Embrace a 2024 of Infinite Possibilities - ONE WORD

Embracing a year of POSSIBILITIES...just thinking about this topic causes my spirits to rise in expectation and my heart to race! Were your plans to bring in this new year simple or perhaps well planned with much to do and fanfare as the night passed? Do you love fanfare and celebrations, parties and lots of hoop-la, or perhaps quietly relaxing in a bubble bath or your pj's while watching the ball drop on Times Square? 

For us ringing in the New Year most years has been rather uneventful, often quiet... watching a Christmas romance or playing a game of Scrabble...this year was just that. Celebrating the new year for me is so much more a time of looking forward-it has prompted me to focus on ONE WORD. 2024's word...

INFINITE

Thinking about the word itself, INFINITE stirs so many thoughts...about personal aspirations, about business, and about my desire for spiritual growth. Most of all I am excited and cannot wait to see the fruition of Infinite Possibilities in 2024. 

New Year - New Me in 2023

Plans for New Year's Eve are under way and our reservation for dinner has been set. We're heading to a new to us restaurant, Kimi's Chop and Oyster House, and we're really looking forward to sharing the New Year with some of our loved ones and partners in business. 

Looking towards this shiny New Year I think of a tradition I began for our household after hearing Kevin Hall speak on The Power Of Words at a business conference we attended years ago. It spoke to my spirit. Since then as the New Year approaches I have been selecting a single word to focus on in the New Year. I see it referred to by others as ONE WORD.

Stephen Covey wrote as part of his forward for author Kevin Hall' in his book, ASPIRE : "There is a language of success and a language of distress. There is a language of progress and a language of regress... Words lead, and words impede... 

What a powerful description...Perhaps the focus of our word/s can make A NEW YOU?!

Cultures around the world and through history have commemorated the ending of one year and the beginning of another. Being inspired by Kevin to focus on ONE WORD has been such a meaningful year long activity. Far different than the experience of myself and many others who make lists of resolutions. Historically as many as 45 percent of Americans say they usually make New Year’s resolutions, only 8 percent are successful in achieving their goals. 

Beginning this New Year I choose to focus my thoughts on one word... I believe it can make a new me as the year progresses. Perhaps you'll choose to join me. This year could mean for you A NEW YOU too.

Should MAKERS Make Resolutions for 2021?

In 2011 I posted a list of My 2011 Crafting Resolutions. It's almost 2021 and I wonder, "Should MAKERS even Make Resolutions for 2021? Hmmmm... 

Well one thing has not changed through this past year is the deep desire to create.  Making, crafting is simply an integral key, a part of my life, who I am. Interestingly my grown son shared with me that a memory from his Christmas growing up was "making/creating" It seems that creating as part of our gifting brings fond memories of what Christmas means to him. 

One thing about having so many creative ideas is that it often leaves in its wake unfinished projects, which in the past had led to crafting resolutions. Unfortunately like resolutions for the New Year in general, those lists of resolutions rarely make it past the first few weeks. Oh dear, what to do, what to do?

After all my thinking, ruminating and mixed feelings I come back to the concept of "One Word" and as it applies to Makers. 

In preparation for this NEW YEAR my word in LIFE will be "Transformation" 

How will that play out as a "Maker"? 

I want to focus on enjoying the process, letting the moments I spend creating/making bring transformation to my soul. Instead of list making and checking off boxes I prefer to experience that moment where there is a quiet shift into that right-brained 

zone where time slips away and creativity just happens. 

As for all those unfinished projects...perhaps it is time to just "Let it go, Let it go!"

Inspiration is a mysterious thing, sometimes the decision to just let it go sparks the flame to completion. 

On Being RESILIENT

One Word That Can Change Our Lives In 2016

A few years ago I was introduced to the idea of instead of working at accomplishing a list of goals in the New Year, focusing on One Word. 

As the New Year approaches my thoughts of the past year reflect on the hazards, the difficulties, the challenges and the great joys experienced along the way reaching toward my choice word for 2015, "healing". 

