12 for '12 for 12

12 for '12 for 12

Edited: I love the categories My Freezer is Full came up with and changed a couple of mine and added descriptions to each of my goal categories.

I like goals. I like challenges. I am horrible at accomplishing either one. I am an over-achieving procrastinator. I put off what I find disagreeable. I find a lot to be disagreeable. I am often unhappy with my "now". I am highly unorganized. I have an eye for details. I am often lost in the details. I am a perfect self-imperfectionist. I can be slightly OCD about things.

Current obsession: I am ready for a change. I need to reduce my debt, lose weight and apathy, balance my work/life ratio, volunteer, eat healthier and more local, purge crap I have accumulated, Buy Nothing New, clean and renew my environment, be mindful of my carbon footprint, work better, prepare for a rapidly changing world, be kinder to others, live more simply, be more satisfied...yeah, yeah, it is on and on. I am simply overwhelmed by all I really need to think, act and corral in my life. The best cliché I can come up with is the forest and trees one. I've really let my proverbial forest go all wild and dark and scary with gnarly, smog-choked trees and I'm having trouble seeing either one. Or something like it.

This next year, a brand spanking new 2012 one, I resolve to stay focused. I am going to challenge myself to a set of 12 goals in 2012 in each of the 12 months-hence 12 for '12 for 12 Challenge. I am going to be talking a lot about these goals (thought I would warn you) and making myself think a lot about these goals. By writing out my accomplishments, I can hold myself accountable, push myself to achieve a higher quality of life. At least that is the undermining purpose of this challenge. At the end of each month, I plan to summarize the accomplishments.

All the goals are broadly defined categories for the flexibility of detail. Some will (hopefully) carry over into each of the months (like, for examples, the ones involving weight loss and debt reduction), others will sprout, bloom and seed all in the same 30 or so days. The fun is I get to create the details each month for the category. By the end of the year (and providing the Mayans weren't on to something about this 2012 calendar ending thingamadoodle), I hope I can end this challenge having actually completed a set of goals (and all the great things that will be part of the fall out of actually accomplishing something active in my life and creating healthy habits). To my abstract mind, um forest, it seems like a healthier means of finding one's trees.

Learn: This can be accomplished in many different ways: read, take a class, participate
Complete: Borrowing this one from Fullfreezer because I, too, have a million and one uncompleted projects
Move: Exercise, dance, hike. I need to lose weight. I need to refind my energy.
Sustain: The planet, my children, my job, my health, my life, myself
Plan: Plan for the future, plan for change, plan on doing things in ways that allow me to achieve a better quality of life and living...
Nourish: Also borrowed from Fullfreezer (used to be "Eat")-I like the idea of nourishment for the body vs. food. It also extends to mind and soul.
Create: Craft, relationships, ideas, gardens, etc.
Grow: gardens, food, children, myself
Observe: photograph, visit new places, watch for birds, see the changing seasons, etc.
Budget: mostly money, but other things can be placed here as well.
Play: Do something fun. Play soccer with my boys, go have a beer now and then, go to a concert.
Love: I really need improvement here. I need to allow myself to love unconditionally, let old grudges go, forgive, love myself.

And there you have it, simple and flexible, a goal plan even this challenge-challenged girly can achieve. Right? If not, even just sitting around watching The Graduate for the umpteenth time can fit in there somewhere. It's fool-proof, fail-safe!

Happy New Year!

(and THANKS for reading my blog this year!)

Goal Kick

Sorry to bore you with all this goal, goal, goal, blah stuff. I am not even going to bother with a photo tonight. So, it occured to me tonight that we seem to be at a very cherished part of the year: The New One! Many cultures celebrate New Year as strongly as the Christmas, etc. holidays this time of year. In many parts of the world, New Year means renewal, a time to cleanse our surroundings, both home and body, as well as our minds and souls. It includes feasts and oranges and settling the scores of old years and ringing in the new.

For the past 10 years or so I have created a list of goals for myself to achieve in the given New Year (like many). I am always so full of hope at this point. Then, life gets busy and messy and I fall back into bad habits and the goal list gets ignored (like many).

