A New Year Cometh

Welcome to 2010!  

I hear there is some discussion going on about how to pronounce this year.  Not that anyone cares, but for the record . . . I am saying "Twenty-Ten."  Do whatever you want with that!

Last year, you remember I set up a kind of complicated Goals system. It worked reasonably well and I did get lots of projects done in 2009. My readers (that’s you guys!) were very encouraging and that helped me stay with the program all year. Follow through isn’t really one of my strong points, so I am quite pleased with how I did. It was successful enough to try again some time. Just not this year.

I can hear you. You are thinking “and why not?” Short answer? We’d all perish of boredom! Let me ‘splain.

I have signed up for some monthly challenges/exchanges/group fun whatevers for this year. So if I were to post monthly goals they would all start out the same way! And since I do intend to keep up with all of those monthly projects, the monthly reviews would all be the same, too. Not much reason to check up on my progress that way, is there? Plus, if I get too far behind, I might get too discouraged to even post anything for y’all to see anyway. We can’t be having that!

So. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and some planning (and re-thinking!) and  decided to give you an idea of what to expect this year. I won’t be posting a regular list of goals, but I will be letting you in on what I hope to be doing.

Block/Exchange of the Month

 

I have signed up for a Thimbleberries BOM at the local quilt shop. I think the pattern is really pretty and can hardly wait to get started. I’ll for sure be sharing each month’s progress. As I posted earlier, I have joined the Traveling Page group and have already started working on my first page. These pages will be traveling to new owners each month, and I will be expecting to have one for my own book to arrive each month. I’ll be posting progress reports on this blog and on the Traveling Pages blog, so stop in over there when you think of it. I will also be participating in the Stitchin’ Fingers fabric postcard exchanges. That group generally has a monthly exchange and there is also a birthday group. Oooh. My birthday should be lots of fun this year!

WIPs/UFOs/PIGS/SINGs

I have way, way too many projects that are either partly done, started and abandoned, or collected and not started. I really really want to work through some of these projects this year. In case you are wondering:

• WIPs = Works in Progress. Project has been partly done and I don’t consider it abandoned - yet.
• UFOs = Unfinished Objects. I abandoned this project at some point, usually for a lame reason, but with the intention of finishing it eventually.
• PIGS = Projects in Grocery Sacks - or boxes, or bags, etc. These are usually projects that have not actually been started. The materials and pattern, etc., been collected and it’s all ready to go whenever I am!
• SINGs = Stuff I’ll Never Get to. This could be a UFO or a PIGS with the major difference being I have acknowledged it is a lost cause. I need to give it up and recycle the materials into something else.

I’ll be writing about these projects as I work my way through them. You might get a few laughs out of it!

Learning Fun Stuff

As I looked at a list of projects that I’ve been wanting to do lately, I tried to see if there was any recurring theme. Something they have in common. Mostly, what I am seeing is that they involve learning a new technique or trying a new material. You shouldn’t be surprised to hear that I love to take classes. And I have already identified some classes I want to take this year (check out the list at Joggles - they are great!). Clay sculpture, beading, embroidery. There’s so much out there to play with! Oh yeah! And some classes I’ve taken in the past and never quite finished. Heh, heh. Do those count as UFOs??

Well, the year sure filled up fast, didn’t it? On second thought, let’s skip ahead to 2011!  Nah.  Then we'd miss out on the fun!