I have a Youtube Channel! How times change!

I've come an incredibly long way since starting this blog back in 2004. I've gone from being too shy to show my face on the internet, to having a Youtube channel! My channel is about a yearlong style experiment that I started earlier this year. It already has several videos up for your consideration, on the subjects of style, fashion and sewing. Here's my first video in which I talk about why I started my channel (though I also wrote a little about that below):




I do hope you enjoy my videos and maybe consider subscribing if you like that sort of thing. The most recent is my first one I made with proper video editing software -- not just an app with the most basic features like I was using before. The other day, I finally sat down and taught myself how to do it, and I'm quite proud of myself:



Making the thumbnails (the cover picture) is also quite fun!

Writing this post has gotten me thinking about how much things have changed since I started hanging out on the internet back in 2004. For many years, I was too shy to share my face (let alone my whole body!) on the internet. I was incredibly self-conscious about it. For example, I was into knitting and crocheting hats for a few years. I couldn't convince anyone I knew to model them, so I bought a head model from Ebay just so I could share them online. (I still have her -- her name is Hedda!)

I often found myself in a ridiculous situation where I wanted to sew clothes, but I was too self-conscious to share them on my blog. I wanted to share everything craft-related here, so if I didn't feel I could share it, I didn't make it! It was a piece of topsy-turvy logic that seems funny to me now. (...and yes, I ended up with a big stash of fabric I never used!)

Joining Instagram a few years ago changed things immensely for me. Seeing other people with similar body types to mine helped me to come out of my shell. I started posting photos of my face, and later, my whole body. I began to enjoy fashion more when I saw the possibilities, after having given up on it years earlier. I wanted to make my own clothes again, like I used to when I was a teenager. I did make a skirt last year, but I was so out of practice and made so many mistakes, that I was too embarrassed to blog about it. Here's a picture of it anyway:

The stars must have been aligning early this year, when I had a strong urge to get my fashion/style house in order, and saw this video about a 365 day style challenge. I decided to do one of my own! I'm not usually that impulsive (maybe it was a pandemic thing), but there you are. At first I was going to document it through my blog like I've done with so many projects before, but I became increasingly convinced that it wasn't the right format. It can be hard to describe something so personal -- and sometimes complicated -- in writing. Some things are just easier to talk about. About a month after I started, I decided I may as well try documenting it in video form, and started a Youtube channel to support that.

I've learned so much from starting this project -- not only about fashion and style, but about making videos. It's been a steep learning curve, fun, sometimes frustrating, but always satisfying, and I hope there are many more videos to come!

Hobonichi 2022 Diary Unboxing

It's become a yearly tradition now for me to share the unboxing of my Hobonichi Diary for the next year -- and seeing as it's Spring, to do it outside on the grass!

I was very excited when I received my order! Unfortunately though, I have to report that I was pretty disappointed by the state it was in when it arrived. Usually the iconic Hobonichi box is enclosed in a paper bag, which keeps it safe while it travels from Japan. I (and I'm sure many others) like to keep the box to store stationery and other items in. This year though, the bag was dispensed with and the box was sent 'nude'. As you can see from the photos, it's covered in courier stickers and is very scuffed and a little crushed on the bottom.

The box such a gorgeous pink colour that I was particularly disappointed I won't be able to use it, and it's essentially 'just packaging' -- only fit for the bin now. But let's move away from the melodrama and see what's inside! As always, there is a quote on the inside flap of the box, and it's quite a nice one:

The first peek inside reveals the pencil board from the 'Standard Set' I ordered -- more on that later.

Underneath were the covers I ordered, and underneath that, some of the accessories. The Scary Bear spoon is one of this year's free items.

As always I ordered the Hobonichi Cousin, the A5 size book. I also got two covers, because I have a book from a couple of years ago that's still lacking a cover. The covers I chose were the plain colour in Lemon Squash yellow, and the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" Retro Cafe design.

I did a bit of a mix-and-match -- I ordered the Standard Set, which comes with the Hobonichi book, a plain cover (for me the Lemon Squash yellow), a clear cover-on-cover, and a pencil board. I plan to put the plain cover-on-cover over the Retro Cafe cover, and the Lemon Squash cover will serve as the base for the Season of Hope cover-on-cover that you can see below. I just can't decide which will go on my new Hobonichi and which will cover the old one!

