lost language of the apple walk

I am pretty sleepy today, so this is going to be a long, slightly boring post, but it looks like rain outside and it is sleepy afternoon.

My rib is feeling better finally (slowly but surely), so I was able to hang clothes up in my bedroom, which between two photo shoots and a month of wardrobe changes looked like a warzone. I spent a good two hours putting up clothes and going through items (some of which are going in a yard sale in the spring and others for my etsy store) and although I will still go through everything one more time, it is nice to be able to get into my closets without getting lost. I started a mend pile, too, as there are so many items that need to be rehemmed, need a small repair, or a button sewn on that I have been putting off for months. Tonight and tomorrow I am spending organizing and itemizing my sewing room/office and pressing items to put on etsy this weekend. That room IS a warzone, since everything from my architecture studio is in there, as well as music equipment. My goal is to compartmentalize everything and place my personal wardrobe into 3 of the small closets rather than four and to have them organized by type or color (so far it is kind of a mixture of both-- I never realized that I own 20 or so striped nautical shirts, for example.)

Structured productivity is going to be a big deal to me for 2011. I spent the last 5 months floundering in every other sphere of my life while trying to focus on architecture (and trying to have a social life) and I think sometimes compartmentalizing yourself into an unstructured lifestyle can completely destroy your creativity. I just ended up being tired all the time and stressed out and when I was home I really didn't want to do anything but sleep. When I got sick before finals, and continued being sick up until last week, it really put things into perspective for me. My doctor pretty much told me that I needed to start sleeping more, actually eating (and not just grabbing a cup of chai on my way to school/work to tide me over), and that I had no business being in bars (because of all the smoke)-- and if I didn't, I would surely end up getting even more sick which would make my productivity completely null. I was down to 105 pounds around Finals (I usually stay around 118-120) and I think it took me stepping back the past few weeks and examining my schedule to help me realize that I was taking on too much, spending way more than I needed to (financially and time), and losing focus of all the goals I had in the first place.

Everyone has New Year's resolutions, and I can't say that I don't have several this year. What are some of yours? Mine are as follows:

- Get a list together of things I need to do weekly and stick to it. I hate (HATE!!!) mundane work and procrastinate so much, but I also hate having dirty dishes, laundry, and stacks of paperwork piling up. If you aren't happy with your environment, it can literally drain your energy. And all the caffeine in the world won't save you if you are unhappy with your living situation.
- Cut down my caffeine and sweets intake. I was doing extremely well on the sweets end (1 brownie/cookie a week), but the holidays really spoiled me (how about 5 brownies in one week, a piece of cake, and several cookies.....) And I am completely addicted to chai, but between the fact that the acidity is damaging to teeth over time, and the amount of nervous energy it causes, AND the cost (Yes, I love my friendly baristas, but $4.35 every day or two days is excessive and I know it), I need to really cut back. Plus, over time it can really suck the life out of your hair (especially if you color it quite a bit to begin with).
- Pay off my credit card. Two years in a row I have planned on this and have yet to do so. It's time.
- Get my sewing room in order and devote at least 6 hours a week to working on the clothing line, and at least two afternoons a week to the etsy store (because I will be working less this semester, I know, and I have been slacking bigtime on our wares).
- Update the blogs daily or every couple of days and put up more photos of what I am up to, since I am usually immersed in some form of crafterie.
- Grow my hair out another 3.5 inches. I usually cut it into a bob (or pageboy) by now, but I really want to grow it out long finally, even if I end up cutting it in the summer.
-Take an hour or two every weekend to do one of those long-unfinished projects I keep putting off. I.E.: Finishing the Bertoia chairs, going through my cluttered drawers in the living room and organizing all that madness, throwing out old medicines/vitamins, mending things, framing pictures, the multitudes of half-finished knitted cowls and dresses that are packed away, putting up the scrap-wood privacy fence around my patio, laundering blankets and fleece throws, taking off my growing expansion of recycled goods to the center, going through my vintage items on a regular basis (as some items I will simply never wear, as much as I love them), updating scrapbooks, finishing some of the books I started and became sidetracked from, destashing items, etc.
- Take an hour or two a week to do something active that is also relaxing. Whether that means doing some yoga, reading a book, knitting, going to a spa, or just a bike ride around the neighborhood, so long as it is something that allows me to de-stress a bit.
-Put back some money so I can go to Oregon and California for a week. I miss the coast so bad at this point and all my friends over there.
-Get the magazine out in April as planned. I am planning on devoting any and all free time to this because it is really important and I keep putting it on the wayside.

- Have healthy relationships with people (and boys, since they are not classified as people). If that isn't possible, I don't want them at all this year. As my friend Tara said to me once, "Trim the social fat."
-Being happy and being a bit selfish. I love all my friends and want to be and do everything for them, but right now I need to focus on a lot of things. So if I don't make it out to bars (even the non-smoking ones) and I would rather work on my etsy store than go out and see a friend's band play (or maybe not "Rather" but "need to"), hopefully they will still love me even if I'm not around as much as I would like to be. It is temporary but necessary. Plus, I'm sure they are tired of hearing me complain about being tired/stressed/sick, anyway. :-)

And now I have to go buy my cat a sweater. Yeah.