2015 Making Something Every Day Project Guidelines

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2015 will be my third year of making something every day. I started in 2013 with the idea of making things to increase my creativity and to work on my art skills and to start building a portfolio. I wanted to call myself an artist but in order to do that, I had to be working as an artist. I’m more comfortable calling myself that now but it still sometimes sticks in my throat when someone new asks me what I do. That’s probably a topic for another post or at least a session with a therapist, so onward to the 2015 Making Something Guidelines!

In November, I started brainstorming how this year’s project would look. I need to be able to stay accountable/on task, so every day is still a great plan. I contemplated word of the month/day/quarter themes. I contemplated 40 questions I wanted to answer/explore in 2015. As in I actually wrote down something like 60 questions to choose from. I wondered if I wanted to focus on a particular medium or type of project. I don’t want to limit myself so much I get annoyed but having a focus seems like it might be useful. Concentrating on finishing a certain number of canvases/larger pieces last year seemed to motivate me pretty well. It was flexible but still gave me a bit of focus. So I spent a lot of time thinking about what I could do that would be similar.

So here’s the plan!

2015: Year of the Book
• Every day.
• 20 minutes.
• Post a photo.
• Finish 8-10 books this year.
• Keep the yarn posts to a minimum.

What will these books look like? Hmm, I’m guessing lots of blues and greens, gelli prints, and my usual business. I have a list of ideas I’ll be working from. I’m hoping to explore some different types of bookmaking since that has always fascinated me. I don’t know yet if these will be items I’ll sell as one of a kind finished art pieces or if they will be blank books for someone to use. I don’t know if I’ll be writing more or using more quotes. I’m interested to see where the year goes. I’m hoping you will join me for the ride!

2014 Making Something Every Day Year in Review

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As my second year of making something every day comes to a close, I wanted to take a few minutes and bask in the glory of things completed and post a few stats to remember from the year.

I posted 273 days of pictures of things I made. There is a week by week log of the year here on the blog.

I made: postcards, pages in various art journals, scarves, gloves, arts and science projects with the kids, cakes, dishcloths, shawls, art boxes, so many, many gelli prints, books, project posters with Eli, canvases: ranging in sizes from 3×5″ to 3×4′, amigurumi superheroes and a monkey, blankets, Easter eggs, ATCs, scarves, messy art projects for the kids at church, sweaters, greeting cards, art tags, and a couple of hats.

I learned to knit and to Tunisian crochet this past year. I judged a craft competition and crocheted at the top of the space needle.

One of my goals for 2014 was to complete some larger pieces. I finished around 25 pieces of canvas or large paper work. I sold seven of those for actual money!

Since I tried not to let the crochet take over the 2014 making, I didn’t always post what I was crocheting or what I finished. Here’s my crochet year from Ravelry:
projects

To wrap up this year, here’s a look at my very messy space that I must clean out in order to start the 2015 project! Usually the messy side of the desk belongs to Stephen but this week, it’s all mine!
2015-01-05 13.37.19

I’ll be posting about the plan for 2015 soon. It’s gonna be a bit different from the past 2 years and I’m pretty excited about it.

2014 Week 39 of Making Something Every Day/End of 2014 Project

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This is really Day 270 & 271:

This is really Day 272:

This is really Day 273:

So I think this is going to close out this year. I am out of steam for this project and am in the process of dreaming up new things to do. See ya in 2015!

2014 Week 37 & 38 of Making Something Every Day

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This is really Day 269:

2014 Week 35 & 36 of Making Something Every Day

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2014 Weeks 33 & 34 of Making Something Every Day

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Oops! Looks like I missed Day 234 in my numbering scheme! I told you I’m terrible at numbers.

2014 Week 32 of Making Something Every Day

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Help Us Present Science at GeekGirlCon 2014

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The DIY Science Zone is back at GeekGirlCon this year! We’ll be extracting DNA, making slime and light, creating tiny hovercrafts, demonstrating dice roll science, and constructing to-scale solar systems that you can carry in your pocket. It’s a chance to have people try out science with a team of scientists and science communicators who are in love with science and eager to share that joy with others. Last year we had 350 people come through the DIY Science Zone. This year we’re hoping for even more!

We’ve been fundraising this year, and as part of that, we’ve been performing Acts of Whimsy as a reward for those donations. Because I am a crazy person and like doing videos, I volunteered to create a YouTube science video, only instead of explaining or demonstrating real science, I’d explain an outmoded scientific theory. That’s how I ended up making a very earnest video about phlogiston.

While we’ve reached our fundraising goal of $6,000 (!), anything we raise above that will be used for next year’s hands-on science zone. So if you’d like to help see the DIY Science Zone happen next year, please pitch in. And if you’re in Seattle on October 11th and 12th, stop by and do some science with us.

2014 Week 31 of Making Something Every Day

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I have a lot of yarn posts this week because I was traveling! I got to go hang out with my mom and my mother-in-law at the Arkansas Fiber Arts Extravaganza. I had a great time with them and with fellow yarnies. The vendors were amazing and I was able to take two classes. One of my classes was on Tunisian Crochet and I’m now hooked on a whole new hobby. Get it? Hooked? Crochet Hook? Anyway…

At Day 211 I started misnumbering posts accidentally. So several days are listed in the 100s instead of the 200s.