Goals for 2013

Do I dare even write this down for all to see?  This summer I am going to be 40!  Sometimes I can't believe that I will be 40 and then other times it doesn't phase me in the least.  I recently found a blog someone decided to make and give away 36 quilts this year since she turned 36 January 1st.  The blog I found was at http://dailydog.typepad.com.  It has inspired me to create and give away 40 things by the end of the year (If I have to I'll give myself until I turn 41 next summer).

As some of you know, I am the MA National Chapter leader for http://enchantedmakeovers.org/category_28/National-Chapters.htm.  I recently got my first donation to send to a local shelter.  The goal of the National Chapter leaders is to: "Enchanted Makeovers is growing across the country one sewing project at a time! Each state has a chapter, led by a coordinator who will answer your questions on our three sewing projects and collect/deliver the hand-made pillowcases, capes and dolls to shelters for women, teens and children. Hand-made items are a big part of our mission because we believe each gift carries with it the love and positive energy of the crafter. We have seen first hand the impact this has on those who are re-building their lives while living in a shelter. Please join us by donating our sewing projects to your state chapter. The National Chapters only represent our sewing projects."

I now have to find local shelters that would like to have these donated items.  My goal is to make at least 40 pillowcases, dolls, and/or capes to donate to the shelter that we partner with.  My thought is to find a smaller shelter as the larger more well known shelters more than likely have a lot of donations coming in.  They probably don't have items like this, but I'm sure they have more things donated than smaller less known shelters outside of Boston.  I love this idea and it is inspiring me to do something in my own community, I just have to actually formulate a plan and put together something that will fill the needs of my community.

I am thinking that we have a local food pantry and that maybe they would like to have handmade hats, scarfs, mittens, and blankets.  I can only imagine that if they can't afford to buy food, they probably can't afford other things either.  Also, having something handmade to comfort them and keep them warm is always nice.  We also have a large population of people with mental health issues.  I was thinking of tapping into that area to for areas to donate handmade items.  I think I had another thought, but unfortunately that has left my conscious memory right now.  I was also thing we have a local hospital, and hospice agency that could benefit from handmade craft items, like chemo caps, prayer shawls, etc.

This is one way that I am trying to merge my love of social work, community, and crafting.  One of the things that I would love to work on is figuring out how to make this into a career.  I was thinking of at some point looking into grant writing for some funding.  I am contemplating working with my local farmer's market to have a place to have collections of handmade items to donation to local agencies that have needs, maybe even a knit, crochet, sew out.  They do a plain aire paint out every year and have the wakefield collaborative there.  This may all be a pipe dream, but I really want to utilize my love and passion of my social work career, community involvement, and crafting in my career.  I don't want to not do something for fear of failure, but I want to make sure that what I do has the thought and time that it needs put into it.

Before I do anything, I do need to do a community needs assessment to figure out what my community needs.  I certainly can start small and see what I can do even by myself and hope that it will grow in to something larger.  I have a lot of thoughts spinning around in my head.  I also have a part time job, 3 kids, a husband, and a house that need my attention.  I do need to find something for me that I enjoy though, and have it maybe even be something that can grow into a career.  Lots of research to be done, but I am looking forward to it. (I wish my iPad didn't get ruined.  Maybe since I don't have a ton of money I can look into a windows one.)

Amy

PS- I also have the goal of getting healthy.  I want to eat healthier, exercise, and have good mental/spiritual health!

Wishcasting Wednesday

It's Wednesday once again and once again I am joining in with with Jamie riddler at http://jamieridlerstudios.ca where she asks; "What do you wish to learn?"

This is an both easy and a difficult question to answer.  My broad answer is any and all creative thing I can learn.  I want to learn more about holistic health, aromatherapy, herbs, bath and body products, as well as more crafting creative ideas.  I currently am looking to learn about batik dying so that I can dye my own fabric to use in my sewing projects.  I want to learn to dye my own yarn.  I want to learn more about art and crafting as a therapeutic tool (for my professional career), I want to learn more about all the creative things that I already know and  do.    I could go on and on.  The reason that this question is difficult to answer is that there are so many specific things that I want to learn.  I guess, on some level, the most important thing for me to learn will be how to use art and crafting as a creative tool so that I can use it in my professional career.

