Archive for January, 2018

2018 Goals

It’s my favorite time of year! Time to start some new goals!

1. Hike every trail in Umstead State Park

umstead

This park is a 5 minute drive from my house, and has about 34 miles of trails. I got some hiking boots for Christmas, and Olivia and I are ready to rock! … Once the temperature gets above freezing.

2. Learn to Juggle

I’ve always wanted to be able to juggle. Maybe this is the year my dreams come true!

3. Review every book I read on GoodReads

I’m meticulous about recording every book I read on GoodReads, to better be able to answer the question “What is the absolute worst book I read this year?”. But I almost always only give them a star rating and move on. This year I’m going to TRY to write actual sentences explaining my rating. I’ve read 2 books so far, and both have seemed like a struggle, so this is the one I’m most worried about completing.

4. Send everyone in my penpal club a birthday postcard
There are 500 people in my penpal club, so this is kind of an insane goal! Not everyone has their address available though, so I’ll probs be sending out less than that. I’ve already mailed 2 batches for people whose birthdays are in the first two weeks of January!

5. Give to a different charity every month
I give to charity fairly frequently, but it’s pretty haphazard and happens mainly when the opportunity is shoved in my face or something pisses me off. I want to be more diligent about researching which non-profits address the issues I care about, especially in my local community. Although, not going to lie, January is probably going to be all about helping Puerto Rico because WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK why is everyone ignoring how messed up a part of our country still is

6. Cook or discard everything in my recipe binder
I keep a binder of recipes I pull out of magazines and such. I need to either cook them and decide they’re good/bad or admit that I’m never going to cook them and throw them out. Just the prospect of this goal made me examine the binder more closely, so right now I only have 61 more recipes to cook. A disproportionate number of them maay be cupcakes. I’ve already started this one, actually. Yesterday I made everything bagel-seasoned scones:

With oats!

With oats!

7. Make Pageapalooza a success!
This is a party I’m planning for all the library pages. Shirts! Games! Food! Peanut butter pretzels! I’m hoping it’ll be a fun time.

So there it is. I’ll update you in April.

Previously: 2017 goals

2017 Goals: Wrap Up

All things considered, I did pretty well on my goals this year. I didn’t get 100% but I’m not going to beat myself up about it. Some of them were kind of a reach anyway, and I tried my best. In the end, I got to 90% complete. Not as good as last year (96%) but still better than 2014 (68%).

1. Write a New Beginner’s Guide Once A Month: 92%

December was too busy for me to do tackle a new project, but it’s the only month I failed at this one. Here’s what I did the rest of the year, with updates:

Yay!

Yay!


January: Weaving
This was my favorite thing I tried in 2017, probably because I did it at the John C. Campbell Folk School, which is magical. I won’t be using it ever again, but it was fun to learn.

February: Calligraphy
Probably the most useful thing I learned all year was the cheater calligraphy I learned for this post!

March: Cross Stitch
I finally finished the cross stitch I started this month, but I have yet to frame it. I’ll probably be doing some cross stitch again sometime.

April: Gardening
Yeah, they all died. I’m probably not going to be trying to tackle this again.

May: Make up
I already knew when I wrote this post that make up is not for me. Sorry, friends, you’re stuck with my face as is.

June: Bullet Journaling
Probably the one I will be using the most from here on! I kept it up for the rest of the year, although I definitely changed the format some to suit me better.

July: Candy Making
I mean, I’ll definitely make fudge again. But anything with a candy thermometer? Nah

August: Free Motion Quilting
I bet I’ll be doing this again, but even after learning all about it for this post, it kind of intimidates me.

GO TEAM

GO TEAM


September: Pole Dancing
This one was both the hardest and most fun thing I tried this year! I won’t be doing it again because I don’t got those skills, but it was fun to try!

Inside it's Halloween funfetti

Inside it’s Halloween funfetti


October: Cake Decorating
Omg no, I lied before, making my cupcakes look like they were made by a competent adult was the most useful thing I learned this year.

November: Soap Making
This one was pretty boring and messy, tbh

2. Sew Something New Once a Month: 83%
Another goal I didn’t get to in December, plus I already missed one in May, so there you go. In October I sewed my Halloween costume, Captain Crunch:

Can't take credit for Steven's style, though

Can’t take credit for Steven’s style, though

And in November I sewed this quilt top. It’s made of lots of different fabrics I had around, and I’m hoping to get to the quilting part soon:

The best is the fried egg fabric

The best is the fried egg fabric

3. Write in my Journal once a week: 100%!

Bullet journaling really helped out with this one.

4. Make one new recipe every week: 87%
I wish I’d been better at documenting this one, but alas. Here is the only one I bothered taking pictures of in the past three months:

Hot cocoa cookies!

Hot cocoa cookies!

These were the favorite of all the Christmas cookies I made. You add hot chocolate mix to the dough.

5. Keep my nails painted for 30 days: 100%
It was a struggle.

6. Finish a coloring book: 100%

I finished this goal so long ago, I’ve already forgotten about it.

7. Be active every day: 56%

I know, pathetic. To be fair, I didn’t count all my walks with Olivia unless they were particularly strenuous for some reason. But that’s still more than half, which is okay by me.

8. Read all of The Dictionary of Imaginary Places: 100%!

800 pages of small font!

800 pages of small font!

I’m really proud of this one, because it definitely seems like the one I would slack off and fail at. Remember when I tried to read all of Brewer’s? But I crushed this. And in the process learned that there have been so many books about societies that live inside the earth. Most of them are racist as shit.

Total: 90%

Previously: 2017 Almost There
Next: 2018 Goals!!!

2017: The Pretty

What’s my favorite cover from a book I read in 2017? It’s a close race, but the winner is:

prettythelietree
The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

It is the perfect mix of creepy and curiosity-inducing.Here are the runner’s up:

goodlumberjanes
^Lumberjanes: Unicorn Power! by Mariko Tamaki

goodmeddling
^Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero

prettyconvergence
Convergence by Sharon Green

This one is on here kind of nostalgically because the cover is the only reason I bought it in a used book store as a teen. Otherwise I would never have read this terrible, terrible series.

goodwitch
^How to Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather

prettyjuliet
Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

prettyexorcism
My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix

prettypopular
Popular: Vintage Wisdom for a Modern Geek by Maya Van Wagenen

prettylumberjanes
Lumberjanes Volume 6: Sink or Swim by Shannon Watters

goodhark
^Hark! A Vagrant by Kate Beaton

goodiceghosts
^Ice Ghosts: The Epic Hunt for the Lost Franklin Expedition by Paul Watson

prettypagesbetween
The Pages Between Us by Lindsey Leavitt

prettyhygge
The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way to Live Well by Meik Wiking

goodnotquitestates
^The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA by Doug Mack

Previously: 2017 The Ugly

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