Tag: Goals

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My Use Your Stash Rules – 2015

Here it is the day the Use Your Stash Challenge officially starts. I have been thinking about the rules for this year. I have also talked them over with Hubs. I love his point of view. Here is what he said in a nutshell

  • This isn’t a contest
  • You can make this what you want and need
  • have fun
  • don’t stress about the rules
  • There are no Use Your Stash police checking to see if you follow the same rules as everyone else.
Use Your Stash Challenge
https://www.etsy.com/listing/193537851/start-where-you-are-use-what-you-have-do

So here are my rules for the Use Your Stash Challenge. I hope that you come up with your own rules.

  1. Works in Progress count because they are stash and they are sitting around half done and taking up space.
  2. If I come up with a really cool idea but lack 1 essential element to finish it off perfectly. I will shop and buy that 1 thing. I will also document what I buy on the blog. Also if I get a custom order that needs supplies I will create that item.
  3. While I will show all the items I create, the good, the bad and the ugly, I might not count them all towards the final number.
  4. I will create 200 items this year for the challenge. I have about 50 items cut and awaiting sewing so it isn’t out of the question and these items do count toward the total.
  5. I will try to create 200 items 200 days.
Use Your Stash Challenge
https://www.etsy.com/listing/167670767/quote-wall-decal-by-andy-warhol-craft

I have stocked up on thread. I have found all my buttons. I have separated the scraps from the bigger pieces of fabric. I have signed up for a quilt class.  I have ideas since I have searched far and wide via pinterest and google. Here is the pinterest board that I have been pining ideas on since last year.  I also have a huge Crochet board and then also a sewing board.  I will start the board for us to pin our completed items on when I get my first item completed, feel free to contact me to be added to the board.

Join me in a this De-stashing challenge and clean out your space. Find the freedom of finishing up your Works in Progress! set your creativity free with this challenge that will force you to think in totally different directions. Limits force us to think outside the box and encourage us to use what we have or as our Grandma’s said

“Use it up, Wear it out, Make it do or Do without!”

Are we ready? Do you have tons of stash waiting the perfect project? Do you have a time frame in mind or an item list?

If you do then let’s get started!

talk to you after I get something created!

 

Karen

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To Do List 3/30- 4/5/2014

The post about being overwhelmed has encouraged me to write my to do list each week. Last year I kept a running list on my computer. I had several lists that kept  work in the front of my mind. I stopped using them after several  comments from my family about how busy it was and overwhelming. Productivity dropped through the floor. So  I will start the perpetual lists back up immediately. Here is my To Do list for this week.

Home and family

Scrapbook page for Home school yearbook.

Baby photo of Sr. for yearbook

Meal with son and daughter in law

Plan meals for week

Mail sr photos out to family

Get Commencement invites out

Organizing

Create shopping list

Clean bedroom

Clean out front flower bed and plant irises in back yard

Work on organizing files (pick one drawer to work on)

Chocolate Dog Studio

Finish pattern for baby blanket

Create  last 10  items for the 100 day challenge!

Complete Calendar planning for shop and home for rest of year.

Plan vacation times and fabric shopping trip

Self

Exercise four times this week

Plan quiet times for re-energizing

Date night with Hubs.

 

I hope I can get all of these things done!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

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#11, #12

Confession time

The quilt is quietly killing me. Well, not very quietly, I must admit that there is a certain amount of huffing and puffing as I haul that quilt around, between and through the sewing machine. If you add in the fact that my sewing machine isn’t quite happy to be sewing right now, then you can guess what I am going to say next. After fussing about it to myself anyone who will listen, I moved on to crocheting, and modge podging. Something that will actually allow me to complete a project. These photos are just quickie phone photos but they get the job done.

I found this pattern here and it is wonderful.

http://www.creativejewishmom.com/2011/11/crocheted-skinny-scalloped-scarf.html

I also decoupaged some tea boxes with fabric as I was needing some drawer organizers.

2014-01-29 17.01.39

 

Here they are drying.

 

Talk to you later, My FIL just arrived for lunch!

Karen

p.s. I am in deep trouble. My father in law brought four more tubs of fabric from my mother in law’s stash. oh wow. He said I could make 100 more items…!

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#1 out of 100 projects from my Supply Stash!

Here is my first project for the 100 things from my stash challenge.

Honestly, I had started this before I started the challenge and I have been working on it off and on for several days. Here  are some photos of the beginning of the project. I was inspired by different photos on Pinterest and blogs that I read. I try to decorate a little for each of the different holidays but I was wanting something new.

