Making a Roman blind

December has flown by and I have so much to update you on. For starters I managed to finish the Roman blind for our back door!On the 1st December I decided to dedicate the day to finishing the blind and putting the blind up.

Since then I have spent some time reflecting on the process of making the Roman blind, it really was one of the most challenging things I've ever attempted. The size of the project was huge and I dealt with three pieces of fabric measuring over 1m wide and almost 3m long. This meant rearranging the furniture in our lounge so I had a flat surface to work on. Luckily our floor is wooden so I managed to do the majority of the fabric pressing on the floor. I think the hardest thing was ensuring all of the measurements were accurate and the fabric remained straight and the seams were in line with the blue ticking stripes. I spent the majority of the time measuring, pressing and pinning and not much time sewing, that was the easy bit!

I do plan to share with you how I made my own Roman blind in another blog post in the next month or so, I just want to test out my instructions again when I make the second blind.

Here is my ta dah moment...my first Roman blind!

I love the fabric, the blue and white stripes go so well with our terracotta walls and other blue and white parts of our lounge and our teal sofa. I'm going to buy a pretty cord drop and a nicer looking cleat than came in the Roman blind kit to finish off the project properly. I'm really proud that I stuck with the project and completed it before the new year.

2012 :: A year in review

Last January I wrote a post, New Year, New Projects, about the things that I hoped to achieve during the year. I started my blog in November 2011 with this post about my desire to start a new chapter in my life and get creative. I wrote about my crafty beginnings which sparked a list of things I wanted to learn over the coming year. I'm super proud to show you a summary of what I've managed to achieve this year.

I had a busy year of making...I learnt to knit a chunky scarf when I started my blog... 

I attempted to start crochet...I didn't have time to continue with it, but maybe this year!

I took the plunge and decided to start knitting a cable cushion cover

During a patchwork and quilting taster session I got hooked on patchwork and buying fabrics...

I said goodbye to my Mum's sewing machine and invested in my own new sewing machine...

I made a quilted patchwork sewing machine cover

Made my first patchwork quilt and wrote instructions of how to make the quilt...

I made a cushion for a good friend

 Designed and made my own Christmas Patchwork Stocking and made two just in time for Christmas!

I got back into paper crafting and made some cards...

I started gardening and planted some plants and flowers and watched the garden bloom

 With the awful weather during the summer we still had a little crop of fruit and veg to eat!

I was given my dream window boxes and added some summer and winter flowers to them...

I made a few things for our home...I created my own labels for our spice rack

...learnt how to make sloe gin

and did a bit of upcycling, making coasters from wall tiles 

I spent a little bit of time in the kitchen cooking and baking...

Well, what a year. I'm so very proud of what I've managed to achieve. There haven't been many years where I feel that I've developed so much, I've learnt so many practical things and achieved so much! 

Thank you so much for following my journey so far, I really appreciate all your comments and visits you make to my blog. I hope that you will join me during 2013 to see what I get up to, I've got some great things planned and I'd love to share these with you.

Little achievements and inspirations

You may have noticed that I’ve had a few weeks where I haven’t posted on my blog. Outside of blog land I’ve been super busy with my day job...For 8 months I’ve been working on a variety of projects to help the team that I’m part of deliver a better job and improve what we do day to day. The final stages of the projects have been particularly tough as each project interlinked. We have had some big highs, as things worked, and huge lows when things weren't going to plan…However seeing the pieces of a huge puzzle fitting together and each day for the past few weeks making little achievements was really satisfying.

Many months of planning and decision making came to a head last week when we launched the projects. I’m very pleased, relieved and so very proud of what our project team have achieved and I hope that our hard work will make a difference. I work with some incredibly talented and creative people who have been a real inspiration to me and they've kept me going during one of the hardest and biggest projects I’ve ever been part of. At the end of our busy launch week I was greeted with this fantastic sunset on my walk home, it made me smile...the calm after the storm...

The projects at work have been a key focus of my time, especially for the past few weeks, and this has meant that I haven't felt like doing any projects of my own. My weekends have been precious, using the time to catch up with friends and to relax. I found myself documenting things that have inspired me or made me smile while I've been out and about...

I’ve enjoyed being outside on a super sunny Saturday sitting next to the river eating a yummy ploughmans lunch with my amazing man, Mr C, and seeing our fab friends.

I caught up with a very special friend from uni who lives nearby and had some fantastic home-made ice cream from Swinky Sweets we then sat in the park soaking up the sun, enjoying spring and chatting for hours…

I laughed so hard at a comedy night I went to this week that my cheeks and jaw ached!

…I met a friend in London who very kindly treated me to a coffee and delicious cake while we caught up on news and talked about how life is changing...

...I celebrated with friends who are expecting the arrival of a little bundle in a few weeks time...we ate yummy cupcakes and sipped champagne…

I love taking photos and capturing the little details...whether it's food I'd like to try and make myself, moments that make me happy, or things that have inspired me to think about creating new things...I've felt inspired in many different ways over the past few weeks...I'm looking forward to getting back onto the projects I've had to put to one side...I can't wait to put my energy back into what I really love doing... creating, making, baking, getting inspired and learning new things.

One of the most important things I’ve learnt during the past few months is to enjoy the little achievements and inspirations that happen everyday, they really do count towards an end goal…I hope that for the rest of the year and going forwards I will share with you more of my little achievements and inspirations and get to finish some projects of my own...What little achievements have you made this week? What has inspired you to do something new?