End of year musings

“I teach the world how to treat me by the way I treat myself, and the way I present myself.”
― Kristine Gasbarre

At this time last year I still lived in Washington state, was working at Home Depot and Marv was down here in his new job. The place was still on the market and being apart was hard on both Marv and I . Seems strange that so much as happened in this last year.  Sold the house, moved down here, bought the new place and did a lot of changes to make it our own.

 Now we are living here in Arizona, I am now a full time crochet designer. Yeah! There was nothing wrong with working for Home Depot but this is better.  We go hiking out in the desert regularly and I am slowly adjusting to things down here.

 I do miss the green of Washington. I will always hold a special place in my heart and maybe someday we shall return. But I have learned not to dwell on the things I don't care for, but to think of the positive things in my life. For a while it wasn't easy, as everything was so unfamiliar. But slowly we have added things to our lives that fills in some of the gaps left open by our move.

 I am so happy to be working at my designing as much as I can and want. Believe me I probably put in more hours in a week doing this than I ever did at job I got paid wages for. But it is a labor of love for me and I hope it always will be. Let me rephrase that, I will continue working at this as long as it is a joy. I swore that I wouldn't let becoming a professional kill my joy for my crocheting, even if I have to back away from being a professional designer. I made that mistake once of letting my passion be killed by turning it into a job. I swore, Not this time. But so far I am keeping a nice balance and I think that is the key. I will take on enough projects to keep my name out there, but not so many that I can't create just for the sake of creating. There has to be that freedom to let my ideas flow or the joy won't be there for me.

My goals for the next year are to try an put one item at least each month on my website. Need the motivator. We will see how well I do on that one. Otherwise I am going to flow with what comes my way and enjoy the process.