Just the Jar of Inspiration - year 2

I have been thinking about this for about a month now... and, while I have not completed my 'list' of items for the Jar, I have decided on some of them, will shortly get the rest of my ducks in a row, and get things ready for the Jar.

However, what I have decided on is the format.

Yup. Aren'tcha proud of me?

So, without further ado, here it is!

"This year, I would like to do ..."

Here is the list that I have so far:

1. This year I would like to finish 6 quilts. I would especially like to finish some UFOs, but what the heck, if I finish any 6 quilts I will be elated.

2. This year I would like to finish my Christmas shopping list in September, have all my shopping done by the end of October and have the whole pile mailed by the middle of November. How hard could that be? It really just involves getting the list DONE instead of just started in September. And getting it wrapped and packaged early in November.

Of course this does have a little addendum...

3. This year I would like to make some of my Christmas gifts, and I need to have one finished each month from January to October. This is not an impossibility either. However, it does mean that I need to get the shopping list STARTED before September - but I'm good with that. (As long as the list is finished in September!)

4. This year I would like to finish organizing the Guest bedroom. Specifically this means going through the old dresser and getting it organized and then going through the closet. I suppose I should be re-doing the filing cabinet, as I didn't throw out things that I wasn't sure about, I just organized it and got rid of whole sections that didn't pertain. Meh, I'll see how I feel after I do the dresser and the closet.

5. This year I would like to establish good dental habits. (I always brush) and we have a new dentist. So I'm trying to floss every night...

6. This year I would like to walk some distance at least 6 days each week, all year long. During 2013 I walked 1865 km, recording my daily distance on the virtual Trans Canada Trail and writing a little comment about it on facebook everyday.  My ultimate goal (besides the walking itself, which is a goal on its own) is to be able to walk the 22 km to see the Burgess Shale (a fossil site in British Columbia). It is 11 km in and 11 km out - and I want to do that before I die. In 2013, the longest walk I did in one day was 12 km. (After a rest, I'm sure I could have gone farther.) Eventually, I would like to have walked a half marathon.

7. This year I would like to make a New York Beauty quilt. I have taken a Craftsy class called Quick Strip Paper Piecing, and have made 4 of the 16 blocks of the quilt. I would like to make the other 12 blocks and put the quilt together. I have a beautiful wooden quilt hanger and I want to hang that quilt on it. :-)

8. This year I would like to spend some time working on crafts other than quilting. I have some very pretty counted cross stitch wall hangings and a needle point wall hanging. I'm not saying I want to FINISH them in 2014, but I would like to work on them a bit! :-) I also have a cute little rug hooking kit that would be nice to get doing on!

9. This year I would like to get back into the habit of dusting on a regular basis. Don't know why I find it so hard to do (too much junk would be my guess) but I would like to get the habit back. It doesn't have to be perfect - it just has to be good enough! :-)

Okay. I'm not finished, I have more to say on this topic - but I guess I need to think about it a bit more... Here are 9 ideas. I need 12 and would like to have a few more... I think I know where I can get some more great ideas though!!! Be back soon!

Continued:

10. This year I would like to try at least 24 new recipes. This means two a month. If they are good I need to add them to my 'Idea' List. (I only shop once a month, so I make a menu once a month and make the shopping list from that. Because I would be perfectly willing to eat the same thing many days in a row, this saves Barry from a bad case of terminal boredom. However, on the day I make the menu, I seem to draw a blank for what we should have for supper on Tuesday evening, the 14th... so I have a list of the things that we like to eat. This year past, I tried many new recipes and some of them made it onto the 'Idea' List - along with a code for the cookbook and the page it was on.) This can also include dessert recipes - it doesn't have to be main meals.

11. This year I would like to try out my new canoe carrier [Barry and I sold our Jeep and bought a pick up truck - so I designed and we built a canoe carrier for the bed of the truck. It is ready to go, but we built it too late in the fall to try it out.] I would like to take the canoe out to a small lake near home (MacElmon Pond Provincial Park comes to mind - although I'm not sure about a "put in" point...) I don't want to travel too far away and I don't want to go to a lake that is too big. I tore my rotator cuff in my left shoulder a year ago in November and it is just starting to feel normal again now... I don't want to hurt it again - it took far too long to heal! But I want to get the canoe out of the garage and into water again!!! :-)

12. This year I would like to make a plan for the organization of the Quilt Studio. I hate the thought, frankly. But realistically I have to make better use of the space I have. I have lots of shelves and some built in cupboards and I'm not using them very efficiently. I have a whole bookcase for magazines (along with some boxes to hold same) and books, and I don't have those very well organized. I need to get it set up better AND I need to put things away as I use them and when I'm done with them...

