Week 4 - no progress yet again...

...but I actually have a valid excuse for this time...my parents are visiting until 9th June...I've been to Scotland as I said before, been to the Lake District, driving around Lancashire a bit, and yesterday we went to Blackpool Zoo for the day. I have done a few stitches on Heavygoing Grizzly, but nothing more than that... it is a bit tricky finding the time...spent most of today potting around the house, cutting the bush by the front door and doing a bit of laundry, whilst my dear hubby did the lawnmowing, lunch and dinner before disappearing up to his room. Now I'm watching Morse with mum and dad... They return to Sweden on 9th June, and then I will do my best to catch up with my list...I'll try to do the biscornu before then, but I'm not sure I'll succeed, especially now that my hubby starts working tomorrow, and is doing long days all week and then he starts nights over the weekend...and then he's off on the Monday before back to work.

I'll get better, I promise:)

X Ylva

Week 4 - Frustrating!

I have been working solidly on the instructions this week. Progress has been very slow and hard going though. I've been struggling with one diagram for most of the last week. I'm a prefectionist but in the long term I think that's for the best. If people can't understand the instructions then they won't be interested in the design. I may have no hair left by the end of the process though. I had a major fright midweek when I plugged my data stick in to find most of the files were corrupted. Thankfully I hadn't lost much as I back up regularly but it took a whole day to sort through what was left. On top of that my laptop came back from repair unrepaired! Typical, just when I need efficient technology to speed the process.
In between fighting with instructions and tech I had to create an emergency Victorian costume for my daughter's class Victorian day. Dressmaking does nothing for the tidiness of a house. When I get to the end of these instructions it'll need a major tidiness blitz, at least I'll be keen to do that and get away from the work for once.

Vicki

Week 3

Hi all,
Ok, so I am a few days late with my blog...have also not got much to show for the last week...I've done the second side of my project and will get around to making it into a biscornu...the thing is though that my parents arrive tomorrow for a 3 week visit from Sweden, and tonight we are going to see Eric Clapton at the NEC...for which we are leaving in about 5minutes...

I have worked on organising my room, but there is just too much stuff to organise and too much else to do apart from what I really want to do, and with my husband at home on holiday my plans go to pot as if he wants to do something I cannot exactly say I don't have time...

I promise to update soon again...but it will not be until next week as we are going to Scotland on Friday and won't be back until earliest Sunday evening...possibly not until Monday...

Enough excuses for the moment...I will work on bettering myself I promise!

Talk soon!

Ylva

Week 3 - progress - sort of!!

This week has been dedicated to writing the instructions for the magazine piece. This is a very labour intensive part of the process and usually involves a lot of frustration as diagrams are very hard to do. Whenever you use a pattern please do not underestimate quite how much work goes into the instructions. In these days of rampant copyright fraud sweeping the industry it's somewhat demoralising to put so much work into a piece to know that it stands a high chance of being stolen and distributed for free before you've had the chance to breathe. Designers are not rich, there is very little money in it and yes it's hard for everyone right now but how would you feel if you'd put in months of work and not got paid for it. Anyway, rant over - I've still got a lot of work to do on this set of instructions as it's a complex piece. I am distracted every now and then by my daughter's demands for a Victorian costume for school though.
The tidying/DIY has not happened this week - when I haven't been creating diagrams/instructions or costumes I've continued sewing on Crystal. It's starting to take shape now, there's still quite a lot to go though so I have to be disciplined and make sure that I get a bit done every night.

Oh well - it's progress of a kind

Vicki

update from week 2

I just had to add this post as I have finished one project picture...have yet to decide what to make it into, but I'll get to that soon:)



Ylva

Week 2

My second week has been a bit more productive than the first week, but I still don't have much to show for it... I am working on a cross stitch picture with some varigated threads I bought at the NEC, and so far it is looking lovely...I will add a picture as soon as I have one uploaded - cannot take a pic at the moment as my cat is lying on my lap. (OK, got the pic now as my cat's gone to bed)

I am working on organising my craft room, but I just have soo much stuff of different categories ... I will get there though:) I need to finish it before my mum and dad comes to visit as I don't want them to see my mess...lol - not to mention the fact that my index finger is still numb from cutting out my stamps from the EZ Mount that is supposed to make it easier to use the stamps with the blocks...it is getting better, but it is still a bit numb on one side...very strange indeed...

Next week I hope to post earlier and have more to say...this is why I need the kicklist I think...to get me going...I feel bad when I have nothing to show for the week that's gone...it is pathetic in my eyes to not work, have all this time and still not have anything to show for it...

