A little organization....

Honestly, I'm a little all over the place. I have so much I want to do that I'm just being completely sporadic. So time to change!

I decided that I work the best with calendars. I like physically seeing the month ahead of me and seeing my tasks written throughout. So I made a calendar.

I made one for July 25th - August 25th.

My process:

1. What do I want to get completed this month? I made a list of things I want to do, projects I have to work on, TV show schedules I want to watch, etc... I made note of everything.

2. What types of tasks do I want on my calendar? Then I decided what my calendar would show. I decided on everything! I thought if I had separate calendars for different things, I would probably favor one schedule or just completely forget about one. I decided I wanted everything together on the same page.

3. How should I format my calendar? Hand make it? Microsoft Excel? Find a website that helps you organize things? Microsoft Project? Buy a daily planner? Get a desk calendar? Buy a graphic wall calendar? So many options! I wanted mine to be tangible, as well as cleanly edited or revised. The best option for me was Microsoft Excel. You could easily move around ideas, change format, change anything! and it doesn't have to be permanent and you can't ever mess it up. You could always resave and reprint. After I decided on making it on Excel, I decided to color code my tasks. I would just simply write, or type, the task I had planned in the appropriate box, with it's assigned color.

• TV Show
• Craft
• Sewing
• Scrapbook
• Blog Posts
• House/General

Then, specific dates like birthdays and visits were written on the top of the date box in black ink but italicized. For the TV shows, they're written in a smaller font at the bottom of the box as a little reminder.

4. How should I assign my tasks? This was the hard part for me. I was thinking about how my weeks usually go, how much free time I have on what days, what days I'm most productive, things like that. I didn't just want to write things to do on the calendar. I wanted to assign them so they'd be realistic for me to get done. First I thought about which projects I wanted to get done the most, what days they'd best fit in, how long they'd take, how many breaks I will or won't take... it depends! When I sew, I take a lot of breaks. My room doesn't have an AC so when I get too hot or frustrated (which happens a lot) I take a couple minutes of just sitting in Ben's room collecting myself in the cold. Or I'll sit outside for a smoke break and try to clear my head. But when I scrapbook, my head is just stuck looking down, positioning and repositioning and gluing and cutting. I work different depending on what it is. I made sure I thought about this when I picked the days of what to work on. I really feel that I did good on this. I spent a good amount of time thinking about it.


5. Well, did it work?! Too early to tell! Today is the first day of my self-assigned project schedule. Today I have Clean kitchen, Scrapbook Flower Canvas, and Currently Post on my to-do list. Then in little font on the bottom, is 10 PM - Virgin Diaries. I'll have one down by the end 3PM today, the Currently blog post!


6. What are other ways to stay on top of things? The calendar isn't enough for me. I really am trying to push myself into a more productive habit. I decided to put the Reminders App on the iPhone to use. I always use this App when I'm taking classes, to keep track of homework and classwork. I decided to put it to use for my projects! In the morning I'm going to put in my daily tasks and set reminders for the timeblock I want to work on them. I'll probably try and clean the kitchen within a half hour of being home from work, shower, eat, and get ready to start the scrapbook flower canvas project shortly after. With, of course, my Reminders going off every fifteen minutes. I need to be more disciplined and less lazy! On with the crafting! I also am going to start embracing post it notes a lot more. At work, I run through post-its. I want to get some colored ones to hang reminders in my room and on my laptop to have little motivators. My other secret weapon is Ben. Whenever I try to break a habit, I always have Ben as my backbone. I'll tell him "don't let me have ____ if I do _____" or "make me _____ if I don't _____" and Ben usually sticks to it. Permission to annoy me and keep me from something I want? Ben is usually up for it.

7. Anything else I want to add? The best thing about doing it on Excel, is that I could open up the document and move around everything and change my entire month around. Or I could add to my already packed schedule or delete it all! Last night I thought a lot about my calendar. How if I had tasks to do today how long would they take and when would I have fit them in, but also, what else should I add? Last night I made myself soup for dinner and made some apple crisp for dessert. Ben got home from class and ordered Chinese. Then I thought, I should put goals on my calendar. First one being, COOK dinner (with real food) at least twice a week. Twice a week sounds like a low expectation, but I'd be setting myself up for a downfall if I try anything more. I consider cooking dinner as making a meal with meat and preparing everything myself. Usually it's store bought pizza dough and we make pizza or grilled cheese or frozen things. Ah! We're getting older and it'll be sooner than later that our bodies change and we can't eat the crap like we do now. I also considered adding future blog features, and other little things to my calendar.

