on the twelfth day of craftmas

In mid November, I set myself the Herculean task of FIFTEEN advent projects. Madness, at any time, and then December hit, and with it a wild rollercoaster of a month that had me struggling to keep up. Three weeks in, I slipped from my sick room where I was under confinement as my family didn’t want my “cold”, and recorded a video for Vlogmas – what would turn out to be my last. In that video, I was giving a quick update of my projects, and talked about how I wouldn’t make Christmas, but was extending myself the grace to go through until Twelfth Night/Epiphany.

Friends, I didn’t make that either.

And you know what, that’s ok.

After covid, I needed (and wanted) to do a big clean out of my bedroom. It was a pit. Coles bags of tissues. Random floss labels, and bobbins of floss, in my bed where I’d been stitching and just left everything set up on my husbands vacated side of the bed. Charger cables. Coffee mugs. Coffee rings on the floor where deliveries had be left (thank goodness I went with tiles in the bedrooms!). Sewing machine, knitting bag, books.

And so out everything came. Sheets were stripped and washed, doonas and pillows aired. Dishes done, rubbish tossed – and then came the problem of the pop up craft studio that had appeared in my room, thanks to a week of “can someone drop my machine by the door” “there’s a project bag on my trolley can someone bring it to me please” “has anyone seen my fabric scissors” “on the top of my cricut desk there’s a box and in the box is a spray can with a blue lid” “see the drawer that says paint, can you see a white box in there?” “Who knows which of my pencils are watercolour? I need a black one please”.

My craft room was already a semi-disaster, thanks to the madness of my christmas craftapalooza, and then my focus became getting the bedroom aired and fumigated and ready for Mr Barefoot to return (apparently long term camping in the school room isn’t on his 2025 bucket list? Weird, I know). So all those piles of projects and supplies and tools? Yeah, they just got dumped on the floor as well. It was BAD.

I pushed through the mess to get my MOCS+SOCS journal done, but honestly, by the end the space I was working with on my desk was smaller than the journal, and I was starting to lose supplies. Last week, I’d had enough, and got stuck in and got my room cleaned up.

Half of my editing was cutting out repeated reminders that I was cleaning and the reset could come later. It was a big enough job just getting everything tidied away, and the reset would have to wait. First on my agenda for resetting – the trolley. Loaded with all my Christmas projects, it needed a thorough clean and sort and pack away for next year. A couple of things made it into the finished items box, but not a lot.

Here’s how everything ended up:

Blogalong – eighteen posts published (aimed for twenty four)
Vlogmas – twenty videos uploaded (aimed for twenty four)
make it {MERRY} – four prompts complete of twenty four – not great for a prompt list I was hosting!
December Daily – maybe half the photos printed and half the cards made
Insta a Day – I called the album complete with just one sleeve (two photos) empty
Bible journaling – made it to day fifteen and no further progress
Advent reading – smashed this one! I had four done before covid and then read a heap while sick.
Art Journal Advent – twelve prompts completed
Diamond Dot – FINISHED!
Watercolour class – complete!
Daily embroidery – completed to day thirteen
Cross-stitch – started, sitting at 57.8% complete
Quiltmas – basted, sashing quilted and binding attached
Socks – yarn caked and pattern chosen (no progress made)
12 Wines of Christmas- done!
Kids advent – all a bit hit and miss!
Camp Barefoot – back in session for January!
Charity knitting – front and back ready for seaming and ribbing.
Cushions – fabric is back in the box untouched

Mostly, everything went into a dedicated advent WIP crate. Quiltmas is on my trolley to get bound; it would be nice to have it finished to include as one of my show entries, but my focus right now is on my other quilt WIP as we race towards uni move in day. My cross stitch is in the hoop, on the couch, and I’m slowly picking away at it. I’m hoping to make progress and/or a decision on it this weekend, whether it too goes into the box. My sock yarn is caked, so I’m trying to decide if I make the socks my next knit anyway, or skein it back up and save it for this coming Christmas. December Daily is in the box for now, but I would love to get it finished this month. Into the finished projects box, I popped the instax album, mocs+socs, and my watercolour journal, which the gnomes finished off for me.

Farewell, Advent 2024, you were a rough one. I’m choosing to celebrate the finishes, and not dwell on the fails, because you know what, friends? I made it to the end of the month, and I got to hug my babies as I kicked the old year out the door and saw the new one in. And that is something to be deeply thankful for. The projects are just bonuses.