I promise I will get better:)

X Ylva

Week 2 - Good news

This week seems to have gone rather fast. It has been a busy week so I haven't got anywhere near as much done as I should have. I do have some rather good news though, I have got a design accepted by a magazine.
In a way this is a bit of a cheat as I had already sent this design to a magazine for their consideration so I am not considering it task completed. It does mean however that I will have less time to devote to tasks over the next couple of weeks as I need to work on the instructions and that'll be a full time job.
I have managed to do a bit more work on the bedroom/filing tasks. I now have several boxes of stage 1 sorted paperwork (sorted by drawer for the filing cabinet but not subdivided) and have shredded a large dustbin bag full. Still doesn't look much better though and I really have let the rest of the house go. I wish that I could work out that magic formula to keep on top of everything at once.
I have continued sewing Crystal and thankfully haven't had to unpick anything since last week, fingers crossed that stays the case.

Right - off to continue working on the instructions

Vicki

Update week 1...

Unfortunately I have not been as efficient as Vicki, but I don't feel too bad about it. If you are not interested in the long story, skip down to the bottom of my post...lol...

I have had issues with my external drives... I have had one drive for a few years, and have kept EVERYTHING I have collected during the last 10years...movies, pictures, old University documents, music and so on... Now, this drive has been making a LOT of noise every time I started it...kinda like a big cat meowing... So, I thought I would get a new drive and move everything over...silly me I actually MOVED everything over from the old to the new, and then thought everything was fine. About 3weeks later I worked on organising my files one evening, shut everything down for the night, and in the morning when I started the computer and drive, the computer said I had to format the drive before using it...so, I tried EVERYTHING to get the drive working, but unfortunately nothing worked. I asked PC World where I got it, and they said I had to buy a program for £40 which MIGHT work ... I did not want to spend that kind of money on something that may not actually help me, so I looked online, found a program, downloaded a demo, and it found ALL my files on the old drive. I moved the recovered files from the old drive to my husband's drive, but every single file is named Unknown and numbered from 1 to 54217...which is how many files I have...so I have no way of knowing what is what which is a bit tricky. So, I did the same on the new drive where I should have the same amount of files...yeah right...on that one the program found more than 200,000 files - most of which are system files and error files and so on...so I have had so spend several hours (more than 10) on ticking the box for every file that I want, that is in the right place...as the drive which is called F also has some areas which are called unknown, 1 3 16 and so on...and anything that is unknown or not on the F drive are bad files. This is why I have not had the time to work on my list this week...I have spent most of my days ticking boxes and rescuing my files...

So, I have done a few stitches on the Heavygoing Grizzly and will post a pic of what it looks like tomorrow. I have not really done anything else on my lists...have been trying to work on weightloss, but that has been a standstill as well. I did go swimming, and I have been out walking the dog, but nothing like what I should have been doing...

I did get a little book to do a food diary, and will set up my Wii tomorrow.

Signing off for now,

Ylva

Week 1 - A start!

I've decided that I should work on one business task and one domestic at a time so that I don't neglect either.
On the domestic front I decided to start with tidying the bedroom as this will help with the filing and accounts tasks too. I have made a good start but, as is quite usual with me, I have made the task bigger than it should have been. It will now involve decorating too!! It does need it. When I bought this house it had to be completely gutted but I moved in with a baby before it was redecorated. It has been a slow process getting that decorating done. I have papered 2 walls of the bedroom but a 3rd is behind a set of wardrobes that unfortunately have had to be bolted together and are going to be very hard to move and the 4th needs to be replastered as it all fell off when the paper was removed. If the room is going to look good I will have to do them. In the meantime whilst I have sorted a lot of stuff and thrown away enough rubbish to fill the bins for a couple of weeks (yes I have sorted for recycling) I have since pulled all the contents of the cupboards out to sort so it doesn't look any better. In the meantime the rest of the house has gone to pot - how does it happen so fast?
As we had lovely weather at the start of the week I was inspired to tackle the back gate task. I went to a large DIY store but was most unimpressed by the quality of gates on offer - I want it to withstand a shoulder not fall apart at the first strong wind. Tried another one today but they didn't have any at all. May have to build from scratch.
On the business front I decided to start with the magazine piece. I really want to do the DVD task first but am having trouble getting my head round it. It has been a tricky week for the piece that I am working on anyway. I am sewing up a piece that is provisionally called Crystal. I sew all of my work as it helps me refine the design and sort out any bugs. The first couple of days I managed to sew it wrongly and had to unpick a whole lot which is very frustrating. I finished the section a couple of days ago but on looking at it something didn't seem right. After some thinking I decided it was 1 thread too close to another section of the design on one edge (yes that does make a difference), so more unpicking ahead!! I had to redesign it on the computer but as it is a large design the programme has trouble coping with it and it was very very slow going. The design is a symetrical piece (as most of my work is) so I am sewing one of the repeats of the section to check that is now right before unpicking the first one.
All in all not a desperately productive first week but I have made a start and that's a good feeling.

Vicki