Craft calendar revisited

Our 2010 Christmas card featuring Angelo’s art

Back in February, I dared to put together a craft calendar in the hopes of planning my crafting year.  It was written with good intentions which I am still hoping can eventually shape the direction I take in this passion of mine.   It was a good idea to plan, and while I didn’t stick to the goals or project targets, I think it helped.

We are now entering the final quarter of the year and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able do accomplish even just a quarter of the holiday-related projects I had identified.

With the month officially ending this weekend, I am trying to get going on at least two of the items below:

September

• Start series on Holiday-themed articles.
• Work on Christmas decor.
• Produce holiday cards.
• Create gifts to give for the holidays.
• Launch second postcard set.
• Stock up the shop and launch holiday promo.
• PROJECT: CHRISTMAS DECOR

I have started drafting Angelo’s and my Christmas card which I am tempted to have printed, but then again, I have all the materials and tools to produce it myself, so why bother?

I am going to start tinkering with our existing Christmas decor to hopefully produce a new holiday wreath.  (Yay!)  More on a separate post..

And yes, I will start creating new pieces both for the shop on Etsy and for my gift list.

With that said, I think I can move on to October.

October

• Finish holiday card. (MUST be done before the month ends.)
• Start series on handmade gifts for the holidays. (DIY projects for posting here!)
• Put up my Christmas tree last week of October.  (Will start cleaning up this week to make room!)
• PROJECT: Holiday Cards

And for the rest of the year, I hope I can stick to this schedule:

November

• Mail out holiday cards.
• Decorate tree first week, deck out the house.
• PROJECT: Wrappers / Bags for the holiday gifts

December

• Create and make gift packaging. (Wrapper, embellishments, tags)
• Thank you cards
• PROJECT: Recycling holiday wrap and cards

 I treat my lists as guidelines or guideposts.  They are never hard deadlines that cause undue stress.  Crafting, after all, is a diversion and not the be-all and emd-all of my existence.  I like that the list has reminded me that while we are still months to December, it’s about time I start thinking about my holiday card.  

As for the projects and tasks I missed, then there’s the option to roll them over to the following year or finish them before this one ends.  2017, after all, has not yet ended.

Craft Calendar 2017

Last year, I tried to begin a craft calendar in April which I didn’t get to follow very closely, but which somehow helped me focus on the things I had hoped to do during the year.  HOPE is the operative word, being that a lot of things got in the way and somehow derailed my efforts to be more disciplined with the crafting.

Besides the list of tasks, I am also trying to identify PROJECTS to focus on for the month to help my productions goals along.

No more excuses, but let’s give it another go in 2017.  Again, I hope to be able to achieve more given this list of goals, and watch out for updates as the year rolls along with a monthly round up of how I’ve been doing.  (Edits, progress, deletions/additions)

I had started drafting this post in January but had gotten stuck.  So let me begin with the current month, February.

February

• Work on the #GiftOf50 peripherals (gift tags, gift wrap, etc.) and keep creating gifts.
• PROJECT: Start working on a light coat for Spring.

March

• Work on getting my tour guide license.
• Visit Lion Brand Yarns and enroll for a knitting class.
• PROJECT: Easter cards

April

• Begin work on fabric clutches.
• PROJECT: throw pillows for the sofa

May 

• Get my tour guide license.  (More on this later.)
• Bead fabric clutches
• PROJECT: Beaded brooch

June

• Start planning my halloween costume, another paper fairy gown.
• Design my holiday card for the end of the year.  (Need to determine materials.)
• PROJECT: Launch Bead Tours

July

• Post a clutch for sale in the etsy shop.
• Launch first postcard set project.
• PROJECT:  OZ projects

August

• Start creating the halloween costume.  (Will try to actually sew one instead of pinning one together like the last time I made one in 2015.
• PROJECT: paper boxes

September

• Start series on Holiday-themed articles.
• Work on Christmas decor.
• Produce holiday cards.
• Create gifts to give for the holidays.
• Launch second postcard set.
• Stock up the shop and launch holiday promo.
• PROJECT: CHRISTMAS DECOR

October

• Finish holiday card.
• Start series on handmade gifts for the holidays.
• Put up my Christmas tree last week of October.
• PROJECT: Holiday Cards

November

• Mail out holiday cards.
• Decorate tree first week, deck out the house.
• PROJECT: Wrappers / Bags for the holiday gifts

December

• Create and make gift packaging.  (Wrapper, embellishments, tags)
• Thank you cards
• PROJECT: Recycling holiday wrap and cards

Here’s to a productive and crafty 2017..

My Craft Calendar

My dream job is to really be able to schedule time to work on my crafts between trying to keep a presence here, write what I want to write, and stay on top of my almost 12-year-old.  Right now, my days revolve around a day job that pretty much takes up my whole day from 8am when I am usually on the bus to Manhattan, to 7:30pm when I walk in the door.  After that, 80% of what’s left of my moments awake are devoted to motherhood.  The usual chat and hugs between homework and dinner leave me very little time to sit down and unwind and fiddle with my projects.  What happens is that I end up sleeping at or just past midnight, but it doesn’t mean waking up later.  I will get up before 6am to start my day over the following day, no matter what time I slept the night before.

I found it rather frustrating that I came up with projects last year which turned out okay, but which would have really been “great” if only I had found the time to work on them way in advance.  So four months into 2016, (late, I know..),  I thought I’d plan ahead for the rest of the year.

So for the most part, only I can really understand what the calendar is about, but the point is for it to remind me of what I plan to do and keep me focused.  And yet again, I’m hoping to start posting here more regularly, not monthly.

Here’s what I hope to focus on in the coming months:

April

•  Get started on my fabric clutches.  (Something I’m currently working on.)
• Create more pieces and post in the shop. (Ongoing)
• Start taking sewing classes at Mood Fabrics. (Free, already enrolled, due to begin end of the month.. Yay!)

May 

• Get my tour guide license.  (More on this later.)
• Start making pieces to wear and bring to Fiji.  (Trip planned for end of June  with bestfriend, Donna.)

June

• Start planning my halloween costume, another paper fairy gown.
• Design my holiday card for the end of the year.  (Need to determine materials.)
• Create pieces to bring home to Manila in late July or August.
• Launch bead tours.

July

• Work on throw pillows (if the living room renovation has already started, if not, just make designs.)
• Post a clutch for sale in the etsy shop.
• Launch first postcard set project.
• Take photographs and source materials in the Philippines.

August

• Start creating the halloween costume.  (Will try to actually sew one instead of pinning one together like last year.)
• Create paper boxes.

September

• Work on Christmas decor.
• Produce holiday cards.
• Create gifts to give for the holidays.
• Launch second postcard set.
• Stock up the shop and launch holiday promo.

October

• Finish holiday card.
• Handmade gifts.
• Put up my Christmas tree last week of October.

November

• Mail out holiday cards.
• Decorate tree first week, deck out the house.
• Create wrappers for the holiday gifts.

December

• Create and make gift packaging.  (Wrapper, embellishments, tags)

The calendar is obviously not set in stone and is meant to just be a guide to help me focus.  As crafting is not my number one priority, it usually becomes an afterthought and then a cause for a flood of “should haves” and “if onlys”.  I’ll revisit the list from time to time to report on how I’ve been doing.