Welcome into 2014: my (not really) resolutions

Today's work in progress

Happy 2014!  Despite an inauspicious start of a three day migraine, I’m now really positive that it is going to be a great year, and being honest, many of my years start with a three day migraine, so I’m not going to let that put me off.  Slightly more worrying is that my i-Pod dock seems to have just stopped functioning whilst I was typing that last sentence, but let’s pretend everything is fine and it is going to be wonderful.

Sometimes I can get really caught up with day-to-day living and not see the bigger picture of what I am doing and where I am going, so I decided this year to take the advice of lots of those gurus out there and actually look at what I achieved in 2013, as well as what I didn’t manage and look to 2014 and (possibly) set some resolutions.  I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions as generally mine are made in the post Christmas bloat period, whilst worrying about my bank balance and feeling a bit miserable due to the lack of sun.  If I get through to today (6^th January) without breaking any, I’m doing well and they are all but forgotten by the end of the month.  But this time, I’ve decided to be a bit more realistic and hopefully by sharing my aims with you, it will encourage me to keep going (encouragement/ reminders in June always welcome!).

Sketch paintings from today

So 2013 in a nutshell: I did more than I realised and more than I probably should have!  But it was fun: PomPoms, starting to teach C&G, more workshops and talks than previous years, some exhibitions of my own work, I sold some work, I helped set up and run an arts festival, I wrote about textiles and became more social media savvy.

For 2014, I’m not having resolutions as such, but here are my goals, which can be summed up by the word ‘believe’:

·         Make (and finish!) a significant body of work

·         Make a concerted effort to get my work exhibited

·         Facilitate the selling of my work so people can by it

·         Enter some juried shows

·         Use social media so people can hear about my work and improve my seriously out of date website

·         Write more  - on this blog and other articles

If you notice, I’m being careful – none of these say the things I want will happen, just that I will do my part to make it happen.

Breakdown printing waiting for the dye to soak in

These are my work related goals.  For those interested, my personal goals relate mainly to work/life balance after the frantic first half of last year!  Yes, I want to exercise more and lose some weight – who doesn’t?  But when it came to the crunch, it was all about balance rather than saying I will run a 10K race in 2014 (which would be nice!).

So a bit of a rambling post today – but for me, it is something important to share.  Do you believe in New Year’s Resolutions?  If so, what are you doing in 2014?

PS - good news - the i-Pod speakers are not broken, the fuse had gone in another socket, thus fusing half the house.  I only noticed the missing music!