Things I Wanna Do More of This Year - 2012 Resolutions

My craft pillow that I use in place of a table for crafting in my lap
Sadly not cross-stitched by me, but ever a source of inspiration
Photo by Steph Cortes - edited with Camera+ & FilterMania

A lovely coworker of mine, Lilly, told me about how she'd just shown her aunt my blog today.

I know that's a really simple sentence. But it meant to world to me...

Although I've been on the interwebs for quite some time, it hasn't truly sunk in that people read my musings. Probably because of the lack of Julie/Julia-esque transition from blogging for an empty room to international stardom launched by the New York Times!! But I digress...

When someone reads my blog, I'm totally flattered. I know that *I'm* entertained by talking about yarn, crayons and nerdity, but it really takes it to a whole new level when others rock out with me.

Which made me think that this is what I wanted: to write!

I've been thinking about writing a book for years. The theme has changed many times, but I've always been determined to get published. The first step to doing that is creating a body of work... Which takes work!

So, like all aspiring writers, I sat down & made a list to help me tackle the workload.

After I wrote out this list, I labeled the journal in which I wrote it:

A first draft!!

I can't tell you how happy this folded up post-it note makes me! It may have only been something I did with half of my lunch break in the back room at my retail gig, but hey! I came up with the name "nerd JERK" and my mission statement in that very room (in that very seat, even!) in late 2009, so... who knows? Maybe in 3 years, I'll be reading my book at the SFO bookstore?!?

You'll notice that I've starred a few items on my list. Every time I make a list, I make a Top 5 of the things that must get done, but since that would have been 50% of the Things (and I felt I ought to give myself some room for failure), 30% seemed like a fair compromise. 

My Top 3 Things that I must get done this year will be:

3) Start a savings account (& add to it!!)

I anticipate that I will need some kind of money source in the coming months. I plan on doing out of state shows and traveling (maybe moving?), and all of this requires bucket loads of money. I'd better grow up and rock that interest rate!

4) Write more / blog more

When speaking to one of my favorite authors, Mary Roach, last year [future blog post], I realized just how much I wanted to make book happen. So I'm going along with the resounding theme of the year: write more! Which means you'll be hearing a lot more from me!

8) GET ORGANISED!!!

I had planned on showing y'all a pic of my view from my couch in my living room that I took the other day, but lemme sum it up for ya: it's a feckin' mess! I need to work on that... but I'll be procrastinating til the cows come home if I do it all at once. So I decided to do a little at a time. Here's some of my efforts from New Year's Day:

What's on YOUR bookshelf? Mine has tons of craft self-help books. :D

From the bookshelf located in my office! So many amazing books will help me along the way. And yes - I love "For Dummies" books. And no - I haven't really used 'em since I purchased them in spring 2011, but that could change, hey?

I'm inspired by so many things at once this week. Must be all the sleep I'm getting.

Hope you're all getting some sleep, having fun & eating tasty treats... speaking of which, I was interviewed last year and the podcast was just put up! I'll have to share the deets next time, but until then---

Loves & Awesomeness,

- Steph