My 14 Goals for 2020
Goal #1 – Take Full Advantage of Having My Husband Home 24/7
While I was painting in the basement, he cut his own hair with the clippers … and then and asked me to fix it. I can do a lot of things, but I am no miracle worker. And so now he looks sort of like lumber jack with his patchy hair and beard. If summer wasn’t knocking at our door, I’d buy him one of those red and black plaid check flannels to complete the look.
Goal #2 – Take Better Care of Myself.
Twas’ a good week for sleeping in and waking up naturally {the sun is up around 5:45 these days!} with my light curtains. I LOVE IT! Also, I found 3 good sized heart rocks on the beach. 🙂
Goal #3 – Get Organized
The plan for May is:
- May 3-9 Paint Master Bedroom Door, Writing Desk and
Clean Up and Prep Canning Room for Painting - May 10-16
Paint Canning Room, Organize Everything on Shelves and Make a Simple Linen Curtain for Window - May 17-23 Paint Double Dutch Door in Kitchen
- May 24-30 Paint Entry Alcove and Paint Front Door {Both sides}
Nobody said I had to stick to the plan, right? Picking and choosing projects is way more fun. I painted the third coat of white on the root cellar shelves yesterday, so move in day is TODAY. Giddy up!
Goal #4 – Get Proper Window Coverings on All Our Windows.
All that’s left is the sunroom. Which is currently being used as a mini seed starting {because there is so much light in there} so I think I’ll wait until fall now to make the last of the Roman shades. Which honestly, is a genius idea because there are 212 other things I’d rather be doing right now.
Goal #5 – Master Bedroom Make Over {almost done!}
We hung the window treatments and hardware has been installed!
Still left to do:
- Paint Writing Desk a Glossy Black
- Paint the Creamy Closet Doors White
- Refinish the Floors {late summer project because I don’t have the supplies and the windows will need to be open all day because of the fumes}.
Goal #6 – Kitchen Update
All that’s left is to paint the double dutch doors {the HH says leave them the color they are, I say paint them out white OR something flashy, like an ocean blue color}. This might be a project to tackle when he’s not here. 😉
Goal #7 – Install Vegetable Garden Done!
Things were going so well in the greenhouse…
Until a squirrel snuck in and destroyed my flat of sunflower starts. I have had the WORST luck trying to start sunflowers in the ground the past few years that I thought I’d play it safe and plant them in the greenhouse house this year. Well, it seems the little bugger got in and now I have to start again.
I don’t know what it is with sunflowers, but the squirrels just love their tender little shoots. Oh well, I have MORE seeds, so I’ll plant another flat. Only this time, I’ll have to keep them in the sunroom until they are ready to plant outside.
Garden To Do List for May
- Mulch flower beds
- Do something with the leftover bricks near the garden boxes {Neighbors took half of them}
- Map out a master plan for beds for growing vegetables
- Prune yew hedges to allow for more light near the asparagus patch
- Plant beans, sunflowers, zucchini, cucumbers and other vegetables towards the end of the month.
Plant hydrangeas- Figure out a border for the raspberry/asparagus patch
Goal #8 – Explore More of Maine
Looking forward to my next day trip with the HH! Harpswell, Maine is on the list next, but it will have to wait a bit. Hopefully not to much longer!
On the radar for exploring Maine this next month:
Bar Harbor, MaineLincolnville Center General Store in Lincolnville, Maine- Wallace’s Market in Friendship, Maine
Alewives Fabric Store in Nobleboro, Maine- Harpswell, Maine and Bailey Island
Goal #9 – Host Some Sort of Get Together
Eh.
Goal #10 – Read/Listen to 12 Books
Currently listening to Birdseye: The Adventures of a Curious Man. So far so good. I also finished Olive, Again. And just like the first book, some of the stories were really good, and a few were stinkers. But overall, I’d give it a 8 out of 10.
