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Monday, July 31, 2017

I made it at the last minute! (and a link party)

Are we serious? Where did July go??

The Ongoing Project List:
  1. Growing Up QAL - completed more blocks (cannot share) :)
  2. Art with Disney QAL (2018) - no progress
  3. Splendid Sampler - no progress
  4. Charity quilts - no progress
  5. SK project - four bookshelf sections completed (see below)
  6. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - waiting for July's block
  7. En Provence QAL - no progress
  8. Journaling into my new Leuchtturm 1917 - loooove it, will share in August!
  9. the 70273 Project - no progress
  10. Book binding - no progress
  11. Twilters! Bee - waiting for August blocks
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I am working on my blocks for the Stephen King Quilt: for July One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts (#24). My plan was to have a total of 4 bookshelf sections done... I completed the forth section last night!!

Section 4

Section 3

Section 2

Section 1

While I find these monthly challenges extremely motivating unfortunately I won't be able to participate in August because all the projects I will complete (which are going to be many) are for secret future events, so I wouldn't be able to share my "goal accomplished" post :(

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And talking about secret future events...
I just announced the 2018 QAL I am running on my other website!!


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How about you? What are YOU up to?
Link it here and share it with me!!


Saturday, July 15, 2017

Where is this month going? (and a link party)

Time is flying! I have so many projects to work on and I feel so slow! Oh well, better slow and steady than doing nothing at all ;) 


The Ongoing Project List:
  1. Growing Up QAL - October block 1 done (cannot share) :)
  2. Art with Disney QAL (2018) - finished assembling one more block, but need to quilt it!
  3. Splendid Sampler - no progress
  4. Charity quilts - no progress
  5. SK project - third bookshelf section completed (see below)
  6. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - waiting for July's block
  7. En Provence QAL - no progress
  8. Journaling into my new Leuchtturm 1917 - loooove it, will share in August!
  9. the 70273 Project - no progress
  10. Book binding - no progress
  11. Twilters! Bee - made July blocks (see below)
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I am working on my blocks for the Stephen King Quilt: for July One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts (#24)  I plan to have a total of 4 bookshelf setions done... this is the third



And these are 4 of the book covers I need for the forth section.



Maybe I will be able to actually complete my project in time for the finish link up!!


More close ups and patterns will be available on Fandom In Stitches in August as part of the "Long Live King, Stephen" stitch-along :)

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And last, but not least, I completed two blocks for the Twilter's block swap. Aren't these cat cute?


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How about you? What are YOU up to?
Link it here and share it with me!!


Sunday, July 2, 2017

It's a slow, slow summer (and a link party)

I have been stitching, designing and planning, but I have been quite slow... oh well, let's enjoy the summer!


The Ongoing Project List:
  1. Growing Up QAL - July blocks will be shared tomorrow, August and September blocks are ready (cannot share). Already decided on what to do for my 2018 QAL :)
  2. Art with Disney QAL (2018) - a second QAL for 2018 because why running a single event when you can run two! :) :) I assembled a block, but didn't quilt it, so I will share it probably next week!
  3. Splendid Sampler - no progress
  4. Charity quilts - no progress
  5. SK project - one bookshelf section completed (see below)
  6. Molli Sparkle's "The Honey Pot Bee" - waiting for July's block
  7. En Provence QAL - no progress
  8. Journaling into my new Leuchtturm 1917 - loooove it, will share in August!
  9. the 70273 Project - 4 blocks done (see below)
  10. Book binding - no progress
  11. Twilters! Bee - paused until July
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I am working on my blocks for the Stephen King Quilt: I was planning to have 2 bookshelf sections ready as my One Monthly Goal for June... well... fell short :(
I have one done, and I collected the blocks for the second one, so it's not too bad...
But for July One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts I put back again this project, and I plan to have a total of 4 bookshelf setions done: so I have 2 now, 2 to go


More close ups and patterns will be available on Fandom In Stitches in August as part of the "Long Live King, Stephen" stitch-along :)
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More blocks for the the 70273 Project. If you are curious to see some of the beautiful quilts made with all these blocks check out this Pinterest board!

