Hey Everyone, I can’t believe another year has ended; it went by so fast, and not too many projects ended up getting completed. My consolation is that I can now take good close-ups of my bird.

The running theme of 2021 was one of several false and slow starts. A lot of focus went into preparing for ideas, instead of executing them; basically, I had been buying a ton of new tools, storage, and materials for ideas that have remained as concepts for now.

How many ideas did dabble into? Based on the tools & materials that I bought this year, I
had thought about:

1. Beading & beadwork with some knotwork
2. Writing programs in C #
3. Molding and casting with casein plastic
4. Vector designing for embroidery
5. Paper mache
6. D.I.Y firing for pottery and ceramics
7. Using markers for illustrations,
8. Fabricating with a vacuum form
9. 3D Modelling printing, and doodling
10. Carving & sculptures

On top of the ideas, I had thought about, I was also keeping some other thoughts in mind that had to do with working at home, such as:

1. Managing my workflow
2. Managing fridge ingredients and leftovers
3. Organizing my sleep – space
4. Organizing my tools & supplies
5. Managing shared spaces in the house
6. Creating better methods for decision making, related to meal planning and people handling
7. Finding resolve when I don’t meet my goals

Needless to say, this year was really busy; I can’t say that things will get any less busy in the new year, but I’m always hoping to find opportunities anyways. Looking towards 2022, I continue to hope getting things crossed off of my list of ideas; i’m thinking that 6 new projects would be a goal to strive for. One key goal that I hope to achieve in 2022 is a sense of satisfaction for where I am, in the moment.

I have to admit, wanting to be consistent in the amount of content that I can share on this blog may have been counter-productive for me; putting more pressure on myself to update didn’t result in more posts. I am working on putting my expectations in a more realistic frame; I have to remind myself that completing five major tasks in a day is my realistic limit, with about four of the five major tasks being related to work & chores in the house. It doesn’t make sense to expect myself to have the time and energy to complete every project I can think of on the side, and that is okay. I also tend to have a lot of new ideas emerge out of nowhere, which tends to take up the last slot for daily major tasks.

Speaking of new ideas, I have been convinced that I need to get into growing some cannabis plants; it became legal in Canada to possess a couple or more plants for personal use, back on October 17, 2019. Now that I’ve heard of a couple stories of some non – smokers growing the plant for fun, I feel confident that I can try to grow some for myself. As a plush toy maker, it would be pretty sweet to source some fibres from my own garden; a quick search online has informed me that the stem fibres can be used for many applications, from fibreboards, to paper and texiles. Along with regular crops, I plan to grow them in a greenhouse enclosure.

Aside from preparing to delve into a million new hobbies and media, the new year looks to be a promising one; hopefully, I can check-in more often with this blog and show you things that I had been researching and compiling from the past several months.