So far I have read/listened to:
- Olive Kitteridge #3
- Olive, Again
- Smitten Kitchen Every Day: Triumphant and Unfussy New Favorites
- Natural Color: Vibrant Plant Dye Projects for Your Home and Wardrobe
- The New Bungalow Kitchen
- Container Gardening by Stephanie Donaldson
- The Nightingale #1
- A Piece of the World #2
- The War I Finally Won
- Vertical Gardening
- Front Yard Gardens
- The Complete Cooking Light Cookbook
- Beach House Style
Goal #11 – Learn A New Skill or Craft
Not yet. Thinking seriously about buying a glass kiln though. {More on that later}
Goal #12 – Visit 12 Museums, Historical Homes or Botanical Gardens {and bakeries too!}
Currently on hold.
January
- Maine Maritime Museum
- Maine Mineral and Gem Museum
- The Island Market
- Cafe DiCocoa
- Hungry Hollow Country Store
February
- Two Fat Cats Bakery
- Portland Museum of Art
- Speckled Ax
- Atlantic Baking Company
- Rockland, St. George, Cushing and Port Clyde Maine
March
- Bar Harbor and Desert Island Adventures Day One, Day Two and the Summer Cottage Rental Tour.
- Tinder Hearth Bakery in Brooksville, Maine
Goal # 13 – Reach 5,000 Etsy Sales by the End of The Year
As of this morning, I have made 3833 sales on Etsy. Wahoooooo! That’s up from 2804 on January 1st and it looks like I am on pace to hit 5,000 sales by the end of the year which is VERY exciting to me. Doing what you love from the comfort of your own home, you just can’t beat that.
This past week I made more garden markers for my Etsy shop and worked on the big rug I started two months ago. If I really buckled down, I could have it done in less than a week, but there are so many other things I want to get done… So this one is going at a snails pace. And at this rate, I won’t have any new hooked pieces {rugs, pillows, flowers} to offer until the end of summer. 🙁
Goal #14 – Once a Month Menu Planning {for 2}
Who needs to menu plan when you are home all day? Seriously. What’s the point. The entertainment factor is pretty high at this point.
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Have YOU made any goals for this year? If so, DO TELL! We all want to hear about them.
Have a great Sunday everyone, enjoy the sunshine.
~Mavis
Alison says
I got an Etsy gift card for Mother’s Day, so I’m sure garden markers will be heading my way soon. Yay!
Mel says
Condolences on the sunflowers.
Squirrels are such devious little critters. We always leave a basket of snacks on our porch every December for our mail carrier and delivery peeps, and it has never been an issue. This past December, the snack basket was extra popular, and we could barely keep it stocked. The basket never looked disturbed, so we couldn’t figure it out until one day when I opened the front door and found a squirrel on the porch with an armload of Snickers bars. We replaced all the snacks and relocated the basket to the inside of an old mailbox, but our squirrels were extremely fat this winter due to their stockpile of Snickers and trail mix packets.
Mavis Butterfield says
That is hilarious!!!
Mel says
I know! The squirrels were huge! We still find the occasional wrapper in the yard, so goodness knows how many snacks they stole or how long they stored them.
Kris says
That is so funny!!!
Carolina Cooper says
l love the names of your hand dyed wool—especially “mud on the back porch.” Do you make up these names yourself?
Mavis Butterfield says
Yes. 🙂
Deborah says
My husband has a red and black plaid flannel shirt. He wears it as a jacket.
I love your basement, food storage area. We don’t have basements in East Texas. I’ve never even seen one except online. I’d love to have one, or a root cellar, but it’s not in the cards at our age.
I’m thinking of getting white curtains for our bedroom for the light in the mornings. Right now, they are a hunter green. I use bed sheets to make ours. It’s much less expensive than fabric. Our bedroom windows face the south, so they’ll get sun all day.
Cathy says
Love the canning shelves paint !!
Looks great , not seeing the whole room. A little stove or heater to make it cozy ? Happy place.
Pam Favorite says
The thing about men’s hair is that they throw on a hat and all good. As for the squirrels, they’re going after the seed. We feed them sunflower seeds and they bury some so we always have sunflowers coming up They will bury them in pots so we have to watch out for our other plants. Seems we all like to garden.
Mary Ann says
Bummer about your sunflower seedlings. I feed the squirrels and the birds, so I always have volunteer sunflowers coming up, but a new one this year is I have three PEANUT plants coming up! I have to leave them and see what they do.