I hope this could help some other overwhelmed future crafter. Haha. I know it helped me spelling out what I expected from myself and typing it and rereading it here. This blog is helping me so much. Just being able to keep a record of what I've been doing, it just helps me stay motivated and just want to fill this blogs' archive with awesome content and watch myself grow as a woman, adult, and a crafty lady.

Yay! :)

As much as I wanted to be productive this weekend...

I wasn't. Sigh.
It was more of a

• sleep
• relax
• be with friends
• prepare
• and clean

sort of weekend.

Friday - I worked while Ben went out catching butterflies with his friends. Luckily, I was able to leave at lunch time! So while Ben was out and I was home alone, I cleaned the bathroom, hallway, and tidied up the kitchen. I then rewarded myself with a much needed nap! I woke up around the time Ben came home. Then our friends came to visit! We all went out to the Cheesecake Factory. No one ever cares about the bill and we all just order whatever sounds good and share. It's the best time. We always plan on dessert after but everyone is always beyond stuffed. We got home pretty late and I crashed.

Saturday - Ben had lots of homework! He was in the last stretch of finishing up his portfolio (Ben studies Industrial Design at Wentworth. Last semester he had a Co-Op at Puma! He's so good, I'm so proud of him) but since no quality print places were open, so it was okay if he finished his work on Sunday, Ben and I hung out. We filled the day with Dexter, darts, and relaxing. I did a little shopping! I went to Utrecht Art Store to get some supplies. They had a big summer sale going on, and I really wanted to start making my own wall art and experimenting and getting crafty. I bought Utrecht's version of Mod Podge, a couple of different sized canvases on sale, and a brush! I started my first project that day, but got side tracked...That night we saw Savages. It was pretty good! We got home pretty late that night too and, of course, I passed out right after.

Sunday - Ben's Dad, Bruno, came to visit for lunch. We went to my favorite place to eat, Victoria's Diner. They seriously have the best breakfast, EVER! And, I have a big love for diners since New Jersey is filled with them and they were a common meeting place for my friends and I back in the day. Ben worked on his portfolio while I relaxed. I really wanted to clean my room and rearrange our pantry (that sounds so sad but seriously it's a mess and there are just boxes of food all over the shelves, in no order whatsoever... and it drives me crazy!) and sew and do one of my canvas projects, but I really have just felt so spent lately I just needed the weekend to relax. I thought about what I wanted to do with the canvases, though!!! That's good enough.. right????

So now, I left myself with a ton of things to do for this week. I feel overwhelmed, but as Ben as told me, "don't stress! these are personal projects, you're doing them for you. Take your time and do it how you want it and when you want it. Stop rushing and trying to get all of these things done." It was good advice. Obvious... but what I actually needed to hear. Ben has been slaving away on his portfolio, and he just kept telling me how he was jealous he couldn't work on any of his personal things because he he had so much work that he needed to do. That made me realize I'm very lucky to have an open as a schedule I have (despite my 38 hour work week). He was right! It made me take a breath and kind of put my projects into a different perspective.

My room is a mess, and each corner is evidence of a different project. Today I NEED to clean my room and organize all my little to-dos.. Then I need to finish all my half done projects. I don't have the space to work on multiple things at once and need to concentration on ONE until I'M DONE.

new motto? one until I'm done?
Hmm....

I made my sister's dress!!

Yes!! Saturday I was super productive and made my sister's maxi dress. When I went to the fabric store on Friday, I forgot to buy a zipper for the dress (of course) so after I cut my fabric and had it all ready to go, I walked to Chinatown to get my zippers. On the way I stopped at Boloco for a Mango Passion Smoothie. It was so delicious and perfect to beat the heat.

I didn't completely finish the dress, it still needs to be hemmed and I need to adjust the zipper a bit and had a hook and eye.

I had so much fun making it and felt so good after I finally finished.

So happy with how it came out! Of course there's a few rough areas, but they'll only improve and go away as my skills improve. But for my first garment, I'm pretty proud of myself. I strayed from the pattern a little bit but I like how it came out.

Scrapbooking Adventure 1

Last night I scrapbooked!!!

I started the scrapbook I'm making for my Mom. I ended up making 5 pages last night! And I actually used up all the photos I ordered from PostalPix that were for my Mom's scrapbook. So, I couldn't even continue if I wanted :)

I have pictures on my phone, but they don't do justice. I'll leave them up for now, and I'll replace them with better quality photos later this weekend.

