A New Year, New Projects, New Word

Happy New Year to all of you. I hope the New Year greeted you with promise of better things to come. Did you “choose a word to live by” for this year. Each year I decide what is most important to me to fulfil for that year and this time the word is discipline.

I was fortunate enough, just before Christmas, to be asked by another shop in town if I would bring in some dolls again. I did sell there before, but the theme of her store has changed and it’s more ethereal/whimsical now and is very much in line to be filled with Jesters/Clowns and so on. The other shop I sell from is a different type of customer and space wise more suited to smaller dolls. So where does the discipline come into play????

Well, I have been doing some assessing of my schedule every week and the things I have planned for one store were already set, so now with a second store I had to start considering what had to go, because a person can and should only do as much as they are comfortable with. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve reduced my work load by eliminating things that someone else will have to do instead.

I’m also going to be more disciplined in that, I will be less spontaneous about the number of online classes I sign up for, and choose more thoughtfully about whether I can live without them or make a similar project from the skills I already have.

My health will take front stage, making sure that I take care of myself, get the exercise I need and eat well. Junk food has pretty much been a thing of the past for a long time, but reminders to keep them in the past are a good thing.

I will be less spontaneous about signing on for challenges. They will have to be challenges that I really really want to do because they will really have to challenge me and not just join in for the sake of joining in. A friend and I are challenging each other this month, to make a doll from a greeting card we found a few months ago. I’m calling it the “Where’s the Ha” challenge. My doll with be clay, Maria’s will be cloth.

I’ll be working through my stack of fabrics for clothing as well as dolls…but mostly clothes. I’ve been procrastinating for too long and complaining even longer that my clothes are boring and I hate wearing them over and over, so with that, I did make a new top in the last few days and will post that on my other blog tomorrow.. I have fabrics nicely stacked up with their matching patterns and will be working through that during the year. The complaining and procrastinating will stop.

On this blog  I will be posting in a couple of days, a doll I made over the holidays which is a Valentine theme. As I go today to pick up the remaining ornaments and dolls from Christmas, I will at least have a new doll for the shop already made up for Valentines Day, with hopes she goes to a new home.

Discipline round up.

• stay focused on making dolls for two stores now
• keep things off my schedule that I just can’t do and learn to say no without guilt
• stop procrastinating and complaining about the lack of new clothes and get sewing. Use what’s there before venturing off to the store for more fabric
• use the doll fabrics I have and don’t be tempted to buy more, unless it’s absolutely necessary to do so
• keep scratching things off my 2013 to do list. It was very successful last year, so keep it up this year.

And how about you. Will you find a word that fits your life for this year. Will you make a list of things to do or hope to do throughout the year and stick to it. I’ve really caught hold of and stuck with the de-cluttering mode over the last few years.

On the first day of the year, I take one spot in the house and de-clutter. This year it was a shelf of books in the bedroom. I filled a big bag and they will go off to the library shortly. During the year it’s a regular routine now, so once you get used to the idea of de-cluttering, it becomes something to look forward to. Start with a drawer and go from there, don’t take on a massive project all at once, you will most likely fail.

Keep it simple…. and with that, I’m gone for now. Have a wonderful day. If it’s snowy and cold at your house, stay in and create something wonderful, it’s sunny, cold  brisk and not a snowflake in sight, like it is here today, get out and enjoy it, breath in some of that nice fresh air and let Mother Nature rejuvenate you…..