This vase with flowers and sticks is from http://mijnindiansummer.blogspot.nl/2013/02/vintage-altijd-bloeiende-bloemen.html.

Michaels version of sticks in a jar.  http://www.pinterest.com/pin/364158319839146292/

So I started with the sticks in a jar.

2014-01-13 10.56.17

Ok, a little reality here. The sticks are from  my yard. The curly ones are honeysuckle vines that came down in the storm. The jar is an old spaghetti sauce jar that someone felt we needed to keep. The plaster of paris holding the sticks upright in the jar is leftover from some school or scout project. The crochet is made up from the tiny balls of yarn and some granny square extras left over from a blanket. I painted the sticks in about ten minute sessions over a couple of days. So, it wasn’t a big time waster.

 

2014-01-16 13.02.17

The felt hearts I had made up about six years ago to put in a bowl on the same table. They simply looked awful and I put them in a zipper bag and forgot about them. Originally they were simply one color of felt on the front and looked blah. Quite frankly, the felt was collected over the years. Some of the felt, I used in grade school. My Mom gave it back to me when the girls were in scouts.

2014-01-16 13.03.21

I pulled out my embroidery floss and felt bits. I  used the floss bits that I were too short to keep. No, really I had a bunch of bits and pieces of floss that were already separated and cut from the skein.

2014-01-16 13.42.57

I used my infinite supply of buttons too small to use on anything on the front and sometimes the back to add a bit of interest and sparkle. It has turned out better than I expected.

2014-01-16 14.02.38

Here it is finished and ready for Valentine’s Day!

2014-01-16 14.06.56

 

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Google Analytics…help!

Help! I have had Google Analytics for years and have never really understood what I was doing. Here are some websites that should help you understand what it is and what an incredible FREE tool it is!

This list covers a bunch of tutorials, explanations, videos and blog posts about using Google Analytics.

http://blog.kissmetrics.com/50-resources-for-getting-the-most-out-of-google-analytics/

http://www.designsponge.com/2013/03/biz-ladies-how-to-use-google-analytics-data-to-grow-your-business.html

http://www.movements.org/how-to/entry/analytics-tools/

 

I hope that it helps you understand a bit more about Google Analytics. Evidently, I haven’t even scratched the surface  of the information available in Google Analytics much less used any of the tools. I know so little about it. I have just been using it to find out where people are coming from to find my Etsy shop or this blog.

I am going to have to change all of that. This looks like another item to put on my To Do list.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Monday Goals

When I list out my goals it tends to look a lot like a To-Do list of a type A incredibly organized person. I have needed to scale back on my To-Do lists and just write the most important items down.

Family

1. Make cookies with the kids

2. Pick up the college girl for Christmas break

3. Take youngest DS driving so he can get his license

4. Bake Banana bread

Home

1. Do a basic clean sweep of the house.

2  Organize the Laundry room

3. Touch up the paint in my bathroom

Studio

1. Get shipping ready every day

2. Pick up the clutter in the studio

3. Work on custom orders every night

Personal

1. Water Aerobics once this week

2. Read pinned information about blogging

3. Complete devotional times

4. Plan 2 Christmas dinners….and see what needs to be done!

5. Complete Christmas shopping

6. wrap gifts

Ok, I just need to stop. This list is huge already and I keep tacking things on.

 

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What are you going to do different?

If what we are doing in our business isn’t bringing us the results we want and if Insanity is defined as this (see below)?

http://www.etsy.com/listing/47911287/wall-decals-definition-of-insanity-vinyl

Then why do we keep doing the same things over and over in our business and expect different results. So my question to you is WHAT are YOU going to do DIFFERENTLY this year? How are you going to change the status quo? This has been the question that has occupied my mind the last five weeks. Yes, this question was going through my mind during the Christmas rush. It was a good Christmas season for the shop. Not as good as I had hoped for but quite good anyway. There were some things that I had done differently in the shop and it did pay off.

