My March Confessional

February has come and gone. March is half over. And I have a confession to make. My goal for February- to reduce alcohol consumption to the weekends only- was unattainable. I tried, my friends, I tried. Turns out I really enjoy that glass of wine in the evenings, bragging rights be damned.

So there.

I did, however, participate in the 29 Days of Drawing through the website, Creativebug. If you're not familiar with the site, they offer a wide variety of online classes in drawing, sewing, paper arts and jewelry design. Each day during the month of February, they offered a drawing prompt which participants uploaded to Instagram. They offered a prize at the end which included a trip to their studio, etc. I learned a few things about myself throughout the exercise.

1.  I don't mind being told what to draw.

2.  I do mind being told how to draw it.

Here are a couple of the drawings from those 29 days.

I have also immersed myself in fabric design. Over ten years ago I created my own fabric and had it printed for handbags and travel accessories. At that time the only fabric choices were polyester. Now, the website Spoonflower, has opened the door to independent fabric design. They offer 20 different fabric options upon which you can print your uploaded designs.

My goal was to create fabric designs from my drawings- something I hadn't tried before. My prior fabrics were scans of my collages, so this was something entirely new. Not having experience in Photoshop or Illustrator (the software that most fabric designers use) I challenged myself to learn how to do a repeat design by hand.  After working through a major learning curve, I created several designs and ordered print samples in a couple of different fabrics.

You can click on the above image to be directed to my online store.


So that was February.

My March goal is to take a minimum of three yoga classes a week. I'll let you know how it goes.

"No Shopping January" is in the rear view mirror

Near the end of December 2015 I decided to approach the new year differently. Instead of setting goals as I usually do, I decided to set a different goal for each month of the year.

For January, I resolved to limit my spending to only the essentials- groceries, gas, household supplies and such. 

It was a little more difficult than I expected and for the very reason I thought it would easy. In December I had honed my shopping skills for the holiday season and a bit (!) of that shopping was for myself. I got into the habit of "one for her, one for me" and overbought. I assumed that all of that shopping would carry me through January. However, I found that I had created a habit that was difficult to break.

To ease the cold turkey effect, I set up a Pinterest board called "Not Today, I'm Just Looking."
If I saw something online that I liked or thought I needed to buy, I pinned it to the board. Kind of like putting something in the shopping cart and walking around the store for a while. Except that once I pinned it, it was gone from my mind. A few times during the month I visited the board and ended up deleting things that I realized I didn't really need. Kind of eye-opening, to say the least.

I almost made it through the month.  On the 27th realized I really needed some art supplies to be able to continue my design project. So I ordered $38 worth of pens, paper and other items. I suppose I could have waited a few days but I was on a roll.

Do I feel like I can return to the hog wild behavior of December now? No. Do I feel like a little trip to Marshalls is in  order? Perhaps.

#2016GOALS

I love starting a new year. A clean slate. A fresh start. A time to think about setting goals. It's just what I love to do.  Similar to list making, there is something about written goal setting that I find very helpful.

For each month in 2016 I've set a goal in an area of self improvement. My hope is that after 30 days of focus I'll have some carryover into the next month.   For January I've decided to limit my buying to only essentials such as groceries, gas, etc. No spontaneous Amazon purchases. No "extra 25% off the sale price at Anthropologie."

Half way through the month and my "no buy except for the essentials" is going well. It helped to set up a Pinterest board that I named "Not today, I'm just looking." It's kind of like putting things in the shopping cart and walking around the store for a while. I'll admit that it helped coming off of December which was a big retail month. However, it's also a little more difficult having been in that buy buy mentality.

Future goals include reducing alcohol consumption (very specific); increasing creativity with gift-giving in mind; and daily meditation.