Getting On With Blogging

I've had just about two years of not writing much in here. I intend to change that. The pandemic is still raging and I will try to not mention that any more often than I have to. I may have been cooped up and kept away from friends and family during those two years, and even immobilized by a health problem since about mid-June, but I have still found things to do and I'm feeling better so I'm going back to telling you about what I'm up to in the new year.

At the beginning of each year, I am usually signed up for several projects. These are not necessarily tied to any New Year's Resolutions but may be kick-starters, just the same. I have a couple of decluttering challenges to follow and a few art-related projects, workshops, and/or courses lined up. It's all likely more than I can handle all at the beginning of the year, but it gives me things to choose from each day so that I do more than sit around eating leftover baked goods that I would normally be sharing with friends well into the year.

The first thing I will tackle is making 12 hopefully artistic bookmarks that will be mailed off no later than mid-January.  I will then happily await the arrival of 12 new ones from other artists scattered across the continent. I've done card exchanges before, and swapped Artist Trading Cards (ATCs) but I have never done bookmarks before.  I have no idea if I will make them all similar or extremely different from each other. I do have some new art supplies from ArtSnacks so maybe I'll start with them and see where it takes me.

I hope you will stick around to see what I'm up to in the new year. 

Going Forward in a New Year

As a new year begins, even people who claim not to make resolutions seem to think it's a good time to start a new project, or make plans for the year ahead.  The web is full of helpful tips for those who are determined to lose weight, or just live a healthier lifestyle. Getting rid of clutter seems to be another popular theme.

I didn't really have any new plans for this year, but when I read a blog by Bonnie at Jasper's Gems about Week One of a De-clutter Project I was reminded that I definitely have that sort of problem here and perhaps I could follow along for a while and tackle some of it.  I say "for a while" as I'm not about to make it a New Years Resolution, and set myself up for failure.

I've lived in the same house for over 37 years, so you can just imagine the piles of stuff I have accumulated during that time. There is no doubt that the time has come to try to weed some of it out. I'd be totally overwhelmed if I committed to do it all in one year.  I'll just start someplace, and hopefully keep on going.

There are three areas I'd definitely like to tackle this year.

I need to go through all the accumulated recipes, and try to just keep the ones I've already deemed to be good. I set up a filing system for them last year, but I wasn't really trying to getting rid of many at that point. I just wanted to make them easier to find. I think weeding them out will have to be project number one as I'm still having problems locating some of the recipes I know are in there, on days when I actually want them.

Project number two is related. I have piles of magazines under the bed in the spare room. They all have corners turned down on recipes I intended to make. No, let's not think about that yet. I have to do the first purging before I go there! I know now that I've somehow become a hoarder, when it comes to recipes, and that's just silly since we can find one for anything we want to make right here on the web.

One should never make a spare room a storage area, according to Flylady, who also has a page on de-cluttering.  Too bad nobody told me that before I got started.  At least she seems to think I can get everything under control in just 15 minutes a day!  I can handle 15 minutes, but I can't guarantee how long this plan will last.  One day at a time.  Collecting recipes has become like an addition, and I'm putting myself on the program!
 

The third area is right here in my office/studio. It needs to be thoroughly cleaned out and reorganized. As it is, I'm dragging my art work to the kitchen again, as my desk is piled with stuff I really have to find a way to store. I cleaned it all off just before Christmas, but you would never know it.

I thought, perhaps if I followed along with another blogger trying to tackle clutter, and reported in here from time to time, I might feel more accountable, and actually get something accomplished.  Don't lay any bets though, as life gets pretty busy for me between now and the end of the tax season.

Oh, that reminds me.  My recent computer problems have delayed my year end report for the karate club. So, balancing the books, printing off those reports and properly filing all the paper involved in my business will be the first project for this year.  That should even clean up some of the clutter on my desk. :)

It's a New Year

Happy New Years Everyone!

Do you have a New Years resolution this year? 

My main one is to spend less time on the computer. Obviously, I'm not doing very well at that so far, but I'll keep trying.  But I find I've become much more sedentary over the past couple of years. We finally got a high speed internet connection here, and now it's just too easy to come online and just stay.  I really need to get back to being more active.

Another resolution is to have more positive thoughts about my art. I'm often told I'm my own worst critic, so I'm just going to try not to do that. The art journal is helping, I think, since I know what goes in there is nothing more than play, but I seem to be willing to share it anyway. That's a good start, I think.  I do know that what I produce has improved over the years, and that I made some major strides in the past year, so I'm really hoping to have a much more positive outlook for this year.

The only other resolution I can think of is to finally open an Etsy shop. I've been wanting to do that for the past couple of years, and while I have a few ideas in my head, I've only just begun to work on them this past year. I'm definitely closer to this goal than I was last year, but I've still got some work to do first.

So tell me.....what resolutions did you make for the upcoming year?  Maybe we can encourage each other.