Summer Manifesto

Perhaps I have set my sights too high. Perhaps I am being too ambitious with my lists of goals. Don't get me wrong. I still like goals. But my track record for completion just isn't what it used to be. I am still playing catch up on my new schedule that came with my new life, and this is wreaking havoc on my regular to-do lists, forget my fun goals lists! Reality is a splash of cold water.

But that doesn't mean I can't dream...

Behold! The Summer Manifesto...

Celebrate Old Strathcona

Empress Ale House for live music, comedy nights and PBR on tap!

Brunch at the Hotel Selkirk in Fort Edmonton Park

See a movie at the Capitol Theatre in Fort Edmonton Park
MOVIES!

Street Performers Festival

Bollywood Crop
Project Life Crop

Jasper camping with BFF

Ride the street car

Ride the street car and see a show

Ride a tube down a river

Ride a horse

Get muddy

Get Rad!

ARCADE FIRE!
BEN SURES!

Zumba Drop-in at Bonnie Doon Community Hall

Take a class

Teach a class or two (or three...)
Pickle some beans

Beach Day with Candace!

Booze Day with Nadine!

Sit on my deck...and just sit

Have a BBQ
Celebrate my brother-in-law's wedding in Penticton (come hell or high water)
Take a fun day off from work...no plans...just me and Dude and the City

Pretty much anything from this list.

Have an amazing summer...

#redanddudelovesummer

Goals Shmoals...waitaminute...

I did okay on my goals this month. Fuck okay, I did amaze-balls on my goals this month! And I am only going to share the successes here, because that's how I roll. I was going to add some photos, but I am lazy. That is also how I roll. Instagram has it all folks...has it all....

hang twinkle lights

Discovery about my new house. There are NO plug-ins anywhere outside! So I have to move to Plan B for this little project. First, I must decide what Plan B looks like...

date night with my girlfriends!

I had people over to my house again! WHAT?! They brought food and alcohol, and we chatted long past all of our bedtimes. The success of my "party" was proven by the single car picked up the next morning!

find a playground near my house - where are all the playgrounds?!

Dude & I can walk to the closest playground. The day we went it was trying to snow, so less than ideal, but we still had fun!

play a ridiculous amount of drunk and/or sober Bocce (but probably drunk ;)
Hello Beer hidden in "I Heart Zombies" koozies!

invite people over to enjoy the above
Dan was kicking my ass until I decided that we weren't going to keep score anymore. He was probably still kicking my ass after that, but I didn't care!

SIGN UP FOR THE GYM - NO MORE EXCUSES
This one has to come off the list. I can't afford the gym, so I have to come up with some creative ways to get active without spending any money. Thankfully I live next door to an extensive trail system. And also Pinterest...so...yeah...

more running
If instead this read "more walking through the ravine, and up and down giant flights of stairs" then I'd say I definitely nailed this one! Since I am too poor to buy a gym membership, and with a 5k coming up in July (too soon!) I really need to get on this one...

more scrapbooking

I have had no desire to scrapbook this month. At all. I have to submit to the ebbs and flows of this hobby or else I will go crazy. I am trying not to get down on myself for it, but right now this is my truth. Fits and spurts.

more art

I finished my first commissioned piece! It's for BFF, but IT STILL TOTALLY COUNTS! He gave me an idea of what he wanted, and then free reign beyond that. I was nervous at first, and constantly second-guessing myself, but ended up really enjoying the process. The end result was totally amazing. It definitely inspired me to create more.

more reading
I feel like the combination of book at home, book at work, comics in between is really working for me. Still loving that library card!

organize a play date for Dude

Russ took care of this one, and it was with his cousin...but it still totally counts.

I also went to Free Comic Book Day, introduced BFF to Dude (#bigdeal), did yardwork like a boss, got a new smart phone (I can use the Internet in a field, yo!) bought a new (to me) car, went on the first street car show of the season (#fullcircle), walked to Muttart and had a picnic (with beer in mason jars!) and just generally was fucking awesome all month. ALL MONTH.

You're welcome May.

Some of my goals were definitely hindered by my limited finances, but that just means I have to get more creative next month.

