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Tag: January 2014

Happy New Year
wed 1 jan 2014

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Entry #1 on this page (tagged: january)


Yay New Year!

In 2013, I read 36 Books! My average book was 320 pages and I read about 221 pages a week.

In 2013, I sent 945 Postcards, Notecards, Letters and Packages! That's an average of 78 mailings a month. My biggest mailing month was august, when I sent 121 bits of mail because I was so happy to get a new printer after the old one died.

In 2013, I took on 37 Urgent Action cases and Write for Rights cases for Amnesty International.

In 2013, I took 6670 Photos! Averaging 555 per month.

In 2013, Rhino the guinea pig died in January. We adopted Lucy and Ethel in June. I took a trip to Colorado for my 40th birthday in May, and a trip to see family in Colorado and Iowa in December. Our community garden plot seemed to be the most organized and productive yet in 2013.

I had taken on a daily drawing challenge in Nov 2013, and I remained enthusiastic about it to the end. I think I might be interested in continuing that challenge throughout 2014. I will start with a goal of 5 small drawings a week, and adjust as needed!

My theme for 2014 is "Take Care". There are some home and self projects that I have procrastinated and need to take care of.

Most important is to continue being the best vegan I can be.

flying woodpecker





Two Classes
fri 3 jan 2014

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2014/20140103.html
Entry #2 on this page (tagged: january)


In the spirit of doing something new and different for the new year, I have signed up for two, year-long classes.

Draw Your Awesome Year 2014

Draw Your Awesome Year by Joanne Sharpe
This is a journaling class which starts out with a bunch of video lessons during January, then adds prompts once a month through the year. I signed up for this one because I enjoy Joanne's classes and I really want to focus on some art stuff this year.


A Year to Clear

A Year To Clear by Stephanie Bennett Vogt
This is a class about clearing out the clutter in your home, and in your mind through meditation techniques. I am interested in this class because there are some tidying up issues that are starting to cause me some anxiety.


I suppose I should mention that I have taken 1 or 2 month-long classes from each of these wonderful women... and haven't finished any of them.

Ha! As long as I'm having fun, I don't worry about it too much. I am more concerned about the journey, rather than the destination. Which means sometimes stuff doesn't get "completed". And I'm okay with that!





begin
sat 18 jan 2014

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2014/20140118.html
Entry #3 on this page (tagged: january, )


Ha! At the beginning of the year I was completely gung ho about typing up some blog posts! I had several topics planned! And then I got distracted.

I decided my usual monthly postcard exchange that I host at GoodReads was looking a bit paltry. So I sent out a mass email to bump up participation.

And then, every spare minute of every day for two weeks was spent on the very lovely results! I messaged new comers, I sent out welcome postcards and then I sent out the January postcards.

I've sent out well over 70 postcards. And while this particular january project is done, I am ready to get going on my other january postcard projects!

Yay Postcards!

friendly crow





Clearing
sat 25 jan 2014

Permalink: http://www.static8.com/journal/2014/20140125.html
Entry #4 on this page (tagged: january, )


Yep, I continue to be busy with my various postcard projects.
Yep, I am insane. But never mind about that!

A Year to Clear

I have also been working on my daily Clearing
class. It's so wonderfully easy, it would kind of be a crime to skip a day. The daily lesson is just a couple sentences long, or maybe a paragraph on a serious day... I print it up, think about it and then maybe add some journaling.

The most helpful thing about the class... is that I'm thinking about "clearing" every single day.

When I go to lay something down, even when it's in it's "proper pile", I have second thoughts! Do I actually need to keep this? Maybe I should put this in the recycling bin instead? Or Maybe I could put it on top of my keyboard to remind myself to deal with it quickly?

You can't actually tell yet, but my piles are getting shorter. I am dealing with some small stuff every now and then. And I am happy with my progress: the piles weren't built in a single day, I don't expect to dismantle them quickly either.

But today is a cause for celebration.

My goal for 2014 is to work on a 4x6 inch bit of art about 5 days a week. But, I've been so busy with the postcard stuff, I haven't been able to work on this daily art project.

In my clearing for the past couple of weeks, I've been organizing to get started on the art again. One night, I got a little box to store some of my supplies in, and I put my Nov 2013 art book in it. Then I bought and added some new white pens. Another evening, I cut up some watercolour paper and anticipated working with InkTense pencils on it. Then I cut up some blue paper, thinking to add white writing on it.

And then a big job. I decided I wanted a drawer for my reference photos. I have three sets of Iris drawers that I store paper and stationery in, and 2 of the drawers (out of 18 total) are "junk" drawers. If I cleaned one out, I could use it for my art project.

It took a lot of thinking. aka planning, preparing, THINKING. A big issue I have is trying to figure out where things go. Things need a permanent home once I've moved them off their pile or out of their drawer, so that I can easily find them again. I need to be able to find things because I get upset when I'm looking for something and it's not in it's place.

Today, I cleared out the drawer. Recycled some stuff. Put other stuff in the second junk drawer. Put some stuff on the "I'll deal with it later" pile.

The drawer was empty. And then I put a dent in one of my piles: I put all my reference photos and some magazines and my 20 Ways To Draw A Tree books -- into the empty drawer!

Ha! I feel so organized!

art box





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