Happy New Year!

And I am hoping for a Happy New Improved Me!

I know it is the start of a brand new year and everyone has all these plans to quit this and quit that; to lose weight; to do all sorts of things ....

I wonder how long any of these last?  Does anyone actually make it to the end of the year having kept up all those resolutions?

Hmmm.  Well there are several things that I need to improve on.  And, of course, I have great ambitions to carry them through.  So, here I am baring some of my soul to you and hoping that having written it down on here .... I WILL SUCCEED!

So here goes, my confessions and my hopes for 2017 ....

My name is Lucy and ....

Firstly

I am a hoarder!  I really am.  I would almost guarantee that there is no-one (well other than those extreme hoarders that you see on telly that literally have boxes all up the walls and you can't get through their houses but give me a few more years and I will be!)  I always think that something will be used in some form or another, and not necessarily in the form that they were intended for.  I put this partly down to being a crafter - we will repurpose things!  I also put it down to a couple of controlling relationships where I had my belongings thrown away willy-nilly and with no regard to my feelings.  This has meant that I hold EVERYTHING that is mine close to me and don't want anyone else to touch them, move them or anything! This has been my way of reacting to a bad situation where I was not ME at all.  I was a dumbed-down tiny shadow of myself with no voice and no valid opinion.

I hasten to add - I am no longer like this.  I am so much stronger and more ME!  I am in an extremely happy and equal relationship with a beautiful man who loves me for me - and that includes my hoarding!

I do know that this does get him down sometimes, although he will never tell me to get rid of anything.  In fact he tries to find storage solutions for all and sundry to be put away in.  BUT I have decided this is the year that I am going to try and get on top of it.  I am planning to sort out; file; and throw out (OMG!)  I already have three bags full ready to go to the Charity Shop.  These will be going tomorrow.  I have thought that maybe a tally chart of how many bags/boxes go out of the house may be a good incentive for me.

Secondly

As I said previously (and you should know if you read this blog!) I am a crafter!  I don't think the ME I am can exist without the crafting side of me.  When my fibromyalgia flares up so much that I can't use my hands for long I get so down.  I really do need to be creating.

With every crafter - whatever you create - comes the inevitable WIP - Work in Progress.  Those projects that have been started with every intention of finishing them, only to be relegated to behind the sofa; in the airing cupboard; on any surface in the craft room ... And believe me I have WIPs!  Many many many of them! In fact I daren't even start counting them as I am really worried as to how many I actually have.

So the plan is that I am going to try to complete at least some of them.  I can't commit to all of them - that just isn't realistic.  There are no way there are enough months, days, hours in this year to be able to do that. And I do have to allow for the fact that I will be starting new projects too!  So I do have to allow time for those.  So posting my progress on here will be a good incentive too.

Thirdly

I am supposed to be a blogger.

To me being a blogger is regularly updating your blog.  Hmmm well I start off well, but slightly tail off towards the later part of the year.

I really do need to be more regular (blogging that is!) and keep this up to date throughout the whole year.  To me it is an outlet for my crafting adventures and hopefully to increase my little crafting business.  So in order to get more people reading my words I need to get this blog out there more regularly.  In this, you can help me too, by sharing my blog posts on facebook; pinterest; etc so that more people see my stuff!  I need to use the internet to help me and that's the plan for this year.  I am going to put an alert on my phone so that I get on here at least once a week.

Fourthly

I do need to lose a stone, or two... that is work in progress and not something I really want to throw out there in to the internet world.  But I am aware that I'm getting older and that weight is not going to fall off like it did when I was a wee spring chicken!  The fibromyalgia makes things hard sometimes and I find that I can't exercise like I could before.  However, I do need to start doing so more regularly as I feel this might build my strength up and hopefully improve the pains, the fitness levels and my weight.

Watch this space!

So for now there are four things I am planning to work on this year.

Any encouragement will be gladly accepted.

See you soon!