Since I have been mulling this thought over and over in my mind and the start of a new year is a time for reflection. I was getting frustrated with my inability to come to some decisions. It seemed like the year started with a huge rush of activity; getting kids back to school, kids getting sick, getting some appointments made, updating some paperwork, insurance paperwork, and house keeping stuff. All of it was keeping me from really working on the shop. I felt behind the curve already and we hadn’t even really started the year.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/85132427/wall-clock-retro-black-red-and-gray

I even worked on this questionnaire  from Etsy and was going to do a great big blog article on it.  http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2013/reflect-on-2012-t/ It was a great place to start but it built in some frustrations as well. I may still do the blog article but really you have no desire to read about my goals unless it is a bullet list and you can scan it quickly.  I am not sure I can condense it down to a bullet list. I even tried to photograph the studio and motivate myself to clean it up because cleaning always has the ability to start a rush of ideas. I did indeed clean up the studio, but then we found some boxes downstairs that had studio items in them… and you can guess the rest.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/110369861/2013-desk-calendar-little-owls

It is a big year ahead of us with some pretty major changes. Like all families some big things and lots of little things are ahead of us. Some of them we have advance notice of and some we don’t.  So here is…finally a short list of things I am going to do in 2013

  1. Try and blog more consistently
  2. Feature other artisans once a week….
  3. Make 12 tutorials for my blog…that is roughly one a month… This is a huge hurdle and one I am rather frightened of.
  4. Keep the studio more organized
  5. Diversify the items in the Studio shop…same style of items just different kinds of things…
  6. Read 4 good books about business… I have two titles that were reccomended by my husband. Since he usually only reads non-fiction he is a great resource.
  7. Try to find 4 brick and mortar shops to consign my items here in my region.
  8. Limit my work time to a more regular schedule which includes time off for family and other activities.
  9. Build a link up spot once a week to help others market their shop items.

Then like everyone else I also have the goals to lose weight, exercise, eat right and save money that fit into the personal list along with

  1. Do the budget thing
  2. Continue working on home improvement projects
  3. Get the veggie garden and flower gardens back looking good.
  4. At least once a week do something fun with kids….
  5. Teach DD to cook and sew…she is the last one to learn. I am on the down hill side of child rearing and she deserves to know learn as much as they did.
  6. Make time for friends.

Talk to you later…

Karen

 

 

 

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Monday: Goal Check 1!

Here we are another Monday. I am running a goal check. This helps keep me on track and remind me that I AM reaching those goals and actually doing something!

Business goals:

  • Finish three two afghans (I have two left to finish this goal. Currently I have three afghans started….

 

The zig zag chevron stripe is finished. The one on top is started….and I have a granny striped started in my new yarns, and a sampler granny square afghan started.

  • Start three more afghans
  • Sew 50+ cup cozies in new styles ( I prepare for the holiday buying season in advance, because I also home school.)
  • Sew the 30+ new items I need him to photograph
  • Make the new Christmas items….
  • Blog more consistently (I have been writing ahead and found my blog planning pages…)
  • Write a business plan

Family goals:

  • Take two summery day trips every week
  • Make some meals for the freezer for THOSE days when I just really need them (one lasagna down…)
  • Help K get her things ready for College…. (two major things marked off our list.)
  • Take T for driving practice
  • Exercise (walked and/or exercised three times last week.  YAY!)
  • Make the kitchen a better place to be, using things I already have. (It seems small and I really have to work at loving being in there.)
  • Make the curtains in the living room fit the windows better and the hems the same length (I put these curtains up super quick when I realized that the bamboo shades are see through at night with the lights on.) 

Rather lofty goals aren’t they. I also have some personal ones that I have not added to this list.

Personal goals:

  • Work through my Bible study that I stopped this Spring.
  • Have us sit at the table for dinners 5 nights a week. (Totally missed out on this one this past week, but we have another week ahead of us!)
  • Keep my kitchen and laundry caught up and ready for action. ( Frankly, got clothes washed but not folded or put away. Laundry is my most hated chore. It is never finished)
  • Have some friends over for dinner…or coffee or dessert or something.
  • Read some books about homeschooling
  • Attend the home school curriculum sale this weekend.  (Totally missed out on this. Now, I need to find inspiration in another place…)
  • Help with the Youth at church at least 2 times a month.

Well, those are my rather lofty goals. I hope that things get better and I get more organized at meeting my goals.

Things I/we accomplished that weren’t on my list of things to do!

I started cleaning and organizing my studio areas.We also moved the furniture around in this area and I need to finish organizing, pitching or donating items.  I have a lot of boxes left to go through but we are happy with the new arrangement of the room and how it is starting to come together.  I re-opened my Amazon.com shop by listing more books for sale. We did a quick check up on our budget and re-affirmed our money goals. I sat down with our calendar and checked dates and times of appointments as we missed some important things last week.

Talk to you later,

Karen