Page 1 : Family
I really like how this page came out! I used PostalPix's 4x4 prints for these. I cut the tops off of my Mom's photo (left), the sides on my Sister's (right), and two corners off of my photo (bottom) I used some scrap fabric I had to help decorate. It's a pink floral :) I have our names written by our photos Bernadette is Mom, Samantha is sister, and I'm Victoria. I also have the date and occasion of the photo (Bernadette just learned how to use the gas pump in Massachusetts, her and my sister were moving me out of school and we're from Jersey and Jersey girls don't pump gas!! and the two other photo's are from Sam's 18th Birthday dinner at Outback) The stickers are also significant, too. We all have swallow tattoos because of their traditional loyalty and love meaning, so there are two swallows next to family. Sam and I also have matching rose tattoos, so I have the rose in the corner, and my mom loves stars and has a few little tattoos of those so I have stars on the page as well.

Page 2 and 3 : Gigi
So, as I'm sure many of you can relate, our dog was our best friend. Gigi was my Mom's companion. After Sam and I left for college, my mom was all by herself and Gigi was really her best friend. It was heartbreaking when my mom had to put her down, Sam and I couldn't even be with her, and I told my mom I was gonna make her a scrapbook, and she made me promise I'd put a Gigi page in. In the corner, it says "and we can't forget.. the baby jesus!" (this has NO religious affiliation, whatsoever. One time my mom was going to call Gigi, Baby Gigi, but she somehow said Jesus instead. I guess the whole juh sound threw her off. She just said "Oh my... I can't believe I just called our dog Baby Jesus." It was one of the funniest things ever. Either way, it's always been an inside joke and somehow became one of the many nicknames we had for Gigi) Then on the opposite page, it has her date of birth and date of rest. These are some of the best pictures I had on of her on my iPhone. She was a cockapoo and was 12 years old. Love you, Gigi! Miss you always <3

Page 4 and 5 : Ortley Beach Vacation Summer 2011
Us three LOVE the beach... and growing up in Jersey, we were spoiled with the Jersey Shore. Say what you will, but it's beautiful. Go anywhere but Seaside Heights and I promise you won't be let down. Every summer we'd rent a house for the week and just hang out and be beach bums. Friends would always drive down and stay for a night or just meet at the boardwalk and walk down the beach at night. There's nothing better. I really like how this page came out, too. I wish I had more photos of us dts (down the shore!) but this is what had to do. The writing on the top left page says, "Gordon Vacation. Ortley Beach 2011" The stickers on the left page say, (top left of page) "BEACH", then (middle of page) "Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much" and then (bottom of page) "Simplify". The stickers on the right page say, (top right) "Life is Good at the Beach" and then (bottom left of page) "R E L A X" each letter a different font. This is the first year we didn't take this vacation. I wish I had the time to give up a week and sit on the beach. I sure took that for granted!

And there's my first couple pages of scrapbooking, ever! I'm pretty proud with myself! I really can't complain with the outcome. Though, I am going to order 4x6s instead of 5x7s next time. I love the 5x7, but they're a little hard to work with. I just don't want to end up cutting down most of the photo to fit somewhere when I could of cut way less of a 4x6, and pay less. I'll keep 5x7s for frames for now on. I guess that's my only little thing about this. Oh, and I need to invest in plain colored paper. And some more glue and fancy scissors. Other than that, I am content!! I can't wait to order more pictures and keep at this for my mom. Only 2 weeks until she flies in!

Progress

I sewed for a couple hours last night!
I also get out of work early today, so I could sew right when I get home! Yay!

I was working on the first lesson on the D.I.Y. Dress Up E-Course by Red Velvet via A Beautiful Mess blog (if you would like to purchase this, hurry! it's only available for sale until July 31st!) which was making bows. My sister LOVES hair bows and I'll be making plenty of those out off all the scrap fabric I have that Laurie gave me. I'll be filling all the empty spaces in her gift box with them :) I want to make them until the stitches look perfect and they look like they came from the store. I'll post pictures of the finished products, but can't post a how-to, sorry! You'll have to purchase the course :)

After I perfect the bow, I'm going to make another wrap skirt for my sister's package. I'll be posting a how-to for that, though! It's a perfect little skirt for the summer or for a beach cover up. Can't wait for that!

