A Decorated Journal Jar

I have been a semi-bad crafter, but I have to admit that even though much of my crafting has been on pause for the last few months, my stress relieving activities have not been.

Life has definitely thrown me some curve balls over the last year and particularly over the last six months, but journaling has really been my rock and my physical foundation on bad days, so I've been channeling quite a bit of my extra energies toward it as a result.

On April 1, 2016, a coworker and I decided that we wanted to start a Journal Jar. If you're not familiar with the concept, a journal jar contains guided journal prompts that are randomly selected each day for participants to reflect on and write about. Today marks Day 28 and after four weeks of habitual writing, we finally managed to get the front of the Journal Jar decorated. My coworker supplied the mandala from her favorite coloring book and her incredible set of colored pencils for me to borrow and as of 9:00 o'clock this morning, our Jar is no longer plain and simple. (And we can actually display it now since the not-so-safe-for-work label that's underneath the mandala can no longer be seen.)

Eventually, we'd like to do more with the Journal Jar and make it more whimsical with ribbons, quotes, and other assorted craft items, but for now the blue-green zen of the mandala works wonderfully. And--my four favorite ghosts from Haunted Mansion are on watch to make sure all stays fine and dandy. How could I ever ask for more?

P.S. If  you are interested in creating your own Journal Jar or prompted journal experience, please keep an eye out for my new blog which is coming soon. The new blog will contain daily journal prompts for you to work on as well as information about starting your own journaling group and physical Jar.

The Fantastic Flamingo, Part One

When my boss transitioned out of her presidential position last semester, I made it my goal to create a special gift for her. Unfortunately, I did not manage to finish it before she left and the incoming ASP took her position.

Over summer, I have barely done any crafting. This poor 5x7, adorable flamingo has been sitting in in the trunk of my car along with my cross stitch supplies for months. My world has been changing so much that this poor little guy has just been ignored, and that's not right.

 My goal is to complete this flamingo and present it to my old boss on Boss Day which is on October 16th. That way, I can frame Little Flamingo, wrap him up, and hide him in my old boss's mailbox for her to find.  I have no clue if I'll get it done in time, but fingers crossed!

Pattern by Birdie Stitching.

Home Sweet Yoshi WIP 055 & 056

It seems like my posts for Home Sweet Home Yoshi are finally catching up to my actual progress. It seems somewhat impossible since I've been playing catch up for so long, but here are WIPs 055 and 056 in all their glory. My goal is to finish posting older WIP pictures for this project and then begin working on this project again, finishing it before the end of the year.

As of September 18, 2014, this project is OFFICIALLY over halfway done with the addition of over 600 stitches added between September 17th and 18th.

WIP 055

WIP 056

Total Stitches as of September 18, 2014: 10,854/21,600
Total Time as of September 18, 2014: 3 Days 10 Hours 54 Minutes

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 054

Happy Monday, everyone! I give you Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 054 for the day. Unfortunately, we're still all the way back on September 16, 2014, but progress is progress! A total of 165 stitches and 76 minutes were added to the grand total.

Total Completion: 45.59%

I'm Sick!

Hi, all! I have been super duper sick this last week, so BCCD is a bit behind (and under the weather) at the moment! I expect to have it back up in running within the week, though. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

Bob

10,000 Memories: A WIP Update

My 10,000 Memories blanket is by far my favorite blanket that I've ever worked on, but has relied heavily on other projects' leftover yarn to be completed. With the completion of SO's Giant Granny Square Blanket, though, I finally have some more yarn to crochet up into "granny's daughters" or one-round granny squares. This is what I have so far since starting work back up on this afghan. Hopefully there will be plenty more to come in upcoming days, too. Because these are such small pieces to work up, I can often bring them along to classes and work when I have down time.
I know that it doesn't look like much, but these squares mark progress toward my goal of eventually finishing 10,000 Memories, the blanket that I hope to keep as my heirloom piece for future generations. And the closer I get to finishing it, the closer I am to working on other projects in the future!

A few dozen squares ready to have their tails tied in!

To date, I am over thirty rows into this afghan. The pattern may be found here (or on the Patterns page) and is free to use for non-commercial purposes only. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Home Sweet Home Yoshi WIP 053

It's hard to believe that WIP 053 is from all the way back on September , but the progress from this day is pretty remarkable in comparison to WIP 051 and earlier. I got a little bit more of the second tree trunk filled in and even though there's a bit of a mistake at the top, I think I've done a really good job in hiding it.

Stitches Added on September 15, 2014: 14

Time Added on September 15, 2014: 5 minutes

Total Stitches Since December 18, 2013: 9,663/21,600 (44.74%)
Total Time Since December 18, 2013: 3 Days 2 Hours 33 Minutes