Plans for 2021

I wouldn't call them resolutions, which I've always been crap at keeping, but one thing I am good at is meeting a deadline.

The collage here is something I put together as book 3 became clearer in my head. I like a physical representation because I can then convince myself that it's real.

Back in May, when I submitted A Wider World to the publisher, they told me if I wanted my third book to follow along within a year (April 2022), I would have to submit it by the end of 2020. We negotiated that to mean a readable first draft, which I managed to do - by mid-afternoon on New Year's Eve. (I'd actually finished it the day before, but I wanted to accomplish a few last minute tweaks).

I now have until the end of February to do proper edits, and I think that's doable, but only because I didn't get a decent grasp of my main character until later than usual and rewrote the entire first half to get her properly in line. So it's really only the last half that needs hard work, and then shaping and polishing for length, as it's currently about 13k over its word budget. (I've been worse, so not too scared).

Also for early 2021, I've got to do final copy edits for A Wider World. Once those edits are done, I need to get the book to the voice actor for the the audio, and I'd like to do the edits again, because it really gave me a feel for how the project went together. The book launches on April 25, the day after my husband's birthday, so he might not be the total focus on the day, because there'll be another FB Live reading - which I'll mention on here, and post afterwards for those who miss it and/or don't do the FB thing anymore.

I'd like to raise my head from the 16th century and get back to the 1930s project I talked about a while ago. I've been working on it in some dim corner in my mind, but once the third book is with the publisher and I'm waiting on their edits, I'd like to start in again. Now that I know I can produce a readable draft in a certain amount of time, I'd like to produce that one, edit it, have it gone over by a few trusted writer friends, and self-publish it in the fall, so I have a book of my "own" out in between books from my publisher. 

Those are the writing goals, but there are also other goals to do with marketing and getting the books in front of people who will leave reviews, which will in turn cause more people to buy the books.

And for all that I love writing, it's not bringing in anything that I can class as an income - yet. And Covid has pretty much eliminated office work as I know it, so I'll be concentrating on doing more online transcription and building up my handmade and vintage Etsy businesses so that they're worth keeping. So long as the post office recovers from its current hellscape, I'll be okay. I have a basement full of vintage from relatives and flea markets that can, eventually, be turned into cash, and I'm hopeful that there may be some masked and outdoor craft events this year.

I'm also going to keep moving - we walked a LOT in 2020, trying to keep from climbing the walls, and we'd like to keep it up. I'll also walk on my own, because that's when some of my best writing gets done, just me, the trees, and my phone, listening to me babble.

So those are my plans for the new year. They are, as always, subject to change, but I've tried to make them achievable goals, spaced out in a way that I shouldn't get too overwhelmed, or at least not too often.

What about you? What do you have in line for 2021, and what are you hoping to change up after making it through 2020?

At the turn of the year

Even if you don't do resolutions - and I try not to, because they just ask to be broken - it's hard to see the turning of the year as anything but a time to look back and assess, and to look forward and make a few plans for the future.

2019 was a big year. An exhausting year. An exhilarating year. A year when I tried to stop watching as much news so I could listen to the people in my head (the people on the news aren't going anywhere, there's plenty of time for them). A year of realizing that getting out of my own way is the best thing I can do for myself.

I signed a publishing contract in 2019, after years of wanting to be published. I turned 55. Mario and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. We went to Venice. We worked on our house. I did edits to my first novel, and started a second (and a third). I still did craft shows, though my heart wasn't in it as much this year. My book came out, and I did a Facebook live reading, what feels like far too much promo for my extroverted-introvert self, and I'm making plans for next year.

In 2020, I'm going to continue promoting Songbird, because publishing has changed and authors have to be a lot more involved. I'm going to keep working on my second Tudor novel, tentatively titled A Wider World. I would like to finish the first draft by the end of January, and at this point, it's looking entirely possible. (A first draft is far from a finished novel, but I'll have told myself the story at that point, so turning it into a story for someone else to read is a whole different animal). Once that draft is finished and resting for a bit, I'll go back to working on the Great Depression book that I had started before the characters from A Wider World started talking to me. That one's on draft 2, so closer to completion.

