Not Resolutions

There are things I want to do this year. I'm not talking about resolutions... none of that nonsense! Just things I want to do, a bucket list for the year - before 2011 kicks the bucket, not me.

Just for starters... I may add to this, I may not...

1.) Try more new recipes. Including making bread from scratch. Including starting a sourdough starter. Including more candy recipes. I also want to make a cake from scratch - can you believe I've never done that? Seriously. Box mixes with hundreds of creative variations... but no cake from scratch. Besides coffee cake and quick bread, but I'm not talking about those.

2.) Try (again) working with metal clay. I may need a class for this.

3.) Dump half my house-load of stuff I never use.

4.) Use up a bunch of stuff in the studio.

5.) Make more jewelry. Because it's been awhile, and the seed beads are whispering to me...

6.) Do something about my garden. I mean *something* interesting and beautiful that will inspire me to keep up the interest all summer and not just let things die out in dry August. Time to pull out the gardening books again.

7.) Finish my bedroom, make it a place I want to go spend time in rather than just sleep in. This can't happen until the master bath is done though, since I have a huge box which contains my bathroom vanity, taking up half my bedroom. And that won't happen until I pick out some tile. Which I will do very very soon.

8.) Join ISGB and the local Fire & Rain group.

9.) Find a good, hopping, friendly jewelry making forum. Know of one?

10.) Learn to play my guitar.

More Good Bye 2010

Something happened today that made me think. That sounds funny, doesn't it? Well, it's true. I've been beating the drum of good riddance to 2010, because the past few months have been so difficult... like it's kicked my butt and got the best of me, but really, I think, now that I'm, um, thinking, it was *me* that did the kicking - I'm the one that kicked 2010's butt.

This is what happened:

Today, one of my 2010 goals was realized: I got my work published in a real magazine. Check it out, The Flow, Winter 2010 issue, page 7, number 17: two tiger beads by me, aka The Blue Between.



Goal number whatever, get published - check! Just in the nick of time, but that's ok. What were my other goals, do I even remember? Why yes, I do. There were two others - one I didn't manage (getting into a gallery/shop/show/whatever), and one I did - that was a health goal, I was going to finally figure it out and get my body back. And I did that too, thanks to persistence, a handful of good books, and my awesome doctor, not to mention a gazillion dollars in supplements and such... but still, I feel 10 years younger by the end of this year than I did when the year started. If that was all that I accomplished, I'd be more than happy.

But that wasn't all.

* I also jumped into this homeschool stuff head first and I think we are doing pretty amazing with it, now that we know what we are doing.

* I fell in love with Kalypso glass and made some really amazing beads. If I do say so myself.

* I designed my very own Rawr! Tribe of Tiger Beads - original to me and like no other beads I've seen anywhere else... very proud of that, it's a great feeling!

* I started a new store on ArtFire, with my jewelry designs.

* I learned how to make Almond Brittle, one of the highlights of my Christmas holiday this year.

* And! I! get this! reached 500 bead sales on Etsy! And to make that accomplishment even sweeter, I never even blogged about this one, but at that 500 bead sale mark, $500 was sent to the University of Washington's Alzheimer's Research Center and was matched by Microsoft.

So as you can see, a GOOD year. More good than bad. We won't talk about the bad... that is just recent history and won't stick around, unless I keep thinking about it, right?

Time to set some new goals... hmn...

Happy New Year, friends, I'm wishing you all a happy, healthy, creative focus for the new year as well.