A lot of people would have to say that the beginning of the year is like any of time, but I think it's a great time to reflect and set goals - even if none of them happen, just the process of setting goals is a great habit, or I think so.
I am notorious for setting goals and not following through - you can just take a gander in my art room at all the half finished projects. I am someone who gets excited at 'starting' something... and then if that something takes a bit too long, then I get bored and start something else that's exciting again. I know this is me, and I'm okay with it. Sometimes things actually get finished, sometimes not for awhile, sometimes never.
Lets reflect on last year first:
Last year was especially tough for goals - I had a lot of creative milestones I was hoping to work on - some really big projects. And then we were blessed with our pregnancy. I don't want to make this sound like I wasn't thrilled - we were so thrilled. We were actually just about to start the steps needed to get accepted at a fertility clinic (yes, we had been trying a long time). But that also meant, that I did not figure a pregnancy into the equation until at least mid year. But then we 'caught'. It seemed like such a beautiful fluke - like we won some sort of lottery. I honestly did not believe it. I had only gotten my cycle twice that year (part of our problem), and hadn't gotten it since the previous early fall. I had gotten in the habit of peeing on a dollar store stick every Friday morning 'just to be sure' I wasn't pregnant, since I had no period to 'skip' - this allowed me to enjoy my wine and sushi more comfortably knowing for sure when I wasn't pregnant.
But then one Friday, after peeing on the stick, I noticed the faintest line - I actually didn't believe it. I must have peed on all the sticks in the house, and then purchased a couple of those really expensive ones just to be sure before telling James. I didn't want to get his hopes up. We were pregnant. So super early pregnant. The digital stick said 1-2 weeks; and the pee sticks were so faint, you had to hold them up to the light just right. PS. those cheapo dollar store tests worked just as well as the fancy ones...and a little disclaimer: they are the same ones they use in the hospital. Don't waste your money on fancy ones until you get a slight reading on those.
We were pregnant. And honestly all my 'big plans' were still going to happen, or so I thought. The pregnancy was a fabulous one, only the slightest bit of nausea in the evening for a few weeks - but no morning sickness / vomiting. And then I felt perfectly fine the whole way through. But I felt no creative drive. No sense of wanting to create. It was weird. I was busy enough with everything: work and the nursery. But doing the nursery DIY's was hard. I just didn't feel the urge. And I had a hard time thinking up ideas. I also didn't have the urge to play in my gardens. I wasn't lazy, not at all - Chewie (our dog) and I went for endless walks. I did tons of outdoor maintenance things. Washed our vehicles. Just no creating.
So the year of 2017 was not a creative one. I can count on one hand how many times I pulled out my paints. How many times I doodled in a sketchbook. It wasn't good. After Jack was born, I still felt that way a bit. I'm only slowly, so very slowly, getting my creative juices back. I'm hoping that Jack sucked up a bunch of my creativity when he was inside me ;)
So now that you understand the lack of content here, and lack of artwork created this past year, lets get to this years goals - and we will keep in mind there is a little boy now that I spend most of my hours with :)
- Clean out the art studio: When we turned our office / storage room into the nursery, everything got dumped into the art studio with plans to sort through it and organize it later. I wasn't really working in there at the time anyways, so it seemed logical. Now it's just a disaster waiting for me. I'm hoping to clean it out by the end of the month, but it's a slow going process. To feel somewhat productive - as I had other organizing projects I wished to complete - I sorted, cleaned and purged our bedroom, and our walk-in closet has a floor again!
- Learn to sew: I acquired a sewing machine from my Grandmother this summer when she moved out of her house into an apartment. I got it in mid-summer, and only opened it up this past week. I've made a bib so far (we will need so many of these, Jack's already a drool-monster), but it wasn't perfect by any means, so I need to practice. I hope to be able to make Jack some pants in a couple months - ones that fit over his cloth diapers a bit better (lots of patterns online for these) :) I also hope to make some baby gifts for my friends and SIL who are all having little ones this year.
- Paint again: this one is obvious. I need to pull out my paints again. I want to play with them, maybe develop a new style. I will not have the pressure of the online store and custom orders to take up creative time.
- Children's Book: I've always wanted to illustrate a children's book. This may go in hand with developing a new style. My problem with this lies with my current problem of not having much creative drive to think of my own idea. I'm trying to convince my husband to write a storey, and then I can illustrate it. I don't really care to have it 'published'. If it turns out well, I'd likely just put it through Blurb, or snapfish and make some books for Jack and a few of our friends children.
- Sketchbook: I just need to take this out more. Jack and I are starting to settle more into somewhat of a routine. This has resulted in housework finally getting done, and our house looking clean on a daily basis. Now I just need to fit in some time for this. Once Jack starts more independent play, I feel I may be able to grab my sketchbook and 'play' while he 'plays' on the floor.
- Blog more, specifically DIYs: I did a lot of DIY's with Jack's nursery, and will be doing lots when I learn to sew. I'm hoping I can find the time to photograph and share these with everyone.
- Relaunch store: While being on maternity leave for the year (thank you Canada for a year off!), I was not able to keep my online store open. That being, I cannot make an income while on maternity leave, as I am getting income in a form of 'unemployment' - that's how it's set up. So I shut it down to not mess with anything. I go back to work end up September, so I'm hoping to 'refresh' the store, and work up to a 're-launch'. I'm not sure if this will be a different style of work all together... I feel like my trees have been copied and spread around so much, they are not that unique anymore, and are 'tired'. We will see.
So there we have it. Not many goals, but really big, but broad goals. Let's see what 2018 brings! :)
