Forty five by 45....

While the idea to create my version of a bucket list comes from many places around the www...the final decision to make the attempt stems from my desire to get my life organized.

Seeing the results of many others successfully prioritizing and obtaining goal completion has been truly inspirational. My approach, however, will be a bit different. I will set 5 goals ahead at a time; of the 45 I wish to complete by my 45th birthday [being a little under 2 years away].

This way, by breaking them down into smaller increments, I enhance my ability to not take on too much at once and give myself every opportunity to enjoy the steps of each process, allowing me to concentrate my focus as they require and deserve. This is a better way of equipping myself for the work that will be necessary to accomplish them.

I have given myself a deadline of 2 month windows to accomplish 3 to 5 of them. Setting another 5 before the deadline. This will help me keep on track for the final goal of 45 completed by May 2, 2014.

My hope is to ultimately be more productive on a daily basis and to get a better working handle on meeting deadlines, something I have always taken as loose interpretations of time in my past.

Having met deadlines throughout my education, and especially before I left university, I now realize that my time management skills have always been very good and have just never applied them to personal aspects of my life beyond necessary functions.

I also realize there is absolutely no reason why I should let this practice continue.

This is just one way I can help fill my need to stretch my comfort zones.

My list is as follows:

FORTY FIVE by 45:

1. Meet new people.

This way I can get to know the local scene, enjoy events throughout the county and increase my real world social network. This is a skill that I am comfortable exercising but have not had many opportunities to utilize in my new location.

In my married past, it was a skill that I chose NOT to exercise as I focused on taking care of my kids, and just living day to day. If I met new people, great...but I didn't practice GOING OUT OF MY WAY to do so.

This is something I NEED to change within me. I believe it will help me face the fear that people will reject me and remind me that after all, people are still just people.

It is my belief that everyone is worth knowing. I hope to test this new found bravery of mine.

2. Knit dishcloths from yarn stash to give as gifts.

I inherited my 81 year old mother's yarn stash that has been reduced to one storage bag full of several acrylics, baby blanket cottons, and a few balls of old worsted wools in a variety of colors [some of these would need serious creativity to make look good in a project].

My mom, now having a touch of Parkinson's, can no longer hold needles to knit, crochet, cross stitch or quilt and I hope to get many projects done before I can no longer make the attempt due to my arthritis or other chronic, debilitating medical conditions.

I am fully aware that my completed projects will never match the sheer number of ones my mother has produced over her lifetime, but I would still like to try to make my mark as having given it my best shot.

My passion for crafts of all kinds stems from learning how well my mother would take a project in hand, organize her lists and then watch her enjoy de-stressing from her days by hearing the click of her needles, the sound of the sewing machine, or being present when any other projects were finally complete.

Knowing her heart was happy, I reveled with her in her satisfaction for a job well done. I could always tell by the breathless smile that reached her eyes and the instant lilt to her voice when asking my opinion on the finished piece, that she was uplifted and transformed.

3. Join and get to know my way around Ravelry.

For a few years now, I have come across many people who have recommended Ravelry to me; to help me accomplish my knitting projects and increase my circle of needle arts and craft friends.

At that time, I was just getting back into knitting for pleasure and toying with the idea of blogging. I finally joined Ravelry last July, during the most stressful part of what I thought would be the final stages of the settlement of my divorce, [needless to say, we are still just separated, as he has yet to take the final step of actually filing the paperwork] The end result being that I am only just now, beginning to surf the site and get to know my way around.

I hope to read many interesting things, meet experienced crafters from all walks of life and get my passions to work with me, instead of against me.

4. Organize my photos on my computer.

I have not yet figured out a decent folder system for organizing my photos on my computer. I used to be very accomplished at this and just have not sat down and taken the time to straighten them all out. I have Windows 7 on my laptop.

While I agree it is a very comfortable and easily workable OS, not knowing how to properly use the views for the folders have proven to be fruitless for me within this environment.

I have tried many different ways to view my libraries but for some reason, they keep changing. I don't know how or why, but figure, by troubleshooting just this one small aspect of Windows 7, I will certainly succeed in obtaining this goal.

5. Get to know my way around google+.

I recently decided to expand my social network to include google+. I joined last week and have created a couple new "circles" but have not really gone back to explore anything more than the photography expo that was going on last week in San Francisco. I hope to get to expand even further my social network and hopefully see interesting design ideas.

Photo editing is just one of my many interests. I enjoy the different new tools I have been discovering that will turn a simple photo into a genuine work of art.

Eventual tutorial completion, and access to new tools; to help me improve my skill set; is my motivation for accomplishment of this goal.

These are my first Five.

I already have some of the first steps in place and hope to post some updates on their progress through pictures. With my recent addition of a new micro SDHC card for my Android phone and USB multi-card reader, I now have greater chances of keeping my goal progress current.

Please join me on my journey and feel free to comment anytime. As stated before, I welcome all constructive criticism, but have a zero tolerance policy with regard to abuse of the commenting system. I look forward to meeting you.

May this find you all well in your universe.

Pink Diva Brat