My 100 Days To Do List roundup

So August 9th saw the end of my 100 days To Do list project.  Most of the items I managed to complete.  These are the ones I have not:

No. 3 - Doing 10 minutes of yoga three times a week.  ~ This was harder than it should have been.  It's important to me and yet, it got forgotten too easily.

No. 9 - Select some of Jake's art work for display.  ~ I selected some then put them aside, didn't actually get round to displaying any.

No. 10 - Set up a regular plan of activities for Jake.  ~ I had such good intentions and lots of sources for ideas, but when it came down to sitting down and doing the planning, I just didn't manage it.  Not regularly anyway.  I've been trying to follow his lead when it comes to activities, and we've been outdoors a lot but I've also been aware of simply feeling too lazy / tired / resistant to trying so hard and have let him watch a lot of TV.  I'm not going to beat myself up about it though.  I don't think Jake has suffered and I don't have to have every minute of each day planned out for him.

No. 11. Keep a regular handwritten journal.  ~ Yeah right! 

No. 13. Do at least 5 drawings for my etsy shop.  ~  I managed 2.  And I intended to do more, but in true me fashion, I've now tired of the whole shop idea and don't much care for trying to sell my drawings.  After all, does it really matter if I make $8 for a drawing or not?  I don't draw for money.  So I'm thinking of giving up the shop altogether and just giving stuff away instead.

No. 14. Do at least 5 sketches for the cookbook project.  ~ MAJOR fail.  Not only have I done NO drawings, I haven't even thought of the project. 

No. 18. Complete at least two felt projects. ~ I managed one.  Perhaps I had too many things on this list.  Or perhaps my attention span does not match with my intentions.

Still, I did what I could, went at my own pace and I'm happy with what I've managed to do.  I do think I need to focus on one or two things though, not spread myself too thin.  We'll see what the future brings.

No. 24 ~ Sign up for the 365 Project

I just discovered this project so it just got added to my list. 
At first I was going to sign up on 23rd July, Jake's 2nd birthday, and use the project to document Jake's year as a two year old. 
Then I thought a photo of Jake every day would be overkill, even for me.
Then I was gonna wait till the 1st of June to sign up but I've never been very good at waiting.

So I signed up today.
Here's my first entry!

(Completed 27.5.10)

No. 17 ~ Sort presents for Alyx 12th birthday

Alyx is my niece who is visiting us in London this summer with her parents.  She's going to be 12 while she's here, 5 days after Jake turns 2.

I usually send her books via Amazon.  This year I wanted to do something a bit different.  I do have a book in mind for her, but I've also arranged a puppet making workshop for her (and her Mum and me) with the wonderfully talented Robyn. 

Hope she enjoys it.

(Completed 15/5/10)

No. 4 ~ Declutter downstairs bedroom

There are two parts to this item of the list, but I want to blog about this one because it's done and it feels great!  I also started this bit a couple of weekends ago and finished it off today.  Here are before, during and after photos...

 

(Completed 13/5/10)

No. 7 ~ Sort out storage and organisation of Jake's toys

I knew this was gonna be a big job.  Just trying to keep things somewhat tidy with no bits missing at the end of each day is already a struggle.  But I knew I needed to organise things better.  I started this job a couple of weekends ago and managed to finish it today.  Here are before & after photos for the living room.  It may not look like much of a difference, but it definitely feels much better. 

In the before photo, there are bits of bubble wrap draping over an unused changing bag we were given free which was full of old stoma supplies!  In short, it had become a bit of a rubbish dumping ground.  The unused stoma supplies are now bagged up to give to the hospital.  It was very odd seeing those again.  It felt like a whole other lifetime ago when Jake had a stoma.

Here, many of Jake's toys have been redistributed into seagrass baskets. 

Sorry the photo isn't very clear.

I also did a lot of sorting out in the downstairs bedroom which overlaps with another list item.  But here is an after photo of the part of the room concerning Jake's toys. 

(Completed 13/5/10)

No. 8 ~ Start a dressing up box for Jake

At the moment it only contains two pairs of my old shoes, some hats, a scarf, a little rucksack and an old sleeveless cardi.  But, it's a start...

(Completed 13/5/10)

Felt pillow & blanket

Today I really needed to make something lovely, just for the heck of it.  So while Jake was having his nap, I made these...a little felt pillow and blanket for his doll's bed.  Not very complicated, and the sewing hurt my wrist like hell, but I like how they turned out.

Making a doll's bed is one of the ideas for play out of the Toddler's Busy Book.  We first did this a couple of weeks ago, using some old muslin squares for the pillow and blanket and a cardboard box for the bed.  I'm glad he now has a specially made mini-pillow and blanket to use instead.  I'm glad I bothered.  Why shouldn't he have things like this to play with?  Just because he's a boy doesn't mean he won't appreciate it.  In fact, since he woke up from his nap and discovered these, he's been trying to use them for himself, me and his Daddy.  Perhaps I should make a bigger version!

Also, I don't know if it's a coincidence, but since Jake started playing at putting his doll to bed, he's been asking to go to bed when he's tired in the evening (and at a reasonable hour too), rather than wailing and protesting when we decide he's tired enough.  The power of play :-)

We've got seedlings!

