10 Things...August Edition

For me, August signals the “end” of Summer. I know that the Autumnal Equinox isn’t until nearly the end of September, but August was always the last of summer for me. Perhaps it was because of going back to school, but my mindset didn’t change, not even after I started working. August is when you wind down from the summer fun (not that I did much this summer), your tan starts to peel off or fade (not that I’m able to tan, but if I did, mine would peel) and you’re 100% sick of the heat and humidity (oh yeah!). I look forward with anticipation to fall, because fall is my favorite season and it seems to be ever so fleeting. I plan all the things I will do to enjoy fall, and yet, I seem to never get them all done.

Well, this year I had so many plans for summer and I actually feel like I missed summer. So, for this Ten Things on the 10th, I bring you…

Ten things I didn’t do this summer that I will most definitely do before Christmas:

1.  Write more Ten Things on the 10th, because I totally spaced it out in July and want to do this every 10th of every month from now on…
 
2.  Participate in Story Telling Sunday, hosted by Sian. It took me a while to “catch on” to this. For a while I thought it was every Sunday and then when I’d go looking for it, it wasn’t there. I finally realized it’s the first Sunday of every month and fully intended to participate this month. I even had a story all set up in my mind. Except… before I knew it…before I could type it out…before I could get it scheduled to post…magically, Monday was here! Oops. Next month for sure!


3.  Organize and print my photos. I have digital photo files… everywhere! And I haven’t printed photos since… oh… 2008! I’m bored of scrapbooking old events. Even though printing things from 2009 til now can somewhat be considered “old events” they will be fresh ideas for me. I think this is part of what has me in a “rut” creatively. I keep going back to old photos and staring at them, knowing I need to scrap them, and feeling completely uninspired to do so. I need to mix it up a little, I think.

4. Declutter at least one more room in my house. I felt so accomplished when we worked on clearing out The Girl’s room when she moved in with us for the summer. I felt accomplished again when I got my scrappin’ room set up with the slat wall. I want to feel that way again. There is a huge project of a room in my basement that is screaming for attention and I keep ignoring it. I really would love for this to be cleared out by Christmas.

This is The Room downstairs.  The Room that is packed floor to ceiling, wall to wall.  It weighs on me...and it makes me run away screaming!

5.  Explore Etsy, both as a shopper and as a potential seller.

6. Create at least one layout per topic over at Scrapbooking from the Inside Out. I promised myself that once I stopped working at the scrapbook store, that I would do more “scrapping” and I certainly have. I really have! But I haven’t focused on Inside Out’s topics or philosophy as much as I would like. I will share with you when I do them, so you can help me keep on task for this item.

7.  Journal. I have gotten so lost and removed from journaling. I have dabbled more in it over the last month (July), and really like some of the concepts of art journaling. I’m still dabbling… and I’m noticing it feels good when I do.

8.  Create. Start the project I was “challenged” to do on the last 10 Things post I wrote. And finish it. Because I took her challenge and I set a date for “by Christmas”. Must… get…a…move…on! Oh, and while I’m starting this project, I want to also finish up all of my other scrappy & journaling projects that I have started including Me in my MoleskinE, The Planet You, among others, as well as creating my Christmas cards.


9.  More Cards! I want to at least make birthday cards for 2012 if not for every 2012 events (anniversaries, etc.) Ever since I started making cards I have thought it would be wonderful to create the entire year’s worth of birthday, anniversary and other celebrations before the following year so I’d be ready to send them out when the time came. I’ve been making cards for the better part of 8 years and never have done this. I love receiving “real” mail in the mail… and I want to send these little bits of light to others. It used to be very, very important to me to send cards to my friends and family for their birthdays, at the very least… and somewhere along the way, I lost the motivation to do so. I want to find it again. Making a supply of cards should, I hope, help.

10.  Last but definitely not least, lose weight/size. In my ongoing quest for a better me, both mentally and physically, I have let both slack over the summer. I have been wallowing in mental muck and eating like there’s no tomorrow. Seriously. Like there’s no tomorrow! I start actively pursuing this goal on this Friday, actually. Uhm…. this may mean I’ll be moody; it’s hard to give up those addictions of mine. Please bear with me if this rears its ugly head on my blog. And, thanks for your support everyone!!

Whew! that's a lot, but I am pretty sure I can and will do it. Make sure you help to keep me honest, okay?

Can you come up with a list of ten things… any ten things? Share it and join us by linking yours up at Shimelle’s blog. Or, just click here if you want to read more “Ten Things”!