focus friday. one little word update.

...I know I say this all the time, but really. time flies! I can't believe it's been nearly three months since I last posted about the one little word project. I've certainly thought about it, and planned it ... and today I'm finally doing it!

LOVE LOVE LOVE toodledo!

first up, may. a template to document the "stuff to tackle". the prompt really appealed to me... a to-do list is right up my alley! I listed five things:

1. find a to-do list application to synch between my mac and my iphone
2. start planning projects a month at a time
3. finish kim klassen's photoshop essentials class
4. get back into my dark-early study/reflection habit (i.e., getting up at 4:45 am); and
5. finish my big picture definition.

all of these had due dates in june and I felt energized and confident about working through them.  

my may spread - a photoshopped photo of our oak leaf hydrangea on the left and the list on the right

on june 1, I set my alarm for 4:45 am and got up! (it's 5:30 am on the weekends). I found toodledo on june 4 and had the app loaded to my iphone and tasks created shortly afterwards. I laid out the month of june (knitting projects, class preparations, "homemaking", etc) and got those tasks into the app, too.

so far, so good.

and then we went to hilton head and I decided to teach a new lace shawl class at the shop and my sunday sweater workshop students are getting really good and I need to knit two sweaters a month to keep (ever-so-slightly) ahead of them.

I didn't visit kim's photoshop class once.

but I was not going to let that big picture thing hang around for another month - and I really wanted the outcomes from that work. to know that my time and energy are aligned with my priorities. it came to me on wednesday while I was knitting (5 rows of garter stitch trim around the edges of vitamin gray - I love how simple knitting frees up my mind to work on other things!) that note to self I wrote back in april included a definition of the future me, where I hoped I'd be a year from now. and I realized that my big picture is just about making that future me a reality. hunh. yep, that's it. pretty simple. I have no idea why it took me so long to figure out.

ali's june prompt was to create nine baseball card-sized works of art representing our word. she shared hers and video that showed her making them. it was awesome - she sat down with what seemed like not a lot of supplies and created beautiful pieces. I kept procrastinating. not only was I intimated about creating, but I feel like my word is a process, not a thing, and it's hard to evoke.

and after wednesday's revelation, what I really wanted to do was get that big picture down on paper.  I collected supplies and sat down to work.

I didn't end up using much of anything I collected. but I like the results. it's simple. straightforward. and I think, still in keeping with the prompt's intent. and doing it really helped me internalize the words.

my june spread

love that my blog fits, too, as a way to document my story and stay connected. thank you all for reading, and especially for all your words of encouragement!

in closing, here's a look at the album pages so far... I think it's time to start thinking about an album for them.