New year, new habits

Let me begin by saying that I don't really believe in New Year Resolutions - not the ones about diets, exercise, giving up smoking or whatever (not that I am a smoker, but I have enough of other vices...). Why ruin the already bleak months of January and February by making life even tougher? Let's talk about that in March or April when the promise of Spring and longer days make such major changes easier. But resolutions to make this a colourful and creative period, however - now we're talking!
I am going to begin by looking back on this past year - my first full year of blogging and congratulate myself on what I have accomplished so far. The only resolution I have is to try to be a little bit tidier ;-) and this basket is one of the objects that I hope will help me with that. Behold my new craft basket! I used some of my scraps from the Amy Butler-quilt (still in progress...) to make a matching basket liner complete with pockets and all. So how is this going to help? Well, I tend to walk between my sewing area in the bedroom where my sewing machine, cutting board and my considerable stash is, to my comfortable sofa with my half-finished projects to do my pinning and hand sewing or whatever in front of the TV. And of course there is always some knitting, some sketches and notes about new projects and things like that, making my living room look rather messy.


So I have made this basket to contain all that mess which I move from room to room. It's pretty enough to sit on the sofa even when company arrives. (And once my quilt is finished it will even match!) It shows that I am in the middle of some creative process and that's OK, that's part of who I am, but it helps keeping the room reasonably tidy, avoiding the mad scramble to pick things up when the doorbell rings. And instead of the torn paper pieces and pink post-its scattered around I have bought a moleskin notebook to contain my ideas, and I'll really make an effort to be more tidy so that the mess doesn't impede on my creativity. (Big words ;-))Look, there is a New Year's Resolution after all! Weeeell, at least it will be a little practical help in getting there, but I won't expect miracles over night... Tomorrow I'll clear the mess on my cutting table so I can get started on a new project - a new arrival at the end of the year will need a little something to keep his cot warm - oh what fun, a new quilt! But first it's off to my Mother's for dinner.