Wandering at the Shadows' Edge

exploring potential and possibility

Archive for the tag “planning”

12 Nov 2019

2020 Planning

I mentioned my bullet journal a few posts back. It’s the form of paper planner that works best for me. One of my issues was finding a way to carry all my pens and stencils with me. I’ve solved that one. And I’ve made some adjustments to this year’s journal for the last couple of months of the year. This gives me a chance to test some of the things I want to try for next year.

I can’t try all of them right now but I’m making some notes. I have a gridded notebook that I use to work out the kings of things – the look and layout of trackers and pages and calendars. It helps me figure out if my ideas are logistically viable. It’s time to pull it out to start brainstorming what and how I’m going to track things in 2020.

It’s going to be different for 2020 because the planner is twice as big as the one I’ve been using. So I have to replan everything. I can fit more on a single page for some things, but there are other things that will use more space. the reason for the bigger planner is because my current on feels cramped in many ways.

I didn’t do too well tracking some things this year, though I’ve gotten better at it as I’ve fine tuned my journal. But I got way behind on the annual tracking. I’m not happy about that. I know why. I didn’t set time aside each week and month to update the journal pages. It’s something I need to block out time for going forward. It’s not something that takes a lot of time. I just need to sit down and do it.

I need to find an overall theme for 2020 – I’m not sure yet what tack I want to take with that yet. But it is something I need to do. And I need to start looking for quotes and pictures that fit whatever that theme ends up being.

My journal is important, but it’s fun too. I look forward to using it. It makes me more productive in the areas I make priorities.

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03 Jan 2018

The Wandering Plan for 2018

I started and ended 2017 pretty well here…. the middle was a bit of a mess. I don’t want that to happen again. So here’s the plan and how I intend to stick to it.

  • I’m committing to one post a week here.  I may, at times, post more often, but the commitment is once a week.
  • I’m scheduling craft, reading, and posting time every week. So I’ll have projects and books to post about.
  • I’m setting up drafts for posts 3 months at a time. In most cases they’re just titles and a few notes bit they are ready and waiting.

And what will I be posting about?

  • I’m bringing back the Spotlights
  • I’ll be sharing my favorite authors and books
  • I’ve set myself a goal to work on a crafting project every day and I’ll be posting  updates on my progress
  • The actual projects themselves… some calligraphy, iconography, weaving, sewing, costuming, needlework, bookbinding, crochet and other fiber arts… And who knows what else.

I’m planning on exploring a lot of the shadows in 2018 and recording what I discover. Come wander with me.

Posted in Book Reviews, Cooking, Fiber Arts, General Wandering, Modern, Paper Arts, SCA, Spotlight and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a Comment
27 Dec 2017

2017 Sliding into the Shadows 

2017 had moments if brightness but a lot of the year was cast in shadows that were dark, even for me.

I wanted to post here more often but work and life got in the way.  The brightness I wanted to bring to people, the people I wanted to throw the spotlight on, I let fall by the wayside.

I think I’ve figured not only what went wrong, but how to keep it from happening again. So I’m coming out of the shadows, at least a bit though I doubt you’ll find me standing in the sunshine.

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06 Dec 2017

Big Changes and a New Craft Space

It’s been eleven months since I posted here – good intentions got swept up in the chaos and shadows that sometimes overtakes life. 2017 was a busy year.

One of reasons this blog faded was because I didn’t have space to do much in the way of crafting. The biggest event of 2017 changed that. I moved from a 500 square foot, one bedroom apartment to a two bedroom condo with almost twice as much room.  Now I can find all my craft supplies without digging through stacks of bins and boxes. And my craft table isn’t piled high with some of those same bins and boxes.

Things are still a little crazy – I’m working swing shift for a few months as an instructor for our new hires at work, and I’m concentrating on my writing. But crafting is still important to me. So I’m going to start posting here again and by the beginning of 2018 I’m going to start actively working on it again.

I dropped off on the Spotlights I was posting too – and I’ll be bringing them back – along with book reviews and other wanderings in the shadows.

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21 Sep 2016

Mapping the Shadows

One of the things I’m not good at is following up on ideas.  I get great ideas and intentions, and then forget to follow up on them. There are a couple of different ways I’m trying to map out tasks and ideas I need to follow up on.

I’ve created my own “planner.”  It won’t really kick in until the new year, but it is helping me keep track of the events and tasks that are easily planned and scheduled. Once the new year starts I’ll probably add a bullet journal into it. I’ll try to include pictures once I figure out how I’m going use it.

I also have a “creative” journal – the idea was to divide each pair of pages up into seven sections and then decorate each of the sections with something that applied to that day. It could just be the date and a freehand background design or it could include other decorative items like tape or stickers. It could include the horrible drawings that I do – because I haven’t sat down and applied myself to actually learning to draw LOL.   Great idea – execution not so great.  Sometimes I remember to decorate a section and sometimes I don’t. It really depends on how many things I have on my mental list for the day.

I got smart and put all my writing ideas in one place. When I’m ready to take one from concept-and-notes to actual story, I transform the concept card/folder into its own file. And for the series that wasn’t supposed to be a series 😉 I’m creating a “canon” book or story “bible” so that I don’t lose details about characters, places, timelines, etc.

I’m still working on finding the combination of things that will let me map the shadows effectively.

How do you map your journeying?

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