Let's get crafty

After spending my weekend pouring over thousands of old photographs in an effort to launch my first-ever website (yay!), I have taken stock of my goals. I've wanted to get my portfolio online for years--almost a decade, actually--and now that I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for this massive project, I'm pondering what other goals I should aim to accomplish this year. Not in a New Year's resolution sort of way, more in a mid-life crisis way. Minus the mid-life and the crisis. A constant self-evolution makes for constant evaluation, and so this weekend it was evaluating my goals.

I want to learn how to knit. I started it up pre-Bean, but stopped when I became violently sick in my first trimester. Now, I want to begin anew, and this time I will recognize my inability to learn how to knit via books or manuals. I'm searching for a cheap, local class for this spring or summer. Ditto for sewing, although I'd like to get my hands on a machine. Freecycle, perhaps. There is so much crafty stuff I want to learn!

Etsy browsing has renewed my goal of getting an Etsy shop up like my friend Jessica. Just today, on a break from work, I saw this amazingly inspiring moss pendant based on the moss and rocks jutting the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Amazing! Adorn Jewelry is the one-woman company behind the moss, and I had to check out her neat website too. If I could buy every necessity in life on Etsy, I would be happy ...

Now I just need to start knitting toys, sewing skirts, and scanning my portfolio in for my new website! Bean might have other plans, though. ;) Speaking of Bean, guess what she said last night while eating some rutabaga and zucchini? "Mama." Not sure if she knew what she was saying, but she said it a dozen times or so very clearly. Does that count as a first word?!

A very happy birthday week to Momma Val! My dear, dear friend ... one of my first memories of her generosity (something I have gratefully experienced many times since, as well) was when she came into work with a glass jar filled to the brim with vegetable soup for me. Just because. The first and only time someone has brought me soup, and for no reason but kindness at that! I love you, Momma Val! May your kindness be reflected back upon you a million times over.