One week on and we have basilings and chivelings!  Yippeeeee!!  I was especially worried about these since I heard they needed extra warm conditions to propagate.  There's no peep yet from either the coriander or the parsley but this is very encouraging.  [Edit: As of 13th May, we have a peep from the Coriander too!]

No. 17 ~ Look into crafty projects using felt and find up to 5 that are of interest

Well this was nice and easy.  Here's what I found.

1) Make felt creatures, as in, from The Cute Book, a book I already happen to have, which is even better!

While searching for images of things from The Cute Book, I found this fantastic blog.  I love it when that happens. 

2) Make little felt bags, like this one, at One Crafty Momma's blog.

3) Sew felt shapes onto cotton bags - no images for this one, just an idea I have.

4) Make a felt "bed set" with little pillows and a blanket for Jake to put his little friends to bed.  At the moment he is using old muslin squares.

5) Making felt 'tooth bears' as in this Martha Stewart project, not that I'm waiting for Jake's teeth to drop out just yet!

And just for good measure...

6) Make a felt faces game for Jake.

7) Make felt "labels" for Jake's toy storage bags.

(Completed 12/5/10)

No. 1 ~ Grow an indoor herb garden which includes chives

I know it's the height of laziness but I decided to order one of those grow your own herbs kit off the internet.  We don't have a garden centre near us and we don't drive so it was the best option.  Plus it meant this got done fairly quickly and easily!

I don't know how long it will take for the seeds to germinate and grow, but it's exciting to wait and see.

(Completed 5/5/10)

No. 6 ~ Sort out a better way to store my arts & crafts stuff

I've spent most of the day moving stuff around.  When I started, it did feel a bit like I was de-cluttering.  We gave loads of books to Oxfam and I bought some storage boxes with the view to organising stuff by category.  It has helped a little.  Instead of having all of my art stuff scattered around the flat, it's now in three storage boxes in easily accessible places.  One is my fabric, bead and sewing box.  Another is my paper and art materials box.  The third is my printing box.  I can also see what's inside them, so they are less likely to be ignored.

(Completed 3/5/10)

No. 2 ~ Put my 100 days drawings into a scrapbook

Yup, it's taken me almost two months to get round to doing this.  Everytime I looked at the drawings stuck to the wall I imagined it would take ages to get done.  In fact it took about an hour, using double sided tape and Paul keeping Jake occupied.  As you can see, I decided to keep it simple.

Scrapbook from Paperchase.

(Completed 2/5/10)

No. 5 ~ Set up a materials box for Jake activities

Yes.  It's a box.  But you won't believe how long it's taken me to do this.  Mainly because I had a vague idea that I should be saving stuff but no idea what I was going to do with it all.  Now I have some ideas and a plan, so all I needed to do was get the box.  Why I couldn't have got the box first, I have no idea!  Just how my mind works I guess.  More about the ideas in a later post.

I've been collecting bits and pieces in odd corners of the flat for months and months.  It felt so good to be able to put everything in one place.  What's in it?  So far we have different types of tape, old catalogues, lolly sticks, paper muffin cases, old postcards and cards, various containers with lids, used tin foil, egg cartons, bottle tops, corks, cardboard tubes, old cds.  There's more to be gathered including pipecleaners, felt, ping pong balls, wool, string...the list goes on.

(Completed 1/5/10)

A To Do List for the next 100 days (to give myself a kick up the butt)

NB> This list has since been added to. For an up-to-date list, please click on My 100 days To Do list under my pages. (12.5.10)

~ 1 May - 9 August 2010
(I wanted to do this post in a fancy font, but blogger doesn't seem to have any)

1. Grow an indoor herb ‘garden’ which includes chives

2. Put 100 day drawings into scrapbook 

3. Start doing 10 mins of yoga 3 times per week in addition to Saturday class

4. Declutter & sort out downstairs bedroom & living room

Phase 1: throw out old papers etc, give away unwanted / unused stuff

Phase 2: reorganise storage to make better use of space

5. Set up a “materials” box to store things for Jake activities 

6. Sort out a better way of storing my arts & crafts stuff

7. Sort out Jake’s existing toys: reorganise storage of toys, set up system of organising toys so they can be put away easily and circulated regularly, give away unused stuff

8. Start a dressing up box for Jake

9. Sort out arts & crafts for Jake: Select some of his art work for display and put rest in a folder, Set up a tidy & usable arts & crafts box

10. Set up a regular plan of activities for Jake

11. Keep a regular, daily if possible, handwritten journal

12. Write 10.000 words for a personal writing project

13. Do at least 5 drawings for pleasure

14. Do at least 5 sketches / drawings for cookbook project

15. Sort presents for Alyx 12th birthday (by 23 July)

16. Sort presents for Jake’s 2nd birthday (by 23 July)

17. Look into crafty projects using felt and find up to 5 that are of interest
18. Create / settle on one design for printing – either for stationery set or for fabric printing


Reserve items if all of the above get done:

18. Buy and organise materials needed for printing above project

19. Start printing sets or items

20. Start on one or more of the felt projects
21. Start making sketches for graphic memoir project

Items for a future list:
Do a silk screen printing course with Print Club London