Plotting and Scheming

As you may know, I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I can’t see the point in setting yourself up to fail by bundling all the things that you’ve neglected to do the previous year and hanging them off one date in the calendar, as if this will magically enable them to happen. Perhaps that is a little harsh, but if you want to do something, just get on with it at the appropriate time. For example, if you want to lose weight, choosing the coldest time of year, when you are most likely to need and want warming, comforting food, is really the worst timing. It’s probably best to make that resolution at the Spring Equinox and save yourself three months of misery.

That said, I am plotting and scheming for the year ahead. Not what you’d call resolutions per se, more by way of a to-do list, or perhaps a to-finish list. Firstly, I’m going to get my tax return done (now that does require resolve) and, more importantly, get my accounts brought all the way up to date and kept that way (*sigh* more resolve). I’ve been playing catch-up for years, staggering from one tax return to the next before flopping into an exhausted heap and setting the books aside for another year. The difficulty with this task is that it precludes my cracking on with the rest of my work to-dos. I have a half-finished corset design that really needs to get beyond the toile stage and another black and gold Rococco corset that has needed finishing for months. My recently acquired semi-industrial sewing machine should make sewing thicker leather slightly easier, so I can turn some of the rather gorgeous skins that I have into even more gorgeous corsets.

I have had embroidering Lenormand-sized bags on the to-do list for ages and really need to make those up. Then, there are next season’s events to book, not to mention planning and making stock for them – I have some fun Jester hats in the works, mainly for children, but I will make some to fit adults too. I’m hoping that DD continues to make her rag dolls and develops her crochet critters so that we have a wider range to appeal to children. She s doing some plotting and scheming of her own today 🙂

Still on the subject of events, I have the fabric to make DS a new cloak, DH a cote and myself a new wool dress – it was -4C overnight at my first event of last year so some more warm clothes would not go amiss. In fact, I have so much fabric piled up that I really need to turn as much of it into stock as possible before it takes over DD’s room entirely.

Somewhere along the line, I’d like to find time to broaden my own skill set too. I’d really like to develop my millinery skills, beyond making simple sewn hats into trying some more structured and complex hats. My foray into button making for the Hussar uniforms last year rather piqued my enthusiasm, so if I can find the time, I may make some buttons to sell or just to use decoratively. There are always so many new things I’d like to try and the problem for me is to narrow it down to what I can squeeze in and to some extent, what will fit in with making a living.

The only crafty activity  that I pursue purely as a hobby is knitting. The number of hours involved on top of the initial cost of the yarn make selling hand knitted goods either prohibitively expensive or one’s effort annoyingly undervalued. My Ravelry queue alone runs to over 100 items (and that’s just a fraction of the patterns that I have). I know that realistically I won’t make much of a dent in it this year, but I’d like to try to get at least a few of the items made. I have a huge stash of yarns all ready to go for many of the projects, it’s just finding the time to start them.

Finally, I could honestly do with losing some weight but I tend to find that obsessing about what I am eating just makes me hungry, so I’m more likely to put on weight than lose it, plus the winter thing previously mentioned. Thus, my plan is to make hearty food appropriately to the weather but just to eat a little less and walk the dog a little further. Come spring, I’ll give the 5:2 fasting another go, as it worked quite well for me previously. Hopefully, this won’t be incompatible with my other plan to have at least one vintage tea party – the book I received for Christmas has some lovely recipes and it would be rude not to try them in the spirit of the theme. Oh, and that reminds me, I have the fabric all ready for a 1940’s style dress….:)

I think it’s going to be a busy year 😀