It arrived

My Blurb book made it. 


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No.8 365 - A year in photo

365 

I did it. I made another Blurb book - this time of my 2010 Shuttercal 365. It's been cool to look back on the year and make some sort of record of it. I know the Shuttercal does the whole recording the year thing, but this is like a wrap up of 2010. 
Each month has a DPS consisting of the months Shuttercal and a shot from that month, and then there are 14 pages in the middle which are taken up with shots from the year, not in much order, but ones I liked. 


I used the Bookify web programme as I cant download Booksmart {thanks to my antivirus not switching off}, but it worked pretty well, and although you don't have as much control or page layouts as with Booksmart, I think that it's done the job pretty well {and to be honest, it probably made the process about 100% quicker as I couldn't faff as much}. 
With regards to the size and style - I went with the small square book with 40 pages, partly because the images of the month calendars I got from the Shuttercal pages weren't very big, and would be pixelated on a bigger page, and also partly because of cost!  I have the book on order now so I'll be sure to post when I get it back in the flesh, so to speak. 
If your thinking about making a book, Astrid at Hei Astrid has some great tips on making Blurb books {she is a Blurb book aficionado}. I second her suggestions to keep your photo libraries organised - this is the first year that I have organised my images as the year has gone on, and it has made it super simple to find my pics for this project. And, I like her like Blurb - its a simple site to use and having used a couple of other sites in the past, I think their printing is of a higher quality. I cant wait to get the book now. 

Cushions - How to.

At the request of Nic's Notebook I have put together a little 'How-To' about the cushions I made. I am new to this sewing game so I'm not very technical I'm afraid. 
I also didn't take any pictures whilst I was going along, so I hope it makes sense. 

1. Once the cushion inner {IKEA Granat} had been bought I laid out the fabric on a flat surface and marked round the cushion with pins to get an idea of how big it was {if you put them side by side, the ones I made aren't quite the same size because of this. Maybe I should have used a tape measure? }
2. I cut out one piece of fabric the size of the cushion for the front of the cushion. 
3. I cut another piece of fabric the same width as the cushion, but made sure it was about 8 inchs longer than the cushion was in length. This piece of fabric was then cut in half to make the back of the cushion.
4. These two pieces of back will eventually overlap so I folded one of the raw edges on either piece over {it was actually the edges I had just cut when I cut the longer piece in half.} and sewed it to form a neat edge. 
5. The I pinned the right sides of the fabric together, so it was now wrong side out. I made sure the two back pieces I had just sewed overlapped by a couple of inches, trying to make sure that the outside of the flaps was about in the middle of the cushion. Because the flaps at the back are overlapping and were the same size, one of them hung over the edge of the seam a long way. The other fitted about right. 
6. Now I sewed all the way round the cushion to form a square. 
7. Once the edges were sewed - I trimmed the edges close to the seams so that the corners looked better and turned it the right way round. 
8. There you go - cushions.  

No. 2 - Making cushions

Apologies for the bad image quality - it's the camera on my phone :(

In case you missed the post on my main blog in which I tell you just how spoilt I was for my birthday - I got a bright pink sewing machine from the girls. I love it. 
The bright pink sewing machine was threaded up on monday night, and last night {after a trip to Ikea to get parts of a friends birthday gift, where I also picked up cushion inners} I finally put it to work to make the cushions we have been wanting for our front room. I'd seen and consequentially bought the most amazing fabric in Ish on Sharrowvale Rd in Sheffield, after we'd decided that the room needed some colour {it has been a mix of beige and brown for a long time now} and I think, now they are done they're just what we needed. That beige sofa and beige throw are pretty plain. 


I haven't quite ventured into putting zips on the cushions, as I have heard from a very adept sewing friend, that they're quite hard to do, but I am pretty happy with how they have turned out. I mean, how wrong could I go sewing squares. 


Lets see how I get on when I am trying to make something a little more adventurous.......

30 things before I am 31.

As today is the day - the Big 3-0 - I thought maybe it's time for a new list. 
There were a few items I didn't quite get round to on the last list but that I would still quite like to do, so I'm carrying them over. I think I'm allowed. After all it's my list. 

I am going with the making and doing and changing side of things rather than things that might need me to spend a lot of cash to achieve them. I don't have that 'lot of cash' and I cant see anything bar a lottery win changing that in the next year!


So, the 30 things I aim to do before I'm 31 are; 

1. Make macaroons.
2. Make new cushions for the flat. Something that says 'me' in the room – there isn’t much around the flat that is me or mine. It's very much my housemates space. And I have seen some gorgeous Orla Keirly-esque fabric too!
3. Run 5k. Not necessarily in a race, but all at once. Preferably without my lungs collapsing. 
4. Become more self reliant. I have let myself rely on people this year and it's only lead to me being let down. If I rely on myself more I’ll only have myself to blame when I’m let down, right……
5. Make an item of clothing from a pattern, from scratch. {Clearly, I won’t be making the fabric, but you get the idea right?}
6. Read a book a month and and document it here. 
7. Take a TTV picture or two. This was on the list last year but I failed. I have the camera now, thanks to Lizzy, but I need to mod it and make it work for ttv.
8. Making a Blurb book out of my 2010 Shuttercal.
9. And whilst I am at it - carrying on my Shuttercal 365 for 2011. I like having a documentation of the year.
10. Learn one new recipe a month. Be it soup, cake, a proper dinner or a snacky snack.
11. Take a class. I fancy letter pressing. Or a language. Or maybe the silk scarf class @vogue_ismybible saw and thinks we should attend. 
12. Go to more gigs.
13. Vent less - I read a quote a while ago, that I can't quite remember totally, but it said something like '50% of people don’t care about your problems and the other 50% only care because it makes them feel better about their problems'. It made me think - they’re my issues. I should keep them that way. Especially around the people I have a feeling fall into that later 50%.
14. Sort out my finances. 
15. Get a tattoo – this was on last years list, but since it took me a whole 27 years to decide my first one, a year to decide the next one might be a bit much. {this might be on lists for a while……..}
16. Host a dinner party {and not serve Fajita’s or soup!}
17. Take part in some Blogger events - I've really enjoyed the ones I did in 2010 - Pin it Forwards, the Souvenir Foto School classes and the August Break.  
18. Send little surprises to friends in the mail. Last year I made a start on this. This year I shall continue. Who doesn’t love surprises?
19. Go to the bit of the A625 that has collapsed. No idea why but I have a feeling it’ll be a little ‘end of the world’ like.
20. Get my knees on the way to being sorted.
21. Swim. I love swimming and I don’t do it enough.
22. To get back to the weight I got to pre-glasto. Before I gave up on the health kick and put the weight back on. Grrrrrrrr. I think I’d quite like to lose a stone, maybe one and a half of them. Two would be a dream.
23. Make frozen yogurt. I love ‘fro-yo’ but Leeds seems to be all out of good places to buy it. 
24. Crochet something other than a beanie. Not that beanies aren’t useful, but I’d like to expand my skills.
25. Go to the theatre.
26. Get one of my photo’s printed onto canvas.
27. Make myself attend a Buns and Roses event. {well, hopefully more than just the one!} Edit - this'll have to be a Seven Hills event now I am in Sheffield!
28. Learn more about photoshop. Enough to that I can 'create' rather than just get by.
29. Picnic in the summer.
30. Take at least 6 roles of Holga film {and develop them}