Contemplating the New Year

I've spent a lot of the last couple of weeks contemplating the creative direction I want to take in 2013, where I see myself headed, what I want to achieve. I have been reading books about creativity and creative people, I have been taking stock of the contents of my craft room.

And I have concluded that 2013 should be a year of completion and consolidation. This is the year I want to complete quilts that have been sitting around way too long, finish the scrapbooking albums I am way behind on, take stock of the craft supplies I own and buy almost nothing else.

When I talk about WIPs and UFOs, I am talking about 30 of them. There, I said it out loud, in public. I'm not sure quite how the list got so long, but I absolutely need to rectify this. Some of these projects need a fair bit of work, others are close to finished. For this reason, I am ignoring all the new BOMs and sewalongs and challenges that are merrily happening in the blogosphere to people who don't have 30 WIPs.

This, by the way, doesn't include a few small projects and a big basket of mending and refashioning. Gotta get to that too.

On the bright side, I have finished my two bee/swap block commitments for January already. I've packed my machine away and I'm about to send her off for a much needed service.

And for the first time in many months, I have pulled out the paper and photos again and started scrapbooking again. It is a little daunting how much there is to do in this department, especially as I haven't printed a single photo or organised a single bit of memorabilia for the last two years. I am determined to focus on this task and make serious headway on my albums. Happily in the last three days I've completed about 15 pages, which is just about all I did in the whole of last year (which was a bad year for scrapbooking!).

One thing I really want to do this year is Project Life, or at least my version of it. I am using the materials I have on hand, as well as plenty of free printables. While it sounds like a bit lot of extra work, I am so excited about starting this project. It's inspired me to start scrapbooking again, and it's making me take more pictures of our everyday life. As the kids get older and stop doing those incredibly cute things they do as little ones, it's easy to get lazy with taking photos. This week I've made an effort to get behind the lens more and record. The Mamarazzi is back, kids!

So that's where I'm headed in 2013. More finishing, less starting, more taking check of what I have and what needs doing. It's not going to be the most exciting year and sometimes I imagine it will be hard, especially when the lure of the new calls. But I am determined, confident and motivated. Wish me luck!

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