2017 To-Do List vision-board!

I made this vision board for my Journal Junkies class at Gallery 27. The process was a wonderful meditation on my goals for this new (and honestly rather scary) year. I think I will add this to the annual to-do list process! Click on the picture if you want to zoom in on any of the goals.

1.  Grow a garden–a big one. Like I mentioned in TT22, we’ve got plenty of room for a good sized garden and I’d like to really push us this year to grow things we eat a lot of. I want to have a summer full of epic salads and a winter full of garlic & onions. I think we are going to do the raised pallet beds of bag dirt and grow a variety of lettuces and radishes there. I solemnly swear I will plant carrots and NOT PULL THEM UNTIL THEY ARE READY. We have gotten all sorts of inspiration from one of our new favorite homesteading youtube channels, Deep South Homestead. They plant their pepper plants in buckets and keep them growing for 3+ years! I’m also going to beg my Hollar cousins for another asparagus plant. So many ideas y’all!
2. Finish tee shirt quilt. Pretty self explanatory. I have a quilt going that is basically like a punk patch hoodie only it is quilt size. Like most of my quilts it is all hand work so the progress is a little slow moving. Plus, with our wood stove the living room is mostly too hot to quilt in! Dangalang! I really want to get a quilt project finished this year though, so I must get to it!
3. Ride bikes with Mr. Smith to the McFadden Farm. This is a lofty goal. The ride from our house to the farm is less than 50 miles one way. Mr. Smith is an avid road rider and although I am not interested (at this point) in riding centuries (and then some) I WOULD like to push myself on some long rides. This goal may not get accomplished until another year but I really would like to get there some day!
4. Read 50 books. Last year I read 38 books which sounds both like a lot of books and like none. I read 3-4 books at once–but let me explain that. I typically have a fiction book going at the same time as a non-fiction book, plus a graphic novel, and I ALWAYS have an audio book going in my truck. With that many different genres going I don’t get the storylines confused. All that said, it seems like I would get more read in a year than just 38 books. This year I am putting forth a challenge to make myself read more and do less aimless social media scrolling. I’ve also figured out that I can prop a book up while I knit…this takes my love of multi-tasking to a whole new level!
5. Go on a train ride. I would reaaaaaally like to go on an epic Amtrak adventure out west. There is an awful lot of life to get going though, so I will keep planning that dream trip and probably just go on a regional day trip instead. Pretty much since Mr. Smith and I met we have been wanting to go on the Great Smokey Mountains Railroad. Come hell or high water we WILL be going on one of their rides this year! So there.
6. Purge the Doom Shack. Ugh. I have so much stuff–don’t we all? Okay, maybe not everybody does, but I know an awful lot of people who do. When Mr. Smith and I found our house we were both pretty smitten with it with a few little caveats (like the old off white carpet…vom). It’s not a terribly big house and that is great (lower costs all around!), but we both have hobbies that require space. We made a plan from the get go to figure out a way to accommodate all our fun. The house came with an already wired out building that we agreed would be my studio (a pole barn will come later for the Mr.) Buuuuuuuut right now it is full of a bunch of crap that I need to mostly get rid of. So I’ve named it the Doom Shack until the purge is complete.
7. Set up the Pout House. Oh the Pout House. (See Dreamy House post for the story behind the name.) Once I get the purge done then the Doom Shack will get to be my awesome toy shop/art studio/miniature museum/sparkly party palace. Once. I. Get. The. Purge. Done. One bag of bu!!$h*t at a time.
8. Keep up the blog. I have been at this blog stuff for right at a year! Can you even believe that? I would like to be a bit more regular at posting but overall I am pretty pleased with my progress. This year I want to keep up TINY Tuesday (of course!) and the OOTD posts. I’d like to think up one more post theme that I can keep coming back to. Let me know if you have any ideas! What would YOU like to hear about?
9. Help animals in need. I am so tenderhearted, ya’ll and I want to do more to help out critters in my community. I’m not ready to add another animal to the family but I would like to foster (which I used to do regularly). After years of living in rentals with STOOPID landlords who hated pets, I am so glad to have my own home with none of the restrictions. Again, with the big yard there is potential to foster dogs as well as cats. With kitten season upon us I hope to be a temporary home for some of the animals who might not otherwise make it.
10. Keep trying 2-D art. Because it is fun.

A few more things I’ve decided to add since the original post:

Learn to identify regional trees. —-> I’ve been meaning to do this for everrrr. I want to learn how to identify at least 20 trees.

Plan and pack an EDC go-bag.—-> These are a good idea for everyone to have on hand everyday, but especially nowadays. I grew up in a family that always kept a tool bag,  gallon of water, and flashlight in the vehicle. In winter there was always a quilt, additional warm clothes, and some non-perishable food. I want to add to that and make up a kit with more gear. If you’re interested, I’ll do a post on the process of choosing items for my EDC (every day carry).

SAVE.—-> I rarely see any “new” advice that rings a bell with me but I saw something on Dr. Oz a week or so back that really resonated with me. (PLEASE don’t judge me on the Dr. Oz thing–it’s on at the gym!) The financial expert that was on said that if you really want something, like a higher price luxury type item, you can totally have it…BUT you should save the same amount as it cost. So if you want a $200 Blythe doll (*cough*cough*) you can have it, but only if you save an additional $200 to your savings. I’m not a big ticket item person like this very often, but I like the idea. I’m going to try to implement the idea, but with a twist. If I get a subscription box that cost $30, then I have to save an additional $15 and donate an additional $15. This way I will force some savings AND some giving. Because we ALL need to be donating to the ACLU! Isn’t that a great idea?

