So, it’s the first week of January 2017 and it’s the typical time that people choose “New Year’s Resolutions” that they keep for a few days or weeks and then seem to forget about. These resolutions often seem to revolve around health, mainly having to do with losing weight or exercising more. This is why I don’t particularly care for the word “resolution” in this context and why I generally don’t try to give things up or start things at this time of year, particularly having to do with weight loss, diet, or exercise.

That doesn’t mean that I might not make plans or set goals for the year, but they’re not the restrictive types of “resolutions” that make me feel guilty or like I’ve failed if I don’t follow through. For example, last year I decided that I was going to attempt to continue my efforts to de-clutter my apartment. I made a bit of progress on this, but I haven’t done as much as I’d like. But, since this is an on-going effort and I’m thinking of it as a work-in-progress, I’m celebrating what I’ve completed so far and not worrying about not having done more. I’ll get to it eventually, either this year or next and I’m not going to stress over it.

Starting around July/August of last year, I decided that I was going to try to make as many Christmas presents for my family and friends as I could. This is a yearly decision and I generally either don’t get anything completed by Dec 25^th, or I might have one thing that I’m able to frantically finish on Dec 24^th, just in time to put under the Christmas tree. I didn’t want that to happen again this last Christmas, so I set up a timeline to work on projects and get them completed. The surprising thing was that this actually worked! There was one thing I wanted to give my mom that I wasn’t able to do, but I managed to finish everything else and give my mom a different hand-made item. And, I wasn’t scrambling around at the last minute trying to get it all done.

During this process, I realized that I really enjoy making things. This isn’t new information for me, as I’ve always known that I enjoy the creative process, but I realized that I don’t give myself enough time to work on things throughout the year. I always get bogged down with everything going on around me and don’t set aside any time to be creative. I have projects going that I started 5 or 6 years ago that have hardly had anything done with them in all this time.

So, my goal for 2017 is to set aside a few hours every week to make something. Since I enjoy cooking, baking, crochet, knitting, needlework, origami, calligraphy, and drawing, I have a wide range of activities to choose from every week. Even if all I’ve done is make a homemade dinner, or knitted a bit on a sweater, that’s still creating something. And that’s all I’m looking for really. I just want to make sure that my creative side doesn’t stagnate from inactivity.

In order to keep this goal, I’ve started this blog, even if no one ever reads it. The reasons for this are as follows:

1. It will help me keep track of the projects I’ve got going and how they’re progressing.
2. It will remind me to set aside the time to be creative.
3. It will help me with my writing skills. I don’t particularly enjoy writing, but it’s a necessary skill that needs to be worked in order to maintain and improve it.
4. It will keep me honest as to how I’m spending my time every week and hopefully help me with my time management skills.

I haven’t yet set a day that I’ll update the blog every week, but that should be settled within the next couple of weeks, as I get used to my new schedule.

Bye for now!