My 22 Goals for 2019 – Week 19 of 52

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love

Playing with Miss Lucy, a little gardening, an art class and no smoked meat. It was a good week! 🙂

Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden

Yesterday we had 10 yards of mulch delivered so getting out of bed this morning was a wee bit slow. Today may just have to be a day of rest. We’ll see. The HH spent time clearing up the rock wall area at the end of the driveway and I worked on tidying up under the large trees in the front {Note to self: take picture of buttery yellow magnolia blooms}.

Luckily though this time around I was able to identify the poison ivy vines BEFORE I started removing the vines and was able to take some protective measures. Who knew the big sack of old socks in the garage could some in so handy? Socks are arm protection. Pretty genius if you ask me.

Also, the tomato seedlings are right on schedule. They’ve got another 2 weeks to go in the greenhouse before I set them out in the garden. I like to plant smaller starts when it comes to tomatoes {rather than the ones they sell in 1 gallon pots at the nurseries or farmer’s markets}.

I have found over the years that if I plant young tomato starts nice and deep, it really gives the roots plenty of room to wiggle around and spread out. Which, seems to result in larger yields.

Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard

So far we have 1 Meyer lemon tree and 2 apple trees {we are down 1 apple tree {Harriet, she didn’t make it this winter} and an oddly positioned pear tree we removed at the end of last summer.

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS…. When am I supposed to spray my apple trees? Anyone know? And does anyone have the name of an easily found product I can purchase to spray the trees with? Any help would be appreciated.

Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done!

Apparently I am installing a small river bed on the left side of the potting shed garden. It wasn’t something I had planned to do, but I had to do SOMETHING with all the rocks I was finding.

The planted hollyhock, gladiolus, and purple coneflower bulbs/roots a few weeks ago, but so far there’s no sign of them.

Goal #5 — Grow Enough Extra Vegetables, Eggs and Flowers to Earn $1500 at my little roadside vegetable stand.

I set up my little stand yesterday with 3 dozen eggs and 2 big bouquets of pussy willow stems and didn’t have a single taker. The HH said I need to wait to set up the stand until I can fill it with flowers and vegetables and that he is bringing the veggie stand in this morning.

Oh well. Maybe he’s right.

Goal #6 — Finish Every Single Unfinished Rug Hooking Project in My Pattern Bin + 10 Things from back Issues of Magazines/Books I’ve Been Meaning to Make. 

I updated my Etsy Shop last week with a few new hooked rug pieces and and a couple of kits as well. This past week I worked on a few smaller pieces and am now working on a larger rug that will probably take an entire week to hook.

Two of the rugs I finished came from my pattern bin, so that was a plus.

I started the year off with:

• 73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 51}
• 183 hooked flowers {finished 90, now down to 93}
• 10 “things” from back issues of magazines {finished 0}

Goal #7 — Create 12 New Rug Hooking Patterns {with at least half of them being large ones}

10 down, 2 to go! This past month I added 4 new patterns to my Etsy shop.

New rug hooking patterns I’ve created and added to My Etsy Shop this year:

• Miss Henny and Penny
• Miss Penny
• Simple Kitty
• Primitive Flowers
• 2 Fat Cats
• Annabell’s Big Day
• Old Fashioned Double Tulip
• Fat Brown Hen
• Busy Little Bee
• Queen Bee

Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter 

Nothing to report.

Goal #9 — Do Something with the 5,002 Photos on My Phone

Nothing to report.

Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top

Working theory: Muffy will just fall off during gardening season. And Manny is my new workout buddy. 😉

Goal #11 — Run, Walk or Crawl a 5k, 10k, Half Marathon and Marathon

Nothing new to report.

Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {11 down, 15 to go}

This past week I listened to Bunny Mellon {for the second time} and I could probably listen to it a third time because I can be weird like that. What a character. I’d like to get my hands on a copy of The Gardens of Bunny Mellon, but my library doesn’t have it. I think I’ll ask if they can get it from one of the other local libraries.

I am waiting my turn on the library wait list for the following audio books:

• The Long Winter
• The Four Tendencies
• Grateful American

Books I’ve Read or Listened to So Far This Year:

• Marilla of Green Gables #1 Favorite
• Before We Were Yours #2
• Secrets of a Charmed Life #3
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette #4 
• Carnegie’s Maid #5
• The Alice Network #6
• The Shape of Mercy #7
• Will’s Red Coat #8
• Bunny Mellon  {Doesn’t count though because it was my second time}
• Walden
• Finder’s Keepers
• Delicious!
• Following Atticus

Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes.

