New Year, New Goals

 Happy New Year!

I have severely neglected my blog in 2012. Since it is a time for new beginnings, I have decided to refocus on keeping this blog more active than it has been in the past year. Actually, Busy Little Elf will take a few new directions this year as well. I am still in school and have one class left before I receive my entrepreneurship certificate. After I complete the certificate, I hope to take a brief break from school to focus on getting my business performing to where I want it to be and allow my husband to take some computer classes.

I guess it is always important to look at the outgoing year’s events when planning for the future. It has been an eventful year. My son turned five this summer and started kindergarten in August. All summer long he was enrolled in nature classes and swimming. He also started playing soccer. Keeping him active kept me very busy during a time when I have normally focused on creating for the Etsy shop. I still managed to get new pieces completed and finished some other pieces that had been sitting on my table for a long time. Unfortunately, not as many as I had hoped for and I still have more unfinished pieces that I hope to finish up before I start the new pieces for 2013. 

My garden got a little out of control this past year. Early hot, humid days kept me inside and prevented me from making as much progress as I would have liked. My vegetable garden did exceptionally well and I’ve already made adjustments to my grow list and have ordered any new seeds I will need for the next growing season. I will need to start some seeds soon. How quickly time passes! I can’t believe it’s time to start planning my garden. I do have some seeds I will not be using this year. If you’d be interested in any leave a comment with your email address (I will not post it for all to see) and I will email you with what I have. I would be more than willing to mail them to you if you could use them.

I started mentoring some of the kids at my son’s school. I meet with five fabulous boys and girls and read with them an hour each week. I really enjoy it and look forward to continuing to mentor in the New Year.

Our family has been attending more local community events and this year attended the Grinch reading Dr. Seuss’s “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” from the top of the Fairport Harbor lighthouse. I hope to send a proposal to the mayor and historic society that holds the annual event and try to get involved by creating Grinch inspired display windows in some of the vacant storefronts.

The biggest “event” for me in 2012 was that I got a new car. My old car had a leak somewhere in the frame and I had a veritable koi pond in my backseat so we had to replace it about 5 years sooner than we hoped. It’s not fancy (a KIA Soul) but it gets us around and keeps us warm and dry and immersed in music not water. It will also allow me to do more craft shows as it has fold down seats so I can fill it with lots of handmade goodies. (Of course, it also worked quite well for hauling soil, bagged manure and pavers for my garden!)

So for this New Year, Lucky 13 (my son was born on the 13^th so I consider 13 a very auspicious number for us):

•   Write, Write, Write: Continue blogging on a regular schedule (I used to be able to do that! I remember it fondly)
• Write and submit a proposal to Fairport Harbor for their Grinch event
•   Create, Create, Create: Create a number of sculptures based on literary characters, in particular, the Wizard of Oz, Alice in Wonderland, the Grinch as well as new ornaments
•  Finish up any previously started projects especially those that were targeted as gifts. :o(
• Promote, Promote, Promote: Which means studying up on the newest methods of self promotion and then doing it
•  Get a better handle on my little flower garden. I really need to mulch it well this year, the weeds are winning!
•  Continue learning how to manage a successful bountiful organic vegetable garden and to turn the space into an area where our family can sit and enjoy the outside space. I think I may finally have enough wooden discs from our Christmas trees to make a path between raised beds. Now I need to decide on a theme for pavers that I can place on the gravel between the house and the drive so I can create a seating area. I keep leaning towards Alice in Wonderland for some strange reason.
• As always, get my studio organized and clean (I laugh hysterically as I type that, sounds so easy and yet, it is always the last thing to be attended)