As for the accessories, I purchased the matching folders for the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" set in both A5 and A6 size. To be honest, I don't have any particular plans for them, but I just love the designs so much that I couldn't help myself.

Here is the 2022 book with this year's free items: the usual tri-pen and the Scary Bear spoon. I just adore the colour of the pen barrel!

It again came with a fold-out booklet with information about the Hobonichi. It's a little smaller than in previous years, but it has a lovely illustration of cats in a park on the back, which I think I might even frame.

I got these animal stencils for no particular reason. They were reasonably priced, and I liked all of them, so I decided to get all four.

Likewise with these Pentel brush touch pens. I've seen other journallers use them in their Hobos without any bleed-through problems, so I indulged.

Lastly I purchased a few washi tapes. There is a larger range available in the Hobonichi store than there used to be, and more choice means more temptations! I couldn't help but get the matching washi tape from the "Shall We Have Some Tea?" range, as well as a few geometric edge-cut ones, which are a bit more unusual.

Aside from the disappointment with the box, which I'll admit was probably just due to high expectations, I'm very happy with my order. In fact, this was the first time there has been enough afordable choices in the A5 cover range that I had trouble deciding! It's a nice problem to have.

Unfinished Crafts, June 2021

Plushy Letters : O

Continuing the plushy letter theme from my last post, I started a Plushy 'O', as it seemed the second easiest letter to design after 'I'.

Floral Skirt

I started this skirt a few months ago, and it's almost finished. I just need to finish the bottom hem, and I'll probably add some of this lace to it. To be honest, it's deep Winter here now, and this is a rather summery skirt, so I'll probably put it aside until the season comes around again and work on other things in the meantime.

Grannyland Blanket

This is such an easy go-to project to grab when I'm feeling the urge to craft, but don't want a lot of brain-work to do. I realised a while back that the overall blanket will look better if I edge each square in the same colour. I finally got around to purchasing some wool for the purpose. I don't know why I chose red. Black is too common for this purpose, and I'm already making another blanket with white edgings. I thought about the primary colours and red just felt like the right one. I've started the epic task of adding one row of red to each of the 36+ squares. To be honest, I'm still not sure what dimensions I want the finished blanket to be, so there may be more squares before this thing is through!

Art Projects

The last two projects are ones that I'm doing under my artist umbrella, rather than 'private' craft projects. They're both still in the early stages, so I won't talk about them too much now. They both involve a lot of cross-stitch, bead embroidery, knitting and other crafty details, so I thought I'd mention them here at least.

Take care and keep on crafting!

Finished Crafts May 2021

More Tablet Weaving Bands

I took a few months off from tablet weaving, but then I became obsessed with it again. I was halfway through Band No. 3 (left) and when I took it up again, I forgot the pattern I was weaving. So one half of the band is wavy, and the other half stripey. But that's okay. It's long enough that I can make it into a bag strap, and hopefully I'll get around to that soon. Bands No. 4 and 5 (middle, right) are shorter. I was more wanting to try out different published patterns to see how they would turn out. I came across various problems while weaving, like twisting, bulging and bumping, but all of them have been explained by various Youtube videos and I feel like I'm learning more with every band.

Plushy Letters : I

A project I've been thinking about for a long time, but only started to act on recently, is to make a set of plushy letters that spell out words. For some reason I felt like knitting them instead of sewing them, which takes a lot longer but is a more portable craft. I couldn't find any patterns online that made letters as plump as I wanted, so I decided to design my own. I started with the easiest letter -- I.

Plushy Dinosaur

Last but not least -- the greatest triumph! I made this plushy dinosaur for my two-year-old friend, for her birthday. It took a very long time, and the process was filled with ups and downs, but at last at the end of March it was finally finished. I redesigned the back plates to make the shape more realistic, and also a smaller version to go along the tail. The original pattern was perfectly fine, but I just preferred the way it looks this way. Here is the pattern.

Next time I'll be looking at crafts still in progress!

