Review of 2012 New Years Resolutions

Last year I set some lofty goals. Really ambitious. I always like to go and review my goals and tally up points. :) My achieved goals will be in red. :)


Ok I know a lot of people make New Years Resolutions and usually they are silly, but I am one of those people who really try to stick to them. I am always looking to improve myself and achieve something.

Here are my goals....

1. Fabric points Goal = 200!
Actually I made 400 at the end of the year! That is so great! wahoo!

2. Run a 5k. Knock on wood no more injuries. Just one. ;)

  Yeah this didn't happen. I was sick on the one I registered. :( Better luck next year!

3. Bellydance costume goals (it is on my list)

- blue crystal costume- accented. use all those crystals I bought! only bra and a skirt with accents b/c i can't afford to make a belt!

- pink and peach indian sherbert costume- using up the chiffon I have had for years!- I decided to not do this costume. I dont need to do this

- pink patchwork officially finish

- finish black ebay costume
- olive rhinestone costume

- pink leopard costume finish
- periwinkle ab costume
- black fishtail skirt
- rose fishtail skirt

4. Reduce craft stock by 50%.I would like to knock out 10-11 of these projects.

I have 21 crafts. here they are listed. Yay! I did 12 projects! Some were also donated/ given away

1. indian cross stitch palace

2/3/4- cuba cross stitch

5- grape coasters

6- iris van gough latch hook

7. asian kimono cross stitch

8. asian butterflies cross stitch

9/10 christmas cross stitch stockings

11. santa wild life stocking

12. santa stocking

13. no peeking banner

14. cardina banner

15. sitting budha

16. snowman sled banner

17. snow place like home banner

18. santa banner

19. cat stocking

20. Snowman star ornament

21. Bear star ornament
22. Paint by numbers- Eiffel tower only. Its small and cute!

5. Sew 50 things for charity (if not more!)

- I made 132 items for charity!

6. Reduce fabric- Goal to have all the fabric in the closet or under the bed. So that is the rest of the small pile and the big suitcase. Yes this will be a challenge.
- I got rid of the outside the closet fabric and 1 suitcase. It is awesome but I still have way too much!

7. Reduce bead stash. Goal: have boxes gone but have beads and sequins in the containers in the file box and rubermade box too. I'd also like to keep track of bead points!
- I made 53 pieces of jewelry and I did over 150 bling points (I stopped counting!)

8. Officially be out of credit card debt. I am moving forward. I can do it if I continue on the right track and no major bills pop up. I have calculated it and I can do it!
Nope with the DC move I was unable to pay off the credit cars. I am hopeful that I will be out of debt by the end of next year. This winter makes me want to stay inside so that will curb a lot of shopping!

9. Finish that gosh darn t-shirt quilt from college.

That was also a no but at least I got the interface on the t-shirt blocks. 

10. Restore my grandmother's linens. Make aprons with one of the table cloths with holes in it.
:( But I did learn how I needed to go about cleaning them. Now that I have 2 bathrooms I can soak them overnight properly with out worrying about the boyfriend taking a shower. LOL. 

11. Use at least 1 pattern per month! (so that would be 12!) Keep track of points.
Yeah I did  12 patterns :)

12. I would like to at least draft 2 on my own patterns this year.

13. Dance Goals. Now that I am healthy again and getting myself stronger. I'd like to return to my goals mostly from last year. So learn 5 dances: law D, New Delhi Dank, Helwa, and 2 more of my choice!
I learned the following dances: Helwa, Tribal fusion, Makaan, new pirate sword, and istanbul nights.

14. Continuing refashioning. I love it! Goal = 52 refashions! I have over 40 potential projects just in my stash now! I am still going to continue to not buy clothing at retail stores. This is how I will continue to get out of debt. So it is 1 refashion a week!
- Yay I did it but it was pushing it! Next year I won't do as much. 

15. Try to crochet or knit something. Just try!
With me attacking my fabric stash and charity sewing I did not pursue either. I did sign up for a knitting class in January here so that is good!

16. Get another publication (or 2!) Try for funding!
well this is like 0.5 a point. I got accepted but I was unable to finish before moving the lab. So its not officially done! Argh!

17. Try to make my own swimsuit. B/c I am tired of swimsuit shopping! It is so depressing and I am determined to make my own! Yeah I decided no. Maybe next year! 

So pulling it all together I want to keep track of points again

Fabric Points Goal = 200

Beads/Sequins Goal= 52

Charity sewing points= 50

Refashions= 52

Patterns= 12

So 11 out of 17 goals accomplished! That is awesome! I love achieving my goals. tho its like 65%. But for new years goals that is still great! Maybe next year I will accomplish all of them. :)

Happy New Years everyone!!! :)

Top 10 posts of 2012!

I thought this would be fun for recapping this year of blogging. It has been a crazy year but I did have a bunch of great posts! Here is the top 10 posts of mine counting down from 10 to 1. Enjoy!

10. Owl embroidered Burberry Sweater Knockoff
I hand embroidered this sweatshirt with my owl and I love it!

9. Men's button down shirt to skirt.
I think this skirt came out sooo nice you forget it was just a men's button down shirt!

8. Cream dress refashion
This dress started out as just a dress I thought would work as is. But it was too long. In hindsight, I wish I would have just not added the paisley ribbon but kept the detail on the neckline. I also wished I would have dyed it a fun color. Oh well. But this was a simple refashion :)

7. Purple Bow Dress Refashion
This dress was actually featured on Craft Gossip! No more muu-muu dress here. I love the bow and I get a ton of compliments when I wear this dress!