Do a mid-year update—-> I forgot to do this last year! This year I am gonna!

What kind of goals and to-do lists have y’all come up with?

How is your list coming so far during the first month of 2017?

{From 2016’s “To-Do” List blogpost}

Resolutions are weird.

And kind of hard to keep up.

Why don’t we call it a to-do list instead?

Let’s start a new tradition this year and make to-do lists NOT resolutions.  There is still plenty of time to make YOUR 2016 list!  I love making lists and checking things off of them.  I pretty much always have a little notebook going with grocery store needs, crafty ideas, letters to write, and adulting to be done.

I’m pretty motivated to get stuff done, but somehow it helps me get bigger and/or intimidating things accomplished when I write them down.  When I was in high school and college I made these lists at the beginning of fall semester.  These days I do them at the year change, although I’ve also though about making another list on my birthdays.  Maybe that will be another new tradition we can start! 

Here is last year’s list of things to-do! I’d originally planned a mid year update (which is close to my birthday), which honestly might have prompted more work getting done on the list. In fact I am going to add that to this year’s list, haha!

What did I get done?

1. Make & use a pinhole camera. NOPE.
2. Write a new zine. NOPE.
3. Go to eye doctor. YES! (in March no less but still need to order glasses )
4. Go to dentist. YES!  This ended up being a pretty big deal. For years I have been thinking about/dreading getting crowns on my 2 front teeth. I finally bit the bullet and got them done and they look amazing. I’ve even managed to pay them off…no small feat on its own.
5. Set up/load pictures to a cloud. NOPE.
6. Grow a garden. YES! It wasn’t the biggest or the best ever, but it was a very good start. I’ll probably write a separate post about the garden stuff since I have very big plans for this year’s growing!
7. Finish top secret quilt. NOPE.
8. Deal with vintage Etsy stock. SORTA. I went through and purged a bunch of it, leaving just the really cool and probably valuable pieces. Now I need to make an appointment with a couple of stores to try and sell the stuff.
9. Finish tee shirt quilt. Progressing–definitely got some work done, and am currently working on it since it’s no longer making-to-sell season.
10. Build doll house. YES! Well, I didn’t so much build it as accuire one and begin decorating it. I look forward to showing more progress as it happens.
11. Purge and revamp wardrobe. SORTA. I def purged a bunch before I moved but it needs another go round. Doesn’t it always?

Things that weren’t on the list that I enjoyed doing:

I think it’s worth noting some of the things that were not necessarily on my list but ended up being important to me and feel like accomplishments.

Coloring and drawing. I’m definitely a functional artist–nee a crafter. I kinda burned out on my local quilter’s guild but missed one particular quilter; I’ll call her Genie. Anyway, Genie told me about a journaling class/workshop/club that meets every other Wednesday at Gallery 27. I started going and totally fell in love. I’ve had so much fun doodling, coloring, and writing just for fun. It’s definitely weird not to have a finished product that I can wear or sell, but the sensation of accomplishment is just as strong.

Math. You read that right. It’s beyond insane–I know it is. When I got my new job as an assistant 8th grade math teacher I was scared pretty well $hitle$$. I’d merely applied for an assistant teacher job and had no idea what subject I’d be doing. Honestly if I hadn’t been so desperate for a change I’m not sure if I would have been open to trying something so scary. But I did, and OH BOY am I glad. So now sometimes I do math for fun–long division and big multiple digit multiplication and functions. I KNOW THE FORMULAS FOR THINGS LIKE SLOPE! I tell you this to tell you to TRY SOMETHING YOU THINK YOU ARE BAD AT. I mean, something you think you are TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD at. Just try it. It may turn out that it could be your new favorite hobby or even career.

Going to the gym. Again, I promise no one has hijacked my blog. It really is Coon-Smith typing away here. This is not a body-shaming thing of any kind. I am confident in myself and how I look/feel/am but the fact is that I have not only put on some weight, but I’ve been leading a very sedentary life. I’m focused mostly on getting my heart rate up to keep the old ticker in good working order. The elliptical machine, y’all. That thing is awesome! In the past, as far as heart health goes, I’ve mostly just jogged and that is ruff on the joints etc. The elliptical is like running on weird mechanical air. I’ve also been spinning–hoping to get enough practice to be able to keep up with Mr. Smith on a road ride sometime in 2017. I’m getting no kickbacks from this post but I do want to mention that Planet Fitness has been awesome for me. The staff greet me when I arrive and leave. No one has creeped me out (fingers crossed on that). No one has given me weird looks about my admittedly weird clothes (I go straight from work and don’t change anything but my shoes). So yeah–the gym has been a *pleasure*? It has.

Here is the list for 2017!

I’m actually working on a *vision board* to go along with this, so stay tuned for another post where I tell you all about this list!

What are some of the things on YOUR to-do list for this year?

Did you check off lots of things from your list last year?

What did you enjoy that wasn’t even on your list?