A Freezer Full of Plums

Welcome to my annual fruit tree harvest report! The title of this post pretty much says it all, but I'll add some more details, as much as for my own future reference as for anything else. This was the second year of doing my 'meshless' fruit growing method. I've decided it's actually a thing and not just laziness!

The first to ripen was the cherry tree, around mid-November. The tree has grown strongly in the last year and I'm very pleased with it. The harvest was bigger than ever before. I'm pretty sure I took a photo of the fruit but I can't find it now. When I say "bigger than ever before", it was about 3 handfuls. I picked them while still underripe and laid them on a tray for a few days to ripen. We ate them with dessert for two nights in a row and then they were all gone. We only lost a few to birds.

The next to ripen was the apricot tree, around mid-December. The harvest was smaller than last year, about twice what you see in the basket in the photo (below). I stewed them and it came out to slightly less than one takeaway container full. I was lucky enough to be able to visit Mum at Christmas, and gave her a small, precious containerful.

I should mention the nectarine tree. It was having an 'off year' (apparently that's a thing). It produced many blossoms, but only two fruit grew from them. Then they were ruined while still only half-grown by the storms we had in December. The weather bureau reported widespread Brown Rot alerts to fruit farmers at that time -- it never occurred to me before that they apply to backyard single-tree gardeners like myself, too!

Last but certainly not least were the plums. They were still too small and hard to be affected by the brown rot, and we had a bumper harvest! despite my severe pruning of the tree last year to prevent it from producing too much. It seems that backfired, hm.

Harvesting fruit is fun -- looking amongst the leaves and selecting the ripest ones, feeling them still warm from the sun, placing them in the basket.

Despite my best efforts, some were eaten by birds. This photo (below) represents probably half of what was lost, but rest assured, it was only a small portion of the total produce! Towards the end, some dropped naturally as well, as I ran out of energy and skipped a couple of days of harvesting and processing.

I made sure to pick up all the dropped and bird-ravaged plums, as if left they might sprout into baby plum saplings. As nice as that sounds, I've learned from experience that it's not such a good thing -- they grow too close to the parent tree, so they need to be dug up (not to mention it makes mowing very difficult) and I never had a single one transfer to a pot successfully. And besides, I already get more plums than I can handle, even with just one tree!

I decided to process all the plums by stewing, bagging and freezing them. I didn't have the energy to make jam, and besides it's too hot in Summer! I can always defrost some and turn them into jam later if I want. I picked enough each day to fill the slow cooker, washed them and cooked them on High for about 2 hours.

I let them cool for a bit, then used the highly sophisticated method of fishing through them with a spoon to remove the stones. Each batch yielded about 3 sandwich-bag-sized bags, and there were 9 batches so that makes.... a lot of plums! Once frozen, they filled up about half the freezer (it needs defrosting, I know!). Once I'm able to visit my family again, they'll be sharing in the bounty. Sometimes when I open the freezer door, I think: if anyone else looked in here, they'd think I was a prepping vampire!

I guess there will be a post on plum recipes coming up soon?

Craft Goals for 2021 - My Make 9!

The Make 9 craft challenge has been around for a few years now, but with everything that happened last year, I had completely forgotten about it. Even when I was reminded by seeing other people's goals popping up here and there on the internet, I hesitated. It just seems strange to plan for the future these days. Finally though, last week I felt an urge to work on some craft projects again and thought, maybe I'd like to do a Make 9 anyway!

(The accompanying pictures aren't really relevant, they're just nice backgrounds from photos I found on my phone!)

I deliberately made the goals very vague. My interests tend to change rapidly and without warning, so I wanted goals that would accommodate anything I was interested in at any given time. I did take the chance and looked through my current and planned projects list to add some to the grid. I made sure to choose some smaller projects, with the awareness that I'm starting 6 weeks late. Here are my thoughts:

1. something I want - probably my next sewing project: a skirt from a blue/silver floral fabric I bought recently. Hopefully it will be more successful than my last sewing project!
2. something I need - a pair of shorts, because I need them. Not sure what fabric to use yet.
3. a gift - a secret project! Ideally I'd like to have it done by the end of March.
4. a long term project - Green Plushy Monster. It's not that long term, I guess, maybe 18 months. But he only needs some arms and maybe a fuzzy hairdo and he'll be done.
5. a small project - to finish off: Trollen Braid. Over Christmas I had a mini-obsession with making trollen braids (a new-to-me craft). I started 2 and I'd like to finish at least one.
6. for a festive time - future project: Christmas garland. I bought some supplies to make a Christmas garland a couple of years ago and haven't gotten around to putting them together yet. It can sit on the back burner until close to the end of the year.
7. spliced - Lace Gilet - an experimental work in progress at the moment. I bought two lace dresses and want to try to splice them together into a gilet (sleeveless cardigan thingy).
8. altered - pants enlargement. I bought some pants online and they were a bit small, so I'm planning a way to make them fit.
9. decorated - Tablet Weaving piece. As I talked about earlier in the year, I taught myself tablet weaving. My enthusiasm slowed down a bit on the third piece, but I'd like to finish it off and find something to use it for.

Of course, this may change at any time!

Habitica : Gamified Motivation App

A few weeks ago I started using Habitica. In the creators' words, it's a "free habit and productivity app that treats your real life like a game". The app has been around for several years, and I have to admit, it's not new to me either. I tried using it a few years ago and found it too complicated and confusing. But for some reason I decided to give it another go, persisted in trying to understand it, and now use it daily.

Anyone familiar with roleplaying games will understand how the Habitica game works. You have a character with a certain amount experience points. Every time you complete a task, these increase slightly, and over time you level up. When you level up, you receive stat points that you can allocate to the character's four stats. You also earn coins that you can use to buy outfits, decorations and weapons. There are four different character classes to choose from, with different skillsets. (I'm a Rogue!) Players can join challenges or play in a party to defeat monsters. I haven't personally joined a party myself, but I am doing some challenges which are fun. You can also collect pets! Currently I have my favourite one with me -- my pink dragon!

The core of Habitica is the tasks, and there are 3 different kinds which work in different ways. As I mentioned earlier, I did find it a bit confusing at first, but I came to understand it fairly quickly. The 3 different kinds of tasks are:

* Dailies -- tasks that you repeat every day, week, month, year, etc. These might be 'do the dishes', 'take my tablets', 'clean the windows', 'buy a planner'. These tasks disappear once you tick them off, but reappear on the appropriate day.
* To-Dos -- one-off tasks. Once it's done, you get the kudos, and it disappears forever.
* Habits -- these are things that you'd like to get into the habit of doing. They are repeated but don't have regular intervals. You might do them several times a day, or only once or twice a week. Examples might be 'read for 1/2 hour', 'work on art', or 'weed the garden'.

The three kinds of tasks are in different sections, and you need to flick back and forth to access them. I would say that's the only drawback of Habitica that I've found, but once I understood the purpose of the different types of tasks, it was a lot easier to handle. I've been using Habitica daily for over almost a month, and have found advantages that the other organising systems I've used don't have. The tag system is invaluable: I've set up tags such as 'morning', 'evening', 'computer' and 'garden', so I can filter tasks according to my situation at any particular time. This is something I couldn't do with other systems I've used, and I've come to find it incredibly helpful. In fact, Habitica has completely replaced Trello and my whiteboard as my way of organising my day.

The game is quite forgiving in many ways. At the beginning of each day, all of the previous day's not-done tasks are displayed, giving you the chance to tick off any that you did but forgot to update in the app. It also has a built-in motivator: every day that a task isn't done, it turns a deeper red colour, and when you finally do those, you get extra experience and coins. Ones that you've diligently been doing daily turn green and then a beautiful turquoise colour. Of course, it's up to the player's sense of honesty to faithfully record what they did or neglected to do! I don't know about you, but I always feel like I didn't really earn something if I cheated to get it.

I could go on about Habitica's features (like the group challenges and supportive community) but I'll leave it for now! All that remains is to tick off the "Blog Post" task. :D

101 Things in 1,001 Days : Huge Overhaul

For the last few years, I've been on the 101 Things in 1,001 Days track. (Click that link or the tab above to see the full list.) My second cycle is due to finish this coming March. 1,001 days seems like a very long time -- two and three quarter years. Or, it used to seem like a very long time, anyway. Now, at the end of 2020 and all the things that happened (and didn't happen!), it seems like just a hop and a skip.