June, feel free to bring it.
Lisa

June Goals

I always start writing out my next month's goals before the current month is done. Does that defeat the point? Am I not living in the moment enough? Am I not giving myself time to fully dedicate myself to completing one set of goals before I start planning the next?

These are all valid questions, but they are also poo-pooing on my good mood and enjoyment in creating goals for myself! Yay goals!

Doing this early also prompts me to take a peek at the goals I'm supposed to be doing and sometimes gives me just the kick in the sweet patootie that I need to finish more before the month is gone.

-Make a peg loom

- Make something on my peg loom!

- Finish my Hollywood mini album

- Do a couple more Hollywood layouts, or at least print some more photos

- Go shopping with Dude for a nice birthday/Father's Day present for Russel (I already have some ideas!)

- Have a damn picnic dammit!! BFF and I always make a mental note of all the picnic tables and fire pits we come across during our ravine explorations. And we say "we should definitely come back here to this spot and have a picnic". And to that I say: "no time like this month!" (*Spoiler Alert...we did it on Sunday!)

- Create a class for TM. Perhaps "ask TM if I can create a class for them" should precede this particular item. Hmmm.

- Devise an in-home workout plan and DO IT!
- Start some sort of budget-tracking thingy, and actually use it (history says this will be the hardest goal for me this month...)

Oh June...I do love thee. But why oh why don't you have a long weekend?!

Lisa

DON'T GET TOO EXCITED!

I have been thinking a lot about my blog lately, and I feel really good about not being here all the time. But I also miss some of the connections that I was making here - with others and with myself.

dammit. I'm back...

Lately, I've felt more and more like I am floundering. And I can't keep hoping it will go away. I must take concrete steps toward grounding myself, finding and living my best life, and making connections within myself and with yous guys "out there".

That means goals people! So I will be back here at least once a month (possibly twice, possibly thrice...) to post some goals for the month.

This keeps me somewhat accountable! This gets me thinking and planning and hoping for the future, and being purposeful about my action items instead of just plodding through each day as if it were the same and will always be the same.

April is pretty much done, but I have high hopes for May!

build some Adirondack chairs for my deck

hang twinkle lights

date night with my girlfriends!

date night with Mom & Amy

find a playground near my house - where are all the playgrounds?!

play a ridiculous amount of drunk and/or sober Bocce (but probably drunk ;)

invite people over to enjoy the above

SIGN UP FOR THE GYM - NO MORE EXCUSES

more running

more drawing

more scrapbooking 

more art

more reading

build epic Lego things with Dude

organize a play date for Dude

That is all...forgive me good intentions. I guess I needed my blog more than I thought.

lisa

March. A Verb.

It has been so bleepity bleeping COLD up here recently. We're talking breaking records, bare flesh freezing immediately, eyes & nostrils freeze shut kind of cold. It's hard to be optimistic about sunnier, warmer days to come. And make goals that might require leaving the house. Hell, it's hard just to get out of bed and get naked for the couple of minutes it takes to actually put on real clothes. Perhaps I should just start sleeping in my work clothes? Said crazy people everywhere.

Anyhoo, I have some goals this month! Yay goals! Yay me! These goals are designed to keep me moving and motivated and are totally in line with my 2014 Intentions! On track! Huzzah!

1. Get a damn gym membership dammit! Yep. This one is a no-brainer for me. I feel stupid for not doing this sooner. Geeze Lisa! C'mon!! 2. More dates with Dude. The other day he told me he misses me and that he needs to spend more time with me. (Heart break...) And I get it Dude! I totally get it. 3. Finish the Never-Ending Bathroom Renovation. This needs to happen this month. No matter what it takes. It has been a year since we started, and we are so close to being done! I really need to help Russel with this...since I was the one who's lofty plans started this whole thing! 4. Help BFF with his never-ending DIY project. He has been so flipping AWESOME helping me with all my random DIYs that usually start with a badly sketched wood-based item and a text along the lines of "can we do this?" And all he wants is a kitchen table. Let's do it! I know how glue works!!

