2016 Mid Year Review

At the start of the year Yvonne, from Quilting Jetgirl, hosted a yearly goal setting linkup. Being the list maker that I am, I was already doing this but putting it out there for all to see was my way of holding myself accountable. The year is already half over and Yvonne has asked us to post how we're doing. Full disclosure -- I haven't looked at this list since I posted it so this will help to remind me of what I have to work on for the next 6 months.

1. More selfish sewing - I've not done very well on this goal since there's always a gift project on the horizon. And now, with the Pulse charity drive, every spare sewing moment is spent trying to get these done as quickly as possible. But I'm okay with that. I did purchase a new pattern a few days ago, Bubbles, that I'm going to start working on. I'd love to start making 1 block a month beginning in September when I'll have more sewing time.

2. Wardrobe Makeover - I've definitely made some progress on this goal and now have clothes that fit me. This is an ongoing goal in order to spread out the cost.

3. Declutter and organize my everyday life - I've also made some progress on this goal as well. I've donated several bags/boxes of household items and clothes over the past 6 months. Whenever I buy a new piece of clothing, I try to look in my closet to see if there is something that can also be donated so that I keep a status quo. For these next 6 months, I want to challenge myself to tackle the dreaded junk drawer in the kitchen and my sewing room drawers with all of my machine accessories and notions.

4. Become a mentorI - Now that the school project is finished I'm not sure what will be next but since my son has taken an interest in sewing that sort of qualifies.

5. Finish my 3 big WIPs -

1. 2015 Stash Bee quilt - Turquoise Facets is done.  
2. My Midnight Mystery quilt -  Moroccan Tiles - the top is completely done but I need to have a longarmer quilt this. There's no way I can quilt a queen size quilt on my machine. Heck, I don't even have enough space anywhere in my house to baste it! I'm hoping to give it to my friend Frank to quilt at his leisure. He does amazing work. 
3. My Pinwheel quilt. - No progress has been made on this one. Maybe I'll be able to add the outer border so that it's ready to quilt, but thinking realistically this won't get finished until 2017.

6. Continue making our house our home oasis - I've made some progress on this by having my living room textiles all coordinate but there is still more to do. I have one more pelmet box to make to go over our sliding glass door. I also want to paint the rest of the common areas in the house and find some more wall decorations. And did I mention that my 6-year-old is asking to paint and decorate his room? Yep, he wants a Star Wars room.  Guess I'll be adding that to my to-do list as well. I'm sure this goal will carry over until 2020. It's never ending.  :)

7. Cut into some of my layer cakes - Ummm... yeah. No progress on this one either. But I do have a solid plan for my April Showers layer cake and have even purchased the necessary background fabric. Again, this is on the back burner until my guild gets all the Pulse quilts finished.

8. Create and stick to a routine that works for me to achieve a better balance of work, home, and leisure time - This is always going to be a work in progress for me. I mentioned in my goal setting post that I've never really used a physical planner before and while I love the design and the concept of the Quilter's Planner it didn't help me to manage things. The planner was too big for me to carry around and since my husband and I use a shared calendar (with tasks & reminders), it was too redundant to transfer everything into the planner each week. For the remainder of the year, I'm going to try and use the planner specifically for sewing goals and tasks and keep it in my sewing room.

9. Blog more regularly - I think I'm doing pretty well with this goal. I try to write/schedule at least 1 blog post a week and I even managed to have them build up enough to post while I was on vacation. My bonus goal that went along with this was to make some cosmetic changes to my blog. I'm happy to say that I accomplished that. I created a new banner and signature for the blog. Lightened up the background and redid my social media icons (again). I'm much happier with the cleaner look of the blog.

It's been good to reflect back on these. Now to see if I can follow through by the end of the year.