Much of the year was about physical healing...My body needed it! Last New Year I would not have imagined it would take those turns yet the power of a word is deeply layered. Not only did my family experience healing of the body but it was also challenged to experience the healing that takes place when on recognizes the need to forgive the unlovable. The impact of keeping my eyes focused on a single word  toward achieving that goal and to describe my solidarity as the year unfolds is powerful. Unlike the regular dictionary meaning of "Restoration," which is to return something back to its original condition, the biblical definition of the word has greater connotations that go above and beyond the typical everyday usage. Repeatedly throughout the Bible, God blesses people for their faith and hardships by making up for their losses and giving them more than they previously had before. 

The word RESTORATION is my choice for 2016. I pray that as the year unfolds, so will the restoration of my body, spiritually as well as physically. I also want to thank GOD and my sweet husband and many friends and kind acquaintences that have come along side to help me throughout this experience. Luke 4:18,19

Creating A "ONE WORD" Banner

In previous posts I shared about the idea of using just ONE WORD as the focus for my New Year. Resolutions often  just  lead to another year of disappointment with ourselves anyway. Why not replace the typical resolution list with a single, focused WORD that identifies one key plan for our lives? I plan to usher in the New Year with my focus on HEALING. If you'd like to read about it check out the post.. I wanted to create a reminder to myself, a fun way of declaring my intent in this NEW YEAR to stay the course with my ONE WORD...HEALING so I began to research what others were doing on Google with ONE WORD. My friends, you all know how I love the seasonal banners, pennants and swags. I'm guessing you also know of my love for themes, party decor and celebrating the season, right? Well I came across a really wonderful idea using office supply tags to create a ONE WORD banner and I am excited to CASE this project. It was featured several years ago at Bless Your Neighbor a blog I found while searching the net.

I'm thinking this would be really a fun project to introduce this idea to my family. The consensus from sisters is  we found it works best for us to typically get together after the New Year to celebrate Christmas together. It started originally as a courtesy to me since we travel over the holidays to see our children and their families. That meant I didn't get to celebrate with my sisters and their children who live in the same state  :( 
I started inviting everyone over after Christmas and our celebrations continue to evolve but we've share gifts, food and fun like the typical white elephant parties. This year I thought it would be fun and encouraging to talk about our hopes, aspirations, and focus in this new year through the use of my "ONE WORD BANNER". 
Here is what I came up with as I looked through my craft room. I have an assortment of tags I have used for other projects over the years maybe you do too!
 I think this project could be created using commercial or handmade tags too. Whether handmade with your own cut outs or using die cut machine electronic cutting machines or a template this project is super simple and fun! 
So here is what I did to create my "One Word" Banner. I went searching through my craft room to see what I had on hand. These are the things I found. I decided to use the plain cream colored tags- the size was best for the letters I picked.

So look around and see what you have on hand... or 

Get some tags whether handmade or store bought. Depending on how many words you would like on your banner make sure you have enough tags on hand. Pick out the banner material. I've show you what I have on hand but you could even select some fabric and cut it about 1 inch wide by the length of your banner.

Here are some of the choices I had to work with. 

Next on to the words you select for your banner.Pick meaningful words, ones that really resonate for you. I have put together a collection of words that may resonate, if not perhaps they will INSPIRE you. 

This word cloud was created at Tagul

Once you have picked your words it's time to create the tags. I have a huge collection of stamp alphabets so I picked three sizes. The largest size was for my word to inspire me in this New Year, My selected word is HEALING. The next smaller was ONE WORD and finally the year 2015 was in another font. 

 

If you are not a stamper perhaps you would rather create using typed words, hand written words or even magazine collage would be fun!

Ok so here is my "ONE WORD BANNER"...
A quick and easy get the New Year started right project!
 I hope you like it. Write me some comments friends. Tell me what your One Word is for this New Year.

