Everyday, I embroider an icon that in some way or shape represents my day onto my embroidery journal. This could be somewhere I went, something I did throughout the day, or even how I felt. It’s an enjoyable way to end the day and it’s something that I’ve been doing for over two and a half years. However, mistakes do occasionally happen…
2021 was a bit of a tough year for me. I was working quite a stressful job, I had some things arise in my personal life, and then halfway through the year I moved from California to Scotland! Can you spot any of my mistakes in the photo above?
Well, I accidentally duplicated multiple icons throughout the year! One of the reasons that I love working on my embroidery journal is because I’m able to end the year with 365 totally unique icons. This may not seem like such a huge error, but it’s one that can happen when I try to rush to pick out an icon.
But what is my reaction when I realise that I’ve duplicated an icon? Most of the time I let out a laugh and it’s followed by a sigh. I try hard not to do this, but all you can do at the end of the day is laugh it off. It’s bound to happen eventually.
Let’s get into some comparisons of icons from 2021 and what each individual icon of a pair of duplicates represents.
When it comes to the moons, the one on the left represents the night of October 18th, where I had a terrible nights sleep. Funny enough, the moon on the right handside is from, May 11th, when I had a great night’s sleep.
The clothes hangers at the top of the photo is from Jan 21st, that’s a day that I spent a lot of time clearing out my closet. On July 27th, I picked up dry cleaning which is what the icon at the bottom of the photo represents.
These two are quite embarrassing to me, just due to their proximity to each other. The star on top is from March 3rd, which was when I found out that I was featured in an article. The second star is from May 10th, when I played Animal Crossing with my best friend.
Now we have a bit of a similarity, both of these cinnamon sticks represent something that I baked. On August 19th, my aunt and I made cinnamon rolls. While on December 18th, that’s the cinnamon stick at the top of the photo, I baked snickerdoodles, which it turns out is quite the American treat.
I’m a massive pancake fan and the fact that I only embroidered pancakes twice is a surprise to me. The pancake to the right is from feb 28th. On that day, I made pancakes for breakfast. The pretty set of pancakes on the left is from December 24th when I went out to breakfast with some friends from work.
Oh how the first half of 2021 was filled with doctors appointments. So I ended up with a couple of stethoscopes. On April 20th, the pink stethoscope, I took a family member to a doctors appointment. The set on the left was from June 18th when I had my own doctors appointment.
At the end of the day, all you can do is laugh as we all make mistakes. I really try not to put too much pressure on myself. If I notice that an icon is a duplicate after I’ve already embroidered it, I just leave it be.
As for 2022, I haven’t spotted any duplicate icons, yet. Sometimes it just takes a few months for me to actually register that I’ve made an error on my part. If you spot any, I’d love to know!
Enjoyed this post? Then check out some of my other blog posts or purchase the in-depth embroidery journal guide. You can also join the free Embroidery Journaling Facebook group to chat with others working on Embroidery Journals. Follow me on any of the following social media websites:
One thought on “Embroidery Journaling: Duplicating Icons”