Week 1 - Recap

Well, amazing how things never go as planned!  Week 1 turned into a two-week whirlwind of cleaning, organizing, and finishing up some of my many half-done projects.  I found at least 10 projects that are all at the 80-90 percent done phase.  What is that about??  As a result, instead of sitting around dreaming up new projects (though I did jot down a few new ideas like the original plan called for), I've been trying to assess what gets finished, what gets put aside again, and what gets pitched.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself - a good portion of my time during this phase of things has been spent organizing, maybe not my thoughts as this blog post is demonstrating, but at least my physical arts and crafts supplies.  I'm truly committed to figuring out the hopefully finite universe of "stuff" that I've already got and getting it all organized in a manner that makes it easy for me to access and actually do something with.  I got a bunch of nice boxes and labeled them:  "needles and notions," "pompom makers" (yes, I actually have enough of them at this point to warrant a separate box!), "buttons," etc.  That way, as I plow through all the bags and piles of the craft supplies that I have, I can immediately "file" them away in their new homes.  For example, I discovered that I have a total of 14 yarn needles, and, now, I know where they all are :-).  I still have five more project bags to go through and assess, but I feel like I've made progress in getting a handle on what I've got and what I want to do with it.  I will post photos and give more specifics about the tools and tricks I've used to make this a fun and inexpensive endeavor, but here's one quick hint:  Michael's sells packs of photo boxes that are perfect for organizing all the little things that easily get lost and disorganized.

In addition to the physical reorganizing I've been doing, I've been trying to get my digital world in order too.  I've joined the legions of people who can't live without their iPhones!  But, what can I do, between some great apps and the ability to sync with my phone and real computer, I'm finding ways to be more efficient and organized in the virtual world too.  For example, one of the main themes that emerged these past two weeks is that my "branding" needs some freshening up.  So, one of the first steps I took was to revamp my crochet pattern template.  Now that more functionality has been added to Word (or maybe my knowledge of that functionality has increased), I was able to set up a template that I like as much as the one I had on InDesign.  I also discovered that my hastily created system of 1) typing a pattern into SnapWriter, a notetaking app that works with Evernote (because, of course, my phone is right next to me while I crochet), 2) later accessing Evernote while sitting at my real computer and copying and pasting the crochet pattern instructions into my new Word template, and 3) then being able to convert the Word doc into a PDF and list on Ravelry is actually working out pretty well (though I have not made it yet to the third step because I need to re-test the pattern and finalize the instructions, and, oh, take a few more photos too!).

I'm also in the process of testing out Trello and Milanote, but I need to work with them both a bit more and gather my thoughts before posting about them.

And, ha, I haven't even told you yet about the cookbook that I just self-published -- You'll have to visit my new website and Facebook page to learn more!

Now, off to figuring out what Week 2 is going to be about!