February Goal Update

Here's how I'm doing on my 18 in 2018 goals. I didn't make huge strides this month. I'm going to blame it on February having fewer days ... (but I doubt that's the true reason).

Goal 1: finish all the charts in the 2006 Cross-stitch Calendar

• I made steady progress on The King of Spring and should be done with it by the end of the
  week.

Goal 3: finish or dispose of The Finery of Nature

• I looked over the kit and took a look at the progress I've made so far. It's all in good shape, and looking at the kit I recalled why I like it so much.
  
  One of the challenges of this piece is that it's large enough that I need to stitch it using my floor stand. So I'll have to decide where in the house I want to stitch because it's not that easy to tote the floor stand from room to room, and it takes up a bit of space.
  
  Another challenge is that it's stitched on a black ground cloth. That's harder on the eyes and will take some particularly good lighting.
  
  The main challenge for me is that this is another color chart. I just have a very hard time following colored charts, so I'll need to be particularly careful. But yes, I think I'll finish this piece sometime this year. It really is beautiful.

Goal 12: Read / work through Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck

• The audio version of the book I bought was in mp3 format. That's great for listening to it on my phone, but the CD player in my car doesn't play those disks. So, with the superb assistance of Dale, the CDs are now burned into a format that I can listen to while driving. 

Goal 13: Work through The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron

• This is where the bulk of my creative energy went this month. I'm now in the middle of Week Six of the twelve week course. I truly love it. It gets me thinking differently and helps me see how I approach many aspects of my life with a creative twist.
  
  The Facebook groups I've joined have put me in touch with some lovely people who inspire me, and apparently, who I inspire in return. I've thoroughly enjoyed most of the Artist's Dates I've taken. This picture of my Artist Date flowers and the treatment I gave it in editing makes this one of my all-time favorites photographs.

Goal 15: Learn some hand lettering

• I've not formally begun my course, but I do practice some basic lettering each day. I do OK with pencil on lined paper. But when I've attempted to translate that onto the greeting cards I made, the results are very sketchy. But it's fun to try.

Goal 18: Go on a Retreat

• I've joined the private Facebook group that's set up for the True Magic retreat and have started to get to know some of the other participants. 

This means that at the end of February, I've fully completed one goal. But I've made at least some progress on ten of them.