35 Before 35 – The crafty bits

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Last week I posted my 35 before 35 list and said that I would go into more detail. So lets start with the crafty bit of the list

1: Organise Old Photos
2: Print out Photos
3: Hang my own art on walls
4: Investigate M. Rhodes
5: Do an Embroidery Piece
6: Take a Pottery Class
7: Try Wood Turning
8: Be Confident Using DSLR in Manual
9: Make a Quilt
10: Sew two Coats
11: Make a fitted collared Shirt
12: Make a Jumper on my Knitting Machine
13: Make a Pair of Shoes
14: Have a 90% Me-Made Wardrobe
15: “Downsize” My possessions
16: Maintain a Veg Garden for at least 1 year
17: Serve a completely me-made dinner party

1 & 2 come together, like many of us living through the lives of multiple computers and harddrives I have photographs stored in many places and have not really looked at them in years. I wan’t to organise a good way of storing and backing up the photos, possibly some form of NAS device and not JUST relying on google doing it for me… But obviously when backing them up I should probably look through them and delete some of the not so good ones and creating an album of the good ones. Along with adding some data/file hierachy that makes sure I can’t forget where they were taken. This also feeds into 3 and 26… And once I have decided on what are my best photos I need to actually print some of them out.

3 I want to hang some of my own creative endevours on my walls, both photography, see above, and some of my paintings. Which will mean I need to creat some paintings big enough to hang on the walls! I’m working up to this. And if 5 goes well you never know I might be hanging some needlework too.

4 & 5 go together. Unlike what Tialys thinks I’m not going to suddenly turn into some kind of ameteur detective, it should probably read “Research Mary Rhodes”. Mary was a relative of my grandfather who used to teach Needlepoint, doing a quick search I have come across this blog post all about her. She also wrote a number of reference books, I think my grandmother might have a copy of all of them judging on the amount of space they take up on the shelf! I also ‘inherited’ some of her old sketchbooks and painting tools along with a few paintings. I know that my mother has an old folio of her work as well. – Lots to go on, I just need to start the work.

6 I used to do pottery in primary school as the school had a kiln. I would love to make some bowls/plates glazed in blue and white to add to our selection of mismatched crockery.

7 Since my mother has got her late fathers lathe set up in her shed recently I shouldn’t have too many barriers to achieving this one. Except finding time…

8 I am slowly chipping away at this one and am shooting more images in Manual, I am starting to take my camera out with me on walks and practising. But this feeds back into the beginning of the list, I need to do something with my images. I have been toying with the idea of resurrecting my other blog about my travels, but I am struggling to find time to keep posting to this blog so I’m not sure that I can justify this. – We will see…

9 If you follow me on Instagram you will have seen the start of this one. I might have bitten off more than I can chew here but I have started a 1″ scrappy Hexi Quilt using predominently leftover fabric from my dressmaking projects, and some inherited fabrics. I will post about the plan for the 2,400+ hexies soon!

10 I have the pattern for two coats that I need to actually get round to using. Realistically this wont be started until the winter but who knows by the time next winter comes around I might actually have a ‘posh’ coat that actually fits me.

11 I was going to put sew a collared shirt but then realised that I have actually done this one recently. But getting a fitted collared shirt that fits my body is going to take a little more work, but will be a great resource when mastered

12 This requires a little more work than it sounds like, I inherited a knitting machine from my grandmother a few years ago and I took ages to refurbish the knitting bed but the main machine is up and running now. I haven’t had so much luck with the ribbing attatchment yet, and put it in time out until “after Christmas” and haven’t picked it back up again yet…

13 Yet another craft for me to dabble in, but I would love to have a me-made pair of shoes. They have to have padded inners and grippy soles, which seems to be impossible to find in RTW.

14 A 90% Me-made wardrobe will come in time, I rarely go shopping these days so the percentage of me-mades in creaping up even without anything being thrown out. I actually don’t know if I will achieve this in 3 years as I am reluctant to throw perfectly useable stuff out if it is not in the best state as it won’t get sold in charity shops. So this will probably occur as my clothes wear out to an extent they are not reparable.

15 Downsizing goes along with 14 I have a lot of things that I don’t really need but wouldn’t be of any interest to other people so I need to find a way of recycling them properly. I also need to recycle a lot of old electonic devices. This one will happen slowly as needed.

16 Haha so with my current lifestyle this one is going to be the hardest to achieve. As I work away from home for almost all the summer I miss most of the growing season and if we have a summer as hot as last years then everything just shrivels up. But I also don’t get to harvest most of the crops as I am away during the harvest season. I think I need to find someone to share a garden with…

A large rolled Hanuch of Venison cooked with rosemary and bay leaves. For Christmas dinner.

17 Nikki and I have been contemplating this for a while and debating what the actual rules would be. But a basic version would be all Veg grown in our garden (see above), bread baked by us, Cheese made by us. So far we have done each of these by themselves but not together. A more complicated version that we have been discusing would be meat butchered by me (and possibly caught/shot), or fish caught by us, wheat ground ‘by us’, I’m not sure about milking a cow though… We are also considering making cider with all of our apples.

Soo lots of text there, I probably should have added in some pretty pictures or split it into two posts

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6 thoughts on “35 Before 35 – The crafty bits

  1. tialys

    That’s a hell of a lot to do – are you considering very, very early retirement then? 😉

    I have to confess to being just a bit disappointed that you’re not investigating some criminal activity in your spare time – although you don’t appear to have any spare time so it’s just as well.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Lol I’ll keep an eye open for any criminal activity that needs investigating and keep you informed 😉

      I keep being told that to take retirment you need a full time job first!
      Although my summers are notoriously busy I get a lot more free time in Winter. I just need to make use of it, hopefully these will keep me doing just that…

      Reply
  2. Dartmoor Yarns

    As Lynn says, a big list, But I do not condone her encouraging you to take up criminal activities.
    I have the very best of our photos made into books. They then actually get looked at once in a while and I do enjoy looking at them much more that way. I’ve done some that cover several years if there’s not be heaps activity, or ones that just cover a single holiday or I’ve added scanned old photos and made books, such as ones for my daughters’ 21st of them growing up and our 25 years of marriage as a gift to hubby on our 25th anniversary and, of course, a book of Mr Hicks.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      That idea has crossed my mind. I have contemplated doing annuals, makes me sound like a magazine company. But it’s the initial collating of photos that is going to be the big hurdle. Let’s hope I get somewhere with it soon.

      Reply
  3. Rainbow Junkie

    Couldn’t reply on the later post to maybe correct an impression of my cmment so trying here as there it didn’t go through – Realised my comment could have sounded sarcastic. Just to say I didn’t mean it to. Sounds a great list.

    Reply
    1. Pippa Post author

      Don’t worry I didn’t think that you were being sarcastic. It is a big list, thats why I put some nice and easy to achieve ideas on there as well as the bigger harder to achieve ones. Looking forward to seeing how it goes. 🙂

      Reply

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