Hello 2010!

Happy New Year! It is 2010, the start of a new decade (if you belong to that particular camp), and time for a new start.  Today it is time to set goals and make plans.

I could maybe reflect more on the year that 2009 was.  But, honestly, it wasn’t the best year for me.  Things happened that I wish hadn’t, but we are coping and doing fine.  I know 2010 will be a damn sight better.

This year I have decided to try something new.  I’ve picked a word to use as my theme for the year: Simplify.  I hope to make this my mantra and touchstone for the year, something that helps to remind me of my goals. And those goals are:

• Declutter the entire house and reorganize each room as I go (baskets and other storage solutions are a must)
• Donate unneeded items to charity
• Work my way through The Change Your Life Challenge
• Make use of The Inner Organizer
• Continue with a daily Tarot card draw
• Make time to write at least 5 times a week
• Go back to writing a personal journal
• Look into learning furoshiki for gift wrapping

For my cross stitching and other crafting goals, I would like to:

• Finish Baby Man’s birth sampler
• Finish Enchanting Lair’s Kitchen Blessing for my husband
• Finish the Celtic Thunder bourse and put a little stitching kit in the living room
• Finish up at least half of the Creativ Festival class pieces I have left over (Delightful Dragon, Tiny Torture Sampler, First Dragon Encounter, Dragon Lullaby, Celtic Thunder, Tiny Dragons, Cutwork Compass Rose)
• Stitch another stocking (for Mom?)
• Finish one of my felt kits
• Knit socks for others (and maybe a couple more pairs for me)
• Get up to date with and stay current with Papillon Creations’ Castles in the Air
• Do some punch needle projects
• finish a wedding gift

This is a much, much smaller list than last year.  And I will tell you why: my main crafting goal for next is reduce my number of WIPS. You see, I went through all my cross stitch stuff the other day and discovered that I have (as of today) 52 WIPs.  52!  And several of them are at least a decade old, if not older.  On top of that, I have 61 cross stitch projects kitted up and ready to go.  61! (Soon to be 62, when some fabric from Country Stitch arrives for Joan Elliot’s dragon.)  That is just a stupid amount I think, and it doesn’t even include the charts I have that aren’t kitted together with fabric.  I believe that I really, really need to finish up some of these design, or maybe even give away the ones I am not interested in any more.  Regardless of what I decide, my main crafting goal is to reduce my number of WIPs by 20, which works perfectly with my Simplify theme for the year.

Something else that comes from this, and from my Simplify goal, is to limit my stash buying.  If I was completely honest, I don’t need to buy any cross stitch stash this year.  I have 51(!) WIPs.  51! I only completed 40 cross stitch projects last year, and many of them were much smaller than some of my WIPs.  As for knitting and crochet, I do have a large yarn stash, but only when it comes to working on small projects and socks.  If I want to make a sweater for me or Baby Man, I just don’t have the yarn.  Could I go the whole year just knitting and crocheting from stash?  Sure, but it would be mostly socks and dish cloths.  They may be useful but not very fun for an entire year.  So, there will be yarn buying, but it will be limited.  Seriously, I’m almost totally out of storage space.

I know this year will bring a lot of changes.  Baby Man will be turning 2 very soon, and a toddler is a lot different that a baby.  I hope that we will be able to do more , and that we can start to do things like learn colours, shapes and numbers much better.  (Right now he counts “One, Two, Nine”. Maybe he is destined to be an accountant?)

I don’t know that the year will bring in terms of work of the husband and me, but I know there will be changes.  The economy is getting better,  but who really knows what the future will bring.

As for writing, my secret and ignored passion, well, I have some plans and goals there too.  But they are for me to explore quietly.

I hope everyone will be happy and healthy in 2010.  I hope all of you will experience joy and love and happiness.  And I hope both you and I will be able to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.

Since it is the first day of the month, I also need to set my monthly goals.  So, for January I would like too:

• crochet Planet June’s Sea Turtle for Baby Man’s birthday
• make significant progress on socks for my husband
• make significant progress on the wedding gift
• clean out Baby Man’s closet and toy box
• Establish a weekly writing practice