As for my goals from the beginning of the week.. they're coming along. It's hard to accomplish these goals day to day because of my work schedule. I feel that once I'm back in classes in the fall I'll be way more on top of things. I also want to start a Project Life scrap book come Fall. I figured I'll make a scrap book or two for the summer and then start a Project Life book when the seasons change. That way I can document my entire Junior year and hopefully continue to my Senior year. Besides sewing, something major I want to do is take more pictures and document more of my life.

..well, me and Benjamin's life. I want to look at something when we're older. See us back when we were young, before we make any big crazy decisions, when things were simple. I also want to have something for our kids to see. With losing my father at a young age, and my mom barely keeping any photos past when my sister and I were 2 and 3, I wish I had more to look at and remember him by. I wish I could see more photos of me growing up. So I want to start the habit now. So I could remember how Benjamin and I grew up together as adults, our firsts, our love.

weekend means....

Friday. Yes.

I'm mostly excited because a) I get out of work early today, b) good friends are supposed to visit today, and c) I could finally start tackling some sewing projects! Weekend means my time.Well my time I get to spend with Benjamin. No schedule, no obligations, just time with my man filling in time as the weekend passes. But thankfully it's midterms for Ben in summer classes so that means he'll be studying this weekend which leaves me some quality time with my new sewing machine.

Some goals for the weekend are...

• Order pictures from PostalPix App
• Go to fabric store and get some nice fabrics
• Do at least three lessons from the D.I.Y. Dress Up E-Course TWICE! (the first couple lessons are really simple just to feel out the sewing machine and get the basics down. I want to do the projects twice so I could keep the first product for myself, then make a second one, hopefully better crafted,  for my sister. I'm sending her a birthday/care package to Hawaii soon!)
• Sketch some dress/skirt/tank designs in a sketch book
• Think of 5 DIY Projects (I have three down so far!)

 I think these are pretty fair and doable by Sunday.

For today, I want to put together an inspiration post to get my creative thoughts flowing. I want to think about what I want to make, find similar things on the internet, and put together a little board of inspiration. I also want to put together a post of the things I ordered my sister/plan on making her. It'll mark my progress on my gift box and give me motivation to start putting together the handmade stuff. And if there is time... I want to put together another inspiration post to start re-doing my bedroom. Ben and I live together, but I have my own room. It's more like my giant closet. I have my vanity, dresser, a table and chair set, jewelry armoire and all my shoes, books, and everything else girls have. I sleep in his room and use half of his GIANT closet for all my dresses and nice clothes to be hung up. So this is completely my space to do as I wish. I love living this way. I think it's why we get along so well. We both have our own space and we're not on top of each other and we have little escapes. We're a perfect team together.

Time to get on with these inspiration posts!

xx
V

Anxious...

So last night I actually had trouble falling asleep because my mind was racing with what should I make first? what else can I sew besides clothes? what fabrics/materials are best for what kinds of clothes? and endless other questions that are probably easily answered, but no so much for me, the beginner. I was planning on going to Winmil Fabric in Chinatown, but their hours don't work out for me since I work a full time job. So, I'll have to wait for the weekend :( But Ben's parents are coming in this weekend and I'm sure Laurie would like to join me in the fabric store while Ben and his father, Bruno, are looking in collector's and antique shops. It would also be nice to have some company and it's another bonus that Laurie actually knows what she's doing and in my eyes, a professional haha.

There are some things needed.. or wanted... for purchase! The list...

• Umba Box gift subscription for Lauren, Ben's sister   CHECK!
• Famous Frocks pattern dress-making book from the Ruche website (except it got bad reviews on Amazon. meh. maybe I'll do a little searching...)
• D.I.Y. Dress-up E-course from Red Velvet / A Beautiful Mess blog    CHECK!
• This Oscar de la Renta fabric and this Marc Jacobs fabric from the Mood website (so pretty!!)

 Exciting things!

New Sewing Machine!!!!

I am so grateful. With my paycheck tomorrow morning, I was planning on buying myself a sewing machine to get my sewing projects started. Ben's parents were to visit tonight so we could go out to dinner, so I had one picked out on Amazon and was just going to run it by Ben's Mom, Laurie, to see if it was okay. When they got to our apartment, Ben's Dad walked in holding a box which turned out to be a sewing machine!!!! I was so excited! I couldn't believe Laurie bought this for me. It was so thoughtful and it makes me so happy that she's just as excited for me to learn as I am. It was great motivation and now I can finally stop talking about everything I'm going to do and now I could actually do it.

