Finding Focus

 Still overwhelmed with all of the artsy Christmas goodies I received, pushing my need to focus.

At the end of each year, I deal with the holidays and spend precious time with family.  At the beginning of each year, I spend it catching up on household duties that would get neglected due to the holidays.  Somewhere in there I throw in resolutions, "one little words," and try to think up projects to do for the year.

This year, I chose to take on 2012 differently.
I didn't choose a resolution, word, or project.  I decided to make January a month of pondering.  I wanted to really think about what I want to focus on and what needs to be pushed aside.  And so I kept quiet here, to keep thoughts of what others might think out of my mind.  There are so many things out there in the world of the internet, that it is so easy to get lost and buried under it all - especially with my ever wandering mind.  There is so much I want to do and try, but at the same time I know that I can't do it all without sacrificing the things I love to do most.

After some careful thinking, I decided to make a few changes:
1.  Drop knitting.  There is one project that I have been working on, I want to finish that one up (which may take a REALLY long time at this rate) and then put away the knitting supplies.

2.  Drop beading jewelry.  Beading is fascinating.  I like looking at it and figuring out how it was made.  But when I think about projects that I want to work on, I don't think like it enough since I always push those projects to the end my "I want to do" list.  I have one project I want to do in the next month or two as a present for someone, but after that the beading supplies will be put away.

3.  Take up sewing.  Yes this is an add-on, but I got a sewing machine for Christmas and it has been on my wish list for about five years.  The ideas are already churning!

4.  Focus on watercolors and drawing.  Because of the artists that I follow on blogs, I am exposed to a lot of mixed media art.  As much as I love that, I cringe over the crazy amount of supplies that I see them use.  Hey, don't get me wrong!  I love to see their work and more power to you if you have both the room for all of it and time to really get to know ALL of those supplies.  I don't have the room or the time.  So I will stick with watercolors, some gouache, and drawing supplies (and maybe use up some of my patterned paper collection along the way).  I want to get to know my limited supplies better, improve and learn techniques, and really make my style mine.

Let's see how we do for 2012!

The picture above were most of the artsy goodies that I received in December.  Clockwise they are: Brother CS6000i Sewing Machine, Derwent Watercolour Pencils, Derwent Inktense Pencils, The Steampunk Bible, Olfa 45mm Rotary Cutter, Leonardo da Vinci: The Complete Paintings and Drawings, Personal Geographies, iPad, Wacom Bamboo Stylus, and a few Studio G alphabet stamp sets.