It's that time of year again - NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

Well it started with a list of 10 things, then I narrowed it down to 5 sets of things and now I've come up with 4 things that I want to accomplish in 2015! But I have a history of going too big, too fast, too hard and I'm probably not alone in that. 

When it comes to new years resolutions, I would say there are three camps of people. Those who think it's a stupid tradition, not worth their time, or that give it some lip service, but who secretly hope this will be the year they lose 10 lbs or finally get back to the gym. The second camp, who sets a goal, with kind of a plan, and works diligently until about March, April, or May, at which time they are too exhausted or too discouraged to continue. And then there are those who somehow bring about or maintain a serious change in their life for a whole year, and maybe even beyond. 

Each year, I've fallen into one of these camps. But most often the second. I start off strong, and then after months of hard work I collapse back into my previous way of being. I have lost weight in the past, and even ran a full marathon one year. But rarely have I accomplished the feat of some, who manage to make it January to January pursuing a goal. 

These days there are tones of apps, articles and resources to help us set better goals. Like this mash up of the best apps, or this Harvard Business Review article (and yes I found these with a 2 second google search on goal setting). Thank goodness the internet is always willing to help us be our best self. But some how that just isn't enough. 

Part of my problem is that I don't set goals that are flexible enough to be part of my real life. And/or I get stuck in the details of it and can't get moving forward. Oh, classic symptoms of my perfectionism! But over the last month or so, I've been thinking about my resolutions. MY LIST OF RESOLUTIONS. And have been battling the beast that is my brain about what makes sense and what's really obtainable. And in the end, I've come up with these four things:

1.   Completing what I've started or committed too - NO NEW PROJECTS

This one might seem counterintuitive, since part of this blog is showing you projects, but trust me, I've started or committed to enough projects that I'll have lots to share this year. This obviously doesn't apply to my job job, but it does apply to all that is in my life beyond work. Which includes three ongoing project lists; our house, the clinton house (which you are yet to see) and the congregation (First Unitarian of Toronto). And truth be told, I don't even have a serious, actually written down, list for each. I just keep all that crap in my brain (no wonder I feel exhausted). And as my husband has said, get it all down because on January 1st, those lists are sealed and NO NEW PROJECTS! 

2.    Learn to manage my energy, rather than my time. 
I've done the pomodoro method, set different alarms, used a diversity of apps and made a bazillion lists. But truth be told, one of my biggest issues with time management is that I often have time, I just don't have enough energy. Each night I get home, and probably have 3-4 hours of time I could be using productively, but I just don't have the gumption to get anything done because I'm exhausted. Yet I do find the energy to shame myself over my lack of productivity. So I've decided that it isn't about having enough time, it's about having enough energy. Plus, I'm not the first person to think of this, there are some great articles on it. And I plan to figure out how to make this part of my life (can you feel another blog coming!). For 2015, I want to stop worrying about not having enough time or doing enough with my time, and instead learn to manage how I spend my energy.

3.    Take better care of myself - SERIOUSLY

This last year has been filled with some serious ups and downs. And I stopped taking care of myself and started living on autopilot. But it's time to come to grips with the fact that this is the only body and brain I have, and it needs more care than I've given it. I want to find a fun way to exercise and I want to take enough time to fuel my body in a way that helps it, not hurts it. I want to have a meditative practice, find more pleasure and stretch my body out. I want to give to myself with the same passion and energy that I give to others. This isn't about losing 10lbs or running another marathon, this is about caring for the only vessel I have (Rev. Shawn preached a good sermon on this and starts really about page 6, here's the link)

4.    Tending the sacred bonds

Over the last couple of years, my family and friends have carried me through some of the most joyous and heart wrentching experiences. They have loved on me endlessly. And this year I really want to pour back into all those who have poured into me. This means more cards, calls, skype dates, dinner dates, ladies nights, etc. 

And that's it. That's what I want to work on in 2015. Sure I want to use less paper cups, and compost more. Sure I want to buy more local stuff and find social justice projects that I love. You know, all the things that make you a good unitarian. But really what I need in 2015 is less chaos, more perspective, and more time spent loving. 

Here's wishing you the 2015 that you need and want.   

Scope Creep + Perfectionism = Projects Not Started. So Just Start!

Has this ever happened to you, you think about a small project you'd like to do, (i.e. hang a piece of art in the hallway), and the task seems really simple. For me, all I need to do is pick a spot to hang it, add a nail, and volia, hung art! 

But instead my brain goes to other things, like the fact that the wall probably needs a refresh of paint, and if I do the wall, I should do all the trim in the hallway, which then means needing to remove the carpet runner, and if I pull that up, I should probably wash the floor underneath it, and maybe vacuum the underside of the runner. 