If AWW is as good as I hope, and my publisher likes the idea, I'll sign another contract and maybe have another book out in 2020.

Also, I've got a birthday soon, an anniversary sooner, and my first bookstore event even before that (January 13th!). Mario and I have just made plans to go to Edinburgh in the early spring, which was totally unexpected, but we found an airfare we couldn't pass up, and that's always the biggest expense in travel. I'll have to look around Edinburgh with a writer's eye, not just a tourist's, because it was a happening place in the 16th century, and I'd like to find a way to use it in the future.

At some point I would like to address the fact that I've become a slightly larger person than I was this time last year, but I'm hoping that once the weather warms up and I can work in the garden and get out and walk more, that problem will solve itself.

I also want to do more in my town - there are a lot of volunteer opportunities, and I've gotten involved with some, but our village takes a village, and I'd like to devote more time to it.

What about you? Any resolutions? Plans for the new year? What are you excited for in 2020?

New Year, New Me

My writing corner in what isn't the dining room

I don't know whether anyone is still out there (are you??), but I just hit publish on a series of Venice vacation posts that never got written.  So there are all the pretty pictures, which are too pretty just to hide forever in the inside of my computer, but craft show season, my job, the holidays, and random other complications got in the way.

I decided just to let the photos go out there into the world without all my words.

Which is not to say I didn't want to write the words; I did.  I miss writing here.  I've been doing other writing, though, and I seriously hope I have some news on that front in the new year.

But in the meantime, I hope you enjoyed whatever holiday(s) you celebrate, I hope you got some rest and relaxation in before real life got you in its grip, and I hope you come back next year, when I PROMISE to write more regularly.

Promise.

Resolutions. Sort of. Maybe.

City Hall - 2 weeks before Christmas.
Philly rarely looks this good.

I'm not big on making resolutions, mostly because it seems that the biggest challenge is getting them to last until my birthday at the end of the month.  If there's something I want to change, I start in when it occurs to me.

But here are a few general directions I want to go this year.  They aren't resolutions as such.  As follows, and in no particular order:

Be kind, but take no shit.  My biggest flaw is impatience, so I'm going to try to cut the world (and therefore myself) a break and not expect them to do my bidding -- or read my mind -- straight off the bat.  On the other hand, I have never suffered fools gladly and I'm going to call people on their crap a lot sooner, for all our sakes.

Be more of a pain in the ass.  This follows close on Be kind, but take no shit.  Because of temping and being busy with my business for the holidays, I haven't been able to be as involved as I'd like.  As of this week, I'll be joining in "Tuesdays with Toomey", which is a group of community members who visits our senator's office each week, attempting (in vain, thus far) to actually get the senator to meet with us, or even listen.  This is a man who has asked that federal funds be withheld from Philadelphia -- from his own constituents! -- because he doesn't like our status as a sanctuary city.  I may not have voted for you, dude, but you're still my senator, and you have to at least listen to me.

Keep focused on my business.  Things went well this year.  I'm doing end of year numbers and while my income didn't really increase much from 2015, I feel like I've gotten things more streamlined and under control, and now that I have a better idea of what works and what doesn't, it will be easier for me in the future to improve that.  The blog coverage this year that got me a lot of custom sales was a fluke, a lucky one, but it's taught me that pushing custom items in the shop is really the way to go.  I'll need a lot of ready-made inventory for shows, but custom work is also something that gets a lot of discussion in person, so I need to be ready.

Tech less, smile more.  I never wanted a smartphone, but I had to get one for craft shows so I could take credit cards.  It's also useful for monitoring Etsy when I'm not near my computer, answering questions from potential customers, and posting to Facebook and Instagram.  But enough already.  I make fun of the zombie apocalypse type all the time, and I don't want to become one of them.  Phone time will be of necessity and not for recreation.  If I have people around me, I'll talk to them.  If I don't, I'll do what my mom used to tell me to do when I was bored, "Shut up and make something."  She wasn't always right, but that's always been good advice.