And say it with me everyone! "Spring will come! Spring will come! Spring will come!" It's right around the corner really, right? I hope so...

later loves

February Goals

Keeping in mind my 2014 Intentions...

1. Celebrate LOVE on Valentine's Day. We have a Kercher Family Tradition of getting sushi and just hanging out. Sounds good to me, but I think I want to make things a little more special somehow. I also want to share LOVE with my girlfriends. I'm thinking Valentine's brunch, but that may be too optimistic! Ha! 2. Put my money where my mouth is. I wrote up a lot of great savings goals and reminders in January, and did a little research about some financial matters. I want to put those into play this month. And I've got some posts planned along these lines as well. 3. Finish my ongoing/never ending carpentry DIY project. BFF...I'm coming over, and I'm not leaving until it's done. (note: I finished it on Sunday! More to come...) 4. I don't have a fourth goal this month...and that's okay!

I took a BIG STEP over the weekend, and I want to share more of it with you in time. For now I've just got to get this damn post published and get back to work! I'm supervising some movers today...#ilovemyjob!

Never mind...the computer won't read my SD card. I'll be back this afternoon. After I supervise our tech guys as well. Sigh. On the weekend, someone asked me what I do. And I told them I have the most boring sounding job ever. And it's true! Most people's eye just glaze over when I tell them what I do. Perhaps I am not describing it properly. I need to come up with some better adjectives. Wink!

Found this nice picture online instead because instead of fight with my computer I want to eat my soup.

Mmmmm...soup...
later loves

2014 Intentions...Silly And Serious!

Well, this post is coming a little later than I wanted, but I got busy yo! I was accomplishing some goals or whatever!

Setting goals has become super important to me in my "old age". This year I want to focus on creating a world that makes me feel the way I want (and need) to feel, instead of on accomplishing specific things. And then I went ahead and made a list of specific things...HA!

Some random Instagrams for your enjoyment...wink.

I really like this format for goal-making! What lovely, simple, VISUAL items. I might have to print these puppies out, yessiree. Crap! I forgot to add "learn how to make meat pie and gluten/dairy free mac & cheese"! Well...yep, those as well.

There are some "it goes without saying" goals that I always keep in the back of my mind when planning activities, and just living life. And, as always, I want to be the BEST MOM I can be.

Otherwise, I just want to live a simple, lovely life. And 2014 is going to be my year. I can feel it.

later loves

Write It Down, Make It Visible

That's one of my key takeaways with goals. If you don't write it down, if you don't put it somewhere visible as a reminder, you will forget and it won't get done. Kind of a no-brainer there.

So I devised a sweet little craft to make my One Little Word super visible in both my work and home life. Well, I mean, it's bunting, which isn't anything new or surprising. But it's so cute and damn easy! Damn!

I bought some glitter cardboard from Treasured Memories as my starting point, because I knew I wanted it to be glittery. I cut all the letters freehand. I cut a triangle out of cardboard, traced it and then cut a bunch more. Then covered each triangle with Anthropologie catalogue pages. I knew I was saving all those back issues for something...

This is one of those crafty projects that could have become a DIY post very quickly, but when I went to grab my camera to take process shots I was like "Really Lisa? You need to make this into a big deal because...?" So I put the camera done and just did it. Much more satisfying.

I wanted the one for work to be a little smaller, a little less "in your face". I work in a hallway and everyone can see what's on my (very messy) desk and "wall" (it's the back of a filing cabinet). But I wanted it to feel cohesive, feel like it matched the one at home. Enter Tiny Prints Flashy Bash Thank You card!

I actually made this at work, with things I have at work. Like red nail polish...don't ask (wink). It adorns my "office" "wall" and is joined by other inspirational messages and images. The card is made from a nice thick cardstock and the matte finish means I can write on it without too much trouble. And this is just the backside! Wait until you see the front! (I will have a post dedicated to these Tiny Prints cards on Monday...a gratitude project...)

Complete any super easy craft projects lately?

How do you make your goals visible?

later loves

Tasty Rainbow

One of my new year's intentions is to focus on my health. That means staying active, remembering to breathe and relax, and eating right!

