Looking to this new year

Some concrete goals for this year:

-Make 3 hat/mitten/scarf sets for donation for this year.
-Walk 500 miles.
-Use up 50 pages in my drawing sketchbook.
-Read 25 books.

I purposefully didn't set these to be super ambitious goals because for someone who rarely finishes half her ToDoList, its nice to feel a sense of accomplishment.

Some non-concrete goals for this year:

-Keep working on my Chinese.
-Spend more time with friends and family. I get the feeling the next time I leave, it will be for quite awhile. Be better about keeping in touch with people.
-Start dancing again ...
-Get the knees back into running shape, and generally start exercising regularly again.
-Expand my creative horizons, more follow-through on projects I start.
-Continue challenging my relationship with money, time management and work/life balance. Learn more about greening my lifestyle. Simplify.
-Write.

Two photo projects for the new year:
-Photo-A-Day.
-The Berkeley Project.

New cap. Just squeaked in before the new year. This is a ridiculously Jessica kind of purchase. Cute color but entirely not school colors [or insert: entirely not ___ a) what I was looking for, b) practical, c) easily matchable to the wardrobe, d) easily washable, e) any or all of the above]. I intend to use it on my midday walks at work when I use the lunch hour to prowl about SF. I love prowling about the streets of SF. There is so much charm and character everywhere, and I love the people watching opportunities that it affords. It's those small moments of humanity that get me every time.

This is probably key to the 500Miles goal, which if you think about it, works out to 1-2 miles/day, which really ought to be completely doable. I try to walk a mile in the mornings on the way to work [at a slight upwards incline, no less], so if I can squeeze in about 3 miles during lunch a couple times a week, I'll be in pretty good shape towards some of the concrete/not concrete fitness goals.

Write. Write. Write. Sheesh, I need to work on this. I've always wanted to write and have always created excuses for myself, most falling under the guise of TooMuchHomeworkNotEnoughTime, LetsNotWasteTimeOnSomethingThatWon'tHelpYouInYourFuture, and all those loveliness types of thoughts. But the older I get the fewer excuses stand up to the test of time. I've never intended writing as a career but as a hobby and release, a way to live life again and draw some connections that weren't clear at the time. Writing is horribly intimidating, especially now that I'm going through memories of China and working at trying to understand the experience. Properly digest it. I'm awfully tempted to set a concrete goal for myself on this one, but also terribly afraid that it won't be met. Well, maybe putting it out on the blogosphere will be motivation to get me started.

And man, I really gotta work on keeping up my Chinese, though this book from the lovely Rita should do a little bit to help:

Is this not ridiculously cute? I loveloveLOVE that the hat on the cover has a little opening for your hair. This is always a problem of mine, and trust those knitting geniuses in Taiwan to come up with a solution.

Taiwan has a lot of asthetic/economic/pop culture/etc. influence from Japan, and really I don't know why I didn't think to look for cutesy crafts books on the cheap when I was there ... like 4.5 years ago. Reading Chinese craftbook instructions is just slightly better than trying to decipher Japanese ones. Figure I might as well put that Chinese language major to use.




I'm definitely loving the way this hat can be worn two ways, as a hat or as a scarf. And those pompoms? Never really been into pompoms until I opened up this page of the book. Worst still, I've gotten Kathleen completely up and inspired as well, and she's supposed to be out starting out the new semester on the right foot.

And of course, I feel completely doomed by this Buy Nothing New month mantra thingie I've got going, since I didn't quite have the presence to make it over to a decent yarn store yesterday. What to do, what to do ... the yarn in the stash probably won't cut it ... I could try some of the yarn I stole [White Elephant stole], but it seems awfully of the shed-able variety. Hm ... Craigslisting it up? Free/Wanted/Barter, gotta love those sections. Endless amusement.

scarving for charity

The thought of knitting or crocheting things for charity has been on my mind for awhile now, though as with most things in life, the list of things I'd love to do far outstrips what is humanly possible for me to accomplish [please keep in mind that much procrastination time has to be factored into everything. I honestly wish I didn't procrastinate so much and have been trying to remind myself daily to live with intention, value every hour and every minute of my short time on this planet ... I think I haven't quite calibrated my sense of 'this is down time' and 'this is productive time' and 'this is mindless activity time' ... anyways, just one more area in which I'd like to grow and develop]

Anyways, scarving is dangerous because when you start me on one, I'm liable to finish it RigthHereRightNow to the detriment of everything else on LifesToDoList.

Luckily, then, when I looked down at the growing mound of handmade scarves that I have waiting to be shipped off to various charities for the winter months, I decided some children's scarves were in order.

The first two came fast and furious. Once inspiration hits, it really hits hard. As Emie pointed out, sisters could wear these to absolutely adorable results. Or best friends, per Emily's suggestion. Actually, I wonder if there's enough leftover yarn to make one for me ... stop it, stop it right there, you have more than enough scarves and you know it ...

These are odd bits of yarn from other projects, mostly scarves for myself or friends or family members. I can't help it. I'm in the yarn store and I see pretty colors and before I know it a hand that I would swear is not my own is reaching out and then I am at the cash register and my wallet finds itself depleted.

Currently putting the finishing touches on a set for a pair of brothers. Sighs, and this is barely a DENT in my yarn stash. Them's the rules: no more yarn may be bought until the STASH has been significantly reduced!