I realized something that’s been true all my life.

I’m a Maker.

(Yeah, I know, sometimes I miss the very obvious!)

I’ve been making from an early age and my mum and dad always made stuff. Eating out was a rarity when I was growing up and while mum had mostly stopped sewing clothing by the time I was born, there was still lots of making in our home, every single day.

I also make many things every single day. Some of those things are made from words that I reorganized into code or prose. Others are made with a stick or two and string. Even more is made from things I may have planted into the earth, tended, and transformed into something edible. There are so many other things too, they shouldn’t feel left out.

What I love most about this project is how it forced me to slow down and reflect on what I was making that day, and say thank you. I am thankful that I have all of the parts (cognitive and material) necessary to make just about anything I want. I am thankful that I can take a few moments to step away from work-that-pays-bills and make something just because I can.

Do you want to join in and make 2015 a #yearofmaking, but aren’t sure how exactly to start? Kim Werker can help you with her new ebook, it includes worksheets to print, links to click, and quite a bit of motivation within its 35 pages. I urge you to check it out if you would like to have some help. I also highly suggest her book Make it Mighty Ugly if you worry that it all has to be perfect the very first time!

This coming year I will again be posting primarily to instagram and also sharing it to twitter and flickr. I hope to focus on something specific that I’ve been making that day, but sometimes the days are like the past few and there’s so much making going on it’s hard to decide on just one thing. I really hope you will join me for this new #yearofmaking.

year of making progress

For the past 212 days, I’ve taken a photograph and posted about what I’m making as part of the year of making project. I expected to loose interest weeks ago. I found that by stopping to reflect for even just a short moment, there is renewed inspiration and respect for each and every thing I make each day, even if it’s just for dinner or another round on a pair of socks.

yearofmaking-212days-craft

yearofmaking-212days-food

I recommend participation in this project. Has it changed how or what I make? No. It has changed my mindset to celebrate more of what I make even if it feels like I just keep making the same darn thing.

Please feel free to join in — don’t feel obligated to track the days, or even wait until January. By reflecting on our #yearofmaking we celebrate making of both the mundane and the magical.

mid-year musings

Wow, it’s July already? I’m thankful the snow is gone, but I’ll now complain about the humidity and poison ivy1. Today I’ll provide a brief overview of where things stand for various year-long pursuits. Over the next few weeks I’ll look deeper into each project.

My participation in the #yearofmaking project is going strong and I’m trying hard to show a variety of making though I often fail in that regard. It’s been good to take a moment to think about all that I make throughout the day. Even if it’s just another row on a knitting project. I’m not doing that great with adding to the flickr album (they keep changing the interface) so I suggest following my instagram account.
2014-07-03-YearofMakingprogress

2014-07-03-ROOTprogressI’m not doing as well as I’d hoped with my ROOT reading, even though I’ve purchased quite a few books since January! I’ve read only 42 books so far this year, and of those 42 only 17 are ROOT books, though there were also 11 rereads that don’t count with the 42 completed to-date. There are several upcoming library sales this summer, so I might toe the line as to qualifying ROOT titles. I owe a large pile of book reviews and am working on catching up.

2014-06-30-weeklyplanningHow is the planner system holding up? Overall it’s doing well, though I’m already thinking ahead to 2015 as the flex line was discontinued. I’m researching A5 planner books and have a few ideas though.

Do you have a favourite? Please let me know.

I’ve been posting a few of my morning planning sessions under the tag #dailyplanning and the weekly review and inbox zero as, surprise #weeklyreview. We’ll see where these two tags lead…



1. It’s back. On my hands, between my fingers, and… on my face. :(

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