Resolutions? Pass

Now that we've reached 2024, you may wonder if I've made any resolutions or chosen a thematic word for the year or any other practice that starts on January 1st. The answer is no, as I'm pretty much done with all that.

At the moment we have a lot going on. After we finish the kitchen renovation (which I hope will be done by the time this post publishes) we have to start picking out materials for the guest bathroom shower rebuild. Katherine is arriving for a visit in a few weeks, too. I also have to continue to step up my exercise and make more changes to what I eat; I'm trying a low-carb version of the Mediterranean Diet. Both efforts are to help improve some health issues, and I started them back in November, so they have nothing to do with the start of 2024. I would like to spend less this year and save more, but that's always a goal for a frugal person.

Thanks to thrifting last year, I certainly don't need any crochet materials.

Same goes for quilting. In fact, if you guys need any fabric or yarn, let me know. :)

Anyway, this need to make ourselves feel like we have so much to improve at the beginning of every new year has grown tiresome for me. For many legitimate reasons I've felt inadequate most of my life, and no one let me forget how much I didn't measure up to others, either (especially when I turned pro.) While I've been determined, there have been so many obstacles I've never been able to overcome. Yet I found a way around them while I was chasing my dream, and I never gave up on myself. I accomplished everything with hard work and the belief that even someone like me could make their dream come true -- and I did.

Realizing that is why while I no longer feel a need to improve myself in some way. I've accepted that I am good enough exactly as I am (it only took 63 years, right?) Every new year is simply a gift now.

Here's my thought if you're contemplating making a New Year's Resolution: resolve to love yourself for who you are, right now. Accept that you are good enough just as you are. That would be a wonderful thing.

Comments

Maria Zannini said…

I prefer to think that at our age, we've improved enough. Time to glow. :)

PS Love the backsplash!

January 4, 2024 at 3:32 PM

Downsizing

This was my fabric stash once I sorted everything -- 22 full bins. I spent a day taking out and boxing up what I could part with, with the goal of trying to reduce it by half, so I'd have 11 bins. I was very strict with myself, and removed everything that for one reason or another I was sure I wouldn't be able to use. This is what I ended up with -- 12 bins of fabric that I'm keeping. It's not quite half, but close enough. Half of what I took out went to a local quilter friend, a school and Goodwill. These four tightly-packed bins will be going to the local quilting guild once I make arrangements with them for a drop-off place. I am relieved and a little sad and now determined to control my impulses to thrift more fabric. I don't want to do this again, so until I use up six bins, I can't for any reason bring any new fabric into the house.

In Progress

I promised myself I would show you the good, bad and ugly of my cleaning this year. This is what it looks like when you dump thirty years' worth of stashed fabric on the floor -- and oy, what a pain in the butt to pick up again! This is what it looks like after it's been sorted, folded and placed in containers, which took me about a week. Now the hard part is to downsize my stash by at least half, I think (that's my goal, anyway.) I've already e-mailed the president of the local quilting guild, a local friend who is a quilter, and a public school art teacher I know to see if I can donate some of the excess to them. The rest will go to Goodwill. Already I've reduced my vintage textiles from two bins to one, and my scraps from three bins to one. It's probably the hardest clean-out I've done, which is why I saved it until last. I know I have too much fabric, more than I can use in my lifetime -- but at the same time, I love it. So I have to

Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Valerean

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