Skip to main content

New Year Decisions

I had some other decisions to make for 2025, most of which I've now finalized:

Blogging: I do like my daily online journaling, but my content is now being read by supposedly thousands of visitors instead of a few dozen. Since there is no way I've boosted my appeal that much, it seems as if I'm being raided. I am not going to provide free content for others to use as they like and profit from while claiming they're the creator, so I may shut down Valerean and its clone blog. I will post a notice in advance before I do.

Budgets: I was able to thrift almost everything I needed last year, including books, clothes, shoes, housewares and materials for my creative endeavors. I want to continue that in 2025. I did not budget myself in this during 2024, however, so this year I will set $ limits on my thrifting. We budget food, gas and other necessities, and do pretty well with them, so no changes are needed there.

Creativity: I have my calendar mini-quilt project for the year ready to go; I still need to think about what more I want to accomplish with my quilting, crochet and embroidery. I will probably stick to small projects or depend more on the sewing machine as my dexterity continues to degrade. Instead of planning everything before the year begins I'm going to let this evolve naturally over the next twelve months.

Friendship Questing: I've been trying for several years now to be more social and make new friends online, which admittedly is pretty hard for a shy, older person like me. I still have trouble understanding why people are the way they are, especially at the present time. I've also come to the conclusion that I'm never going to fit in anywhere due to age, disability, personal opinions and overall social awkwardness. Since I have tried and failed so many times (which is exhausting) I believe that it's okay to stop trying.

Preparedness: I do tend to plan ahead a lot, and if I learned anything in 2024, it was not to underestimate the power of Nature and the narrow-mindedness of people. I was able to build our emergency pantry last year, which I will continue to use and restock. I'll continue to enhance our hurricane season preparedness, and also learn more about ways in which we can look after ourselves during any kind of emergency situation so that we are not a burden to others. This is super important to me because my preparations worked so well this year.

Resolution? None. I'm focused on being kind, grateful and mindful however I can in my daily life (an ongoing goal versus an annual resolution.)

Social Media (which is related to the friendship questing issue): Events in 2024 have seriously tempted me to leave social media altogether. I don't care to be exposed to hatred and anxiety every single day; it's toxic. I also think there will be a lot more hatred directed at women (me), free thinkers (also me), non-group-joiners (sooooo me) and those who refuse to bow down or cater to popular opinion and/or oppression via online manipulation (my personal motto is to walk away, not bow or cater.) In hopes that the situation improves, I will stay for as long as I believe that I'm safe and the platforms I use are not turned into soap boxes or weapons for darkness and evil. If that changes, as it did on Twitter, I will walk away without a qualm.

Work: I'm about to propose my next big work project, and if that's approved I'll have five major deadlines to meet. Since I've been able to meet those same deadlines for going on four years now I'm confident that I can do the same in 2025.

Finally, my hopes, which are always with me: #1 -- I hope I can be a better partner and parent this year by remembering to be considerate, coming out of the batcave now and then, and doing what I can to help, inspire and love the people who matter most to me. #2 -- I hope I can get more exercise and lose the weight I need to, and stick to my diet. #3 -- I hope the world can survive what's ahead this year and find paths to peace and understanding.

Labels

Labels:

Comments

Maria Zannini said…
My blog has far fewer readers than it used to. I'm fine with that though. Most of my readers come from Facebook and Pinterest. I would love to chuck Pinterest but it does bring in new readers.

I didn't realize you were on other social media. I can barely manage the two I'm on.

I do hope you don't stop blogging. I enjoy reading your exploits.
January 9, 2025 at 3:59 AM
the author said…
I love your blog. :) I just need to be a little more cautious with my content, I think, and be more active about blocking beggars and trolls. I'll e-mail you the link to my art account elsewhere on social media if you want, but it's basically everything I post here plus some boosting of other textile artists' works.
January 9, 2025 at 7:57 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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.
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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.
Post a Comment
Read more