Creativity | Focus

Focus – Week 2

January 15, 2018

I’m on a roll!  I work on my Focus post in the beginning of the week, and it helps me to plan on what I want to get done during the week.  I edit as I go for what I accomplish (or don’t as it may be!), and it is actually  helping me stay on track.


My accomplishments this week

Focus Photo –

This week’s photo(s) is on getting the house back in order from the holidays.  It is a bit of a contrast.  After the holidays it is a long hard draw to springtime with more daylight and warmer temps.  It has been pretty cold here the last few weeks.  Winter tends to make us all just want to stay home and hibernate.

Photography related is the repair of my Nikon 18-200MM lens.  I finally got it sent in this week after it having broken last spring.  It was basically an expensive paperweight.  I think it broke due to being on my camera all the time in various bags on the way to sports.  I will see how much it will cost to repair…hopefully it won’t be too outrageous, but they quoted me $300.  I’m hoping they quote high so they don’t have to come back to you for more.  I don’t like tossing things…I’d rather get them fixed instead of adding to the landfills.  Hopefully the fix doesn’t take too long, but I haven’t had it for close to a year so no rush (and no sports right now!), right?

Sewing –
  • My 52 week sewing challenge for the week was to sew something from the last fabric you purchased.  That was my lovely bamboo jersey tunic I posted earlier this week.

Next week’s challenge is Something to Make Sewing Easier.  This was a harder one for me.  I decided I’m going to make a fabric box to keep my fabric weights corralled.  They kind of go all over the place.

  • #makenine progress:

I did a small scale muslin of this skirt:

It was the wrong type of fabric, but it cemented what I need to do to make one for me.  The skirt has lots of angles and curves in it.  It will be a challenge to get all the measurements correct in the pattern.  I’m going to do the waistband different, too.  I was originally going to add elastic and lacing to the back, but I think now I will do a fitted drop waist with loops for a belt.  We’ll see.  I’m sure I’ll change my mind again.

  • I also volunteered for a couple of pattern tests.  I KNOW.  I wasn’t going to do that to myself, but they were a cute so I raised my hand.  I do have Monday off of work (supposedly), so hopefully I can get some things off my plate.

 

  • Finally got these pants finished up for the boy.  He doesn’t get much sewing wise.  Next time I will do the waist differently.  It doesn’t look the best inside.

House cleaning –
  • This was the Christmas decoration take down weekend.  I really need to go through the boxes and get rid of stuff, but this is the wrong time of year for it.  I needed to do it when I was putting things up so the places that take donations would have someone to give them to for the holidays.  I will try to remember to make that happen next year.
Time with family –
  • What cleaning up Christmas isn’t quality time??
Health, exercising, making healthy meals –
  • Exercised 0 times this week.  My goal was three times on the elliptical.  It was another pretty busy week at work and the burnout was real.  I did however shovel the driveway and clean all day on Saturday, so I think I can say that I got some exercise in.
  • This week was a lot of fast dinners, which don’t necessarily translate to healthy.  I wanted to use up some of the freezer food I had, so it doesn’t go to waste.  This at least means I didn’t eat a lot at dinnertime.  I generally like good food, which doesn’t equate to this type of food.  I also don’t usually pull out a bottle of wine to have with chicken fingers, so less alcohol was consumed, too.  By Wednesday I was pretty much done with the week, so we had pasta and wine, so not really helpful to the diet.  It is bad when it is Monday and it feels like Wednesday.
Creative Design – Week 2
  • I don’t know that this really counts as creative design, but I made a journal.  Actually I made it mostly last year, but never finished it up and ordered it.  Yes, I seem to just be finishing projects, but at least I am getting stuff done!

I made my planner so it has a master to do list, monthly list for activities, dinners, working out and stuff to sew.  It also has some blank pages for whatever else I want to put in there.  Mine will likely be sports schedules and parents names.

Here is the digital file of it.  I ordered it through Blurb and of course I ordered it the day before a sale at full price.  Story of my life.  If you like it, you can order it here.  Join their mailing list and you will get e-mails for their sales.  Don’t be me…wait for a sale.  This is very much personalized to me, but this is something you can do for yourself, too.  I just made the sheets in Excel, made them pdf files and uploaded to Blurb.  It worked great!

  • As for Illustrator, I know the journal above could have been done better in that program.  I watched some You Tube videos, so I learned a few things in it, at least.
Reading –

I finished up Nevernight, so now I need to figure out what book is next.  The Nevernight series looks like it will be three books, with the second one out now.  I’m deciding whether to buy it or wait until I can get the rest of the series.  I’m sure I’ll buy it. 😉  I had started on another book that I got for Christmas 2016, so I think I will pick that back up…it’s a Japanese Steampunk book so should be interesting.


Week two is wrapped up.  While this is probably incredibly boring for anyone to read, it is helping me to focus on what I want to get done during the week.  It’s what I need right now…a bit of a push and forum to write out what I got done and what I need to get done.  Accountability, if you will.