Good Morning 2010

It’s weird to think it’s the end of the year all ready. I wanted to share a few things with you really quick and then we will get on to your regularly schedule pattern post.

First.

You guys rock! I went from being newly graduated, to working part time, to having student loans and being okay, to quitting the part time job and being okay, to where I am now: fully self employed working on Craft Leftovers (and a few side projects) and Craft Leftovers Monthly + paying down my debt + building savings. Thank you! Seriously. Thank you so much!

Second.

Last year I went on a yarn diet. I vowed I would spend no more than $20 a month on yarn. It was hard. Then, it was easy. In the end, I only bought 7 skeins of yarn in all of 2010 and only 2 are in my stash (I’m designing a hat pattern for it for the summer and their time just has not come… yet!).

And I know exactly every skein I bought and for what purpose: 2 skeins of sock yarn (one is now socks, the other is a wip), 2 skeins of delicious cotton while in San Francisco (stash), and 3 this christmas to make my mom and dad gifts (wip). And add to that: I used up more yarn than I can count! I made a 1 1/2 pairs of socks, 2 sweaters, a hat, fingerless mittens, mittens for Jason, and more random stuff I can’t even remember.

And I finished or frogged most the projects in my knitting basket! Oh a ton of dishcloths, facecloths, and coasters. Hooray! I know I used up at least 20+ skeins of yarn and my stash went from being more than would fit into my closet to fitting comfortably into 2 Rubbermaids–1 stash yarn and 1 leftover yarn. I still have a long way to go, but I’m getting there!

Third.

There are more of you! When I started out the year I made the goal of trying to have somewhere around 25k unique visitors each month. Guess how many of you stop by Craft Leftovers each month? 35k! Wow. I try to think of you as just buddies in my studio hanging out and making things, because seriously, that number freaks me out. When I sit down to write. I’m really writing to you like I would my bestest of Crafty Buddies. :) You are all my crafty buddies now!

I’ve made up a list of goals for 2010 and publicly announced them over on KroStudio (posting more regularly on KroStudio is one the big goals) and you can check it out there if you are interested. A short list sum up my goals for 2010:

1. Draw daily and post it
2. Post more on KroStudio
3. Get more financially sound
4. Stay on my craft supply diet
5. Keep getting fit
6. Keep being mindful

And that leads me to the next part of this post. I really love Zen Habits and the author has started up a new blog called 6 changes. It’s interesting, without even thinking about it, I made 6 goals. So I’m going to go ahead and try his approach to making them habits. I’m going to start with Drawing Daily.

I also came across this great article called “Out of Control (or why balance is overrated).“ I know I have a tendency to focus on balancing, just look at my Crafty Business post on Wednesday. I tend to tell you how important I feel it is to give in to your urges and go crazy on one thing and leave it all behind.

A good example is Craft Leftovers Monthly. I got an idea. I went nuts and made the first issue start to finish in a 16 hour concentrated session. It was a birth of a wonderful thing. And I had to pull an all nighter the next day to finish my homework for class. Was the imbalance worth it? Absolutely!

I think a lot of my struggle comes from that very impulse. How do I make it so I can go with it when I need to and still meet all my obligations? If I can spend 5 hours a day on “have to’s” and 11 on “want to’s” it’s a good day. That’s what all this daily routine and schedule and task lists are all really geared towards. Anyway, read the article. I think you will like it.

And then going back to talking about balance in a good way. The Simple Dollar talks about how being too frugal can be bad too: The Other Side of the Frugality Fence.

And with that I leave you. Enjoy your first day of the year!
Happy Crafting!
Kristin