Crafted By Colette

I have a list in my notebook (obviously) of blog prompts that I’ve collected in case I ever run out of ideas.  One of those prompts is “12 things I want to do in the next 12 months.”  I thought that would be a nice blog to write at the turn of the year.  So over the last couple of weeks I’ve been compiling a list.

I had about 8 items on my list when a thought occurred to me.  The items I’d gathered were all things like the ones on my 20 Before 20 list.  Projects that I wanted to finish and things that I’d been putting off.  But should they be experiences instead?  Going for a picnic with my boyfriend?  Visiting a city I’ve never been to?

And what about the yearly challenges I set myself?  And my art resolutions?  Are they all seperate things, or should they be included?  Because I am me, I overthought this a lot.  Eventually I came to the conclusion that I would combine them all into a 21 Before 21 list.  And so here it is.

21 Things to Do Before 2021.

1) Start selling my art.  I’m planning on making prints of my work available on my Etsy store sometime soon, and perhaps stickers too.

2) Learn goauche and acrylic.  This process has already begun, as you’ll see in a week or so.

3) Hit 100 etsy sales.

4) Sell at a proper craft fair.  I’ve only really done school fairs so far.

5) Walk.  I really need to start being more active.  I am an incredibly sedentary person.

6) Be able to get the train to Tom.   This is related to the previous item, and also to my almost-crippling fear of the public.  Tom (my boyfriend) lives in the next town over, and it’s a reasonably easy process to get the train there.  Except that I currently find myself incapable of doing it.  I’ve had to rely on my mother for lifts – which is kinda pathetic for a 37 year old.

7) Get a gazebo and a trolley.  I’ve been doing more summer fairs than I have done in the past, and it can be almost unbearable to sit in the sun for 3-5 hours when you don’t like the sun.  It’s also disheartening to lose stock when the British weather decides to rain on the fair.  And at the moment I can pack everything I need into my wheelie suitcase and my backpack, but if I add a gazebo then I’m going to have trouble carrying things.

8) Finish 20 before 20.  There are still more than half the items on my 20 Before 20 list that need completing.  I could pad out this list with them, but I’m gonna stick them all as one item.  Some of them kind of overlap with others anyway.

9) Go on a picnic with Tom.

10) Visit a city I’ve never been to before.

11) Complete at least 20 other craft projects.  Since I’ve been doing art I’ve been neglecting my other craft hobbies quite a bit.

12) 20 “full” art pieces.  By this I mean pieces with actual scenic backgrounds and not just patterns.

13) 50 completely digital pieces.  Not necessarily with scenic backgrounds, or even fully coloured, but things that are started and finished digitally.

14) Bake more.  I made some gingerbread just before Christmas, and I made my usual sausage & cheese muffins on Christmas Day.  I do enjoy baking, I just don’t really do it often enough.

15) Join some blog parties.  I’d like to build up my readership, so I think joining in some things like blog parties would be pretty awesome.

16) More collaborations.  I’m enjoying doing line art swaps, and there are other collaboration ideas I have too.  Maybe a craft collab as well as art ones.

17) Finish all learning projects in my notebook.  I have a blog post about my learning process coming soon.

18) Finish more projects than I start. 

19) Take a photo of myself every day.  I did this a few years ago, but I’m going to do it with one of those apps that helps me line up my face to the same position.

20) Watch at least 100 of the films on my Films To Watch list.  There’s currently about 200 on there, with more being added every week.

21) Finish a colouring book.  This is something I’ve tried to do before.  I think I might start a new book in 2020 though, rather than finished one that I’ve already started.  Maybe.