My One Word For The New Year HEALING

Back in 2010 I heard the author Kevin Hall speak. He shared his personal story and how it led him to write his new book, "Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words". I had the honor of meeting him after his talk. What he shared truly changed my way of thinking about using words and using them to encourage myself and others too. 

Later I began hearing about the idea of beginning the New Year differently, choosing One Word to help focus on the New Year and the aspirations we have for it. What a wonderful way to start the New Year. 

I have selected my One Word for 2015 to be HEALING. 

Aside from my family, neighbors and close friends most people would not understand my choice. Of those close to me, they would guess that most obvious reason I selected healing as my word might be that I developed Shingles in November of 2014. It for me has been a slow, painful process and in fact I am still dealing with post herpetic neuralgia. (What that means is the pain continues after the blisters healed.) The choice of the word healing though was not only prompted by the pain from Shingles. I had been thinking over some things. Each of us, as we go through life, experiences things that shape them. It mold us and sometimes changes us, some of us never recover. It might have been a betrayal by a loved one or perhaps a death of a child. For others, something out of their control unexpectedly shook their world. It could even be an accumulation of weighty disappointments.

In any case the pain from Shingles got me thinking about pain in our lives that holds us back and keeps us from enjoying life fully.

Why? Because we are carefully trying to protect ourselves from that pain. I thought of this as I was draping scarves over my face trying to keep the cool air from the fan from causing electric shock type pain on my skin. The post herpetic nerve pain had amplified my pain receptors and confused my nerves. What normally would be a rather pleasant sensation on the skin was no longer pleasant.

Unresolved issues in our life can be much like the nerve pain from Shingles, we hide from certain experiences. 

My One Word for this year is more about THAT healing...for myself and for others. I want to see HEALING! 

In With The New Year

Ushering in the New Year this year is much quieter than in past years. I am staying home and keeping warm (it is 10º tonight). My sweetie and I are watching a few movies and taking time to review the past year. We also are looking at this fresh new year with anticipation and are activating our dreams. 

What has seemed impossible to you my friends? Perhaps we can help each other in this new year to summon the will to make our dreams inevitable-together. 

A few years back I was challenged to focus on a Word Of The Year rather than a traditional resolution. Words are powerful. A word can inspire you, remind you, and even challenge you.  A simple word can  change your life. I've had a scripture sometimes or a word or phrase appear to me again and again, and I KNEW it was meant to be used. I couldn't escape my "word". It came to me repeatedly.  

My word of the year for this year is Healing.

How I Started 2014: THE NEW YEAR

The simple things in life bring so much joy...hanging out with two of our grandchildren on New Years Eve...creating, laughing, child's play...yes the simple things :) The ART of Beginning! I look forward to what this bright New Year will bring. Perhaps like the banner our granddaughter created it will be bright, colorful, and sparkly with some "throw back your head laughter" thrown in for good measure .

Bye Bye Christmas - Hello Fresh New year

With the New Year, January brings reflection. It also is a time for weeding through things, attitudes and behaviors and deleting them out of our lives. Doesn't that make you feel good to look towards what we want to become, what we plan to accomplish and how we will accomplish our goals.
As I am contemplating taking down all of my holiday decorations, my home becomes a blank canvas in my mind. What will I put in its place? Will I just "replace" those holiday decorations with exactly what was there before or perhaps its time to do a good "spring cleaning", refresh the color scheme, replace the tattered pillows and update the family photos with the beautiful new pictures that were recently gifted to us.


I begin to think of the ways in which my life could be renewed if I would "take down" those actions, behaviors and thoughts that no longer are representing me for what I want them to and who I want to be at this season of my life. Renewal in the New Year...Yes this is going to be FUN!