12 down, 40 recipes to go. The HH said he was going to make me a steak dinner for Mother’s Day tonight. Maybe I can get him to try a new side dish recipe. But what? What goes good with steak that we haven’t already made?

Goal #14 — Clean Up 52 Old Recipes on the Blog

Seven recipes down, 45 to go. I need to get going on this goal. Big time.

Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 34 down, 66 to go.

So far this year I’ve I canned:

• 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam
• 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam {recipe coming soon}
• 4 jars of Almond Pears.

Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House

Guess who found THE PERFECT front door ornament for the month of December at the recycle center this past week? It was originally attached to a sled {but I didn’t need a sled}.

Also, I finally got around to doing something with all the pussy willow stems I snipped last month and I couldn’t be happier with the way the arrangement turned out. I had ordered a few baskets over the winter from Jeanne from BoquetsofBaskets on Etsy and hadn’t done anything with them yet.

I have the basket hung on the wall in the dining room between two windows and even the HH said the placement was perfect. I finally have something on the wall. Imagine that. 😉

Furniture pieces I’m still on the hunt for:

• Coffee table for the family room
• Console, cupboard or sideboard for the one and only tv in our house which is in the family room. I could totally live without a television, but my husband says the tv stays.
• Long rectangular table for the craft room.
• Table for the formal dining room.
• 2 wing back chairs for the family room.
• I’d also like to decorate the mantel in the keeping room as well as put up some sort of decoration above the other 3 fireplaces in the house. I’m not one for a lot of things on the walls, but it would be nice to throw up a little pilgrim bling on the plaster.

Goal #17 – 52 Dates with the HH {16 down, 36 to go}

This past week the HH decided he wanted to take me out to breakfast for our “date day.” I’ll give you one guess where we ended up.

Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class Done!

My neighbor The Painter and I took a class last Sunday and I was totally going to tell you all about it this week but had SO MUCH FUN with it…. I have decided to turn it into secret holiday project #2. 🙂

September 2019 …. It’s shaping up to be a month FULL of arts and crafts tutorials.

Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project 

It’s official, I now how 2 secret holiday projects. The good news is, BOTH of the projects, are something YOU will be easily able to re-create in plenty of time for the holidays if you want to {I’ll share the tutorials in September after I’ve had time to write up the posts, take loads of pictures and create my version of the finished product}.

They are both SUPER COOL projects and worthy of a proper demo. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

3 down, 9 to go.

Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores

5 down 7 to go.

So far this year we’ve visited:

• Harrisville General Store
• Dodge’s Store in New Boston, New Hampshire
• Zeb’s General Store in North Conway, New Hampshire
• Dan and Whit’s in Norwich, Vermont
• Hussey’s General Store in Windsor, Maine

Goal #22 — Compete with Carole….. Get on My Front Door Game On

This past week while running errands, I made the HH take me to a small local greenhouse to look around for a hanging basket for the front door and well, we found EXACTLY what I was looking for.

Isn’t this wave petunia hanging basket a beauty? I wanted to share a picture of it on the hook next to the front door, but a Mama Robin built a nest on top of the light fixture that’s next to the door and she was sitting on her nest this morning and I didn’t want to disturb her.

In other news, Carole made me a loaf of banana bread. 🙂 I had given her a dozen eggs earlier in the week and she mentioned she had used some of the eggs in a banana bread and wanted to say thank you. How sweet was that?

At one point I did mention that I had a blog and that I had wrote about her delicious grape salad recipe but I haven’t worked up the courage to tell her about the whole front door bling thing yet. I bet she’ll think it’s funny when I tell her about it though. I’ll keep you posted.

Front Door Bling I’ve Made So Far This Year to Compete with Carole:

• Late January : Valentine Heart
• Late February : Shamrock
• Late March : Giant Carrot

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How about YOU? What are your goals for 2019? If you told us about them HERE, check in! We want to know how you are doing. Because seriously, it’s so much easier to get those goals checked off your list when you have people rooting for you! 🙂

♥ Mavis

You can read more about my 22 goals for 2019 HERE.

Have a Great Sunday!