January Review

Way back at the beginning of the month, I made some res…er…to-do lists and as part of this list promised a monthly review on my progress. Now we are in the final week of the month, I’ve decided it is time to see how it’s all going. So is all good or a total disaster going the way of most January resolutions to-do lists? See for yourself. Here’s how I’ve got on so far:

1. Diet

• more fruit
  CHECK! Apples, raspberries, mangoes, bananas, blueberries. Smoothies! Still need to keep on top of this and make sure I’m eating rather than just buying the stuff 🙂
  
• less red meat
  CHECK! Apart from a 3-day run of beef (DS’ Goulash, followed by DH&DD’s Lasagne) we’ve been eating…
  
• more fish
  CHECK! Seafood once a week. And…
• more varieties of veg, including pulses
  CHECK! Not too much success on the more varieties (try finding a Jerusalem Artichoke around here!), but lentils have been excavated from the back of the cupboard and a very hearty chicken, lentil and bacon soup proved an all round hit (even with Miss Fussypants DD)
  
• new recipes
  CHECK! I’ve made a few new things and the children have been finding lots of new things to try in their Christmas cookbooks…
  
• encourage the children cook more
  CHECK! DD made a lovely Fish Bourride, some Salmon stuffed jackets and (at school) chicken nuggets and breaded garlic mushrooms, DS has made Goulash and Lamb Koftes and a Beef Bourgignon is on the cards for this Friday 🙂

2. Work

• Be more tidy/organised
  CHECK! I’ve spent over a week reorganising and tidying my workroom and improving storage. I’m sad enough to have made a database for my beads and catalogued them all.
• …and more motivated
  Ummmm…
• Increase my income
  Huge blow here with the cancellation this year of one of the larger and more lucrative shows I do 🙁 But, I will soldier on and try to find others to fill the gaping hole. Failing that, it might be time to find a proper job again <sigh>
  
• Expand the range and finish some of the projects under development
  oh, come on, isn’t all the tidying and sorting out enough?! Seriously though, the freezing weather is slowing progress since my workroom is bloody freezing not the warmest lace, but I’m getting there.
  
• Include more of my work in this blog
  Err, not so much work work, but I have posted about my crafty work. That counts, right? I will be bragging writing more about my work once I’m back on track. Honest! 🙂
  Oh, there’s a 15% off sale on Tarot bags in my shop until the end of January. Does that count?

3. Creativity

• Start planning my photographic Tarot deck and taking pics for it
  Not had a chance to do much as yet, but it’s bubbling away in the background like a witch’s cauldron.
• Bust some of my mahooosive yarn stash by tackling some of the projects in my Ravelry queue
  CHECK! Started Lightning Thief MKAL using stashed yarn (rather than buying more) and will be moving on to other projects once I’ve cleared the current WsIP (“WIPs” doesn’t make sense)
  
• Knit some more colour work
  I’ve downloaded some nice Norwegian Mitt patterns. That’s a start, isn’t it? This one may be dependent on having stash yarn to use up.
  
• As above – finish experimental/new projects
  Give me a chance, it’s not even the end of January! I have a couple of corsets in development and will post more once I’ve had a chance to complete these.
  
• Write more
  Because there are 36 48 hours in a day, right? I’m trying to post here at least once a week.
  

In addition to these, I now have an embroidered Tarot quilt in the planning stages and have even bought the fabric and done one panel. Just need to plan the overall pattern 🙂

4. Home

• tackle some of the increasing number of jobs, improvements and reorganising that needs doing around the house. (The list is far too long to itemise!)
  <sigh> I’ve done some epic tidying, give me a break!

Truth be told, I haven’t made a bad start at all and I’m really rather pleased with myself. It was never the plan to accomplish everything in the first couple of weeks, but I have done rather well on many things on the list and a few that weren’t.

I hadn’t planned on a “Dry January” in my list, but have largely done so, with a couple of minor exceptions (a couple of glasses of wine at a birthday bash a couple of weeks ago and a small snort of Stag’s Breath with my haggis yesterday), and have felt rather better for it in many ways. The change in diet and the reduction to virtually zero alcohol has meant that I’ve also lost several lbs in weight. Bonus! 😀

Since I’ve made such a good start, I’ve made a revised list for February:

1. Diet:  Continue the good work
2. Work: Whip the staff* to improve productivity and motivation (*oh, wait! That’s me!)
3. Creativity:  Review projects regularly, write down and try to stick to the plan
4. Home: Review the (other) list and make a strategic plan to tackle the jobs.
5. Time: Make better use of it (This one will be the trickiest of the lot!)
6. Review: Continue to revise and review the to-do list and report progress. It feels good 🙂