Hello, February!

I've realized something as I've sat trying to write this update for the past few days.

I am not a writer!  A poet, yes.  But definitely not a writer.

That's probably why I haven't been able to blog daily like I always tell myself I will.  Sometimes the words are there and they are fabulous.... but mostly, I just BS my way through much like I did on my high school English papers.  Heh

January simply flew by. 

I managed to read 2 books:  A Time to Kill by John Grisham and The Cold Dish by Craig Johnson.  (The latter being my new book for the month.)  It was a good start to the Walt Longmire series!  If you haven't heard of it, pick it up.  You can also stream the first season of the A&E show - Longmire - on Netflix.

I've fallen WAY behind on my Bible reading.  I found this great app that has plans to help you read through whatever it is you want to in Bible.  I chose a 365 day plan to help keep it simple enough to read daily.... apparently not simple enough for me though.  Oops.

I've given myself every excuse not to be at the gym.  That stops today.  I'll post the proof later.

I managed to finish a WIP that I started quite some time ago when I was testing the pattern for one of my favorite crochet designers, Sandy Powers.  I've very happy with the outcome! I'll post a photo of it once I'm able to take my time and get a good one.

As my last Photo Friday post shows, I've been doing well on my mood blanket.  It has been so much fun to decide what mood I'm in every day and document that in yarn.  I will have to break my blanket up into multiple blankets.  I'm thinking about doing 6 over the course of the year with 2 months in each blanket.  It will be interesting to watch them all progress and see the collection I have at the end of the year.

I didn't do so well with taking more photographs in January.  But I'm attempting to do better this month.  I've even decided on a little project to take more photos of myself since I'm normally the one behind the camera. Those will be a post all unto themselves.

Guess that's enough rambling...... for now.

Photo Friday

At the start of the year, I decided to take on the challenge of documenting my daily moods with yarn.  Every day I add to a blanket with the color of my choosing that reflects my mood.

I chose to work my blanket in these colors/moods:

Red = angry/frustrated
Blue = happy/content
Green = tired
Black = stressed/worried
Gray = sad/lonely
Variegated = confused

Every odd day (1st, 3rd, 5th, etc) I would add 4 rows to my blanket while every even day (2nd, 4th, 6th, etc) I'd add 2 rows.

Now that January is over, I am happy to share my progress.  Here is the start of my "crochet" mood blanket for 2014.

I will try to blog separately about my blanket and the moods I had.  That may not happen terribly often but since I want to blog more, maybe I'll finally kick my own tush and keep up!  (I know I've failed so far but I'm a WIP just like my blanket. Haha)

More to come throughout the year.....

2014 Bucket List

I've decided on no resolutions this year. I never stick with them (with 1 exception in 2005) so this year I'm trying something new.

When a friend posted a list of things she wanted to do before her next birthday, it inspired me to create my bucket list for the year. 

Over 2014, I will enrich my life by:

- reading the Bible and learning about religions.

- reading a minimum of 4 classic books.

- reading no less than 1 new book each month. (By "new" I mean one I've never read before.)

- exercising for at least 1 hour daily (not including work).

- reading the complete works of Shakespeare.

- working on family history.

- writing more letters.

- taking a family vacation.

- finishing no fewer than 1 WIP project each month.

- knitting a mood blanket.

- taking more photographs.

- hanging out with friends more.

- blogging often.

- getting my tattoos designed and inked.

It may seem simple but many of these things I tell myself I'm going to do then never do them. It's time to stop procrastinating on being a better me! I will share my progress through the year.... which will also help achieve my "blogging often" goal. ;)

HAPPY 2014!!