More Words for the Year, Books, Movies Tracked

Even though my intention word for the year is: Alignment, here's a fun one that came up on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary account on Bluesky to predict what's in store in 2026 for me. Of course I had to go look that one up even though I kind of knew what it meant, something to do with electricity...

gal·​van·​ic gal-ˈva-nik 

Synonyms of galvanic

1

a

: of, relating to, or producing a direct current of electricity

a galvanic cell

b

: caused by galvanism  

—used especially of the corrosion of metallic objects as a result of electrolytic action

2

a

: having an electric effect : intensely exciting

a galvanic performance

b

: produced as if by an electric shock

had a galvanic effect on the audience

Just a fun prediction for the year ahead. I don't know if I really want to have an intensely exciting year, or maybe just one where the electricity actually stays on! 

Okay moving on to books, as I talked about last year, I decided to switch over to The StoryGraph for tracking my book reading. I quite like it, much quieter and less ad focused than GoodReads. 

That's a pretty good number of books read for me in a year. Next is a long graphic of all of the covers of those books pretty much in order of how I read them through the year.

It's a visually fun scroll to see all those covers together in one image. I'm again reminded of the Granny Squares quilt idea I had last year.

Also on TheStoryGraph, they have an easy way for various challenges to be tracked, so I did the 52 Book Challenge. And yes, I got 100%, some of them were a little hard to figure out which book to read, or how to fit it into a prompt, but just a fun diversion, made me pick some books I might not have read which was a good thing to get me out of my reading ruts.

Then there's the movie tracking website, Letterboxd, where I keep track, sometimes review and enjoy reading what other viewers have to say about movies. That's an even longer list, 154 movies watched, so I'll spare you the year's graphics on that one and that's just the last part of the year.

Why is tracking so fun? 

New Year, New Month, New Day

 

Well well well...another year has arrived, and it's time for a new monthly marker. For this year, I've gone back to combining two of my photos, one from my quilt/art making and one from elsewhere in the app, SnapSeed.

I combined the picture of the gate that my DH made for us last year. (oh my goodness, last year).

It's combined with this photo of four of the Hourglass blocks from the Lupine Mystery quilt. I really liked how the lines on the gate line up with the lines on the block, and the lines on the fabric.

My chosen word of the year is: Alignment. I will be doing my best to work on making sure my inner world is matching up with my outer expression. There's a lot going on inside of everyone (including me), sometimes some or all of it gets stuck inside, pushed down, pushed away, ignored, de-prioritized, etc. The occasional successful expression of my own interior world shines so much more brightly to me among all the other less personal work that I've made OR am in the process of making OR am meaning to make at some point. All of it is useful and necessary as it adds up to skill-acquiring, facility (but not yet mastery) of processes and materials, training the hands and the brain to work together and so forth. But I'm finding I need to put more of my focus on making sure I'm prioritizing or working on my own projects that I've come up with all on my own.

I'm starting off the year doing a month of Drawing Every Day This is my illustrated More/Less list for the year. It relates to what I was talking about Alignment.

Here's to a year where all  your More actually happens and as much of your Less gets lost or worked out.

Happy New Year and Month

Happy New Year! Can you believe it's now been 25 years since we survived Y2K?

The above monthly marker picture is made in a new way for a new year with KaleidaCam and Snapseed photo editing apps.

It's from a picture I took of an American Coot (a chicken-like bird that acts like a duck) in Lake Tahoe on New Year's Eve just a couple days ago.

The word of the year that I've picked for myself is: THRIVE

The world may be seeming like it is bending all around us in new and unexpected ways (like in the edited photo up above), but the theme or goal for the year is to thrive in spite of, because of, assisted by or all of the above that transpires this year. It seems like it could be a hinge of history sort of year, but maybe it will be somewhat less dramatic. Thriving in chaos vs. thriving in relative calm are of course two very different things, but the overall goal for the year is to thrive no matter what.

I'll do summing up last year and looking forward to this year posts sometime in the next week. But for now, I'm just enjoying putting up my new calendars, starting off writing in my new daily desk journal/planner and so on. 