For most of last year, I forgot about my 101 Things goals. There were so many more important things to think about. I didn't feel like doing most of the things on the list, and some of them I wasn't even able to anyway.

Recently things started to look brighter, and I looked at my list again. It hit me that the end date of 13th March 2021 is only a few months away. And I'd only completed about 15 of the 101 items! That's a bit drastic!

Things I did do: played board games!

I've seen people online refer to 2020 as "the year that time forgot" or a "leap year" -- not in the sense that we had an extra day in February, but that it felt like we collectively skipped a year in our lives. So I've decided to do the same with my 101 Things list! I extended the due date one year, to 13th March 2022.

Remember when the seasons used to change?

Then it was time to look at the actual things I'd wanted to achieve. Soon after the first lockdown started, I'd already gone through the list and marked some items with the label 'Compromised'. This meant anything that I couldn't really do at home, like going to a drawing class, or getting a beauty treatment, or going overseas. (Yeah, that last one was a big one!) I had trouble thinking of a good word for the label, and I ended up choosing 'compromised' because it was halfway between things being fine and things being actually cancelled. I'm really glad I did that in the past, as it helped me to overhaul my list and not get too overwhelmed with all the things I have to let go of.

We had an indoor picnic!

There were also some new things I'd started that I wanted to be included in the list, so I replaced some old items with them. Here are some of the things I changed:

❖ #8 - removed "make a gluten-free flour mix" and replaced with "keep a Morning Pages journal for 1 year"
I'm no longer eating bread at all (gluten-free or otherwise) so this goal is pretty pointless. I started writing daily Morning Pages last November and have been going steadily so far, so I thought I may as well make it a proper goal. A whole year seems like an intimidatingly long time, but I thought I may as well challenge myself.

❖ #82 - removed "re-read the Harry Potter series" and replaced with "complete 6 challenges on The StoryGraph"
While I'll always like Harry Potter, I'm really over JKR's recent activities, and I just need a rest from her creations. I was in a bad reading slump throughout most of 2020 anyway, until I discovered The StoryGraph. Their challenges are a lot of fun, so I added this one in.

❖ #56 - removed "go overseas" and replaced with "complete 3 writing challenges"
It was with a heavy heart that we had to cancel our trip overseas. We postponed it for 2 years to October 2022, which is too late to add into the current 101 Things list. It will hopefully be in the second one, though. I've been much more into writing again, so I replaced it with a writing goal. I've talked myself into and out of writing (properly) so many times, and I just want to do it! Or not do it! But either way, just make up my mind, haha.

I had a green-themed tea party in my backyard.

There were some things that I decided to reduce and/or modify, rather than replace, including:
❖ #44 - art/craft classes reduced from 6 to 5; also online classes count too
❖ #33 - finish current craft projects reduced from 12 to 10
❖ #74 - read biographies reduced from 10 to 8
❖ #49 - computer-free days reduced from 20 to 15

Example of unfinished craft project.

And there were a few things I was pleasantly surprised to find that I've completed! These were:

❖ #15 - "decide on something to collect and do it"
I decided a while back to collect tea pots and tea tins. I visited my Mum once I was allowed to again, and she let me have first pick of all the knickknacks she was getting rid of. I chose 4 teapots and lots of other teawares for my collection. Added to the 8 or so teapots I already have, I think that's probably enough ... for now!

❖ #77 - "read A Christmas Carol every Christmas"
I actually managed to do it before Christmas this year, too! I watched Townsend's reading at The Nutmeg Tavern on Youtube, and it was delightful. Technically now though, seeing as there's another Christmas to go before the new ending date, does that mean I still have one to go before I can tick this off? No, I think I'll give it to myself. We all deserve some self-kindness.

I'm still feeling hesitant to make any firm plans, and I think I'll review my list again in a few months. But just having done this much feels like a real achievement. Now I can get back to reading and writing and making art and crafts! And hopefully writing about it here more regularly. See you soon!

I've been doing a lot bit of drawing too.