On my noticeboard: December

I realised last month that my noticeboard often reflects my thoughts as well as my projects for the current month, and none more so than last month. There's often things I've picked up along the way and am unsure of what to do with, but things I know that I don't want to lose sight of just yet, so I thought I'd take this post to walk you through it.

On my noticeboard - December - in my craft room

There's been some more colouring from Johanna Basford's Christmas book. I decided to try water with some of the Staedtler pencils and was rather pleased with how it's turning out so far. I particularly like the parcel with the red bow.  There's still quite a way to go to complete this one, and maybe it'll be finished by Christmas this year!

Christmas colouring, a design by Johanna Basford, on my noticeboard

There's more hints of Christmas too.  The three die cut trees didn't make it onto my Christmas cards - I didn't get around to sharing a post on my cards this year, but these were some pretty test cuts that I either tore or need some extra cuts to complete. So instead of doing that I pinned them onto my board.

Calligraphy and christmas card cut outs - on my noticeboard

The name tag was was from my evening at the London Graphic Centre and reminded me of a calligraphy poster I did for a flower festival many years ago. I expect I've got that somewhere, so I'll try to remember to dig that out.  The robin to the right of the tag was another from the craft supplies provided for the Christmas stocking I made last month.

I've a couple of postcards too. I'm not sure where the Stick To It one came from but it seemed quite appropriate for me. The other one is one I'd found during a clear out. It's from my favourite Norfolk potter - Phillippa Lee Pottery - I'm amassing quite a collection of pie dishes, flan dishes and noodle bowls from there. And every time we go to Burnham Deepdale I have a look to see what's new. Most of the time though MOH is with me and so spending is slightly restricted, but one day... 

A couple of post cards - on my noticeboard

The papercut cards I bought at Makers & Friends, the night I started to make my own neon sign, which I still have some knotting to do on.  In fact more than before as the invisible thread has got itself knotted in the box too, hmmmn..

cards - on my noticeboard

The grey card - Sew Ho - or Soho is one of the Place in Print cards which again is apt for my craft room.  All of the cards are on the noticeboard because they're in the "pretty and not for sharing" category in my head. The diamante dots are a new purchase, in case I needed them for my Christmas cards. I didn't, and I didn't want to lose them, so they went onto the noticeboard too.

frietag pouch and a heart - on my noticeboard in December

The yellow pouch is a Freitag pouch and is made from recycled tarpaulin. This is on my board because it's bright and cheery and because I haven't worked out what to do with it yet. There will be a use for it I'm sure, I just don't know it yet. I've more to share with you soon about Freitag as on the basis of this little pouch I convinced MOH to buy me a larger bag, which I plan to use as an overnight and short trips bag, for Christmas.  More on that soon.

And finally in the top photo you might have noticed a longish strip of brown and cream striped and zig-zagged material. That's my current sewing project, and one I'm stuck on. I'm making a seat cushion for a garden bench, I think that's part of the problem, I know it won't be used anytime soon so I can't quite find the motivation. But I need to, as I want to get started with other projects and I know that if I move on without completing this the project is doomed. 

The feel good factor for this project though is that I'm recycling some of the material from our old bedroom curtains to make this seat cushion cover. I'm taking the same approach - yes freestyling - that I did for my gorgeous yellow chairsbut it feels so much slower for this larger oblong version. 

Both of those feel good, but I really wish it were done.  If you have any tips on how to get going again on a craft project, please let me know!