GOAL! Oh... I mean GOALS!

Goals, goals.  Every success needs goals right?  I am a goal setting superstar... I am NOT a goal completing superstar.  We're going to try to resolve this right here and now!!!  I'm going to make some goals, and I'm giving my readers permission to bug me about where I am in my goals.  I am going to format my goals in a neat little list, because it's fun to cross stuff off of lists.  My list is in no particular order...

• Get through ScoutieGirl's "52 weeks of blogging your passion" e-book.  Yes, I bought it, and yes... I LOVE IT!  I'm in week 4, "Lofty Goals".  
• Finish my daughter's quilt, and consider selling the pdf for the pattern in my shop, I'm giving myself 6 weeks from today to finish the quilt... the pdf might be a bit longer, I will post pics when it's done and you guys can tell me what you think!

• Learn how to take my drawings and convert them to a drawing program and editing them for use screen printing covers... I'd like to do this within a month of this post.  I played with this a little last night for practice.  What do you think?

• Become an expert canner by the end of this summer... I'd love for my family to eat from our garden for as long as I can stretch it.  I made jams last year.  I'm hoping to do more jams and maybe some spaghetti sauce, and pickled beets.
• Starting this week, I'd like to take one night a week to leave the house and get some "me" time... yes for me this is a goal :)  I wanted to last night, but it wasn't in the cards.  My husband is working on the syrup shed so we can get some maple syrup done this year.  Our neighbor is helping us with this... they've done it for years.
• I'd like to be selling 15 journals a month by June.  I know part of this goal is making the journals to sell, so this one is a two-fer.  If I could list a journal every other day, that would be lovely!  I have a stack of covers I'll be working on some more today.  Hopefully I'll get some listings up today or tomorrow.

What are your goals?  

Rediscovering my mission, welcome to my blog!

A favorite blog of mine is ScoutieGirl.  A lot of indie crafters may have already heard of it.  If you haven't, I suggest you check it out, in depth!  There is a section that is titled "52 weeks of blogging your passion".  I LOVE blogging, no really, I absolutely LOVE it!  So the first month of the 52 weeks is posted for free on her site.  So here goes... I'm jumping in with both feet so I can be a better blogger and give more back to my wonderful indie community!  Week 1...

What is my mission, what is my passion?  I feel there are 3 parts to my mission...

Part 1, as most of you know... I hope... is that I love to bind my own journals and sketchbooks.  I feel it brings me back to a time when things were not as easily accessible or disposable.  When you write in a Coptic bound journal, it makes whatever you put on those pages "permanent".  To go a step further, if you have blank pages there are no boundaries.  You can let your ideas flow onto the paper fluidly and without restraint.  It's like recording your personal history there on the paper, and someday it will be worth something!  I'd like to share more of my process with my readers so you better understand my passion.

Part 2, my handmade family.  My husband also has an Etsy shop, LampLightPottery.  Kinda fits with our work-at-night theme, huh?  He has his BFA in ceramics and works a full time job as a project analyst in glaze colors.  We have 3 girls.  It has been our dream to open a pottery studio, to sell his pottery, and to teach lessons.  I would love to share more with you about our struggles and successes trying to juggle the family and being able to start our own business.

Part 3, spread the indie love.  Part of loving handmade, is loving the people behind handmade.  I want to continue to feature wonderful Etsy artist & crafters.  I think it is so important to get to know the wonderful people we are buying from and why they do what so many of us are doing.

Now that I have shared my mission with you, I am asking you to share with me.  I would love to hear any comments or feedback on the direction of my blog.  Or if you have any questions for me, go ahead!  Ask away!!!