Yeah, I'm still here...

... not that you would know I hadn't just disappeared... as my cousins have so tactfully pointed out, I haven't been so successful on number 11. But I have been getting some other stuff done!
I've been very busy on various needlework projects. I'm working on one gift item right now, and when I finish need to start working on two more; plus I'd like to be able to work on at least one thing for myself as well, cross-stitch, knitting, or sewing whatever! I'm getting to many ideas of things to make, and I think I need to go through and prioritize some. (Okay there's a weird gap here in the text that I can't get to go away!)

And I may want to sell some yarn. Right now I'm trying to only make things with the yarn I have, not buy too much more. However, I don't have any plan for this yarn (Paton's Bohemian), and I just wore a sweater on Sunday made out of that yarn, and it shed all over, with little furry clumps of fuzz. It's a really, really soft yarn, and the sweater was very warm and cozy, but I just don't think I can deal with that much fuzz...my clothes get enough cat hair on them as it is, without adding in sweater shedding.
Here's two things I did for Christmas gifts, since I couldn't post pictures while I was working on them. First, the Christmas ornaments I made for my friends, that's not all of them, but it's the three I had on hand the day I was taking pictures:

Secondly, the sweater I made for Amelia, a little 1 1/2 year old in our church. It has a matching hat, but she's not wearing it in the picture. She is such a sweetie:

Thanks Melody, for letting me post the picture! :)


In reference to my other goals, I've been able to stick to my exercising plan pretty well, so that's good. I got a book from the library about pilates, just for some variety, and that's fun, though a little hard.

Guitar...well, I've practiced um...once or twice this month, but I've been busy!!!! I have wanted to a couple times, and just not had the time to practice right then.

Most of the other things are straggling along... my room is getting cleaned more often, etc.
One thing I need to work on is my recipe scrapbook. I wanted to basically make my own cookbook, and I decided that it would be best to get a scrapbook to put them in. Basically, I wanted a fancy three-ring binder with page-protectors. So I have this:

It's a Christmas(???) scrapbook that I got on clearance at Joann.com. It's 12 x 12, and I bought some various colors of card stock that size to mount the 8 1/2 x 11 recipe pages on. I suppose as far as scrapbooking goes, it's pretty low-key, but I'm not real into cutesy stuff. Occasionally, I'll like stuff like that, and perhaps some retro kitchen stickers or something would be cool, but I also don't want a cluttered look, so I'll probably just have the pages on card stock, in the album. Microsoft Word has a really neat Celtic knot page border in the borders, so I think I'll probably use that (just black & white) around the edges. When I get some pages made, I'll post pictures!
It should be pretty fun, and I've already thought of putting my printed out knitting/crochet patterns in a scrapbook also...Mom says I'm going to end up taking up scrapbooking once I get started. I don't think so though...what with the cropping pictures and stuff... the photographer in me can't take scissors to a printed photo!
So anyway, I need to get to work on typing up recipes...which I will probably do when I get done here.

So, anyway, that's what I've been up to, in brief form anyway. I think I'll make two other posts as well...just to separate the topics covered!

And I really will try to work on blogging more often!