Ring in the New Year!

I am not one to make resolutions, because I am not much on follow through.  There was the time I decided to take up quilting, and now I have one closet almost completely devoted to unused quilt fabrics and half made quilts.  Then there was the time I decided to begin scrapbooking.  That is what is taking up the rest of the space in that closet...scrapbook pages, papers, scissors, and all kinds of other what-nots.

Therefore, instead of resolutions, I have chosen areas of "focus" for 2011.  I am going to focus on living creatively.  Step one was this blog.  Then I just finished some nursery pics for a very good friend of mine.  They aren't fantastic, but I loved working on them and I have a few more painting ideas up my sleeve.  Hopefully I'll improve if I keep at it.

In addition to living creatively, I am also going to try living frugally.  Stop laughing!  That's not nice.  Ok, maybe not frugally, that just isn't in my nature.  But I can work on my savings and not spending all willy nilly.  I went on a small spending spree after Joe, thinking that I "deserved" something nice to make up for sadness.  I would like to save for some things to do the house and I will need a new car within a couple of years.  So I will work on that as well.

And last but not least I want to reverse some of my Murphy's Law-Bad Luck Karma.  I am going to begin by volunteering.  I felt horrible over the holidays that I didn't donate to anything, I was too busy buying stuff for me.  Plus, with my new focus of spending less, I figured donations would not be the way to go.  Instead, I decided to give my time usually spent on my butt on the couch. I thought about the SPCA, but knew that I would come home with more animals than I would know what to do with (remember the thing on hoarders???).  I signed up to volunteer with Habitat for Humanity instead.  That way I wouldn't have to make the typical "get in shape" resolution, I could volunteer and work hard at the same time!  It's about time I put the ol' noggin to use. 

I'll keep you updated on my progress in these three areas.  Ok, maybe not the shopping part.  If I do fall off the not spending wagon, I'll just hide my purchases upstairs and keep that a secret.  But I will continue to share my creative pursuits as well as describe my muscle pain and missing fingers because someone let me use a saw while building a house.

Happy New Year!