Move.  The exercise resolution.  It doesn't have to be any one thing, and it probably shouldn't be, because if I get bored, I won't do it.  I'm not looking to suddenly have the body I never had as a 20 year old, but sitting at either a desk or a sewing machine is wreaking havoc on my ass (and also my back).  Since I run to the post office 2-3 times per week, and my local post office is near the cemetery, every post office run will now include 2 circuits around the cemetery.  I live in a house with a lot of stairs, and even though I try to be efficient and do as few trips up and down as possible, I may just stop being so efficient if the tradeoff is being more active.

More quality time with Mario.  Certainly  not end of the list, but least well-defined.  We spend time together, but the quality varies.  Less TV, less technology, more outdoor time, more joint projects.  If we both decided at a relatively late age that we wanted to get married and be together, we should actually do more together things.  For anyone reading anything into this, don't.  Things are fine, we're happy, our anniversary is coming up mid-month, but marriage, or any relationship, is always a work in progress and we're always in the process of figuring out how to make good better.

Sewing Resolutions for 2010

Interestingly, I looked back at my blog to see what my 2009 resolutions were, and all I found was a recap of my 2008 resolutions, with a promise of 2009 to follow, except they never did. Was I not feeling very resolute?

What I also noticed was that several of my 2008 resolutions still hadn't been met. Sewing new curtains for the dining room and the kitchen, despite having the fabrics on hand - and actually buying replacement fabric for the kitchen curtains that I liked better back in October - had not been done. I've been letting them linger for more than 2 years why?

I don't know why. I sat down yesterday afternoon, cut into my nice new Marimekko fabric I bought in October at the Crate & Barrel outlet in North NJ, and made new kitchen curtains. 3 windows and a valance. In an afternoon. It took me 2 years why?

Other than that, I seem like I'm sticking pretty well to the goals I set for myself 2 years ago: I've sewn a LOT of stash. I added up my purchases and yards sewn for 2009, and I came pretty close to parity - yards in, 151.5; yards out 148.75. Of course, that doesn't include the scrap fest which was sewing for the craft show, and it doesn't count all the refashioned/recycled projects for the year. If they'd been "real fabric" (cuts of at least 1/2 yard), I could have counted them.

And the last 11 yards of fabric I purchased are actually for next year's craft show items, so I'm debating whether I should subtract them from my totals because they were bought with craft show proceeds, not my sewing budget, and for the specific purpose of selling next year. I really only consider it stash when it's fabric that calls to me. That would take my yards in down to 140.5, which I think sounds a lot better.

I've also done a bit of sewing with the "good" fabric this year. I think I'm finally over buying good fabric and not using it. Buying good fabric and holding on to it until the right project comes along is one thing, but not holding onto it forever. There IS a right project out there, and I can find it, if I try. Quite a bit of fabric this year has come in and gone right back out, which makes me happy in one sense but worried about the elderly stash in another.

So the resolutions for 2010 are:

1. Make those damn curtains for the dining room! I'm not going to give myself a goal of doing it in January, but by spring, at the latest.

2. The welt pocket thing. Why do I have such a mental block about them? I have some nice wool scraps. Fear not the pocket.

3. Continue to sew stash. Look through it again with an eye toward sewing up some of the stuff that's been sitting the longest. If I loved it enough to buy it, then I should sew it. If not, then it goes into the giveaway bag.

4. The giveaway bag. Decide what to do with the contents of same.

5. Pattern magazines. I almost gave my up BWOF subscription because they haven't been exciting for the last several months, but at the last minute I caved and renewed. Sew more from my BWOF (or whatever it's called these days), and from the few La Mia Boutique, Ottobre and Patrones magazines I have.

6. Downloaded patterns. I have quite a few Burdastyle and Hotpatterns that I've downloaded. I don't actually mind taping them together, I just haven't gotten around to it. But there are some cute patterns there, and some of them I've even paid for. Tape while watching TV with Mario. I can call it spending quality time.

7. Neatness counts. Keep the workroom at least semi-neat. I made a lot of upgrades this year - added the larger table, good lighting and the new counter space. I have two small dressers with labeled drawers for specific things. I have 2 shelving units and a stash closet. There's absolutely no reason why the room should look like a trash heap half the time. The stuff all has places; try at least once a week to put it in those places.