Tomorrow after work it's to the fabric store! Ben doesn't want me going alone but I'd rather do this trip solo. The last thing I need is him rushing me around when I'm trying to figure out what I want. Not only will I have trouble deciding what to choose, I also don't have any idea of what I'm doing. I'm mostly nervous about how much fabric to buy. I'd rather buy too much than too little but I'm also trying to save money here. I'm excited for this new shopping trip :)

As for Laurie's gifts, I got... (ignore the terribly quality of the picture. it was taken on my iPhone in my poorly lit room... or as Ben and I call it.. my cave)

a Brother LX2500 sewing machine!

a utility box filled with all the basic sewing tools

and..

a pattern to learn how to read them, alter them, and see how to make my own! :) Also those are the two fabrics I got on sale at Joann's that Laurie taught me some basics last time Ben and I slept at their house.

I made a basic wrap skirt with the second pattern on the bottom. We couldn't find any fabrics in my size at the time (the smallest they make is a size 6... I'm a 0 or 2. sigh.) so we used a hemp wrap skirt my sister sent me from Hawaii as our pattern. It actually came out very nicely! I'll be making my sister her own skirt to wear in Hawaii as well some other things as I learn. I'll post a how-to on the wrap skirt I make in the next coming days :)

I also plan on purchasing this D.I.Y. Dress Up E-course from Red Velvet (which I got to via A Beautiful Mess blog). It has 17 sessions, each it's own project. You learn how to make things from bags, dresses, tops, and more; as well as alteration and make-your-own-pattern lessons. If you're interested, you better hurry! This e-course is only available for purchase until July 31st. Everyone who has purchased the course will still have access to it, but after July 31st no new purchases will be able to be made.

I'm also going to convince Benjamin to let me use his nice camera to take pictures :) He's very supportive of all my new found hobbies, or my want to make these hobbies work. I'm too excited. My mom even asked me to make her curtains. Can't wait! :)

What I want to do.

Here are a few projects I want to work on...

• Project Life
• Mini Paper Book Album
• Two Scrapbooks : One for my Mom, one for Ben's Dad
• My own summer clothes collection (one skirt down!)
• Hemp bracelets (first one came out ehhhh...)

Is that too ambitious??? I really don't think so. I already started scrap book #1 for Mama Gordon... but so far its proven difficult. It's hard to design a layout for a page in a scrap book with no physical photos.. but it's also hard to choose which photos I want from my phone on the page. I knew there had to be a way to get my pictures from my handy iPhone to actual prints. I found out this great App, PostalPix. You choose what type of print you want (4x4, 5x5, 8x8 squares or the regular 4x6, 5x7, and 8x10) I have 53 5x7s chosen to print as well as 7 other prints and my total is $49.92. Not too bad for 60 photos and almost all 5x7s! Just have to wait for my paycheck to clear then considered it ordered. This is perfect to print out my artsy Instagram photos.

My next purchase will probably be photos for Project Life. It's supposed to be week-by-week but I figure I could skip a couple if they're uneventful or just get the written parts and decorative part out of the way while I order photos for a couple weeks at a time. That way, when they come, I could just slip them in their appropriate spot.

Tomorrow I also plan on ordering a sewing machine and external hard drive. I'm most excited about taking on sewing, so I can't wait to buy and have it shipped to my house. I've also been putting off getting an external hard drive since high school. I've already had my hard drive crap out on me twice and I just had to get my MacBook Pro's hard drive fixed from my school's techies. I was so glad they were able to save it, I'm done chancing it and finally breaking down and buying one. I'll thank myself later. Sigh.

Hello there.

This isn't my first blog, but it is my first blogspot account. I was a loyal Tumblr user and endlessly scrolled through photos and reblogged my favorite eye candy. Though lately, I've been following lovely lifestyle, craft, and DIY blogs and got really inspired. My boyfriend's sister is also a SCAD graduate and their home is filled with scrapbooks and things she made and put together. His mother is also a sewing teacher and has taken the task of teaching me how to sew. I've already sewed my first skirt ^.^

I've just been doing a lot of the sitting around, browsing, and thinking "I should do something like that". I'm almost starting to overwhelm myself with little projects to start but it's really because I'm excited. Slowly, I'm accumulating the basics to start my new endeavors. Luckily I have my boyfriend's mother and sister for help and as resources.

I hope to see success out of this blog... not to be popular amongst readers but to actually find my inner creativity and do these projects and successfully document them. I want to make something out of nothing, decorate my home, document my little life, wear things I designed and made... it'll cost a little money now but I'll save later in the long run.

So that's what this is about. I hope it works.