Where to begin...

I've been inspired by several things lately. Friends who are going through a rough time, but still enjoying life. Friends whose creativity is awe inspiring. And friends who are just living the life they were blessed with.

And I realized that there is a lot in life I have to be thankful for. A healthy family. A husband who happens to be my best friend. Friends who make me laugh. An amazing house to live in. The chance to stay home with my daughter. I'm pretty stinking lucky.

Because I am so lucky & because my friends are so inspiring, I've decided to start doing the things I enjoy most AND to start trying new things I've never done before. No more sitting around saying "I wish I could do this." or "I wish I was more creative". If I don't do things now, I'll never do them in the future.  And I want to learn new ways to be creative. I guess you could say this is kind of like my bucket list of creativity for the rest of the year.

Here is the list of goals that I'd like to make a reality:

1. Refinish the dresser in the basement. It's just sitting there, ugly and covered in stickers. I'm going to turn it into something beautiful and amazing. I'd also, at some point, love to buy old furniture, refinish it, and then use it to furnish our bedrooms. But one step at a time.
2. Write a book. Not anything fancy. I'm mainly fascinated with relationships, love and happily ever afters. I want to make some of the characters that live inside my head come to life on paper (or the equivalent of paper, right here on my laptop).
3. Make a quilt. Preferably one similar too, but not the same as, Lily's blanky (which was my blanky when I was little). That way, our next child (whenever it happens) will also have a comforting piece of my heart to keep with them.
4. Make a hobo-style cable knit purse. I have the yarn. I have the needles. I just haven't made myself do it. Yet.
5. Create Lily's photo books for years 2 & 3. It's my goal to have one capturing every year of Lily's life. So far, I have one for my pregnancy with Lily and one for her first year (up until her first birthday). I'd like to catch up with this before it gets completely out of control. It's my favorite way to "scrapbook".

That's 5 pretty nice sized, creatively inclined projects. I think I can do it. And I decided to blog about my adventures in creative learning! I don't know if people will read it. Or if people will even care. But I"m hoping to learn a lot. Not only about creative techniques, but about myself. So many times, I've quit in the middle of something because I'm convinced I'm really not good enough. Well, this blog is a way to remind me that I am, indeed, good enough! And if that can help inspire even one person to believe in themselves, to start/complete something they've always wanted to do? Then I will have been as inspiring to them as my friends are to me.

So, thanks for all the inspiration!