A Look Back and a Look Forward

I am *finally* ready to show you Jaxon's room, although it is a little tight in there right now with a crib and a bed! Jaxon decided he is not quite ready for the "big boy bed." We converted his crib into a toddler bed by removing one side, and he slept that way for the first time today during nap time. It went okay. I had to go in a couple of times and put him back in the crib but he did sleep. I am hoping to have the crib out of there and Jaxon in his bed by the middle of January.

I never showed you the completed quilt after I bound it.

I got the pattern in a "Quilts and More" magazine, but you can find it online here. I added 3 inches to the outside border.

I kept the same paint color, and kept all his same furniture with the exception of the bed. I just needed to swap out the textiles and the artwork.

The three frames used to hold tiki prints now hold felt letters stitched to fabric (JAX). The paper airplanes and trails are vinyl decals bought from this Etsy shop. The bed will eventually be moved perpendicularly to the wall when we no longer need to accommodate the crib. The headboard is from Craigslist. It is exactly what I had envisioned.

I replaced the tiki print with felt "airplanes" stitched onto cloud fabric with running stitch trails...

...and pieced the curtains out of the fabrics from the quilt.

So that is our look back. Now for a look forward. I won't call these resolutions, because those are made to be broken. Let's just call them "goals."

Personal Goals
1. Eat better and move more. Maybe drop a pant size.
The Wii Fit has already helped with this. I absolutely love it. I'm not sure if its measurements are accurate -- two days ago it said I gained 3.6 pounds in one day, and this morning it said I had lost 5.3 pounds (and my Wii Fit weight is a good 10 pounds lighter than our regular scale) -- but it certainly is a fun way of getting moving, and recording your progress.

2. Organize one date night and one family outing a month.
This may not seem like a lot, but we already spend a lot of time together as a family. I would, however, like to do more *special* things, like the zoo, the science museum, etc. We usually end up doing all these kinds of things on the fly when I realize how quickly the school year is approaching.

3. Finish our currently-in-progress household projects and start a new major project.
We have a lot of halfway done projects around the house, I won't bore you with a list. And the "to do" list is maybe even larger, but I'd like to start one new major project (besides my craft room in the below list). This may be our front porch, the upstairs bath, or our family room, all of which need to be renovated.

Crafting Goals
1. Finish my currently in progress quilts.
I'm replacing my "books read" list on the right (that I stopped updating in the spring!) with a WIPs list. Right now I have one quilt that needs bound, two with hand quilting in progress, three tops that need borders, etc, and one more cut. Plus lots of other ideas floating around, and lots of fabric that needs to be made into something!

2. Practice FMQ.
I haven't practiced much and I need it. I'd like to take another class just to see some more people doing it.

3. Renovate/reorganize my sewing room.
I have most of the elements ready to go, it's just a matter of time (both mine and Charlie's). Charlie is currently building shelves in our living room to get the books out of my sewing room (which used to be my office until the sewing bug got me). Once the books are out of there I won't have an excuse...

4. Pick up knitting again??
I try to love knitting, really I do. Every time I see a fabulous knit project I think I should *love* knitting. And I've tried. But I don't love it. I hear that many people who don't like to needle knit like to loom knit. I just can't bring myself to invest in the supplies for another craft. Really, I just want these. Maybe I should just hire someone to make them for me. Regardless, this will be the year I decide if I am going to be a knitter.

And that's it for 2009. We are back to school on Monday, and this is probably the most I've ever dreaded it! Oh, one more goal: to post to my blog every week. I promise to try if you promise to visit...