Cook more this year, and take the time to cook new things with ingredients I enjoy.  I did this some last year, but I look forward to cooking even more this year.

Make at least one quilt for my family to keep.

Get caught up on previous projects (this is a  huge one).

Read more, and watch less TV.

Say goodbye to quite a few of my scrapbooking supplies to make room for the things I really love.

Get rid of the things in our home that don’t make me happy anymore.  We are going to have one HUGE yard sale this fall and get rid of a ton of stuff.

Find a way to work and go to school without getting overly stressed out by it.   This likely means that there are new avenues I need to pursue with regards to the way that I help support our family.

Work towards living “if it isn’t an absolute yes, then it is a no.” (see #5)

Keep working with the boy on making our house our home.  I have told him several times that I don’t feel like I really live here yet, and I would like to keep working on that.  A large part of this will be continuing to add our touches to the house.

Enjoy more of the small moments in my life, particularly with my little man and the boy!

But, for now, I thought that I would share this….my virtual to-do list if you will.  I am an idea collector, and my friends send me ideas as well.  So, I finally set-up somewhere to collect them!  Check it out!

I just finished listening to the first podcast, and it was wonderful!

So here they are, in completely random order, blog post ideas to be:

• I want to share the wonderful pictures of the newest member of our family, my brother’s little girl.  She is a cutey!
• Handmade Christmas Part 2
• Handmade Christmas Part 3 (I am so excited that all Christmas presents have been gifted.  It only took me an extra few month.  I am totally starting earlier for next year.)
• I found an awesome and unique new remix artist that deserves a post of his very own.
• And, I have something brewing about my own art too.

I think it is a good list.  I can’t wait to get back here!

Apparently, she was at work and made up a word while she was talking to her coworkers.  She has a really cool job working at a plant nursery, but everyone knows that she is an English major, so it caused roughly the following discussion.

CoWorker#1: That’s not a word. You can’t say that.

BGF:  Yes, I can.  I am an English major.  When you graduate with an English degree, they give you a piece of paper that says that you are allowed to make up words.

CW#1: Really?  No way.

BGF:  No, really. I have it at home.

CW#2 (in on it): Oh yeah, I have heard of that.  I was a Communications major, but I had friends that talked about it.

CW#1:  Wow!  Will you bring the piece of paper in?

BGF:  I don’t know if I even know where it is now.  But, I will look for it.

When the BGF told me about it, she recounted with some joy that they had actually fallen for it. And, while it is not completely true that English majors are ever given written permission to make up words.  Making up words is something I have enjoyed ever since I was little when my father made up the word “mumph.”

Mumphing is what you do when you have company coming over.  If you imagine the act of shuffling papers back into a nice, neat pile and apply that action to the whole house, that is mumphing.  My father created this word as a way to talk about what we needed to do before the wonderful woman who cleaned our house every two weeks came (with 4 children spread over 14 years and two working parents, it was a requirement to have help with the general cleaning).

mumphing = straightening, but not necessarily cleaning

And, this term has followed me throughout my life, particularly into my married life. It actually makes me a little giddy when the boy looks at me and says something like “We need to mumph, right?”  I love it because the boy never had a chance to meet my dad, and it makes me think they are some how connected through language.

This word is part of our lives.  And, it always makes me feel better to know that we have a defense against quick get togethers.  You know, when you are out at the bar, and everyone decides to come over.  We know that we are safe.  We can run home and mumph!    In some weird way, it tells my typically perfectionist self that we can just make it good enough. It is actually a sign of what a high regard we hold you in when we decide to stop mumphing when you are coming over.   And, to be honest, true mumphing often includes moving piles of things that really should be put away to a room at the back of the house that you can close the door to.

However, as of Sunday, our house will officially be on the market.  Looking around right now, I am still not exactly sure how that is going to be possible, but I am determined that it will happen!  We will get there.  But, it is quite clear that the time for mumphing in this house is done for a while.  And, this is a little unnerving for me.  This is the first house the boy and I bought together.  And, so much of us is evident in all the nooks and crannies.

In fact, this whole process of opening my house up to people to come in and critique my furniture and paint color choices kinda freaks me out.  Logically, I know that I just watch too much HGTV.  Yes, people that are looking at houses say nasty things about other people’s decorating choices.  That is just what happens.  But, really they are just trying to see themselves in a new space.  They aren’t focused on the pieces of my life.  In all actuality, they are trying to see past them.

But, I can’t help to hope that this process is a quick one.  I am sending all those good thoughts into the universe.  Now, we just need the Army to tell us where we are going next!

Then, about a year or so ago, I was in my office, and I had someone call looking for editing work.  It was a last minute job, as they often are, and I get a few calls like it every year, probably because my name is near the top of the list on our faculty directory.

The job was for a busy doctor in town.  He needed help getting an assignment his daughter had created ready for a national competition.  So, because I like a challenge, I said yes.  And, was easily able to turn the document around in a day.  Then a month or so ago, I got another call from the same doctor looking for me to help his other daughter.  This was, again, a school assignment with a quick turn around requirement.  And, I, again, got it done for him.

As a result of this, he wanted to set-up tutoring sessions with his oldest daughter.  And, he isn’t really the type of man that takes no for an answer.  What I should have said was that while I have a full class load that I didn’t take on individual tutoring, not to mention that I teach college, not high school, which is actually a fairly large distinction.