6. Anthropologie Dress Knockoff- Curtain Refashion
This is fun dress I made out of a curtain. :)

5. Striped Bellydance Pants
OMG cutting this fabric made me so agitated especially cutting 5 of them. The pattern is so easy to sew, but cutting was horrible. I LOVE this pants!

4. Mom Dress No More! Blue dress refashion.
This mom muu-muu was dyed a darker blue and cut shorter. I still wear this dress everywhere. It is such an easy dress to pop on and go anywhere. If you change the necklace you can change the whole personality of the dress. It is so great!

3. Breakfast at Tiffany's Refashion
I love this dress. I wished I reinforced the neckline when I was beading b/c it weighed the dress down. Unfortunately the dress got a weird stain and I gave it away. I totally want to bead another dress like this again. Just got to find the right dress!!

2. Cream Appliqued Skirt Refashion
I was so proud of this refashion. I made the bottom curved to get rid of those points. The the part I am most proud of was I took off the top of the skirt to make it shorter and reinserted the zipper. It came out so well. Again every time I wear this skirt I get compliments.

Last but not least... the most clicked post this year was the
1. Golden girl sweater refashion.
I turned a big and frumpy sweater to a very cute sparkly sweater. I wear this and I feel wonderful!

Thank you everyone for reading. I love my readers! Here's to a fabulous 2013! And more blog posts!

xoxoxo,
Lauren

Special 1 week series: Crafting year round with My Next Style

Greetings everyone! Last year I was one of the recipients to receive craft products from Next Style from the Horizon Group USA.  All of these things can be found at your local Walmart. If you go to the website Fashionartprojects.com you can find out more information about all the products, in addition to ideas, and how-to videos! It is a great website filled with craft eye candy! This past year I was a little slow in posting projects I made with their products, I was focusing on the charity sewing projects and then we moved. Then it hit me, why not work on projects when I could during the rest of the year and feature 1 week of projects all together?! So this is what I am going to do-  I am going to feature 1 week of crafts using materials from Fashion Art Projects. There are a total of 8 projects! Exciting!!!

So 8 days, 8 different projects! Projects that you can do at different times of the year. We have a little bit of everything for all the seasons. Yay!!

Here is what I have!

1. Kiss me shirt. Perfect for Valentine's day!
2. Accent a shirt with rhinestones. My go-to shirt for St. Patrick's Day
3. Yellow flowered heart bag. This bag is bright and sunny, it will bright up anyone's day!
4. Zip screen fun! T-shirts and a Rocker Tote bag!
5. Rock and Roll Baby Gifts. Use zip screens to give any fabulous baby a Rock and Roll edge!
6. Lavender Yo-Yo Tote bag. Have fun coloring in a bandana and make yo-yo's out of it. Plus a touch of bling never hurt anyone!
7. 4th of July Star Wreath! 
8. Christmas tree baby bibs. This is a perfect Christmas gift for any baby, add an easy iron-on star to your tree!

There are some great projects. BTW follow and like My Next Style of Facebook here.

Posts start January 1st! A great way to kick off the New Year! :)

xoxoxo,
Lauren

Vintage Christmas Stuffed Ornaments

In my fabric stash I had these 2 types of sewing ornaments. Both vintage since they don't make things like this anymore. I kind of wanted to make them to put on the tree. Kind of reminds me of some of the ornaments my mom had for our tree growing up.

I cut all of them out. Pieced together. And sewed. The bottom ones were easy to sew. However the top pictures of the vintage people the pattern did NOT match up.It was bad but I did my best!

I clipped the curves. Turned them right side out. And ready to stuff. I used an old pillow for the stuffing.

Now what I forgot was they need hangers to be hung on the tree. D'oh! But I found this thread

So I used a needle and made a loop with the thread on one of the sides that I didn't care for.

Here it is done

Here are all the ornaments. Yes there was a LOT of ornaments! Like 26!

Now I didn't put them on my tree. I will save them for next year!

xoxoxo,
Lauren

Snowmen ornaments part 2- buttons and pearls

I had these beads that came from a few necklaces. Really they are buttons. They are very big and kind of tacky for a lot of projects. They have been sitting in my box for a while. Then it hit me. 

I sorted them via color and type. I didn't use the gold ones. I'll save those for later!

I used all of these silver/clear buttons. They have 2 holes right on the bottom.

And using these pearl beads I thought would make for a cool snowman.

Place the bead into the center. Nice. 

Putting them together they look like snowmen! Yay!

Now to glue onto the grosgrain ribbon.

I glued in between each bead because of the size and weight they bent when they were hanging. 

Now for scarves. I had this beautiful ribbon. 

Here is the end product on a tree.

I think they are lovely as is and I don't want to add anything else. I still can't believe Christmas is over. I have a few more posts of Christmas projects. :)

xoxoxo,
Lauren

Rhinestone Snowmen

I had these large rhinestones that I didn't know what to use them for. I don't need another bellydance costume. Then I thought I would make snowmen out of them. And then turn them into ornaments. 

First add glue. Yay for hot glue!

In the first one I made I glued it to some satin. I only did this once b/c then I had to cut it away. That was not something I wanted to repeat. 

I used grosgrain ribbon to adhere the 3 rhinestones. Hot glue!

I drew a face and some buttons with paint pens. And then tried to make scarves for them. 

I also tried a braid. Which I had to burn the ends to keep them from fraying. Yeah fun!

Here is what I have done so far. I would like to give them hats. I need to find some black foam sheets or something. But with the bad weather out, I don't want to leave the apartment yet. Will wait. Stay tuned you may see these pop up later! :)

xoxoxo,

Lauren