2016 Crafty Goals

2016 is officially underway and I am ready to start fresh. It seems silly to wait for the new year to try and make changes to my habits, but it does offer extra motivation. The general mindset I have for this year is to make do and mend. This is going to be a year of making do in many ways. The last year and a half was high-stress and busy for me. Primarily work-wise, but also personally what with getting engaged, planning our wedding and actually getting married. We were lucky that during this time Michael wasn't super busy with his work. This year is going to be a lot of long hours and stress for him, so I am going to try to be less busy this year. We can't both be crazy at the same time!

This is pretty good timing for me. One of the few perks of running your own business is you generally get to make the rules. I can decide to have a quieter year, take on less work, and aim to keep things low-stress. Hopefully I'll be successful at that! I think after being so high stress, it will be a nice relief to take things easier.


Michael is nearing the end of his PhD program, which is why things have ramped up. The goal is he will defend before the end of the year, and we'll be moving on to somewhere new in 2017. Even though that's still pretty far away, it has already made me very aware of how much stuff we have crammed into our apartment. Between all of my collections and fabric/yarn stash it has gotten a little out of control. To start preparing us for a move, I am going to try to really evaluate what we buy this year and do plenty of purging. The little bit I've started doing is already making me feel better.


Amanda, Jacey and I are going to support each other in using our craft stashes and ending the year with less than we started with. It's nice to set goals and rewards to keep motivated and even better to do it with friends. I wanted to share a few of my goals to help keep myself accountable.


- Knit/Sew with more yardage than I buy. Make do and get creative to come up with yardage for projects.
- Challenge myself to do more piecing for play/to warm up each day.
- Finish Double Wedding Ring Quilt Top. Make approx. 15 wedges per month for 10 months, leaving two months to assemble top.
- Sew through some of my garment pattern stash: Emery dress, Derby dress, Plantain Shirt, Lark Shirt, Mercer tunic, Josephine Blouse.
- Start cutting into my Liberty fat 16th stash.
- Make a list and work on works in progress (WIPs)
- Knit Fiddlehead Mittens.
- Knit another sweater.
- Finish Follow Your Arrow Shawl.


I am also doing another 365 Project. I am challenging myself to take one photo every day of 2016 with my DSLR camera. I have been using my phone to take photos more often than my camera, and I want to change that. I have done this challenge twice before, in 2010, and in 2011.

So, that's pretty much where I am at so far! Here's to a happy and healthy year!