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And last, but not least, Jennifer sent out a call for blocks to make a quilt for a kid in need. This is my block!

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How about you? What are YOU up to?
Link it here and share it with me!!


Saturday, July 1, 2017

Journal and planning: Mid-year review



Instead of sharing my June planning/journaling pages (which by now are very similar to previous months), I thought it would be a good idea to share with you the fantastic benefit of the daily practice of journaling/planning!!

This was my evolution:



Lesson learned:

  1. writing things down (todo, tasks, etc) makes a HUGE difference in getting things done... it may sound counterintuitive, but the more time I spend planning, decorating and sketching in my journal, the faster and more efficient I am when I am actually doing the tasks I wrote down! Probably is because my brain already processed the activity so I don't need to think about it, I just do it!
  2. the only way to improve is to do something over and over again: there are pages that are decorated in a way I don't like... well, I turn the page and move on. There are so many beautiful talented people that share their creation... I don't need to be like them, I can be inspired by them and learn from them... but the important thing is to keep doing it!

One of my words for the year was "Habit". Every month I wanted to focus on building specific habits. And here is where my journal changed my life.
From flossing my teeths, to cleaning the fridge, to doodling, to cleaning my scrap bin, to reading all these activities were added in my planner (as daily, weekly or monthly activities). It's not that I wasn't doing them before :) but I was not consistent... by building these activity into the structure of the planned day/week/month I am now doing all those (and more) without even thinking about them! That's the power of habits!


I also started cooking (more)... again, I was cooking before :)
I am actually quite a good cook and I bake great cookies and cakes too... the "problem" is that I do it only for "special events" so when I have to think "what should I have for dinner" I default on boring things :) so, thanks to the "Weekly specials" section in my planner I tested 36 completely new dishes in 4 months!! :) :) some of them ended up amazing... some a complete disaster, never to try again :)
But now I have some more tested dishes that I will add to my regular rotation and my meals will be less boring!! :)
The point is, I just needed some motivation and structure! so including 2 new dishes a week was duable and fun!


I started learning more about female artists!
As part of my monthly spreads, I have my "Doodle an Artist", where I pick one artist and draw/doodle pieces of their work in my planner. This year I will be exploring female artists because women were not included in my art history classes :( :( :(
I learned about Kara Walker, Yayoi Kusama, Beverly Fishman, Kesley Montague and MadC. I am exploring now Agnes Martin.
It's not in depth research, it's just an activity to open my eyes to artists out there! :)


I also started reading again!! I have a "reading list" where I track the books I read... just setting up that last month reinitiated me to the pleasure of reading paper books... in 2 months I already finished 4 books (which is not much considering that I was reading about 200 books a year during highschool... but it's better than the 0 paper books a months that I have been doing in the past few years :) ) 



And last, but not least, I am getting extra money! :) :)
By watching youtube videos about DIY planner covers I discovered channels that I started following. On one of those channels, the host mentioned an app (Ibotta) that gives you cash back for purchases you make (grocery and much more). I heard about these apps, but I don't have time for coupons and other things like that so I never explored that. This sounded simple enough and I tried it. In 4 months I got about 70 dollars of cash back (that are sent to the paypal I use to buy crafty things :) :) ). Not bad for very few and easy steps! The app has also ways to earn more money if you connect to your friends on FB but I will never do that (I am super suspicious of apps that want to get too much information from me... why do you need to know my friends to give me 50 cents cash back for my tomatoes purchase???? :) )
Anyway, here the lesson is: you never know what you will learn when you explore more about the world around you, so by learning about planning, you may earn extra money :)


I am all set up for July: I moved to another journal and I love the new one! I will share all about her next month :)

If you have any question about my planner, my spreads, my comments, etc, don't hesitate to comment below. Also please share planning, tracking and productivity tips, as those are always welcome!!!!

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