review : resolution

Happy New Year 2013! 

Are you raring to go too? Yes - New Year, new ideas! And I'm so happy that a few days off can be so reinvigorating; I'm just itching to get home to my sewing machine!

But first, a look back - because I started blogging this year not only to connect, but also to remember the things I spend so much time and effort making. And goodness, seeing it all put together has actually been rather astonishing ...

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Clockwise from centre: black jersey dress - pleated A-line skirt - African print maxi skirt - flared wool skirt - denim pencil skirt - blank canvas tee - scout woven tee - tova dress for autumn - tova dress for spring

 

Clockwise from top left: art apron for L - Christmas robes - art apron for T - simple shirt - ice cream dress - topstitched pinstripe trousers - circus pants - witch costume

 

Negroni shirt - repaired trouser pockets

Clockwise from top left: sunglasses pouches - my favourite oven gloves - oven gloves for F - geometric coasters - pom pom cowl - Christmas tablecloth

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I can hardly believe that these are just the makes I've blogged about since getting going in August! Some of them date from earlier in the summer, but there's a good four months of making in early 2012 that I didn't document and can hardly remember now. In that sense this space is successfully doing it's job as my sewing journal - something I'm very glad about.

In another way, though, I feel that I haven't quite found my blogging groove. I'll be honest: I can be a little shy when it comes to making online friends. I get jittery when I think about the commitment it takes to build relationships across the big wide web - even when that's a good chunk of the reason I so wanted to join this lovely sewing blogosphere. I get awkward. And so it is that as the new year opens, I feel the need to apologise to not one, not two, but three bloggers. Two of whom - Kirsty and Adrienne, and go and read their blogs if you don't already! - have so very kindly nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award.

I'm afraid that, amid the pre-Christmas and general daily rush, I got a bit rabbit-in-the-headlights about the 'rules': sharing seven facts about yourself, and passing the award along. I kind of forgot that it's ok too to just gracefully say thank you - and have been feeling ever so ungraceful that I didn't do it. Kirsty and Adrienne - Thank You!

My other, bigger apology goes to Ladybug & Co. After swapping comments on the fabulous sou'wester she made for her daughter, she very kindly sent me a copy of the pattern for it so I could make my own (which I fully intend to do, ever so soon) and I, in my embarrassment at such generosity and total failure to think of an appropriate thank you present, not to mention a sudden drying-up of the relevant Dutch vocab, have not yet replied in any way at all... Annemarie: Dank je wel, en mijn diepste, meest oprechte excuses. A little token of appreciation will find it's way to your door very, very soon...

For anyone thinking - why bother airing this? Well, I thought it over and I thought it necessary, because niceness, kindness, friendliness - these are the things I value in sewing blogland, and really I can't think of myself as a nice, kind, friendly person if I don't act like one. I've felt privileged to be able to "join in" and to be welcomed by people who read and comment, as I find my feet in making my online home here.

So as I close the door on 2012, I'm making a blog resolution for 2013: to be myself, to be open and to be kind on this blog of mine. My sewing space up there at home has become a real refuge, and I don't want to feel like I'm not at ease in my online space too. We all understand that each other's lives get busy sometimes, and that's ok, but it's not an excuse for bad manners :-)

So, with all that said - my best wishes to you all for your sewing, blogging and all other endeavours in 2013!

I'll be back soon with some handmade Christmas presents to show and tell - and then let the new projects commence!