2015 in review

Annual year end review workbook 

I can't believe that 2015 is over.  It feels as though it went by in a whirlwind.  In my annual tradition, I am ending the year with a look back to acknowledge the year's accomplishments and evaluate the misses and then set intentions for the new year.  I find that the busyness of life means I don't always get to savor some of the accomplishments as they happen or don't take enough time to take a look at what didn't work and why so I can make corrections or be at peace with letting go.  I know this doesn't work for everyone, but taking just a few hours for this makes me feel as though I am setting myself up to make the most of the coming year.  This process helps me put things into perspective and it's interesting and rewarding to see what I was able to accomplish and how differently some things turned out from what I imagined.

Last year's word was embodiment and I dug deeper into a few topics and projects that I had been dabbling in for awhile to see where they might lead.  I enjoyed my explorations which are leading to more changes ahead and my word for 2016 which is transformation.  This is just the beginning of the changes to come, and I look forward to sharing them with you.

Here are a few highlights from 2015:

Volunteering at the DC Food Bank 
My son and I usually volunteer at the DC Food Book once a month and we were able to make 8 times last year.

1.  Sorting food into bins  2.  View into the warehouse

Road trip to an ancient forest

A day trip to Beall Woods State Park in Illinois which is a forested area that has not been logged or altered and remains today pretty much as it was hundreds of years ago. 

Fall Craft Cornucopia with Hyattsville Aging in Place
A great day of demonstrations and teaching crafts along with some of my neighbors who are also crafters and artists.  I enjoyed teaching the participants how to make collaged gift tags.

Starting in the upper left:  1.  weaving demo, 2.  felting wool, 3.  some of the seniors group working on their needlework and sharing stories, 4.  my table with supplies for making tags, 5.  upcycled old t-shirt, 6.  origami instruction, 7.  wool for felting projects, 8.  origami examples, 9.  reclaimed t-shirts cut into strips ready for weaving, 10.  weaving on t-shirt strips on a stick loom, 11.  t-shirt weaving examples

Garden adventures
Lots of hard work in the garden yielded abundant harvests and filled our freezer for the winter.

Art exhibition at the Popcorn Gallery
Two pieces of my mixed media collage were chosen for an exhibition using reclaimed materials.

Thank you for reading and wishing you all the best in 2016!


Resources:
Unravelling the Year Ahead
Zen Habits: The Practice of Year-end Reflection

Sunflowers in the garden

Resource Library - when creativity needs inspiration

Some of my tools for creativity:  books, magazines, videos and art supplies

I'm always looking for a good book or website to get my creative spark ignited and get the next project going.  Every room of our house seems to be filled with books of one kind or another, tablets with access to ebook selections, blogs and podcasts and the Internet have all become our endless library that is open 24 hours a day.  My favorites are still books from second hand book shops, thrift stores, online used book sellers and The Book Thing in Baltimore, MD.  These provide me with frugal ways to keep my collection refreshed as well as an outlet to give retired selections a new home.  There are so many options that I sometimes have a hard time narrowing down my choices so I have time to actually to read them all or create the projects they inspire, but I enjoy taking in as much as I can.

I wanted to share some of my favorites with you so I created a resource library page on the Resourceful Cookie website.  You'll find my favorites cookbooks, gardening references, books on art techniques and inspiration of all kinds.  I'll keep updatng it as I find new resources, so check back from time to time.

If you have favorite books, movies or websites please share in the comments below.  I'm always looking for something new to explore and share with others.

Thanks for reading!

Tidying Up

Mixed media play from my current sketchbook

“The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.”   Don Williams, Jr.

Spring is here with its promise of new beginnings.  Changes brought on by a new job have turned my routine upside down, and I've been having a difficult time finding a new rhythm.  My discombobulated schedule has really thrown me for a loop with not enough time to write blog posts, experiment as much in the kitchen or dabble in other creative endeavors.  However, it has been good for me to take a step back and take a good look at my lifestyle and do a bit of an overhaul. 

While growing up, we moved nearly every two years with my father's work  in the military.  To ensure that we wouldn't go over our allotted shipping allowance for household goods, pre-move, my mother made sure we went through drawers, closets and shelves to evaluate if each of our possessions would come with us to our new home.  Was it still useful to us, had we outgrown it, was it in good working order or a prized possession with deep sentimental attachment?    I was always happy to put things in the donate pile because I hoped that someone new would be getting as much joy out of each item as I had in the past.  In the same way, our move would necessitate having to evaluate if an activity that I had been engaged in at our previous residence still held enough interest to get me to seek out a group or teacher in the new location.    

This cycle of moves and purges continued even into my adulthood until it stopped 15 years ago when my husband and I bought a Victorian house that needed lots of love and care in a suburb of Washington, DC.  Although I still do a spring and fall house cleaning and am considered to be fairly neat and organized, it's not quite the same.  I've held onto some things in case I might need it for some project that I often never seem to get to or continued on in an activity out of habit whereas if I were doing a physical move, I undoubtedly wouldn't have held on to either. 

As our renovation work continues in our old house, my husband informed me that our guest bedroom a.k.a. my craft supply/dance costume storage/off-season clothes space had to be emptied so he can began work on it this summer.  It took me a few minutes (okay, days…oh, alright, a couple of weeks) to wrap my head around how I was going to make my nicely organized things fit into other areas of the house without making everything look a cluttered mess.   To help with my dilemma, to  my rescue came a book club pick from my favorite creative lifestyle blog:  Tranquility du Jour:

The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing. 

The concept is simple - pull out everything you own, one category at a time and reflect on each item.  If it brings you joy, it still has a place in your life, if not, then let it go.  Taken as a whole, it seems a dauntingly overwhelming task, but done as prescribed in the book, it is manageable and enjoyable once you start to see the outcome.  Over several weeks, I have spent an hour or so on weeknight evenings:  one night it was socks, another it was workout wear, etc.  I have whittled down my wardrobe and folded it as prescribe to all fit in my closet and drawers with room to spare for my displaced items from the soon to be under construction room.  So far, I've donated  about 10 large bags of clothes, craft supplies, kitchen and household items, 9 boxes of books and magazines and shredded a stack of old paperwork that was 3 feet high.  I still have to complete going through a few more categories including the more sentimental items like photos and my dance costumes, but I can feel the effects of what I've accomplished so far.  Things are easily visible and accessible so I can enjoy them plus there is space when I decide to add something new. 

With the physical clutter much reduced, I surprisingly feel less mental clutter and the creativity block that had settled over me starting to loosen.  Now I am ready to tackle crafting a new routine that allows me time to pursue the creative endeavors that still bring me joy plus enough room to cultivate new passions.    

Thanks for reading!

Rhubarb leaf buds