Friday, January 6, 2012
Ahhh...
Ahhh.... Finished a work project that I have been diligently working on in the evenings at home and it feels good to have completed it. Still lots of other work to do, but nothing that has to be taken home, which means I can focus on cleaning up my craft supplies after the Christmas rush, complete a few outstanding projects, and then start perusing pages for new projects and start new projects!
Monday, January 2, 2012
New Year Resolutions for 2012
On my iGoogle site, I have a page devoted to craft blogs that I follow. I can't spend as much time admiring and perusing all the wonderful projects that I come across anymore, but I still find time to take a peek now and then. As this new year begins, I ponder the amount of time, energy, wherewithal, organizational skills, and craft skills, it takes to keep up such wonderful, successful blogs. I don't know how these amazing women and men keep house, work, raise kids and turn out wonderful projects AND find time to write amazing blog posts with equally amazing pictures, and some even sell their crafts.
Since August, my crafting was entirely devoted to Christmas gifts (and I still have a project or two left over). I decided this year would be needlework gifts - crocheting and knitting. In all I completed 4 crocheted scarves, 1 crochets shawl, 1 crocheted caplet, 2 knitted healing shawls, and 3 knitted scarves. I am working on knitted hooded scarf. I have 2-3 sets of crocheted, beaded necklaces and earring sets that just need to be completed with jewelry findings. I also finished 87 2x2 tile magnets with pictures of my family, 9 trivets - also mounted with photos, though one did not turn out, and 3 hanging photo tiles. And Nana Bear and Dare Bear and I made 48 candles with beaded candle wax (much like sand art).
It's amazing how much time it took to make all of these projects. I finally realized that "easy" does not automatically mean quick. Two of the crocheted scarves took about 10 days each to finish. The knitted shawls took 5 days each. Of course, I wasn't knitting 8+ hours a day or anything, but fitting in a couple of hours here and there each day. So as it goes every September - December, things started out at what seemed like a good pace only to end in a mad dash to finish and staying up to insane hours of the night. The week before Christmas I didn't go to sleep before 1AM and couple of nights were 2 AM or later. Santa is a slave driver.
So it wasn't as if the year was a failure, but I did miss many of my crafting goals: start selling on Etsy and keeping up this blog being the biggest two. I haven't given up on either goal, but as usual, have extended my deadline or modified my expectations, or will modify my expectations. I would love to blog weekly or more frequently, but I didn't even post monthly on my family blog either, so as reasonable as weekly sounds, it probably isn't realistic for me. So a bi-monthly expectation might be better.
Also, I think I will plan my posts out a little more, rather than just sit down and write. I love the weekly round-ups that I see on the web, but I felt rushed to add something each week and stressed about missing them. I began doing more and more at work and when I got me new job, that no longer worked. I should be working along my own time line, not to have an entry on a round-up. My next post will include photos of my Xmas projects, links to the patterns I used, pros and cons, etc. If I pick out the photos, crop and edit them, and write a little each night, then I'll feel happier with the blog overall.
I will start selling my projects. I need to work on the products and not worry about branding. I need work on projects in an organized manner as well. I tend to work on whatever catches my fancy, which means I have about a dozen unfinished and some are even not yet begun projects because another one catches my eye.
And most importantly, I just need to breathe. Everything else will come as long as I breathe. If I stress about it, I'm just wasting energy and not having fun any more.
So the 2012 Resolutions:
1) Have more patience with the kids.
2) Blog 2x month on both blogs
3) Start selling on Etsy
4) Go to sleep earlier (will help with goal #1)
5) Keep the house neater
6) Exercise more
7) Keep on crafting and keep being creative
Happy New Year to all!
Since August, my crafting was entirely devoted to Christmas gifts (and I still have a project or two left over). I decided this year would be needlework gifts - crocheting and knitting. In all I completed 4 crocheted scarves, 1 crochets shawl, 1 crocheted caplet, 2 knitted healing shawls, and 3 knitted scarves. I am working on knitted hooded scarf. I have 2-3 sets of crocheted, beaded necklaces and earring sets that just need to be completed with jewelry findings. I also finished 87 2x2 tile magnets with pictures of my family, 9 trivets - also mounted with photos, though one did not turn out, and 3 hanging photo tiles. And Nana Bear and Dare Bear and I made 48 candles with beaded candle wax (much like sand art).
It's amazing how much time it took to make all of these projects. I finally realized that "easy" does not automatically mean quick. Two of the crocheted scarves took about 10 days each to finish. The knitted shawls took 5 days each. Of course, I wasn't knitting 8+ hours a day or anything, but fitting in a couple of hours here and there each day. So as it goes every September - December, things started out at what seemed like a good pace only to end in a mad dash to finish and staying up to insane hours of the night. The week before Christmas I didn't go to sleep before 1AM and couple of nights were 2 AM or later. Santa is a slave driver.
So it wasn't as if the year was a failure, but I did miss many of my crafting goals: start selling on Etsy and keeping up this blog being the biggest two. I haven't given up on either goal, but as usual, have extended my deadline or modified my expectations, or will modify my expectations. I would love to blog weekly or more frequently, but I didn't even post monthly on my family blog either, so as reasonable as weekly sounds, it probably isn't realistic for me. So a bi-monthly expectation might be better.
Also, I think I will plan my posts out a little more, rather than just sit down and write. I love the weekly round-ups that I see on the web, but I felt rushed to add something each week and stressed about missing them. I began doing more and more at work and when I got me new job, that no longer worked. I should be working along my own time line, not to have an entry on a round-up. My next post will include photos of my Xmas projects, links to the patterns I used, pros and cons, etc. If I pick out the photos, crop and edit them, and write a little each night, then I'll feel happier with the blog overall.
I will start selling my projects. I need to work on the products and not worry about branding. I need work on projects in an organized manner as well. I tend to work on whatever catches my fancy, which means I have about a dozen unfinished and some are even not yet begun projects because another one catches my eye.
And most importantly, I just need to breathe. Everything else will come as long as I breathe. If I stress about it, I'm just wasting energy and not having fun any more.
So the 2012 Resolutions:
1) Have more patience with the kids.
2) Blog 2x month on both blogs
3) Start selling on Etsy
4) Go to sleep earlier (will help with goal #1)
5) Keep the house neater
6) Exercise more
7) Keep on crafting and keep being creative
Happy New Year to all!
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