Whew! I've been super busy the past 3 months taking a bunch of classes and having a fun time.
My goals for this year were/are to "Live My Life Likes Its Golden."
Professional
Attend at least 3 professional networking events (public health/ legal or general) -
Achieved!
Take at least 3 professional business management courses/ workshops (on line or in person)
Achieved!
Sell stuff at at least 2 doll shows -
1 Completed!
Sell $500 at 2 or more flea markets -
Sales not even close !
Save at least $2500 - Savings
Not on track!
Creative
Attend at least 2 scrapbook crops/ retreats -
Achieved!
Builds a greenhouse for garden vegetables
Enter at least 3 writing contests (RWA Romance Writers of America)
2 Completed!
Complete at least 2 novellas -
1 In progress!
Clear clutter from my closet
Home / Garden
Get a new refrigerator
Create/ plant a low water / drought tolerant front yard garden
Achievements
I reserved a table at the Nancy Jo Doll Show and Sale on February 1, 2014 and sold a grand total of $33 worth of stuff. Spent way more than that to reserve table, purchase other items so ended up with a huge loss. Hubby did attend sale with me so we had a fun time looking at other people.
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| Bunch of raggedy dolls, bears and quilts for sale at doll show. |
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| Another view of dolls for sale. |
Travel
2014 Travel wasn't one of my goals but I had such a wonderful time on last New Years Eve cruise so I booked a family vacation for the week after Christmas this year on
Carnival. I put a deposit. I'm still trying to figure out how to pay for it but I'm sure that will all work itself out.
Still need to research airfare. Sigh!
Writing Achievements
- For the fourth or fifth year in a row I've been a Preliminary judge for a RWA Chapter sponsored writing contest. Just finished reading and judging 5 Historical entries.
- For the fourth or fifth year, I've been a preliminary reader for an electronic romance publisher. So far this year, I've read one novel for publisher. I've had to turn down other requests.
- Rejoined an online critique group for feedback on my own writing and to offer feedback to others.
- Enrolled in and in the process of completing a RWA Kiss of Death Romatic Suspense Chapter sponsored writing course taught by Best Selling Author Allison Brennan entitled Chills and Thrills
- Attended one online chat about plotting assistance sponsored by Savvy Authors .com on Beat Sheets taught by Jami Gold. See resources at JamiGold.com/worksheets.
- Completed writing 20,000 words on manuscript on progress entitled Treasure Chest.
- Submitted one chapter to critique group for feedback
- Entered two RWA writing contests in the Romantic Suspense genre. One Utah RWA 's Great Beginnings contest, the other is Wisconsin's RWA - Fab 5 Contest.
Professional Skill Building
- Been attending UC Berkeley School of Public Health's CALPACT Professional Development Series so far I've completed Project Management with Jeff Oxendine, Large Data Sets:Innovative uses and Why it Matters with Speaker Deryk Van Brunt CEO: Healthy Communities Institute
- I've registered for the Leadership Module which includes courses on Leading from Where you Are, Leading Change Management, Keys to Positive Supervision, Innovations in Problem Solving.
- Participated in a New Media Webinar on Social Media Measurement & Evaluation entitled : Are we there yet? New Media Best Practices for Creating & Measuring Impact
Creativity
Participated in one class entitled Simple and Speedy Scrapbooks sponsored by A-Z Scrapbooks. A-Z scrapbooks is a store in Southern Calfornia. The class was terrible and I do not recommend it. There used to be a place on Scrapbook Expo's website to write reviews of classes but that is gone now.
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| Scrapbook Expo Crop in the Alameda County Hall of Commerce |
The course was $28 prepaid and was supposed to include a page kit worth $20. There was no page kit just some random paper handed out for his in class project that was a thrown together hodge podge of 6 or 7 print papers on top of each other in random fashion. It was not my style which may be why I didn't like the class. It was not well organized or facilitated. The page we were to make was not simple or speedy as we spent 30 minutes cutting paper to various sizes. Basically the instructor handed out a stack of paper with no instructions or picture of the finished product. The first half of the class we spent cutting the paper to the instructed dimensions then putting it together. The second half of the class we were to glue it together. The instructor gave wrong instructions about cutting which was okay because the page could be assembled any old way. I left about half way through because it wasn't really worth my time.
I did attend the
Scrapbook Expo Crop at the fairground. I set up a little bit after 1:00 p.m. and went to work on a page kit that I purchased at the Expo. There were lots of vendors in the Expo hall. I purchased at the Expo. I bought about $55 worth of stuff and met a few nice ladies. At 5:00 p.m they started playing games and having door prizes and raffles which was fun. I didn't win any door prizes this year but it was fun. At about 10:00 p.m. I packed up and made the one hour drive home.
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| My workstation at the crop. Sat at a table with two ladies from San Ramon. |
I spent the ten hours at the crop working on pages about my New Years' Eve cruise to the Southern Caribbean.
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| One of the pages that I worked on during the Crop. |
I also attended a 3 day Scrapbook Retreat in Stockton sponsored by
Queen of the Crop Scrapbook Retreats. I met some nice "like minded" ladies who are into scrapbooking. The Stockton retreat had a Mardi Gras theme and also offered lots of prizes. Here are a few pictures of that retreat.
Liz Almeida does an excellent job putting together those events. I thought she was going to be at the Scrapbook Expo but I didn't see her or any of the other ladies there.
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| Queen of the Crop Retreat's Mardi Gras Theme Decor |
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| Coffee and Other Beverages were offered as part of retreat |
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| Snack Table for Participants |
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| Here is a page kit I am working on at the retreat. Purchased that new Caribbean Blue Album. |
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| My work area at the retreat. |
Earlier this year I participated in Kimberly Wilson's 24 Days o Tranquility e-course and purchased her book Tranquilogie. I did complete one of her activities to make treasure maps of my goals for the year. Here are some photos. I still look over the monthly activities in her book Tranquilogie but I am not doing the activities on a daily basis. The activity on the Facebook page she created for the class has died down. I did get ideas from her website Tranquility du Jour to update my week. Looking back at the collages of my wishes for 2014 I see that travel was one of them. So booking the trip at the end of the year is in my goals.
Goals for the Next Quarter:
Pay down the balance for the New Years Eve Cruise
Find reasonable price for airfare.
Work on planting front yard water saving plants.
