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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