This I know for sure...

I'm finding that the ideas I have for the holiday cards I want to make seem a lot easier in my head than actually trying to bring the idea to fruition. I've only been making cards for about a year. This is the second holiday season that I'll be making cards so part of the problem is lack of skill.

I'm not discouraged though. After all, they say practice makes perfect or at least gives you improvement in your skill level.

What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My Current WIP (Work in Progress): I spent time with family on Thanksgiving and Friday. Between doing the baking for the holiday, visiting with family and working on making holiday cards, I didn't do any writing last week.

Quote of the Week: "I am never afraid of what I know." ~ Anna Sewell (19th century writer)

What I'm Reading: I still reading the ebook Set The Night On Fire by Jennifer Bernard. I'm enjoying it, but having a hard time finding time to read.

Random Thoughts: I haven't done Black Friday shopping where you arrive at the store at an ungodly hour in years, but this year, my mom and I got up and were at JoAnn's at 6:00am. It wasn't very crowded and there was very little traffic which surprised me.

Random Photo of the Week:

                               My mom made Mrs. Green her very own teddy bear. 

Looking Back

Every year around this time, I start looking back at the goals I set in January and where I stand at the present time. I know that any goals I haven't met probably won't be completed in the few short weeks before the year ends. Not so much because I give up, but time is at a premium around the holidays and I try to be realistic about what I'm going to be able to squeeze in around shopping for gifts, wrapping, decorating, baking, making holiday cards, as well as the normal every day stuff like laundry, cleaning, and the like.

I've done well in meeting some goals, and not so well in meeting others --

I've cut back on the unhealthy food I like to eat, but isn't good for you like chips, doughnuts, and pizza. I can't remember the last time I had a doughnut this year and we haven't had pizza in about 3 or 4 months. I'm still working on eliminating cookies from my diet. I usually end up having three or four at least once a week.

I'm exercising at least 30 minutes four days a week on a regular basis. I'd like to get up to five days, but haven't gotten there yet. Prior to this year, my exercise routine was very hit or miss.

I've put in place routines to help me stay organized such as shredding the junk mail that comes nearly every day the same day it's delivered instead of letting it pile up on top of the shredder.

One of the places I haven't done well is my writing. I planned on finishing the revisions on two books and writing one complete manuscript this year and here I am eleven months into the year still working on the revisions for the first book. I need to do much better in this area next year.

Another place I haven't done well is making cards ahead of time so when someone's birthday or some other reason I want to send a card happens, I can just send one out instead of giving up writing time to hurry and make a card so I can send it out in time.

I'm going to spend the next few weeks really looking hard at my goals for this year and what goals I want to set for next year and ways to accomplish them so that I'm more successful at meeting them than I was this year.

Happy Thanksgiving

                                              
             I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and loved ones.
                             I'm a day early, but I won't be posting again until Monday, 11/26

Grateful

I'm a little early with this post since Thanksgiving is still a few days away, but I've been thinking about what I'm thankful for this year.

A few of the more important things I'm thankful are:
1.) A nearly stress-free job. (Finally after way too many years.)

2.) Nice (kind) and supportive co-workers. (Again, finally after way too many years.)

3.) My mom's continued good health.

4.) My family

What are some of the things you're feeling thankful for?

This I know for sure...

I'm looking forward to having next Friday off for the Thanksgiving holiday. I have so much I want to accomplish that day that I'm probably being a bit unrealistic about how much I'm really going to get done. I have a pretty good sized list of things I want to do or set up that I can't seem to get to. A couple of things I want to get done are:

I had to buy a new laptop over the summer because my hard drive died in my old one and I've yet to download Itunes so I can update my Ipod. Yes, I still use an Ipod instead of downloading music directly to my phone. I find listening to music on my phone drains the battery much faster than if I don't do that.

I also want to make a spreadsheet of all of the links to favorite websites, blog posts, or information sites so if I have to purchase a new laptop in the future, I won't lose all of the links to those favorites I have saved like I did this summer.

I'd like to make a spreadsheet of all of the books I want to read categorized by genre or sub-genre so I can see at a glance what I have on my "To Be Read" list by category or author. My TBR list on Goodreads is numbering in the 400's so getting all of those transferred into a spreadsheet will definitely be a time consuming process.

If I can get at least a few of the things knocked off the list, I'll consider the day a success.

What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My Current WIP (Work in Progress): I managed to revise another chapter in Honor Bound last week. I'm not sure how many pages I'll get revised each week between now and Christmas since I have holiday cards to make and the usual hustle and bustle of buying and wrapping gifts and all the baking I do at this time of the year.

