Looking ahead to 2014

There are just a few more days until we change calendars and go into a new year. It is a bit of an anti-climax for me since I start my year the day after the Midwinter Solstice but that's just my quirk! I also allow myself a fortnight to get organized, clean up and do any rearranging that I feel is needed and lay out some plans and goals for what I want to accomplish in the coming year so that means my real get in there and kick butt (mostly my own!) day is just past the formal new year's date. So I have a week left....

I don't deal with cold well at all as I am sure I have often said--or maybe whined. This time of year is not the best for me, even here in the sunny south land or as my brother calls it, "the Promised Land." There is not enough sun to fully charge my batteries even if I can sit out and soak it up for at least a while almost every day. Even a light breeze seems to cut right through me if the temperature is under sixty or so. I guess I have just been cold too many times or maybe in a past incarnation I froze or struggled in an arctic environment. Who knows? But as I tell myself, this too will pass. Already the afternoons are lasting a wee bit longer and soon the mornings will begin earlier too so this problem will sort itself out in a few weeks. Meanwhile I just plow on as best I can!

My Christmas decorations are already down and put away. I could not proceed with other tasks until I had done that and since I am already antsy to start preparations, the tree, tinsel and such had to go. I still enjoy most of the trappings of Christmas but once it has passed, I'm done with it until next year! I sorted out a box of stuff to Freecycle and packed the rest away until next year. One step accomplished! Yippee. If I can manage one a day I feel good about things.

Right now I am trying to decide what to change in my room which is my bedroom, sitting room, office and personal space. Shared with my two red dogs, of course,  but still mine. I am kind of stuck with how the furniture is arranged due to the size and shape of the room, where the phone line and TV line come in and a limited number of electric outlets. This is an older house and not really set up for all the new techie stuff we live by these days but I will see if I can improve the arrangement. If not, I will just clean everything and declutter as much as I can.

This coming year will mark a half century--gee, but that is intimidating!--since the year  my life went through some heavy duty changes and milestones and began to shift to a different pattern. I'll be talking about that some in the coming months, of course, and sharing some verses, photos and memories of that time. The years from 1964-1970 were turbulent and tough in a lot of ways. I survived and they taught me much, helped me build up my mental and emotional "muscle" to cope with what the rest of my life has thrown my way and left me some very good and precious memories as well as some more painful and sad. Life is like that--there are compensations!

Here are a couple of pictures of me in 1964, one trying to be a lady of sorts --I think going to a girl friend's graduation --and the other as the cowboy girl I still was. I made most of the clothes I am wearing except for the jeans in the cowboy one! The dress was a favorite of mine for quite awhile, and by this time I was making a lot of western style shirts and had  adapted a men's pattern to fit me and added much in the way of original touches in yokes, sleeves, collars and decoration.

I started to sew when I was in my early teens and by this time had become pretty proficient. It's something I still enjoy. I'd also gone from making "paper dolls" just for fun to using them to develop designs for clothes I planned to make. It was easier to visualize how something would look if I drew it out and then mentally laid out the pattern pieces, the trim and all the rest before I ever started cutting fabric. Cheaper, too, and a lot fewer mistakes in the end result!

I'd been out of high school for two years by this time, or at least by May, and was deeply involved in the horse and mule business my dad and I were trying to operate. Thus my dress up times were pretty far between but I still liked to look nice and enjoyed being 'girly' when I could. Reading in my old journals I was almost surprised to recall I had a home perm every few months, sometimes colored my hair a little and tried to keep my nails polished!  I guess I should be a bit ashamed how I have 'let myself go' the last few years. Maybe I will make a goal and affirmation about that! Yes, that is what I make instead of resolutions; they don't seem quite as intimidating or overwhelming.  Ready, set, 2014!!