What I've Been Up To

I think I may have mentioned that I was in a bit of a crafting slump about a week ago. I had so many projects to do, but just no motivation to make anything. Not being able to create led me to become very depressed and I just didn't see an end in sight. I'm happy to report that the slump is over, and I'm crafting again! I'm not working at the furious pace I had been for several months, and that's probably a good thing because I believe that's what led to my burnout. Emotionally, I feel happy lately and I'm very optimistic about life. I've not felt this way for . . . well I really can't remember feeling this way. I've made some positive changes in my personal life and I'm moving forward. I also have a second job interview for a position with a company that I really really want. I'm very hopeful about my prospects as I have many years of experience doing this type of work. On to what I've been making recently.

I procured several rolls of fleece remnants from the remnant basket at Hobby Lobby recently. I'd never really worked with fleece before, but enjoyed making plushies out of it simply because it's so soft and snuggly. I ran across a tutorial on deviantART the other day about how to make fleece hats. It looked simple enough, so I drew a similar pattern to the one the artist used (I don't have easy access to a printer so I just drew the pattern free hand). Due to my hands-on learning style, it's difficult for me to follow written tutorials. I just really have to do the whole trial and error method when creating. So I did what I thought would work, and hand sewed my first felt hat! It came out a little wonky because my pattern wasn't accurate. I decided to add bunny ears and a kawaii face to it. Here is the finished product.

I did a little more research on the pattern because I wanted to make one for my friend, Ruby, to send her as a part of the Kawaii Swap we're participating in on Cut Out + Keep.  I found a pattern somewhere on the web that was made by using all these metric measurements.  Since I'm horrible at following directions and doing Math, it took me a little while to draw up the pattern, but I finally did it!  This time the hat came out more uniform.  I made a duck because that's Ruby's favorite animal.

I wasn't lazy this go around, so I added a brim to make it look finished.  It took me all day because again I only sew by hand, but I'm very pleased with the results.  I've still got one or two more projects to do for this swap, but I've not settled on an idea or ideas yet.

I have so much more on my list of things to do!  Since I lost about a week and a half due to my slump; I'm behind.  I have two t-shirts to stencil, an ornament swap to work on (I have one of six completed), a pair of earrings to make, and a blog feature to write.  I'm trying my best not to become overwhelmed, especially with the job interview coming up tomorrow.  I guess it's off to work on my list now!