As an aside, I am officially the chapter leader for Massachusetts for "Enchanted Makeovers".  I am the go to person for MA for people who want to donate dolls, pillowcases, and/or capes for children who are living in shelters.  This is my first way of introducing creativity and community involvement into my life.  Hopefully in time, I will be able to do more of this and branch out on my own with community involvement and crafting. Over the next couple of weeks, I will be posting more about Enchanted Makeovers and what I will be doing in the state of Massachusetts!

I recently went to an art therapy conference and it definitely made me want to do more with the arts and crafts with my social work practice!

Amy

Decisions

I finally made my decision.  I needed to take some time this week and think and pray and come to a decision about wanting to be the chapter leader for Enchanted Makeovers for Massachusetts.  I've decided that I want to be a part of this organization.  I want to do more for my community.  I've decided that I want to use my love of creating to help others.  I am hoping that Terry Grahl is interested in having me part of her organization.

After spending about forty five minutes on the phone with her, I was even more interested in being a part of her organization.  She told me stories that made me tear up and cry, stories that made me feel even stronger that this was something I wanted to do.  I was scared of failing at being the chapter leader, and still am, but I am trying to get over my fear of failure and trying to be more positive about things that I want to do!

My goal is to spend some more time reading the website for Enchanted Makeovers.  You can check out the website for yourself at http://www.enchantedmakeovers.org/.  I plan to spend some more time talking with other chapter leaders.  I have gotten a lot a great positive feedback from the other chapter leaders and I'm sure they will be a great source of support and help if I am the chapter leader for MA.

I am looking forward to starting this new chapter in my life, that is if I become the chapter leader.  As time goes on, I will be posting more about this wonderful organization, even if I am not the chapter leader.  I believe in the mission and look forward to telling more people about it.

Amy

I've Made The Decision

My husband and I have been running, or at least attempting to run for the last 4 months.  We have gone every other day alternating so that we each get to go and we each get a break.  We started back in February and we were getting up at 5:30 am.  Now, I am definitely not a morning person, so I switched from 5:30 am to between 8-9 pm.  I don't mind going that late, except, I tend to miss my running time due to a multitude of reasons.  I actually prefer running at night, but I may have to start going back to the mornings again.  I am missing to many times and it too easy to make an excuse.  Recently, I asked my husband how he was able to get up at 5 am (he actually stretches out, which is something I need to start doing).  He said he just made the decision to do it and he does it.  Sounds simple doesn't it?

Well, for me it hasn't been that easy, but I have decided that I need to follow his lead and just make the decision to commit.  Now, when I say I need to make the decision to commit, I am not just talking about running!  I am making the decision to commit to running (getting up early or sucking it up and going no matter what, unless I am really, really sick), eating a meat free/dairy free/gluten free diet, making time to create, making time to donate, and making time to live the life I want to lead.

I am going to take the time to get organized, clean, and purge what I don't need.  I have slowly been purging things, but I don't think that I have been doing enough.  This is a huge piece of what is going to make my life easier.  The better organized I am, the easier it will be to have the time to do all the other things that I want to do.  I think that making this decision now is good.  I was never a tv watcher, but over the last number of years, I have started to get sucked into shows.  Now that summer is here and season finales are over, I am hoping that getting in a good routine will help me remain in a routine once the new season starts again in the fall.  I'm hopeful that I will be in such a routine, that I won't want to watch as much tv.

I am going to start researching recipes that are meat free, gluten free, and dairy free.  Myself and my oldest  son are gluten and dairy sensitive.  My oldest was also recently diagnosed with PDD NOS (he has high functioning autism) and seems to do much better when he doesn't ingest gluten and dairy.  My husband's doctor wants him to eat an animal protein free diet and from what I've researched, I've found that this is the best diet for me to eat given my BRCA2 situation, especially since I am leaning against having surgery!

I have a ton of craft supplies, and when I think about how much money I have spent on them, I get a little sick to my stomach.  I was a little crazy with buying.  Since I love to create and I have a lot of supplies to create with, my goal is to create with them and then donate them to different agencies.  I am hopeful that I can donate and get rid of some of my supplies, as well as feel good about taking time to create.