I knew when I was first approached that I didn’t want to do it, but I felt kinda pressured by him.  It wasn’t an absolute “no,” but it definitely wasn’t an absolute “yes” either.  So, we started talking about days during the week that would work, and it ended up that Tuesday afternoons were the only time that would work for both of us.  So, very reluctantly, I said okay.

I have been rolling this “yes” around in my brain for a week or so now trying to wrap my head around this as something I would actually have to do.    And, it wasn’t just about the time involved.  Our philosophies about writing are completely opposite from each other.  I believe that you learn to write with practice and safe environments where it is okay for you to make mistakes.  And, I believe that my job is to help show students where those mistakes are without judgment.  The Dr. told me that he wanted me to force his daughter to love writing.  There is no forcing about my method of teaching.  But, still I rolled this “yes” around in my head trying to come up with a plan of attack.

Then, today, I read this post from Liz.  Last week, she challenged her readers to do something that scared them.  And, while I was thinking about all the possibilities of what I could do today that scared me, I realized that thing I wanted to do the most was preserve and protect my time.  And, this is a scary thing to me.  With my brand of teaching, there is always a certain amount of fear and contingency planning.  And, with the discussion of budget cuts spreading through higher education like wildfire, I think the “yes” was from a place of fear.

We are about to move.  We have to leave the home we have made for ourselves.  I am going to have to leave my secure job and face a new city with a new job search.  I have to start over, and we don’t know where we are going yet.  Those are some pretty scary things for me.

But, instead of staying in that place of fear, I decided to embrace my choice to value my time, which is probably what I need now more than anything.  And, I decided to embrace the challenge Liz offered, and I canceled.  I will not be tutoring on Tuesday afternoons.  I will do what I can to find a replacement, but I am going to say “no” to that kind of “yes.”

I think this year’s word is going to be perfect.

Garland

Lots of people have been talking about different types of garland lately.

Ali Edwards has an awesome felt garland weekend creative going on this week.  She linked to a bunch of people as well.

From all those posts, I got some great ideas for some new garland myself.  It will probably use a bunch of my scraps, and be a mix between this one on Penny Carnival and what Jessica Levitt from Juicy Bits did for her Thanksgiving table.  You need to check Jessica out.  She would be able to inspire anyone!

My garland will be used on my tree, as I am aiming for a soft tree that can take some abuse from animals.

Wreath

This year, the best good friend is working at a nursery that carries Christmas trees over the holidays, and they had a bunch of cuttings from the trees.  They smell amazing, and I am going to try to turn them into a wreath somehow.

But, for inside next year.  I would like to make one of the wreaths that Elise Blaha made.  They are amazing, and I love the fact that they use old boxes.  I have so many boxes saved to ship things in for the holidays that I am afraid they are starting to become a fire hazard (not really) in my garage.

And, I was thinking that I might add some Christmas cards from last year in there too.  I have a tradition that I keep all the Christmas cards and pictures I receive in the container I use for Christmas cards until the next year.  Then, I look at them when I get the container out and read through them again. Then, I recycle what I can and pitch the rest.  That way I don’t feel quite as bad about pitching them the year I get them.

Snowflakes

Maya, from maya*made, just posted her tutorial about the newspaper snowflakes she made.  I just love them, and I would like to make a few to hang individually in front a of a window maybe.  I have a few ideas for this one.

Christmas Banners

I have wanted to make a Christmas banner of sorts for a while.  I guess it would really be more like bunting.  I know I have seen some images out there, but I can’t think of where right now.  I really like the idea of creating something like prayer flags that can be used yearly.

Quilts!

Oh, the beautiful quilts.  They are everywhere, and I love them all.  I think that I am going to have to resign myself to making a Christmas quilt for next year after this holiday season is over.  That is the only way that I will have enough time.

I would love to make us a flannel rag quilt like I made my mom last year.  This picture is horrid, but it will give you an idea of what I am talking about.  That thing is three layers of flannel, so it is super warm.  And, I absolutely love the flannel on the front, which this picture doesn’t show well.

It is the Moda Winter Wonderland flannel.  But, I also love the It’s snowing line by Moda.  I might be able to do something like I did for my friend’s little girl and combine the flannel and the quilting fabric though.  That way, it can still be uber soft but also have the quilting fabric I love.

Can’t wait to get started on all this fun stuff!  Outlining it all here just makes me want to take the next three weeks and fully decorate my house!

Today has been a whirl-wind kinda day here for me, so I thought that I would recap what I have learned from this whole giveaway experience:

1. People within this crafty little community I have found myself in are wonderful!  I have received so many encouraging and warm comments today about my little tree!  I can’t wait to show you what I have in store for the fabric.  Thank you all so much for stopping by and delurking!
2. People really like handmade gifts.  Most of the comments about your favorite handmade treasures have been related to the things that you have received as Christmas gifts (I realize this might be because of the time of year and all!).  And, I am in awe of all the wonderful stories that were shared today.  This really renews my pledge to give a handmade holiday this year.  I hope to make something that someone remembers like what has been shared today!
3. Nobody here really talked about the fact that they loved something handmade because it was perfect.   If you are thinking about trying something crafty, read through the comments and realize it really is the effort and thought that counts.  Just give it a shot.  It will be perfect to someone else even if you can see the flaws.  This is an important thing for me to remember too!
4. People really like free stuff!  And, I really like giving away what I make, so I definitely am going to do this again!

Thanks again for stopping by and sharing today with me!