I've heard it takes 20 days to create a new habit. I need to test this theory, I really do!

So, I am still working on my goal list for 2012, but I have an idea to incorporate all my hodge-podge lists I've made this year into a neat "12 for '12 for the 12". Basically, I will make a broad set of 12 action goals: Play, Cook, Read, Learn, Save etc. and then I can focus on my 41 goals as they fit a category (or two). Fuzzy? I'll explain it better in a couple of days. Its part of the challenges I am setting for myself in 2012. Other than trying to continue on with Etsy and the occasional fix, thrifting is really not going to be much of a focus (as I am planning to do a "buy nothing" year to meet some financial goals). I hope you continue reading. I thought about making a new blog for my self-challenge (and may still), but for now it is not always easy to keep up with this one. As Van pointed out about gardening and too much too soon, I want to set steps I can actually achieve (not overwhelm myself further-2011 was the Year of Overwhelm) and realistically I am not the habitual blogger I was in my former years. However, I really want to record my progress, keep a diary of my steps towards my goals. I find that useful.

Until 1/1/12, I am checking in on my 12 before 12 progress. Um, I am trying...really, I am! :)
12 8 by 2012:

1. Finish all my case files (work thing) -in progress (please, please let me get them done this week!)

2. Bake Christmas cookies (hopefully this weekend)

3. File, shred, or recycle 2011 paperwork (at least Jan-Nov)-in progress (almost done)

4. Send package to friend in AU (hang head in shame-it's been months)-ei, ei, ei

5. Clean garage (and to borrow Van's word: BE BRUTAL)-no, too cold-what was I thinking? :( I think I will replace "garage" with "apartment" and I am making headway there! :)

6. Paint and decorate Lyndon's castle (this one better be crossed off by the 25th!) badly

7. File my piles of papers in my office (work thing)-in progress

8. Complete Individual Development Plan by due date (work thing)-must finish by Friday (it's due!)

9. List ten new items on the Etsy site. -probably not going to happen, but I will try Saturday.


OK, you made it to the end of my 12 before 12 before 12 for the '12 for the 12. Thank you for reading, My Friends!

12 X 12

I can so relate to this post and challenge started by Oh, Hello Friend (but found via Van's Thriftcore). I've posted my 41 goals a couple of times and have really been trying hard to accomplish them by next Oct, but I am only making slow progress. I need to jump start my goal list a bit. And, give myself a little morale booster as well.

The point of this challenge is to actually cross everything off a list (I think or at least this is what I am taking from this challenge. I, too, am a serial, procrastinating list maker). I have many, many items I need to get done before the end of the month (and New Year!) and, unfortunately, most them center around my ever-busy job.

On top of that, I actually made a sale on the Etsy site (and it made it safe and sound to its happy new home), so I guess I will stick with it a bit longer. I have been stockpiling junk for years anyway, no, let's be honest here, I am beginning to see signs of hoarding!*

*Inserting footnote in center: Not the icky kind anyway!

I need to purge, lighten my load a bit, clear the physical stuff, so the all the other stuff can calm the F down in my life. Plus, I really want to showcase my favorite finds, but I seem to have lost a direction in the chaos that has been 2011 (and the last part of 2010).

Sadly, I just discovered this challenge, so I am not going to disappoint myself by making a list of twelve I will in no way shape or form accomplish in 23 days. S0, I am making a list of 8. Seems like a nice, round number.

Speaking of numbers, and a bit of an aside, I have guessed the winning Powerball two weekends in a row! And, of course, I have never bought a ticket! :)

Ok, seems I am procrastinating again...

12 8 by 2012:

1. Finish all my case files (work thing)

2. Bake Christmas cookies (hopefully this weekend)

3. File, shred, or recycle 2011 paperwork (at least Jan-Nov)

4. Send package to friend in AU (hang head in shame-it's been months)

5. Clean garage (and to borrow Van's word: BE BRUTAL)

6. Paint and decorate Lyndon's castle (this one better be crossed off by the 25th!)

7. File my piles of papers in my office (work thing)

8. Complete Individual Development Plan by due date (work thing)

9. List ten new items on the Etsy site.

(Yep, I added a ninth goal! Work seemed too heavily represented as usual).