2022 Looking Forward

Okay, my goals for 2022 are all over the map, my studio feels very over-full after starting so many new things and taking so many classes last year. A lot of inputs came in, which was great and awesome, so my goals are centered around using that up or utilizing the new things I've learned. 

In 2022 I'm going to:

Studio Reorganize:

Put away washed fabrics so the stack doesn't topple over and smother me

Roll up or hang completed quilts so I can get to the boxes underneath

Sell or give away books/magazines so I can shelve the ones I want to keep

Send boxes of fabric to Pine Ridge again so I have room in my fabric storage

Finish:

There are so many projects on my in-process list, I want to get some of them done. 

But especially my art quilt coat by the time it's cold enough to wear towards the end of the year.

Use:

Dyes, paints, tools (like Sizzix dies), new techniques

Make: 

Prism Play quilts to enter in the SAQA show

Bed Quilts for my kids, either new projects, or already started ones.

A Color of the year quilt with Cosmos and Deep Navy Blue, maybe this one

A quilt utilizing Percolator: 

Start a Dear Jane quilt with EQ8

Start and finish some of the Quilty Box projects and/or Modern Quilter projects.

Quilt and Finish: 

Safe At Home

Have quilted by local long-armer: Kaffe Blue Squares

And any other tops that are too big for me to do at home. 

Gift or donate completed quilts.

Virtually Attend: SDA Conference and SAQA conferences, SAQA Local, CQFA, SBAMQG, BAM meetings and lecture/classes

Visual Journal: Add to this at least weekly if not more, use and incorporate the daily emphemera that accumulates.

Participate in: 100 Day SAQA project, ICAD, Weekly Six Word Memoir

Enter: 

Olive Hyde, Visions, SAQA Prism Play, and ?

Buy: Keep the Quilty Box subscription, and limit new purchases to immediate use or replacement. I don't have more room, and I have enough or too much already. Time to scale down the volume of *stuff*

Word of the Year:

ENOUGH

The Word Of The Year

Happy New Year!

I'm starting off with the word I chose randomly off of an online list.
The Word of the Year for 2020 is:

Worth

What are you worth? My answer truly depends on how I'm feeling about myself in that moment. The range is from less than zero to quite a lot.

What is your time worth? I realistically have what, maybe 25-30 years left? So realizing that there's a limited amount of my time that I can "waste". So my time is worth more to me now that I'm really understanding the truth of those limits. Not that I'm feeling that the "end is in sight" or anything like that, more like a reality check, it all will come to an end at some point. None of us gets out of this alive sort of thing.

What is your artwork worth? This can be a $ thing or an art for art's sake evaluation. Has it brought joy or inspired thought/feelings in others? Then to me, it has inherent worth. Whether that means $$ that's a whole 'nother thing.

What is your creative energy worth? A whole lot. It is one of the main things that sustain me. It's hard to imagine myself without having access to it.

Thinking about: External worth vs. internal worth.
External worth: What someone will pay for your art. What someone will say with their words or reactions that pay you in a non monetary way.
Internal worth: What do you pay yourself in positive self-talk? In finding inspiration in past achievements or innovations.

To me, finding a way to feel true worth in oneself comes down to accepting the earned confidence of achievement as a real thing and not a figment of one's imagination. That's a lot to work on this year. Challenge accepted! What's your Word of the Year?

Word of the year

I've chosen a word of the year for many years now (about fifteen or so I think), and there's something about this intentional process I keep coming back to. It's not a resolution making thing, it's more about setting your intentions so it's not bad/good/whatever if you don't "succeed" at it over the course of the new year, but instead a more gentle nudge to alter your approach to things in the new year.

Anyways, this year I chose the word at random (as usual) and came up with FOCUS.
Whew, is this ever the word for me this year. I've struggled with this a lot recently, and not just n regards to being creative, so it's going to be a challenge. But it's such an obvious place to start for me. I have all the tools, the time, the physical ability (mostly) and even some energy (sometimes), all I need is the FOCUS to actually get something done.

 I just ordered this print from society6 all about FOCUS.