But to get started I need paint, and I think I left all my painting supplies at the congregation, so I need to pick them up while I'm out getting paint. But then I wonder if I should repaint it the same colour or a different colour or if maybe it would be cool to do some sort of really neat geometric design on the wall. So then that means researching some pattern options, pick a design, or get my fan deck out and finding the perfect colour to highlight the art. But because I love this piece of art, I need anything I do behind it to be just perfect, which means I need to do some tests of whatever I decide, which means getting some paint testers or doing a couple of pattern swatches. But that also means that I need to hang the piece to see what will work best. 

And there it is "I need to hang the piece...". So after all those mind bending options and processes, I'm ultimately  back to just freaking hanging the art! That's really all I need to do right now. 

So I did. 

And it's perfect!

Just having it up, is really what matters. The piece was painted by my dear friend, Bruce Schwartzentruber.

A man who deeply tethered Kieran and I to our spiritual home for well over a year before we planted our roots. A man who's smile and kind eye were enough to light up your day. And a man who always wanted to know how you were doing. And he didn't just ask because he should, he asked because he cared and he listened soo deeply. Always remembering details of your life and following up with you later about them. He was such a huge light in our world. And then just over a month ago, he dropped dead of a massive heart attack. Leaving this massive hole in my life, and in the life of our congregation. 

And so I did what I do best, I did stuff to deal with the pain. I created all the flowers for his memorial. 

And with my friends, I pulled together the Annual Time + Talent Fundraising Auction. 

And while hosting our annual auction, I out bid everyone who tried to purchase this painting (you could say being the auctioneer gave me unfair advantage).

  Because I wanted to be reminded daily of who he was and of the powerful work he did. 

Now, every morning, I get to pass part of him as I begin my day. And I'm reminded how important it is to maintain perspective. Because he never would have cared about the wall not being perfect. Or there not being an accent colour. All he would have cared about was being present. His work reminds me that being present in the moment for myself and others is what matters. All the other details are just noise.  Bruce cared about the big picture and having big impacts on people. So let go of the details that are holding you back, just start!

Run, Run, Runner! A Hallway Runner!

Since carpeting the bedroom and the living room, our hallway floor has just seemed so empty and sad. Even with the bright walls, and the smiling faces of our loved ones, it just seems bare. And for a space that connects every room in our apartment, I thought it was time to add a little warmth with a carpet runner.

I started with some basic measuring and sketching to figure out just how many tiles we would need. It turns out that our hall is 1 + 3/4 of a tile wide and 14 tiles long. So for a wall-to-wall runner, I would need around 25 tiles and for a 1 + 1/2 tile runner, I would need 21 tiles.

So, I put down some random carpet samples that I hadn't yet returned. Because this was a simple experiment, I cut nothing and went with the 1 + 1/2 style. And for the most part it was ok. It served the purpose of warming up the hall and making it acoustically less of a tunnel. But it wasn't that interesting. And those side pieces collected a whole ton of dog and cat hair, which meant endless vacuuming.

But Henry made the best of the additional vacuuming time, by doing this. Which I'm not even sure why he needs to smell the vacuum but he did and of course that's why we call him Helpful Henry! But even with all his funny antics, the hallway was still a bore. And after several months of thinking about different designs, I decided, why not just cut some pieces up and work something better out. Because that's how I roll! 

And so by cutting up some project scrapes, I came up with this. But because I didn't have enough tiles, it ended up like this. 

Plus, many of these are samples that I need to return. That's why I didn't cut it to fit perfectly, and I'm also not totally sold on it being done because I need to hunt down a couple more cheap tiles to fill the gaps. I also totally want more colour and less grey. But all in all, a vast improvement to what it was. And I'm totally sold on having it go wall-to-wall.

Now for some serious cheap carpet tile hunting!

Cover Me!

Oh how quickly the summer has come and gone! Well, it's not totally gone yet, and in some ways I feel like it never started because of all the rain and cloudy days, but that's really beyond the point. So with just a couple weeks left, it seems like the perfect time to do some final garden list checking and call this summer to a close.

As you can see, I've decided to resolve painting the table until next year, and only because I haven't fully decided what to do with it. Too many ideas, not enough decisions! Which left only one remaining item, the CANOPY!

Which originally made it to the list for two reasons, we wanted to use the table when it was too sunny and also when it's a bit rainy. But we also didn't want to always use it, which meant that it needed to collapse to one side, when we didn't want it. And though that sounds and looks like a simple thing, rigging it up so that it moves along the lines was a bit harder than I expected. Who knew you needed 4 ropes for something that looks like it only needs 3. Here's a look at my 4 rope solution. 

