Monday, August 21, 2017

Upcoming crafty plans

It looks like I'm not quite ready to abandon my blog yet. When I considered it over the weekend, it saddened me to think it would be gone. Your comments and suggestions helped clarify for me why I've continued to blog throughout the year, so I appreciate those of  you who took time to respond to last week's post. For now, I'm sticking with it and using it as a place to say what I don't say elsewhere and as a place to store some of my memories until I scrapbook them. How can those not be good things, right? Anyway...

Like many of you, I love to make plans. The anticipation of the fun I'll have or a place I'll visit is almost as much fun as the actual event. I feel the same way about making crafty plans. When I consider all of the projects and plans I have in my crafty life, I get really excited about those prospects. Since I also love reading about other people's crafty plans, I thought I might share some of mine with you here.  And look, I decided I needed to keep a crafty planner in the process of all of this thinking about my crafty goals. I had this adorable personal-sized Heidi Swapp planner just lying around my studio space collecting dust, so I've decided to use it for my crafty planning purposes. It's honestly a bit small for my preference, but using it seemed like the economical, smart choice instead of rushing out to buy something else. (I am giving myself permission to change in January if I REALLY want to try a different format that's larger.)

I'm not decorating it to make it pretty or anything; this planner is really just for the utilitarian purpose of trying to organize my crafty life. If it works, I could always decide to decorate it later. For now, I think I want to spend my time making other projects rather than decorating my planner. I'll just drool over everyone else's gorgeous planner shares online while I use mine to make lists. :) At least the outside of mine is cute without any effort... hahahaha!


Because I like to dabble in different kinds of hobbies and crafts in my life, I've separated my crafty plans into different categories for clarity. In the list below, I'm sharing my crafty plans for the next 2-3 months with you, and, yes, my goals are quite lofty. I mean, that's just how I roll. :) 

Scrapbooking plans
1. Continue working on my 2017 digital PL spreads - goals of 2 pages per week minimum (tune in to the podcast in two weeks for more details about this!)
2. Add spine labels to all of my finished albums on display in my living room
3. File huge stack of finished layouts in the appropriate albums
4. Make three layouts per month for my regular albums and make accompanying process videos
5. Begin work on Kelsey's wedding mini-album
6. Update Selfies class for Nashville retreat
7. ScrapGals Nashville retreat, October 6-8

Stitching plans
1. Continue working on gifts of embroidered necklaces - really need 5 of them by the end of September
2. Choose a new, large project to work on beginning in late August - probably another city of the world to continue that series
3. Frame the two city stitching projects I've finished and display in my living room
4. Download free stitching projects from DMC for future plans - they have some great freebies that I don't want to miss out on because I'm a slowpoke
5. Decide which (if any) holiday projects I want to make this year - consider an ornament series that I could make for myself and for Kelsey and Jake

Other crafty plans
1. Create a late summer painted pillow cover or band for my living room
2. Make new spirit shirts for my school bestie and me
3. Create a late summer painted canvas for my front door (similar to the pumpkin one I made last year - maybe sunflowers or an owl or something to tide me over until the beginning of October)
4. Continue my 100 day sketching project round 2, although I'm already woefully behind schedule
5. Attempt painting canvas fall shoes similar to the way the Certified Celebrator did the pencil ones for back to school

Social media plans
1. Re-commit to blogging at least twice a week - shoot for three times per week sometimes
2. Begin a process video series on my YouTube channel
3. Offer my retreat selfies class as an online option after the Nashville retreat
4. Attend Bell Buckle craft fair on 10/21 for inspiration and maybe some purchases :)

Digital plans
1. Do a better job of ordering monthly prints from Snapfish - try to do this the 29th or 30th of each month
2. As I order monthly prints, check backup status and delete them from my phone - 8k photos on my phone is ridiculous
3. Purchase an external hard drive to use for digital backup of photos and files
4. Delete horrible digital photos three months at a time beginning with digital photos from 2007 - estimate this will take 30 minute increments of time or less

There you have it; these are my upcoming crafty plans for the next few months. I have grand plans, right? Of course, the good thing about a blog is that I can use this blog to hold me accountable for the plans that I've made. But if I fail miserably, then this blog entry becomes tangible proof of my inability to follow-through. Nothing like creating an either-or situation, right? Here's to hoping that I look at this blog as a promise to myself and you, and that I do actually make most of these projects in the next few months. 

Do tell: what are your immediate crafty plans/goals?
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Don't forget: My second class, One Trip, Three Ways, is now available on my blog. The video attached here is the promo I made for it back at the end of May, even though the class wasn't released until August 1st.  In this class, I share my six week trip to Paris in 2015 in three different formats - a planner-style mini-album, a traveler's notebook, and a mixed-page 12 X 12 album. The class includes more than 150 pages of inspiration and several hours of video. At only $20, I think it's a very good value. If you'd like to consider it, please click A Lowder Life Shop
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6 comments:

  1. yay...glad you are deciding to stick around :) I just found you, and Tracie and was kinda sad when I thought you might completely stop blogging. You have encouraged me to think about (and write down) my goals,too!

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  2. This is a great idea. It would help to give me more focus. Your lists are ambitious. Good luck!!!

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  3. I'm happy to see that you aren't giving up your blog completely!! I'm also curious to see how you'll label the spines of your scrapbooks; this is an issue that I have struggled with. I haven't found a solution that I really like, yet.

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  4. Happy to see you decided to continue :-)

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  5. Wow you have a lot on your list. Good luck

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  6. Tiffany
    Thanks for keeping up with your blog!
    I love the variety in your lists.
    Sue

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