Happy New Year!

Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy and productive year!

On to goals for the year in a minute, but first, I just have to get this over with: the cat was right and I was wrong. You see, after weeks and weeks and weeks of miserably cold weather, we caught a break. The average temperature rose about 20 degrees, the snow melted and it's been rainy and not-so-miserably cold for about two weeks now. Which has caused the little cat-type to think spring is here. He's taken to bum-rushing the door whenever anyone goes near it and when I do take him out, he sits on the brick garden wall and stares longingly into the garden, anxiously awaiting the return of the mice and the frogs and the bugs. I tell him every day that it's still winter and the mice and the froggies are hibernating. So imagine my chagrin yesterday afternoon when, seeing his little cat-butt quivering in pre-pounce mode, I arrogantly announced that there are no mice right now, only to look down and see a little mouse-butt and tail disappearing under the feverfew. Oops, you were right little cat. Sorry.

OK, now that I've got that little confession out of the way, we can move on to goals. I've noticed that it's become quite fashionable to pooh-pooh new year's resolutions. Every story in the mainstream press about resolutions is actually a story about how the writer is too smart and too smug to make the silly things. As if the fact that we can't keep our resolutions makes them worthless. I don't agree. I think there's value in the effort, the intention, the journey. And yes, all of this is easy for me to say because I don't need to resolve to give up chocolate. In fact, I think in terms of "goals" rather than "resolutions" because I focus on what I want to do rather than what I want to not do. It's about redirecting and refining how I choose to spend my time and energy. Ugh, I'm starting to sound boring and self-helpy.

Here's the thing: In 2004, I set some pretty specific goals for my quilting. And I achieved them. I got into my first juried show and I completed the Journal Quilt project, which for me included trying a lot of techniques that I'd been procrastinating about. At the beginning of 2005, I was in a funk, floundering around trying to figure out what to do next. I didn't set any quilting goals. And it shows, 'cause I didn't get doodly squat done. Actually, it's not completely true that I didn't get anything done: 2005 was The Year of Getting a New Job. That's where a lot of my time and energy was focused and I did accomplish that. So clearly stuff can get done if I choose to focus on doing it. And now I'm ready to turn my focus back to my quilting. I'm honing in on where I want to go with my quilts, developing my style or voice I guess. This year I want to do the work. Quit messing around with trying every shiny new technique that comes along. Quit floundering around looking for The One SuperDuper Fantastic Idea for the Greatest Quilt Ever. Settle down and finish the quilts I've already started that are good ideas. Develop 2 or 3 of the good ideas that are already in my head. Complete my thoughts. Stick with an idea and work it all the way through to a finished quilt. Hopefully several times. There will still be multiple things going at once, because that's how I work and my quilts end up better for it. But I want to end up with quilts. I don't want another August to roll around and not even have anything to enter in my local guild show.

So that's the big focus goal for the year. Other goals include drawing and journaling more, fixing up the sewing/computer room (think paint, shelving, organizing, making more/better work space) and cleaning out the garage enough to park the car in it next winter so we don't have to scrape frost off the windows every morning. Oops, guess I'd better let Dave know about that goal I just made for the both of us! And of course, continuing to cook, watch movies, go to track meets and just generally hang out with my family because they are sooooo worth it and they make me superduper happy. And now I have to go get some handwork ready for the big game between the Seahawks backup team and the Packers. Go Hawks backups!