Wish me luck! (Thanks, Van, for helping me find this challenge!)

Keeping Up with the Etsians

(The orange stuff of thrift dreams...)

Here's my dilemma: I have wanted to open an Etsy shop for some time. I have made excuses, literally been the butt of my own excuses (i.e. no time, no time, no time). I have read all the posts, drop-downs and FAQs I can about it on reselling sites and blogs. A name for the shop has surfaced and burst in my thoughts more than once. And, I definitely have the stock.

Oh, and I have been a thrifter since I was 15! The other day I was sorting through some old boxes o' crap, items thrifted in the mid-nineties (yes, I know) and what do I find-Kitschy Deer. I'm not kidding, I was thrifting deer before they popped up everywhere in Vintage Modern Land (and I still love them).

The same goes for Made in Japan, animal planters, paint-by-numbers, Pyrex, owls, knitted toys, vintage sheets and other wonderful items we all covet. I am constantly amazed how similar all our tastes are out there.

Years ago, I was an active member of a Yahoo forum dedicated to thrifters. It was started by Al Hoff (or one of her 'zine* fans, but she participated as well) and we shared all our fun, vintage finds. Ebay was rather new (outside CA) and many of the participants were resellers, but the majority of us just liked kitsch. I think I knew then that thrifting was about to change (or had already begun to change). I am going to admit to you now that I was sad. I knew the world of thrift was about to become more challenging. See, in those days, at least in the Midwest, thrifting was a-mazing. Lots and lots of mid-century (1930-1970) stuff, general kitsch, vintage clothing, kitchenalia, religionalia...all of it at dirty, cheap prices. I can still remember being overwhelmed by the vintage dresses at the local Salvation Army (I couldn't afford all of them I wanted and not because they were expensive-there were just that many!) And the kitsch...wish I had possessed a (small) digital camera back then!

Over the years and three houses and one apartment later, I have purged the collection many times. I sold great, vintage things for dirt cheap at yard sales. I re-donated many items (and tried to resist buying them back). Then, I rebuilt my collections again and again.

Anyway, all of this pining and whining is just to say that I think I am ready to dip my toes in the world of Internet reselling. Should have done it back then, but didn't. Is the trend winding down? Perhaps (I'm still buying it both in person and online). Either way, I have three options: purge and redonate again, live with my hoarding tendencies, or find a way to share my great treasures with like minds. The last will at least combine a passion with something useful!

My one, big, over-analytical question is if I am too late. The reason I say this is there are so many resellers out there now who have put in the time to build up their shops and following. They were the inovative ones that started out on the proverbial basement floor. Now there are so many wonderful shops out of the basement, does anyone wonder back into it to see us newbies? I guess there is only one way to find out. Also, I buy things I like, not because I think it is worth a lot of money. I do not have time for extensive research (although, I suppose, the "real" gold diggers who know values could be customers of mine for resell as well, right?), so will not be offering many Picasso pieces for sale right now. ;)

This is one of my Lofty Goals. So, I am working on putting up a shop at Etsy. It is cheap to try and I hope I can learn to be more artful in putting it together. I really wanted to go the booth route at a flea market (or even better-start a flea market store in Indiana with other sellers; KY already has many fabulous chains), but this is what I can handle right now. By making this shop, I hope it will spill over into other goals (photography, Internet, blogging goals).

Here is where the goal part starts: Have this shop up and running by November 10 (wish I could make this shorter, but I have work travel again, but fortunately I will have a lot less this year). Give it a whirl for six months or so and then analyze if it is something I really want for my life. Fair enough? I think so!

*Remember the 'zine craze of the mid-nineties, Older Hipsters? Al Hoff had one I subscribed to called Thriftscore. She later published a book by the same title (it is out-of-print now, but check second hand sites-well worth reading if you love thrifting). Her
zine was hilarious and she would actually glue items from thrift stores in some of the copies (toothpick flags, pieces of vintage denim). I loved 'zines! I guess blogs are really just 'zines in disguise.