I am making the decision to follow through with my goals in life, instead of just having goals that I don't follow through with!

Amy

Getting Back On Track With This Blog

I started this blog almost 3 years ago with the goal to write about living a more natural life style.  For me this means cooking my own food, growing my own food, eating local and with the seasons, eating healthy and naturally, being creative and not buying everything at the store, or even buying things that are thrifted and "upcycling"them.  Not only am I not really following through with these things on this blog, but I have let go of actually practicing a lot of this in my life (which is maybe why I am finding it so hard to write about it).

I am moving towards a more vegan diet.  As I have written, I have the BRCA2 gene mutation, which places me at a much greater risk for breast and ovarian cancer as well as pancreatic cancer and melanoma.  I still have to decide if I am going to have surgery to reduce my risk, or if I am just going to try to do things a little more naturally.  I have some doctors appointments coming up and have to schedule a couple more.  I am hoping that after these appointments, I will be able to make a better decision on which direction to go.  If I decide to have surgery, I will also continue with a mostly vegan diet and living a lifestyle that has ways of dealing with stress.

The research that I have done, has shown that eating a plant based diet, is something that can greatly reduce your chances of getting cancer.  I figure, even if I have surgery, it can't hurt to take care of my body and eat less meat and more fruits and veggies and whole grains.  I am also planning on really going gluten free and dairy free since I have sensitivities to these foods, or at least I think I do.  I also need to be better at gluten and dairy free meals and snacks for my older son.  He too has sensitivities that seem to manifest as symptoms of Autism.  Since we have greatly reduced his gluten and dairy intake he has greatly improved.  I really believe that diet plays a huge role in how our body reacts, not just physically but mentally as well.

We will be having a garden this year, and I hope that we do better and that we can get a lot of things from our own garden.  I really need to spend some time and research how best to eat locally and seasonally as well as doing it on a budget.  I really want to start making my own foods instead of going out to eat or buying more processed foods.

I also keep thinking about crafting for charity.  I will be creating things for my local twins group to sell at their annual convention.  It will be nice to donate to something that I can directly benefit from and have benefitted from in the past.  As much as this is great, I really want to do something more.  One of these days I will get the courage to talk to my selectman friend about collecting things at the farmers market.  I would love to be more active in my community and maybe this is one way to start.  I have grand thoughts, but am not sure if they are too grand and need to be tailored down.  I will keep thinking and maybe I'll get the nerve to talk to him about it.

Amy

"Craft Hope"

I keep thinking about someday owning a crafting studio.  It's kind of a pipe dream since I don't have the money to open my own business, I will need to have constant income, and I have no business experience.  One thing that I would like to do as part of a craft studio, is have time to craft for charities.  One thing that I can do is start to do that myself.  I can start to create items for different charities and donate what I make.  I have a book called "Craft Hope" that is all about creating handmade items for different charities.  I am planning on looking through it and see if I can plan a project or two and donate them.  I know that there are a lot of different charities on the internet too.  This is something that I have wanted to do, but never followed through.  I really want to follow through this time.

One thing I would like to add to this is getting my community involved.  I'm not exactly sure how to go about doing it though.  I have thought about doing something with my church, but I have not exactly been attending.  I have also recently thought about doing something at our town's farmer's market.  One of the winter farmer's markets that we go to has a donation bin for handmade hats and mittens.  I would love to maybe do something similar at the summer's farmer's market.  What I would ultimately like to do is participate at the farmer's market and have people do a project while they attend the farmer's market as well as have a bin for drop offs.  I have heard of having many people work on an individual square or an individual project so that many people's hands are part of this finished piece.  This probably isn't a feasible endeavor, but it is something that I would like to think about.  Maybe check out when this years knit out is and do something that day in town.

I have so many ideas, but I'm not sure that they are things that are actually feasible.  As usual, I have goals/ideas, but don't know how to follow through.  I am off to look through my "Craft Hope" book and hope that it inspires me to somehow follow through with my dreams/goals, or at least one of them.

Amy