Pj says
Ocean blue door sounds wonderful. Nothing like a pop of color to make the place your own.
Mama Jo says
Mavis, you should learn how to cut HH’s hair. My husband was very particular about his hair & would get a haircut every 3 wks back in the early 70’s. He got very busy at work and couldn’t get to the barber shop & asked me to learn to cut his hair. He held the hand mirror in front of his face & taught me how to layer cut his hair. I cut his hair the rest of his life. He was happy w/my hair cuts & of course I enjoyed saving money.
You ought to try it, you may enjoy it…
Mavis Butterfield says
I used to cut his hair all the time… He went rogue this time though. 😉 I don’t think he’ll do that again. Ha.
Kim says
Squirrels can be so rude!
Daddio7 says
Soak all large seeds overnight before you plant them. Your germination rates will go up dramatically.
I no longer have trouble with squirrels. A few years ago I started feeding a stray cat, before I knew it I had a large feral cat colony. I finally trapped and had them fixed so they stopped increasing. A few of them have become arboreal, I did not know cats could scamper through trees like they do. The squirrels decide it was saver somewhere else. No rats or mice either.
Gale says
My son and his family came over yesterday for an early Mothers day dinner. He modeled his new haircut his wife gave him. It looked like a chili bowl on top of his head. I reminded him that when he was little he got his head shaved every summer. Maybe he should go back to that style.
Lana says
Squirrels HATE the smell of orange peels so I put some in every pot as I plant them and they never bother them.
Sarah says
Love that quarantine cut, reminds me of my sheep I tried sheering for the first time this weekend Hey, I thinking you should do the old milk jug sowing trick for your sunflowers. Then those rascally squirrels can’t get in to much on them. You’ll figure it out..still plenty of time to start again:) Love all your projects!! Much luv from Washington
Randi says
I’m on round three of beans and sunflowers. The squirrels are fat. This round I’m going with chicken wire, the dog hair I brushed out (why not?’) and pots with mesh over them. May try orange peels someone mentioned in the comments.
Between slugs and squirrels I have a challenge.
Diane says
Sprinkle ground up egg shells to thwart slugs. Their soft bodies don’t like sliding over those sharp edges.
Nancy says
The HH did your hair I think you should help him out with a little fix it job!! He always wears a hat anyway!!
We need to put Ellie in that greenhouse she would love to get those squirrels!! You are one busy lady
Dianna says
Back when hubby and I were dating, he asked me to cut his hair for him (poor college students). It was all going well until I got to the front….and buzzed off his eyebrow with the clippers. He married me anyway.
Fast forward to quarantine 2020. He had no choice; he had to have me try again. My skills have not improved much over 22 years. His hair is like an 8 year old boy’s buzz cut, but at least he still has both eyebrows. He looks like a used Q-tip now, though.
Christy L says
Squirrels – I have fashioned rat wire into cages to put around the seeds to keep the squirrels out until the plants are big enough to survive. Squirrels can be horrible!
Nancy says
Quick question….I love your grey sofa and checked chair….if you don’t mind….where did you get them?
Mavis Butterfield says
Amazon for both.
Blue and cream checked chair link: https://amzn.to/2YT9Mu0
Navy slip covered couch link: https://amzn.to/3dFyBOd
Nancy says
Thank you so much for the info!
Cate says
My goals are: Take glider to garden side of house. (DONE) Build arbor over glider and plant climbing rose beside it. (I’ve bought the rose bush – it is a dark lavender color.) Re-finish glider. Put up garden fence. (Husband and I did that today.) Plant garden. (Expecting snow overnight.) Build or buy tiny shed for mower and lawn chairs. Clean out storage shed. (DONE) Dig up grass in front of fence and plant flowers. (Too cold to work on yet.) Re-work cement borders that have fallen in. Plant more lavender. Plant clematis in big planter on side of house. (Well, I’ve bought the clematis!) Paint storage shed. Plant flowers in alley. Paint birds on fence beside alley. Construct window box for shed (alley side). That should get me started!!