The biggest issues came from rope #1 and #4. #1's biggest issue was that it couldn't just share the line with #2 because of the angle of connection and the size of the fabric. Which I don't think I said I got from ikea for $20 each. 

The second issue was with rope #4, because the tension of the fabric meant that when it rained, the water poured down the back of the sectional. So I instead added some galvanized nails to the top of the fence to create tension points to hold the canopy back.

And then the simplest part was clipping the canopy onto rope #2 and hanging it over rope #3.

And voila! Done. And though it took lots of tries, it finally works the way we hoped, and it's perfect for hot summer days. Here's to hoping we have lots of those next year and that we get to use it even more! 

The final piece is that I use a collection of ikea kitchen clips to keep the canopy pulled into tension and to hold it while it sleeps. And yes, I do mean the ones you have at home to clip on chips to keep them fresh! Who knew they could work wonders in the garden. 

Baby Got Back - A Backyard Table That Is!

We love having people over, but our table situation wasn't exactly the most desirable. It was more like a game of tetris, with trying to fit friends and food on those small white tables. So, the table started out as a number 1 priority and since I'm man-handy (as we say amongst my friends) my first inclination was to build something. So, as per usual, I set off to find some interesting images and gather ideas! Pinterest to the rescue. And I came up with these.

What I discovered is that I like when the top and the base are different materials and show that difference. As well, I love the use of colour in the last option. But I was also keenly aware that I don't weld or do any form of metal work. And though I could put some wood together, a metal base would be a little bit more complicated. Then I remembered that we had bought our desk legs at ikea, and that I could probably use something from there. So, I headed over to the ikea website to peruse their desk bases. And low and behold, look what I found.

Which was perfect for letting me add my own top, and since it was metal it would be able to withstand the outdoor elements. Never mind the price! Totally worth it. And even getting 2 wouldn't break the bank at $40. So I picked them up and all I had to do was put them together. So in my usually disorderly way, I set up a little workshop and screwed them together. Super simple!

Once the first table was together, I laid out some 1 x 6's and used it as a work station to put the other table together. I also used the flipped over table as a measuring guide for my 2 x 4, which I planned to attach all those 1 x 6's together with. I decided to cut two pieces of 2 x 4, one for each end, and to a size that would fit within the frame.

I decided to screw the pieces together from the underside, as to not create any screw holes in the top itself. I also decided to go with (4) 1 x 6's and (2) 1 x 4's, to give the top a little more interest. But also, as I was attaching the 2 x 4, I really got a sense of how warped some of the wood was, so I decided to really inset one piece of the 2 x 4, and keep all the warped-ness (yep, that's a word) to one side. My plan was to later trim off that really wonky wood. 

But so far I haven't gotten to that. And I'm not actually sure that's what I want to do now. I think with another piece of 2 x 4 and some better securing, I might be able to straighten them out. Maybe I'm just dreaming. Here's what it looks like just completed.

And though it looks done, the table is still on the garden list because of it's incomplete top. I need to secure it again/better and then I want to add some sort of paint detail. Like the bright stripe in the pinterest image above. But I'm also thinking more about something pretty because of the rug pattern. Here's what it looks like now, with a little age. Oh how I love that grey tone it has developed. Now how to keep that and add some interesting design.

Any ideas, do you have any favourite patterns or stencils! I'd love to know.

IS IT DONE YET!

It's been a big year for the garden already, since it looked like this in MAY. But as per usual, I continue to find new projects to add to my list, even though the garden is feeling more and more finished. Here's the list I started with:

Yet, just the other night, my husband suggested that maybe the garden was done. And that just maybe I could stop working in it and start enjoying it. Well, I was internally outraged! Done enough for now! What the What! There is so much to do! But he had a point, and he made another suggestion, that I consider completing a couple more items off my to do list and then call it a year. After much internal struggle I decided he's right and came up with a revised list. The green items are the ones I'll finish this year and the grey items are on hold until next year. 

These last few seem do-able, since some of them I've already started to make some head way on, like finishing the last piece of the sectional! Which, I'm sure will get a throwback thursday at some point, since I did build the majority of it last year!

But for now, I don't mind working slowly away at the last couple of tasks. And my husband's right, when am I going to start enjoying our beautiful garden!

Side Note Update: We've got so much going on over here and lots of decisions being made about a whole bunch of things. One of them being a whole house renovation that's in the design phase that I want to start sharing with you. And though I promised carpet on Friday, I still haven't had a chance to finish our new living room rugs, but hopefully I'll have it for you soon! Because I know you can't get enough carpet in your life either.