Quote of the Week: "No one has more confidence in me than I have in myself." ~ Allen Iverson

What I'm Reading: I started the ebook Set The Night On Fire by Jennifer Bernard. This is the first book in the Jupiter Point series.

Random Thoughts: When reading a book at night, I prefer to read a paperback or hard cover book over an ebook. It's nothing against ebooks. I've read some great ones. It's just that I'm afraid I'll fall asleep while reading on my Kindle and it fall off the bed and break. 

Random Photo of the Week:

I read every night before I go to sleep. It might only be a few pages, but I can't seem to fall asleep if I don't do it.

Paying for Procrastination

Today's post is a bit of a continuation of last Friday's "This I know for sure" post.  I have about 15 holiday cards to make and get mailed at least by the second week of December, though I'd like to get them in the mail before then. I also have two cards to make for early December birthdays.

Since I seem to suffer from procrastination when it comes to making cards, even though I enjoy doing it, I now have the dilemma of what to give priority to - making the cards or writing.

Last year each card I made was one of a kind so to speak. I didn't duplicate any of the designs. Due to time constraints this year, I'm only going to do three or four designs and make the cards in more of an assembly line process: all the stamping, any coloring of the stamped items, then all of the cutting of stamped items and/or background images, then the assembling of the cards and finally adding any embellishments such as sequins, shaker windows, Nuvo drops, card spackle (for snow), and glitter. 
I'm hoping this will cut down on the time it usually takes me to make a single card which can range anywhere from an hour and a half to four hours depending on the amount of detail, intricacy of the stamping of the images, hand cutting out the images and their placement within the design etc.

I'm hoping I'll be able to work on the holiday cards three days out of the week and then use three days for writing, leaving Sunday to give my brain a rest. It will depend on how much I can get accomplished each card making day to make sure they're ready to be mailed by my self-imposed deadline.

This I know for sure...

I make cards for close friends and family for birthdays, the holidays, and other occasions that might call for a card. I'd love to make up some birthday, thank you, or "just because" cards ahead of time so I have them ready to go as they're needed. I always plan on making the card(s) well ahead of time, but somehow time gets away from me. I'm usually making any cards that I need to send out only a few days before I need to put them in the mail.

What's Up Wednesday

This week...

My Current WIP (Work in Progress): Only managed about 12 pages of revisions last week. I had appointments and the like after work for the first three days of last week so it didn't leave a lot of writing time.

Quote of the Week: "Discipline is doing what needs to be done, even if you don't want to do it." ~ Unknown  I'm repeating this quote from a couple of weeks ago because I really need to absorb it into my life lately.

What I'm Reading: I'll be starting Dead Ringer by Mary Burton when I get in bed tonight. I like to try and read every night before I go to sleep.

Random Thoughts:  I hope everyone exercised their right to vote yesterday.

Random Photo of the Week:

               They sell baby pineapples the size of an orange at my local grocery store.
                       Cute, but expensive. They cost more than a full size pineapple
 

Jealousy, That Green Eyed Monster

One of my co-workers' last day working in our office was last Wednesday. She's expecting her third child in March and has two other small children. She only worked part-time in the afternoons so her paycheck would have gone to pay for daycare so she and her husband decided she might as well stay home.

While I'm not jealous of the fact she will have three children under the age of 3 years old (she has a set of twins that are about a year and a half), I am jealous of the fact that she won't have to work outside the home.

I really like my job. It's probably the best job I've had in years, but I don't like the 25 minute commute one way on the highway especially in the winter weather. I also don't like that I have a really hard time getting time off that I want because I have to cover for a co-worker when she's out of the office and she's the person who approves vacation day requests so if she and I want the same day, guess who gets the scheduled day off and who doesn't.

But if I didn't have to work outside the home, I could -

      1.) Write more instead of trying to fit writing time in around the job, appointments for myself, my mom, and lately, the cat, and family members who just drop in to visit and take up my writing time.

     2.)  Be there for my mom for whatever she might need whenever she might need me. She's in her early 80's and in good health (thank goodness), but there are some things she's starting to find difficult to do and is stubborn and will struggle to do things instead of leaving them for me to do when I get home from work.

      3.)  I'd love to be able to volunteer a couple of days a week. Right now, with my schedule that's just not an option.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Yep, I'm jealous of my former co-worker but I really hate that I am. With three small children, it's not like she'll be sitting around doing nothing all day, but I can't help the way I feel.

This I know for sure...

It's really nice to work for a business owner that appreciates his staff. He brought in small bouquets of flowers for all of us ladies in the office for Halloween for no reason in particular. Here's what my bouquet looks like.