Sewing Resolutions 2008 - a Recap

Well, this was last year's attempt at sewing resolutions, and I didn't get as far as I would have liked. Here they were:

1. Conquer welt pockets. Nope. Tried twice, they looked lumpy and uneven. Must work harder. (My lack of success with #1 has much to do with #2 below).

2. Take my time. I've actually gotten much better at this, so I think perhaps my welt problem issue isn't so much not taking my time as not being as precise as I need to.

3. Work on linings. This I'm happy about. I've lined skirts and jackets and a coat and 9 times out of 10 I'm very happy, and the few things that have gone wonky have been fixable. Good linings really make clothes better, so I consider this a major accomplishment for 2008.

4. Quality over quantity. I've managed quantities of quality. I did the Fabric Fast for the first several months of 2008 and really cut down on my shopping; however, I got over that. But now when I shop, I buy well - and often. This doesn't leave me a lot of fabric for muslins.

5. Reduce the stash. Umm, not really. But it's all much better stuff than it used to be (see #4 above).

6. Make new curtains for the dining room. (I also need new curtains for the kitchen, but those are a quickie job that won't disrupt my regular sewing). This was the only specific project on the list, and did it get done? No. Many more interesting projects stepped in between this resolution and the reality of curtains, but the house next door was just rehabbed and will have tenants soon, so those windows need to be covered.

Resolutions for 2009 will be along shortly.

Not-Exactly-Resolutions

I don't make New Year’s resolutions because I don't keep them. I don't want in advance a list of all the things I'm not going to keep up for the following year. I have a better chance of working out, eating right and not taking in any more cats if I don't make any promises. (Not taking in any more cats has been on the list for 2 years, and the minute I let my guard down, Stanley moved into the guest room and is being slowly introduced to the herd).

I'll chance making sewing resolutions because if I don't keep them, it won't be for lack of trying – and trying is usually one of my resolutions. This year, I'd like to:

1. Conquer welt pockets. I love the look, and I promised a certain someone that I would make him a pair of dress pants. Which require welt pockets. And the fabric for these pants is already aging on the shelf. (I'm hoping this works the same way conquering invisible zippers worked – I avoided them until I had a dress that couldn't possibly be made any other way.) Now that I finally invested in the Reader's Digest sewing book, I have diagrams that make sense to me. The Vogue sewing book was almost as unintelligible (at least to my brain) as BWOF instructions!

2. Take my time. This is a hard one for me. I know – I know! – that everything turns out better when I read the instructions, make a muslin, and visualize what I'm doing before I dive in head first and then get all bollixed up. Things like thread-marking, inter-lining, basting and using the right interfacing should not depend on mood. They are integral to making clothing that I am willing to wear in public, as opposed to garments that look good on Evelyn but aren't comfortable on me.

3. Work on linings. I'm getting better at this. I've actually lined a few things in the past year that didn't require linings – mostly skirts, one jacket. And they looked and wore better, even though the linings weren't perfect. The goal for 2008 is a great jacket with an even greater lining, probably Vogue 8368 in the moss-green eyelet corduroy I bought in Paris last March, lined in something interesting that will show through the eyelets. Maybe a caramel color? Anyway, Patternreview is doing a lined jacket contest in September, so I'm going to practice before then. Maybe it'll even be a lined jacket with welt pockets.

4. Quality over quantity. I'm also getting better at this, but there are times when I just can't resist a sale or the $2.95 bin at my local store. Just because it’s a poly blend that I will probably never use, does that make it un-buyable? It should, but it doesn't. Which leads to:

5. Reduce the stash. The proportions of my stash have become embarrassing, even to me. In 2008, the stash will go down. I don't care if I sew it, donate it, swap it for fabric I will use or scrub the floor with it, but it's outta here! I would like to be at least 150 yards down by this time next year, hopefully with minimal new purchases.

6. Make new curtains for the dining room. This isn't a big deal except I did so much home dec sewing when I bought my house that I stopped garment sewing for almost 5 years. I know that won't happen again, and the complete overhaul of the dining room requires excessive new draperies and re-covering all the seat cushions, for which I have already bought many, many yards of fabric. (I also need new curtains for the kitchen, but those are a quickie job that won't disrupt my regular sewing).

So those are my hopeful sewing resolutions. Anyone have any to add to the list?