2017 Goals

I'm not going to keep rehashing the horror that was 2016, but my goals were completely blown to Hades and back (sometimes literally).

My two newest acquisitions...I call them the Power Couple!

I also decided that it was time to set some New Year's traditions of my own. It's a big deal (especially in the South) to eat black-eyed peas with ham and collard greens for good luck in the new year. I can stand the peas if not the greens, but I've always been very anti-traditional and refused to participate. But, considering last year, I've begun to rethink the whole prospect...I mean, what could it hurt, right? But I'm approaching it in another way. My tradition will be tacos and purple cake, both of which I love. I made the cake yesterday morning:

Not pretty, but purple all the way through and I had the tacos for supper yesterday. So here's to 2017, Keebles style! I'm still going to set stitchy goals for the next year as well in hopes of a better year though, so here we go!

Obviously, I didn't meet my 2016 goal on Maleficent of two rows (I barely finished the current row), so I'm going to cut down the goal for 2017 down to one row (seems more logical).


Alice and the Bouguereau Princesses had a goal of two rows for 2016, but I think I'm going to set a goal of finishing the current row and maybe one more for 2017, especially since it's the largest piece in my stash:

As of now, it's the one I'm into the most, so this first week of January will be spent working on them.

Snow White was supposed to be a 2016 finish, but now I think I'll be satisfied with the current row finish and maybe one or two more:


When it comes to Night Wish, I'd like to finish at least the current row:


Suteki is still possibly on the chopping block, I haven't decided yet. It would be the PERFECT gift for my Sister, but it sucks SOOOO much. I still want to continue on with the A New Stitchy Start Blog, but whether or not I continue on with Suteki or switch to something else, remains to be seen. I'm not going to set an official goal for it though for that very reason.


I'd also like to finish Tartan B this year, but no promises there either (I can probably guarantee that A Summer Ball and 35th Anniversary won't be touched):


As far as new starts go...obviously there will be an April A to Z Blogging Challenge stitch, but I haven't decided which one yet (although I have a couple of options lined up). I enjoyed Lilo and Stitch Otherwise by Neni Designs so much, I've decided that I'm going to start Happy Haunts (and it's a pretty good thing considering how much of her stash I have now). I even went to Hobby Lobby on Saturday and bought a complete set of new thread and fabric for it:

I'm going to do this on 18ct Aida instead of the 28ct Monaco that I used on Lilo and Stitch. I think this project is more cutesy and would look better bigger. It's been a long time since I bought all new thread for a project, but I had a lot of trouble with some of the older stuff with Stitch, so I didn't want that issue again.

I really didn't plan on starting another new one this year, but I've had Sleepy Hollow kitted up for years, and I think this might be a good year to start it:

Granted, I've been pilfering from the threads and I need to get another piece of fabric, but I think this is a good trial piece for testing out a Q-Snap, especially since it's a horizontal piece (and those are the worst for scroll rod users).

I'm going to go back to a weekly rotation, that seemed to work out best for me. Whether or not I decide to continue on with Suteki, it means that it will have to be worked on at least once a month, especially if I continue on with the Stitchy Start Blog.

And that's my goals for 2017! Oh, except for I'd like to clock over 1000 hours stitching this year. I barely went too far over 700 last year so, as long as 2017 doesn't suck as much, I should easily be able to hit it.

I don't have a Disney trip planned for next year (I'm still working on the whole buying/building a new house project and credit card payoffs), but that could change at a moment's notice. Maybe it would be good to take a year off from Disney, but I did that in 2011 and almost had a breakdown because of it (but, since I did have a breakdown in 2016 with two trips, who knows if they are related). 2017 is going to be a year of unknowns, but I'm still hopeful that it will blow 2016 out of the water (and that wouldn't take much considering the suckage that was 2016)!