Monday, May 23, 2011

UFOs

No, not the alien kind; way scarier than that. UnFinished Objects...of the crafting kind! I'm the queen of unfinished projects--whether crafts, cleaning, organizing, you name it. I'm quick on the get up, but (without FIRM deadlines) I quickly lose steam.

It's quite frustrating to have half-finished projects cluttering up the house (and my brain), so I decided to bring only UFOs with me to Oregon. No new sewing endeavors, no fancy new card plans--just get some open projects done! And, believe me, I have plenty to choose from! Here are some that I brought...
  • Baby Washcloths. Pretty sure I cut the fabric for these before Lana was born... Check! First UFO completed! (See above.) The characters on these washcloths make wiping Lana's face after eating a breeze. She normally HATES having her face wiped, but if you say, "the purple whale is gunna...GET YOU!!", then all is right in the world. :)
  • Baby Blankets. I have the fabrics cut for probably 12-15(?!) baby blankets that are due this summer, or not yet sold. It would be SO nice to have a stash of already completed blankets for customers to choose from, rather than constantly working against the clock. 
  • Napkins. That I cut the fabric for when I first started sewing. Literally. I think they were intended to be Christmas presents in...2007 maybe?!?! To be honest, I'm not even interested anymore, but they're already cut!! Ugh. 
  • Maddy's Doll. Can you believe I still haven't embroidered her face on?? Where is Jordan, damn it??!
  • Birthday Cards for Neighbor. I have this stack of card bases (with designer paper, but no sentiment) that volunteers put together for work a couple years ago. We never got around to  using them, and I came across them while cleaning recently. Most are pretty hideous (a new cardmaker's idea of awesome is sometimes a little...well, interesting!) so they need some serious work to be useable. Good news--my neighbor organizes monthly birthday parties for people who get meals through Open Heart Kitchen. Such a sweet idea--they give them little gift bags of donated items--primarily necessities like soap and new socks--but also some fun things like playing cards and notebooks. Anyway, I asked her if they had birthday cards to include--she said no, and I remembered this stack. All they need is a sentiment and some serious TLC. Perfect job for my mother...! ;)
  • Snack Bags. I have a bunch of bags cut from blanket scraps, they just need to be sewn up!
  • CD Holders. I have 3 or 4 open orders for monogrammed CD Holders through my Bumble Etsy shop, so I had a bunch of blanks shipped directly to my mom so I can knock out a good 200+ while I'm here!
  • Cards. Definitely low on the list of priorities, but I have a bunch of papers cut and some bases started, so there's certainly work to be done in this area as well! 
PLENTY to do, right?! And this doesn't even touch my list of digital dos...
  • Digital photo overhaul. Including...continuing to import everything I can find. Merging and naming Events. Purging crap. Assigning keywords. Creating (digital) Albums. Tagging photos for printing and adding to books. Etc, etc, etc....
  • Evernote Cleanup. I love using Evernote, but now that I'm a good 6 months in, I'd like to start organizing the space better. Purge links for recipes I'll never cook and crafts I'll never make. Create a Recipe Rotation notebook as a single stop to find all our tried and true favorites. Keep things I find visually inspiring on Pinterest instead. 
  • Convert to using my Mac Address Book as my primary. Import Google contacts and conduct major cleanup. Again. And for the LAST time! 
  • Watch Photoshop Elements tutorials til I go cross-eyed. 
  • Read the manual for my DSLR. Act like I understand it. Buy a book to dumb it down for me. 
  • Fabric shopping. Yes, amazingly I still need more. (Customers love those animal prints!)
  • Baby gear shopping. To prepare for Poland. And our ever-growing little monster. 
  • Choose a provider and setup a Bumble shop for cards and sewn gift items. 
Think I can get it all done (and jump back on the blogging bus) in the next 2 weeks?? HA! Not likely, but I'll sure try to make a gnarly dent! 

5 comments:

Unknown said...

FOCUS...FOCUS...FOCUS.... OH SORRY...FORGOT YOU ALSO HAVE A RECENTLY NEW CRAWLER IN THE FAMILY!!! SO MANY CRAFTS...SUCH LITTLE TIME!!

Jordan said...

I'm sure you'll get lots done. I'm making a banner for Jake's birthday which is in a couple weeks except I'm leaving out the "birth" part so it will just say "Happy Day" so I can put it in my craft room after. So really it's for me but I'm just pretending it's for him so I'll get it done sooner. I got your bday card in the mail today. So cute! Thanks.

P.S. Mom wants to learn to use the sewing machine - have her make the napkins.

Bryn said...

Yay for getting stuff done! If you decide that your DSLR manual is a bit too much, try starting with this infographic. You might already know all of it....but it was super helpful for me. Someday I'll figure out how all the buttons my camera work....http://i.min.us/imQ6tw.png

Buzzy said...

Actually, I'd recommend sticking with your Google Calendar, as it provides an online backup without having to pay for apple's highway robbery that is MobileMe. You can sync your Google calendar with iCal, though; that would be a better option.

http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=99358#ical

Patt said...

Be sure to leave PLENTY of time for visiting...and "smelling the roses"! Catch others up in your projects so you can enjoy time together--you'll accomplish SOME of your "stuff" and still be able to visit...but everyone will be 'smelling roses', too! ;-) Slow down enough to enjoy your visit! :-D Have a great time...don't stress about getting your UFOs done! :-D <3 Kick back and get some RELAX time in!