Things to try and achieve in 2010

Not resolutions as such but a list of things that I need to get done and/or achieve during this New Year.

I need to buy some heavy duty fabric to make a door curtain for the back door together with a wind stopper for the bottom of the door to keep out the draughts. I already have the curtain track and the curtain tape and pad for the wind stopper.

I am intending to try and use up a lot of the bits I already have in-house rather than going out and just buying (which I cannot afford to do I can only window shop). I have kits that I have started and then put to one side and I have other brand new kits that I haven't even started. I have various knitting on the go as well.

I am seriously looking forward to having a go at playing with different crafts this coming year. This list is just the first draft no doubt I will add to it as I go along:

Start making Christmas presents/cards now for next year. My friend Margaret really impressed me with the little cross stitch card she made for me which I mentioned in an earlier post. So I am going to have a go at stitching my own. I have to just sort out a pattern or patterns which I have a lot of somewhere upstairs.

Start collecting bits and bobs for use in presents and/or decorations such as:

Flower wire and stub wires
Wire
Ring bases/wreath basis
Oasis
String
Silk flowers
(When I looked before Christmas I had difficulty in finding any). That was as a result of Kirstie's Home Made Christmas programme).

In particular look out for baskets and or hampers of different sizes and shapes in your local Charity shop/junk shops. They can always be re-vamped with a bit of fabric or decoration and/or paint or varnish and re-used either to deliver a plant in or as mini hampers to give home made produce in for your nearest and dearest and/or friends.

Make a stock of homemade cards and tags:

For Christmas
For Birthdays
For Births
For Marriages
For loss

Make some presents suitable as birthday presents

Try and finish some of my current work in progress items such as the various blankets have on the go and the cross stich items.

Start my clippie rug/rugs

Have a go at making soap

Start wine making seriously again (used to do this regularly years ago but somehow got out of the habit of doing the same.

Start making own beer - never made this before so something new to try.

Get more organised than I already am

Stop procrastinating and putting things off (one of my biggest problems)

Get the Garden sorted so that I can have a proper go at growing my own veggies and help supplement the housekeeping. I can grow things from seed and get them potted on it tends to be a bit hit and miss from thereon in need to be stricter on my timings and planning.

Get a shed so that can get the freezers out of the dining room to give me more space to move and also somewhere to store my jars and bottles. Unfortunately I do not have the use of an attic or a garage so storing things becomes a bit of a problem.

Get the greenhouse up and running again

Sow my own seeds and get plants up and running

Get the front garden tidied

Start making cider

Would like to have a go at making own bacon, sausages, salami and possibly have a go at a ham at a later stage.

Have a go a making my own Goats cheese

Have a go at making labna cheese from yoghurt

Have a go at potting meat

Try and get a serious grip on patchwork

Start dressmaking again - have a lot of fabric just need to get cracking

Get some more beading projects finished

Finish off jumpers which are work in progress

Keep an eye out for any opportunity that comes my way no matter how small and make the most of them.