Looking Forward to 2014

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. I love the structure I get from posting my goals here on the blog. Often times typing it here on the blog eggs me on to doing something I don’t know I would have done if I’d kept the idea hidden away. Looking at the big picture every year is also a great way to keep make sure what I’m doing in my life has intention. I value my time here on Earth, and want to make sure I’m using it well.

2014 Long Term Goals

My Word for 2014

Engage

As my work here at Candied Fabrics has turned from a hobby into a second career, I want to keep my eye on interacting with folks, even if we only meet online. This year I’d like to keep this personal interaction in mind as I work online! How can I do this??? Lets see what I can come up with in some concrete ways

Long Term Artistic Goals

  1. Continue to work more in 3 dimensions.
  2. Explore the shape/idea of house/home.
  3. Continue to work with restricted color palettes.
  4. Work on creating pieces that focus on a particular botanical type.
  5. Work with new fabric textures.
  6. Make things just for FUN!

These goals are the same as last year – I see no reason to change them! They define who I am as a maker, and have served me well!

Long Term Business Goals

  1. Launch 2 more online classes.
  2. Look into out-of-town in person teaching gigs – are they feasible/possible with my schedule at this time?

Long Term Online Goals

  1. Try to remember a “One Moment” post each week – I miss these!
  2. Pinterest: start pinning from my site and see what happens!
  3. Don’t get too hung up on stats. If you blog it, they will come! ;-)
  4. Work on interacting with folks on FB and Instagram
  5. Monthly emails to folks in my online classes

Pie in the Sky Goals

  1. Continue submitting to magazines.
  2. What’s next after my second DVD/Downloadable Workshop gets released?

Okay, I’ve roughed out a big picture game plan…now to the brass tacks! What’s gonna happen this month??

November/December Goals

Pillows for the couch November 24 100%
Artist Advent Calendar Guest Post December 1 100%
Giveaway December 15 100%
Shirts for Mr Pena December 1 100%
Linen Basket for Vicki December 1 100%
Patio Class with Mena & Friends December 7 100%
Private Patio Class with Lynn December 9 100%
Christmas presents for nieces & nephews December 18 100%
2 zip hipster for Carrie December 15 100%
Personalize Ornaments for Carrie December 28 100%
Pillows for Debbie December 18 100%
Real Studio Tour Posts December 20 100%
2 iPad covers for Valerie December 23 100%
Christmas Basket for Stirling December 24 100%
Studio Re-organization December 27 100%
Pix of Samples for FMQ class up on website December 1 50%
Retro Ornament Art Quilt December 1 0%
Fill up scarf stocks December 31 0%
Tree quilt for couch December 31 5%
New Quilts for boys December 31 5%
Video tutorial for QAYG December 31 0%
Pillows for Jess & Jim January 15 0%

Hooray, I did get a lot of things crossed off the list! One really fun thing I made was a set of personalized retro Christmas ornaments: my customer will give them to her niece and nephews continuing a family tradition of ornaments for the kids through the years. What she gives them will be used on the family tree while they grow and then they can start decorating their own tree with when they have their own families! I just barely got time to snap one quick picture before she came by to pick them up:

Retro-Christmas-Ornaments-01

She loved them and was so excited! Hooray!

I also got Stirling’s Jester basket done just in time!

Stirling-Jester-Basket

I Love love LOVE it!!! It was a big too big for Sheltie sized presents, so it gives me an excuse to make a smaller one next year…but it looked great under the stockings, and more importantly, worked great on Christmas morning!

Retro-Christmas-Morning-16

Unfortunately, I did NOT get a good picture of all the stockings with presents in them in the morning. But Stirling went straight to the basket and was nosing around in it. He really REALLY enjoyed the opening of presents, and his red and white striped bone was a BIG hit!

Christmas-day-2013-037

Christmas-day-2013-040

Ah, what fun!

OK, so now…January! What do I want to get done this month that gets me off to a great start?

January Goals

Calendar email to students January 7 0%
Pix of Samples for FMQ class up on website – Seriously, finish this up before the next class starts!!! January 7 50%
2 emails for possible next projects January 15 0%
iPad Air cover for Andrew January 15 0%
Laptop sleeve for me January 15 0%
Inventory for tax prep January 15 0%
Could it be? A bag for Mary for real??? January 15 0%
LAUNCH DYEING 103!!!!! January 31 0%
Tree quilt for couch January 31 5%
New Quilts for boys January 15 5%
Video tutorial for QAYG January 31 0%
Pillows for Jess & Jim January 31 0%

I’ve got a couple of small computer projects to get done, and then it’s time to focus on launching Dyeing 103: Multicolor Cotton Fabric! I was so close to getting this launched last Summer, until that email came asking me to tape a second Quilting Arts Workshop with about 7 weeks of lead time! I knew this was too good an opportunity to pass up, and I knew that I just had to hit the pause button on the class as well. Now I’ve got to dig through ALL those video files I shot and see where I’m at. I know that I’ve got a lot of content that just needs final formatting, and have high hopes I can have the mental focus to get those early lessons finished and the whole thing launched within the month!

The things (quilts and pillows) I want to make are not time sensitive, but I know that I’ll sometimes need a break from working on the class, which is SO MUCH computer work. My hopes are that I can use these projects to give me the boost of making something more concrete when I just can’t look at ONE MORE VIDEO of myself for awhile! 😉

I hope the start of 2014 is finding you energized…I know that I am STOKED to get STARTED!

Sigh, we cleaned up all the Christmas stuff last night, I really loved this scene:

Retro-Christmas-Morning-15

and my Retro Ornaments??? You shall be seeing more of those!!!

Retro-Christmas-Morning-19

3 Responses

  1. All of your projects make me very excited! Especially another dye class. Happy New Year and a toast to the 2014 you would like to have. <3

  2. Your Christmas area looks like such a happy place and I especially love Stirling’s basket! Engage is a great word to choose and I know you will do well with it in 2014. Happy New Year, Candy!