Back in January, I sat down with a small spiral bound notebook and a pen.
My goal was to come up with 209 things I wanted to do in 2009. Some big, some small.
Let's see how I did...
First of all, turns out that 209 things is a lot of things. I only managed to write down 76 things.
However, I did manage to complete 32 of my 76 things--plus, I'm sure, a whole lot more that I didn't write down.
Some of the bigger things I did accomplish included:
- Visit Savannah. Went there in March with my mom and had a wonderful time. It's so pretty there and the people are so friendly. And of course there's the shopping...
- document a Year of Wednesdays. This is the one I'm most proud of. Yesterday marked the last Wednesday of 2009. I now have a stack of index cards with notes about each and every one of them. The weather, daily life, outings and funny quotes. I suppose one of my goals for 2010 should be to make some sort of scrapbook or journal out of them. We'll see.
- participate in 3 online swaps. I enjoyed participating in all 3 swaps that I signed up for this year. All were hosted by Kari (Artsy Mama) over on her Year of Color blog. I had some great partners (Julie at Jane's Apron, Katie at Create Each Day and Artsy Mama) and got to create some fun projects including a May Basket, a beeswax coated collage and a yarn wreath. And of course now I have some great additions to my home and creative stash :-).
- expand our rear deck. While I didn't do this work, I did place the call to our handyman extraordinaire, Patrick, and contracted to have the work done. That counts, right?
Some of the other around the house things that did get done include:
- Painting my office & the upstairs bathroom
- Creating the Wall of Woof
- Sewing window treatments for the dining room
- Organize Will & Cuyler's closet
- Install & plant a window box for the farmer's porch
A few of the 'places to go' things I did:
- visit Patriot Place in Foxboro
- visit Yummy Goods on Cape Cod (had so much fun, did this one twice!)
- take the ferry to Provincetown
Some of the family things that got done:
- bake 12 months of Treat of the Month club for my dad. Apparently I'm letting my success on this one go to my head. I gave treat of the month club to 4 family members this Christmas.
- enroll Ebby in dance class
- get a Duxbury beach sticker and take many family trips there :-)
A few of the crafty things that got done include:
- more art journaling. While I originally wrote that I wanted to complete a page per week, I'm happy to have completed more than 4 pages for the year--which was my total for 2008
- make painted tin & button flowers
- make cushion for mudroom bench. This turned into getting some nice pillows at a yard sale, but I'm still counting it. Besides, I did create cushions for the outdoor patio bench.
As I look over my list of 209, er, 76 things to do in 2009, there are several that I didn't accomplish. Lots of these things still hold their appeal and will probably make it onto my next list including paint the porch ceiling sky blue, visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum and make pizza on the grill. Of course there are tons of things I did in 2009 that never made it onto the list such as: spontaneously introduce myself to women whose blogs I read (Melissa of Yummy Goods and Jenn Hayslip of Sweet Eye Candy Creations) and find out that they are even more fun and entertaining to hang out with in person, take unique art classes and create cool projects (with Mimi Kirchner and Marah Johnson), walk around the holiday window displays in NYC at Christmastime fully in awe of the creativity, detail and craftsmanship, be in the same room as 2 major film actors, and collect about 3 tons of beautiful beach rocks.
Yep, I did lots of things in 2009. And I'm looking forward to accomplishing many more things in 2010~whatever they may be ;-)
To you, thank you for stopping by & reading about my adventures and endeavors and leaving me notes.
Thank you for sharing your inspiration, talents, photos, and links on Twitter, Facebook and Flickr.
It's a big (real & virtual) world out there, and I'm happy for the connections that make it feel just a little bit smaller and a whole lot friendlier.
Wishing you a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!!