The New Year is just around the corner

Christmas has passed... the New Year is almost upon us. With it comes a few more oportunities to gather together, indulge in a few more favorite foods, enjoy a bit of glitz and sparkle as we talk of our plans for the New Year. As we reflect many of us resolve to reproritize our lives, find our bliss, sculpt a new body, overcome poor habits and more. If you are anything like me as the old year comes to a close I am thinking about those plans I made last year and what became of them. For many the frustration of not accomplishing previous New Years goals may lead them to declaring "No MORE Resolutions". For me it emphasizes the need for finding ways to keep my goals on track. I liked what one person had to say on this topic... "I have an action plan and day-to-day activities to make it happen." Today I thought about this as I read a blog article. It aligned really well with the idea of having an action plan and day-to-day activities to make our goals or resolutions become reality. The key is using inertia and then mixing it with momentum.

The Law Of Inertia says, "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an external force." Interestingly inertia is a property of mass and cannot change but momentum changes as an object changes its velocity.

So what does this all have to do with resolutions? When there’s a goal that we want to achieve, one of the biggest hurdles that we face is overcoming inertia in order to get ourselves started moving in the right direction. The good news is that once we initiate movement, the law of inertia helps us to keep moving and to continue taking action. I needed some ideas to overcome inertia and get myself moving toward my goals in this New Year, perhaps you do to. Here are seven ways I plan to overcome inertia and get moving towards my goals, my action plan.

• Shock Therapy Did you know that individuals are “frozen in place” and we tend to resist change, even when presented with favorable opportunities. Therefore, something is needed to act as a "shock therapy". The idea is that some sort of disruption, shock, or “unfreezing” is necessary. Then it allows for a change takes place as a result of the disruption and finally we area able to re-form or “refreeze” into a new and different state.
• Short Term Wins Creating small goals for myself between the really big goals helps me to see my progress for what it is...Success!! Quick wins—to energize the change and create momentum. One small goal I have set for myself is to reward myself when I have acheived a 10% loss in my overall weight loss goal.
• Dangle A Carrot The idea here is to find small appropriate rewards to give yourself for doing what you set out to do. For instance rewarding youself with a healthful smoothie after completing your planned exercise routine or watching your favorite TV show after you’ve published a blog post.
• Use A Stick Discomfort and pain are also powerful motivators . How can you use it to motivate yourself towards your goals? Deny yourself a treat, such as your morning cup of coffee, unless you take action toward your goal. Another idea...Charge yourself for every day that you fail to take action. For example, you could ask a friend to charge you $5 for every day that you fail to take action toward the achievement of your goal.
• Fill My Tank Sometimes we don't tack action on our goals because we lack the ooomph or energy to do so, we haven't feuled our body. Here are some practical ideas to overcome fatigue. Take a twenty minute nap. Drink some water. Eat a nutritious, healthy snack. Pray. Get up, stretch or laugh out loud to get your energy flowing. Once your tank is full, it’s much more likely that you’ll have the energy that you’ll need in order to overcome inertia. Clear Vision Paint yourself a crystal clear vision of what you are trying to accomplish. It should involve all of your senses. Include emotions in your visualization; allow yourself to feel the satisfaction that comes from hitting your goal. As you visiualize your goal allow this vision to pull you toward it. That is, allow the image that you created to pull you out of your state of inertia, and get started towards it.
• Stage It When you have all the tools prepared to fix a leaky sink it is much more likely you'll tackle it. If you are getting ready to embark on a weight loss plan,it is far more likely you'll start at the planned time if all your shopping has been done and the new food choices are already in your refrigerator. It’s so-oooo much easier to overcome inertia when everything that you need in order to carry out a particular action is laid out in front of you and ready to go. Remember, the key to the speed of our success as we reach for our goals is using inertia and then mixing it with momentum since momentum changes as we change our velocity. Reaching our goals quickly is much more desirable than reaching them slowly. I look forward to the New Year with anticipation, excitement and a joy as I plan what I will accomplish and become. I hope you will join me in the journey into this New Year.

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it."~Goethe~

What is Metawork?????