13. This year I would like to make a cuddle quilt for my quilt guild's charity quilts that uses a pattern I have never tried before. :-)

14. This year I would like to tidy up my bedroom. I went a long way towards doing that when I organized the closet and both of my chests of drawers. The tops of the chests of drawers could use some work, and the shelf beside my bed needs SOMETHING. So I would like to get a handle on that this year.

I think that that is enough for now. This gives me one big thing each month (or in some cases, a small thing to do each month). I could easily add to the Jar if I think of something else that really should be in there. But it gives me enough stuff to get started with! :-)

Just the Jar of Inspiration Revisited...

I wrote the post below as a Note on facebook on December 2nd, 2013:

This year past I had 52 strips of paper in a fancy jar on my fireplace mantel, each with something that I was supposed to do.  My intention was to draw a piece of paper each Tuesday for the year and perform the task.

Some of the things on the papers were chores, like Every day this week before you go to bed, wash the dishes. Some were things like Find a project on Pinterest that you have never done before and make it.

Some were fun things, some were treats, some were good habits that I wanted to start. Some were things I felt I just needed a little nudge to get going on - like organizing my clothes closet or getting the Christmas list started.

I pulled a piece of paper every Tuesday until the end of June. And then things got busy and it fell by the wayside. However, I did a pile of them without pulling the papers - I went through them this evening to see how many I had left and which ones I had done without waiting to get the paper out.

I'm going to list them, just for the heck of it.
44. Go out with the binoculars and look at the stars and planets one clear night this week. What did you see? (We managed to locate Jupiter and its four biggest moons - I was THRILLED to pieces!)

13. Throw out, or give away, three things you haven't used for more than 2 years. (We have a place called Rotary House here, and they accept donations. I have taken several bags of things to them this year - notably, a pair of mirrors for a car to help when pulling a trailer - we have a truck now, and don't need them. When I went through my closet, I got rid of several pieces of clothing, the same when I went through my chest of drawers!)

3. Every day this week, move one thing back where it belongs. (This is an on-going problem for me. Not, unfortunately, cured by this slip of paper... LOL)

38. Make a project that you have pinned to Pinterest this week. It doesn't matter whether it is quilting or not. (Sashiko patterns made their way onto mug rugs)

33. Invite some friends in to play Euchre. (Marion and Steve came over, it was great - it was also quite awhile ago! Must do that again!)

25. Spend an evening with Barry. Watch a movie, talk, plan. (Easy - we do this frequently... and we talk while we walk as well.)

19. Invite Mom and Dad over for dinner one day this week. (Did this the week of their anniversary, except we invited ourselves over there and took dinner with us.)

51. Go to the beach!!! Take a photo. Walk in the water, if you can. (I have several beach albums on fb. This was prompted because the first summer we were actually IN the house, it was a beautiful summer but we were finishing patios and putting in gardens and things and we didn't go to the beach once! I even went to the beach and put my feet in the water while there was still ICE in the Northumberland Strait!)

43. Buy a quilt pattern book for yourself this week. It must have at least two patterns that you intend to use in it! (I don't buy quilt magazines as often as I used to - but this is my steadfast rule - it needs to have at least two things that I like in it!!)

18. Tidy up the shelves in the garage. Make some labels. Figure out how it ought to work. (I have tidied and figured it out. I haven't made the labels yet. I did, however, make labels for the shelves in my closet... does that count?)

31. Go to see a movie. (Despicable Me, Too. It was wonderful!)

20. Work on one non-quilting project every day this week. Pick ONE and work on it. (I worked on a lovely needlepoint kit that I have - I toted it around for a couple of weeks this summer and I made a bit of headway... it takes awhile to get those things done!)

41. Try two new dessert recipes this week. (I did try two new ones - probably not in the same week... I made a new low carb chocolate peanut butter sauce for ice cream that is to die for... and I made a Chocolate pie that is really good - had to do that one twice - I'm sure there was an error in the original recipe)

26. Learn something new this week. Document it. (Sock monkeys - they were great...)

17. Call a friend you haven't spoken with for awhile, just to say hi! (Did that not too long ago!)


So I wasn't perfect with the Jar of Inspiration. However, I certainly did far and away the majority of things on the slips in there... And it did get the closet cleaned out, and instilled one great habit that I have been trying to form for years! (Washing the dishes before bed!) And I did have a paper that suggested I take a walk each day (for 15 minutes, as I recall) for a week - and I have walked 1681 km now (above and beyond the normal steps I would take in the course of a day) so that one appears to have 'taken' too. I have had fun with the whole thing, which was at least part of the point! I have a few things left in the jar - and I'll try to get them done before the end of the year.

There are still things that I would like to do and still things that I feel would be good habits. I'm thinking I will try something a bit different next year. Maybe 12 things that I would like to do - one for each month... And I definitely think that it is important to have something fun/new/adventurous/exciting/caring to do once in awhile!