One Hundred Dollars a Month

My 22 Goals for 2019

Goal #1 — Spend More Time Doing What I Love

What a face!!! That Lucy, she is just the sweetest dog on the planet earth, I am convinced of it. All she cares about it is food and staying right by your side.

Goal #2 — Garden, Garden, Garden

Currently harvesting:

• Butternut Squash
• Mini Pumpkins and gourds
• Tomatoes, Tomatoes and more Tomatoes
• Eggplant {the smaller they are, the better they taste}
• Zucchini
• Sweet Peppers  – We are still waiting for the hot ones
• Sunflowers for the kitchen table

Goal #3 — Plant an Orchard {Calling it Quits on this one for this year.}

Goal #4 — Gussy Up the Potting Shed Done!

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

I set out two rounds of mini pumpkins and gourds and now I’m up to $86 for the year at my little vegetable stand. I would have made more if I stuck out some eggs and a few bouquets of sunflowers but I don’t know, I guess we used all the eggs ourselves this past week and it’s just so nice to look out the kitchen window and see the sunflowers. I guess I’m just a bit of a hoarder this year.

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. 

While I was able to add 6 more finished pieces to my Etsy shop this week, not a single one was from my unfinished pattern bin. How did that happen? 😉 I was hoping to finish a turkey rug this week as well, but finding the time to hook in the evenings this past week was a bit of a challenge. Luckily though, my next two nights are wide open so I should be able to get it finished {and another rug from my pattern bin checked off the list!}.

I started the year off with:

• 73 rugs in my pattern bin {now down to 37}
• 183 hooked flowers {finished 133, now down to 51}
• 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} DONE!

So far this year I’ve added 12 new rug hooking patterns and 13 beginner rug hooking kits to my Etsy shop.

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

• Tullia and Thomas Turkey
• Double Nantucket Whale Runner
• 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

Rug Hooking Kits

• Busy Little Bee {in 2 different colors}
• Folk Art Heart
• Small Nantucket Whale
• Primitive Crow
• Miss Robin {in 2 different colors}
• Simple Kitty
• Primitive Flowers
• Sunflowers
• A Basket of Spring Posies
• Fat Brown Hen
• Chicky’s Garden

Goal #8 — Split and Stack 2 Cords of Wood for Next Winter {Not going to happen}

Word on the street is a hard winter is predicted for New England. I guess we’ll just bundle up?

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

Current number of photos on phone 2881

Goal #10 –Lose the Muffin Top

I am down 8 pounds from the beginning of the year. I have absolutely no idea how it happened. My guess is it had something to do with the stress of this past month, working in the garden and just being more active this summer than usual. Who knows… but I don’t mind.

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

I suppose now that the baby turtles are off on their own now I should start hunting around for a 5K and a half marathon to participate in. There are oodles of races around these parts in the fall so I shouldn’t have a problem.

Goal #12 — Read or Listen to 26 New Books {15 down, 9 to go}

Last week I listened to On Writing for the third time while dying wool. I got about 45 minutes in to the Mistress of the Ritz before hitting the delete button and now I’m listening to Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand.

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

• Marilla of Green Gables #1 Still my favorite
• The Great Alone #2
• The Aviator’s Wife #3
• Before We Were Yours #4
• Secrets of a Charmed Life #5
• Where’d You Go, Bernadette #6
• Carnegie’s Maid #7
• The Gown #8
• The Alice Network #9
• The Shape of Mercy #10
• Will’s Red Coat #11
• Big Little Lies #12
• Bunny Mellon  {Doesn’t count because it was my second time}
• On Writing {Doesn’t count because it was my third time}
• Walden
• Finder’s Keepers
• Delicious!
• Following Atticus

Goal #13 — Try 52 New Recipes.

24 down, 30 recipes to go. The HH made eggplant Parmesan last week.

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

9 down, 44 to go. I’ll get crackin’ once fall {and cooler temps} come around.

Goal #15 — Fill 100 Canning Jars 48 down, 52 to go.

I won’t be able to get any canning done in the next few weeks but I am looking forward to doing some canning later this fall. So far, I think the peach jam has been my favorite thing this year to make.

So far this year I’ve I canned:

• 7 jars Peach Jam
• 7 jars of Strawberry Jam
• 15 jars of Carrot Cake Jam
• 15 jars of Spiced Pear Jam 
• 4 jars of Almond Pears.

Goal #16 — Finish Furnishing Our House

I wasn’t able to find any treasures this week and the recycle center but oh my word there are so many canning jars available and just waiting for someone to snatch them up. And they’re the good ones too! There is a HUGE difference in the jars they sell these days vs the ones from a few decades ago, the newer ones just are not as thick and seem to break faster than the older versions.

I also harvested a boatload of spinner gourds that I’ll use to make a wonderfully primitive garland to hang over the fireplace mantle when they dry out. I knew the spinner gourd vines would be prolific, but I am still amazed at how many there are to harvest. To date, I’ve only picked about 25% of the little gourd babies {maybe even less than 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 2 1 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 {26 down, 28 to go}

We didn’t actually make it to our lunch date on Saturday because we ended up getting stuck behind a town parade route for over an hour with a couple hundred other cars. We sat there watching marching band after marching band go by and after that whole fiasco, we just decided to go home. I did snap a picture of some flowers along the road while we waited though. 😉

Goal #18 — Take One Adult Education Class Done {I’ve taken 3!}

1. I’m keeping the first class I took with my neighbor top secret for now
2. Spoon Carving Class with Heather.
3. Mini pottery lesson {I loved it! and now I want to sign up for a full class!}

Goal #19 — Secret {for now} Holiday Project

The big reveal… Friday, September 13th, 2019  Because I am a horrible person, I’ve decided to delay my big reveal date to Friday, November 1st so I have time to put together some proper step by step tutorial posts so that if you want to, you’ll be able to make the same things I am going to offer in my Etsy shop {which are totally unrelated to wool} to give as gifts.

You’ve got to trust me on this. I am certain that 2 out of the 3 projects will have wide appeal and that you will most likely want to make them for someone on your list if you have even an ounce of craftiness is you.

Goal #20 — Create 12 Wowie Zowie Party Platters

4 down, 8 to go. Looking forward to oodles of party platters in the months of October, November and December. Salami and cheese just haven’t seemed that appealing with temps in the 80’s and 90’s this summer. And while I know there area about a ton of other choices when it comes to pickety bits, we do have our favorites.

Goal #21 — Visit 12 General Stores

8 down 4 to go.

So far this year we’ve visited:

• Chase’s Daily {I think it should count}
• Squam Lake Marketplace
• 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

I hung my Mother’s Day flower basket on the hook by the front door because everyone last week said the door area would look better with something hanging there. I don’t know, I think it looks a little busy. What do you think? Basket or no basket?

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
• May: White wave petunia hanging basket
• June/July: Tin Star and Flag Bunting
• August : Sunflower

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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! 🙂

Have a great Sunday everyone, I’m headed back to bed.

♥ Mavis

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

Have a Great Sunday!