And I think I've been doing pretty good in that area so far. As long as I take the pressure off of making a fancy meal, with lots of ingredients, or variety, or prep time, I actually enjoy cooking! A lot! Never thought I would say that...

And it is really easy to cook REAL food with a small amount of time and ingredients. No fancy recipes and no strange ingredients (unless you count sunchokes which are so flippin tasty!). Just simple stuff you can find in any grocery store. I'm no expert, so if I can figure this stuff out, anybody can.

Last night we had one of my standard go-to meals: chicken thighs, potato fries & gravy. But I changed it up a bit by adding some sweet potatoes and beets to the mix (mmmm...baked beets....). And I cut up some of the beautiful and colourful carrots I've been getting in my organic box, and sauteed them up with a bit of brown sugar and maple syrup.

I didn't get a picture of the meal in its entirety because it was too damn good and it disappeared right away. Even Lucas inhaled everything on his plate. He needed a little encouragement with the carrots when he tried to use the "I'm full" card, but once he took one bite he quickly stuffed his mouth full!

Success!!

Next I want to try cooking a whole chicken! Yikes! Wish me luck...

How are your new year's goals coming along?

Are you trying to eat healthier this year?

later loves

Let's review...

My goals for 2013...oh dear...

Text from my Goals page: My Goals for 2013 are few, and simple, and hopefully within my reach! I liked the concept of four large, long-term, "no pressure" goals that I achieved last year, so I thought why mess with something that works! Check back here for my progress, as I use the blog as a tool for keeping myself accountable, and to keep a record of how I am doing!

1. Read 52 Books. Year-end update: This one is a no-brainer. I read 54 books last year, and I am going strong into 2014!

2. Take a class. January update: I took a class! Year end update: Can you hear the crickets.....?

3. Clean out my studio. Year-end update: I tried to change things up, and it sucked the life out of me! I have discovered that this is a big mental block for me, and that I will continue to work at it and work through it as I go through life. One of my goals was to make a space for Dude in my space, and I think I did! I inadvertently cleared a space to a desk that had some clear space on it (miracle!) and he wandered in and set up some Lego and played while I scrapbooked. And it was divine! My room is still a mess, but it's getting better.

4. Do something that I am proud of, and that I am passionate about. February update: I listened to the voice in my head & my heart and I quit my job at Treasured Memories. It was one of the hardest things I've done in a very long time...and I'm very PROUD of myself for following through, and sticking to my guns! April update: I discovered that donating blood is another passion of mine. My goal for the year is to donate as often as possible! (Every 56 days...)

Year-end update: This is another "life goal" for me. Discovering my passions and pursuing them. It will be a difficult road, but well worth it.

Some final thoughts going into 2014...
You may be thinking that I might be a little less enthusiastic to create a whole new set of goals for 2014, considering the abject failure of my 2013 list. You might be surprised to hear that I don't consider this exercise to be a failure. I set goals to learn and grow as a person. I set them for guidance and for ideas, not as a "Must Do List". I set them because they make me feel good, and they make me feel productive and excited.

I have changed the way I want to set goals in 2014, and I am moving forward on that front quite confidently. I am a recent convert to setting goals, and I am happy with the progress I have made so far. This is continuing to be a learning experience for me, but one that I know will be with me always and only serve to enrich and enhance my experiences and my life.

later loves

Book Learning 2014

I started this blog/life tradition back in 2011. I was inspired by another blogger to set a goal for myself to read 52 books over the course of the year. There were "rules" (that I hated and broke immediately), but I made it to 53 books, considered it a smashing success and started up again the next year. In 2012 I added some challenges of my own, and read an astounding 71 books! And last year I modified my challenges slightly, stopped writing monthly reviews, and made it to 54 (almost 55) books.

I really enjoy this challenge. I am reading books anyway, but it's nice to be able to keep track and see a goal - albeit a simple one - accomplished over the year.

I have already started up my list page and changed up my challenges a tiny bit. Maybe I'll do some reviews this year, when I find a book I really love. And maybe not.

This goal is all about no pressure, which is one of my 2014 Intentions. I am ready to have fun with this again and discover some new favourites along the way.

Happy New Year

later loves