Here we are just 18 days into the new year.  It has already been chock full of activities, some that spilled over from the old year and some that really were part of this brand new one. Did you plan out your new year? Well I discovered a new word in this new year, metawork. I really hadn't thought about the meaning of the word althought I certainly had heard it used in various technical conversation snippets here and there.  I discovered it is something most of us do and mostly what I discovered is that it is the part of getting going that can keep us immobile because in doing it we sometimes think we've done what our goal was. Confused? Ok I'll break it down because it can be really important to know and understand the difference. First let me state a camparison....Real work versus Metawork...Oh, hmmmm whaat? Perhaps it would make sense if we compare it to other meta words. Metadata – data about data. Metajoke – a joke about jokes. Metameeting? A meeting about whether or not you need to plan additional meetings. So-ooooo now is it more clear?

Of course, to some degree metawork is necessary – if you don’t take some steps to plan our how you will achieve your goals, you won’t know when you’ve accomplished them. And....left without direction we tend to wander aimlessly.

Compared to metawork, real work is just plain old fashioned work that has a direct impact on progress towards completing our tasks and goals.

Thinking in terms of a concrete example might help here – consider someone who wants to improve their health by lifting weights. Planning your workout schedule, thinking about how many repetitions to do, the cadence at which you want to lift the weights, which exercises to do all on which days – these are all decisions that i would classify as metawork. It’s important to consider them and have a plan of attack, but at some point you’ve got to actually to go the gym if you want any results...Which brings me to why I am ruminating over the word metawork.

In this New Year we tend to all create resolutions, make plans, etc. I want to make a positive difference this year in my life and the lives of those around me. Its been said that Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world. -Joel A. Barker

Can metawork help us to get to the dream? I believe it can but I also believe it can be the very thing that can keep us immobile and ineffective in life.

Can I raise a toast to this New Year, a challenge if you will?
"May we all move past the metawork in our lives and accomplish the real things that make a difference to us." Cheers!

My 2011 Crafting Resolutions

My 2011 Crafting Resolutions…



Creativity and crafting have always been a key part of my life. Even when my children were small I stayed up into the wee hours to sneak in a few hours of creative time. One pet peeve is that I have many ideas and unfinished projects so I’ve decided to create 2011 crafting resolutions.


Here are my crafting resolutions for the New Year month by month (including UFO finishing). The biggest one is not to let this year go by without learning how to use my embroidery machine.

1. Finish creating a catalog of all of my Stampin Up Stamps , finish cataloging my unmounted stamps in word box 1, create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month.
2. Finish cataloging my unmounted stamps in word box 2, Use at least 2 items from my clip it up collection. Cut out one dress for Little Dresses for Africa. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
3. Decide on a theme for then plan decorations and develop prototype for an upcoming Adventure tea party. Use embroidery machine to embroider each grandchild’s name on an item for them a (simple item like a washcloth). Create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month.
4. Start Christmas presents for my grandchildren, Paint or collage the box for Megan and Fiona. Paint Luke’s puzzle stool. Work on a set of new Christmas card designs. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
5. Sew a dress to donate to Little Dresses for Africa, sew one for Fiona. Have a Stamping & Scrapping overnighter at my house. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month.Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
6. Finish the Rake Knitting hat for Tyler in blue and grey (Cowboys colors). Start on a hat for Luke Evan and Megan. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month.Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
7. Have a day scheduled for artistic development. Pull out my watercolors and work on a 12x 16 or larger or bigger item. Stamp an anything but cards project using scrap papers.Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
8. Use up more items in my card starts drawer. Work on Christmas presents. Create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
9. Finish details on any Christmas presents. Get handmade Christmas cards addressed. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
10. Work on last minute Christmas gifts (there are never enough) create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi and finish designing pages to mount photos.
11. Use embroidery machine to embroider a simple border design on a tea towel for Thanksgiving. Create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month.
12. Work on Christmas presents. Send out handmade presents.Create my Artxchange submission. Send out handmade birthday cards for the month. Plan a scrapping day with Kathi to finish the Photo book we've been working on all year.