It's my 3rd Blogoversary

Today is my third Blogoversary! Wow, when I started this thing I never imagined I’d still be going three years later and I hoped rather than believed anyone would be interested in reading it!

So this is an opportune time to reflect on the past year in my creative life.

2010, as I have previously mentioned, was a challenging year for me which overflowed onto my crafting world in a big way. In March we got caught in a freak hailstorm that hit Perth which resulted in our house getting flooded. It was nothing like the scale being experienced in Queensland at the moment (donate to the relief fund here) but it was enough to lose all our floor coverings and a large portion of our furniture. We managed to save most of our belongings, which spent the next three months crammed into my sewing room while we got everything replaced. On the positive side I did a lot more knitting in 2010!

My work life was also very stressful in 2010 for reasons too boring to discuss here. This impacted my creativity just because I was so tired a lot of the time.

There have also been some other issues competing for my limited time which have drawn my attention, sometimes too much.

However, not to be overly negative, when I have had the chance to make stuff I have enjoyed it as much as ever, maybe more. And I did manage to reach my goal of completing 30 projects – even though I did cheat a bit by including 2 wadders and a couple of (major) toiles. So without further ado…

Stats:

My top three for 2010
Gossip girl dress

Houndstooth coat

Baby starghans

My three biggest disappointments
The Garden State dress: my ham-fisted fba mucked this one up!

The grey frankendress: this one was not my fault but suffers from pointy boobs that I just can’t seem to fix.

Sunflower dress: I don’t know why I just don’t love it

Projects to carry over
The red silk corset: I just can’t face this right now. I have almost finished it but have got to a stage I don’t know how to remedy and if I don’t do it right it will look terrible!

Jess’s wedding dress: That one is on hold for a while due to circumstances beyond my control (good circumstances – they haven’t broken up or anything!). It will probably fire up again in late 2011.

The McQueen Kimono jacket: I still really want to do this project but my weight gain means there is no chance it will fit me as it is. I need to do major work to the pattern and I just haven’t had the energy. I am not ditching it but just need the stars to align a bit better before I can take it on.

Wish list for 2011
My immediate goals are the need to blog a couple of projects I have finished in the last few weeks. Then I have a UFO to finish and two more projects cut out. After that I want to have another go at BWOF 11-2007-107 and fix that pesky bust problem.

Further than that it is hard to plan beyond summer. I am on a contract at work which ends in August. I have to re-apply and don’t know if I will get it or not (there is a pretty poor record for that here). I will have to apply for other jobs just in case and who knows what might eventuate there? Always in the back of my mind is the desire to do something more creatively satisfying.

So 2011 will really be stepping into the unknown for me. Whatever happens there will be a lot of change and its associated stresses, which is why I am unwilling to add more stress by setting too many goals. My only goal is to create as much as I can and not too many wadders this year (although I read once that if you don’t make bad fashion choices sometimes you are playing it too safe!). I will try to blog at least once per week but please forgive me if that’s not always possible. I hope you will stick with me for this ride and I look forward to what comes next.