ironmeg

Aren't the Xanth novels the fairy ones heavily illustrated? I think I recall someone saying they are beautiful, I might have to actually read them some day. I'm a huge GoT fan, and I've wanted to read the books, I might need to just push that one to the top of my list....... I'll check out The Wheel of Time as well. Thanks for the great recommendations!!

routine and tracking are very useful.

Sounds like you have a great plan. I love the crafting goals as well. I find that making time for my hobbies brings a lot of peace into my mind. Good luck!

Thin mints are a weakness of mine, so I'm super impressed with your will power lol. Yay for a good day

Posting daily will probably get annoying to read but I'm excited so I gotta update! Yesterday was difficult, as expected. We went out to dinner with my fiance's family for a birthday celebration, but I made good choices all day. I ate the lunch I brought to work, I didn't snack too much, I was able to squeeze in 45 mins of cleaning before we left to meet everyone, and even chose a salad at dinner. I'm pleased with how the day went :). More good days to come! Calories: Monday - 1360 Tuesday - 1406 Wednesday - Thursday - Friday - Saturday - Sunday - Level up my health: Pack a lunch for work 4 days a week 1/19 Keep track of calorie counts every day 2/28 Level up my life: 14 hours of cleaning .75/14 Level up my hobby: Complete 5 unique items, including how-to blog posts 0/5

Excellent goals! I look forward to following your journey. I love the positive, self esteem building you are doing, it seems very beneficial.

Very cool. I definitely have the same thing, where we'll make the same set of meals over and over again. I might have to give it a try, thanks!

Nice goals! I like the look of that cook smarts website, have you enjoyed using it?

Hey Dreamspin! Thanks for the welcome. I LOVE audio books, and that is a really good idea. I usually listen to them while I'm crafting and such as well. Do you have any you recommend? I listen to Harry Potter, and Hunger Games over and over... just recently been listening to Level up your life, but I'm out of book ideas. Thank PollyannaAgain. I'm really hoping today goes better as well. A new CIO just started at our company so everyone is kinda freaking out trying to be perfect and every big project is on hold. It's crazy right now. I have an event to go to after work as well, but I'm really hoping to get even just a few minutes of cleaning in afterwards. 14 hours is a rough goal for me to hit (I hate cleaning but love having a clean house). If you'd like to see them I'll start posting pics of my projects as I complete them. I'm working to create a complete theme line of projects and release them all together as such. This one is Harry Potter themed. With the new movie coming out in November and all the hype that is creating I thought it was a good time for that within the next few months.

love it already lol

Happy Birthday! and Congrats on the new place, I hope you really enjoy it there. I really like the more x less y way of doing things, I might have to steal that for one of my future challenges. I can't wait to see how it turns out

Well yesterday was a doosie. Of course life decides to go into hard mode once I make the decision to try harder to beat it! Our dryer kicked the bucket so we had to make an emergency trip to Lowe's to buy new ones, just after purchasing our honeymoon so, lots of money spent recently :/ and all of this happened on a Monday. Work was hell, I'm sore top to bottom from helping a friend move this weekend, then buying new washer/dryer, by the time I got home I didn't want to do a damn thing, and I didn't. We watched Game of Thrones and sat on the couch :D. All in all though, it wasn't a terrible day, I was able to track my calories. My goal is to stay under 1500 while I get used to tracking my calories again, Then I want to gradually drop it to be 1200. Calories: Monday - 1360 Level up my health: Pack a lunch for work 4 days a week 0/19 Keep track of calorie counts every day 1/28 Level up my life: 14 hours of cleaning 0/14 Level up my hobby: Complete 5 unique items, including how-to blog posts 0/5

Seems like you are off to a pretty good start! Look forward to seeing the rest of the challenge.

That is definitely a lot of goals but, they all seem like good ones! Good luck I'll be following along, looking forward to your stories

Love the Scott Pilgrim references lol. Also, great goals. Can't wait to see the outcome!

Thank you for your response. I do have a Facebook page, two actually, but I've never been able to focus my craft on a specific enough genre to acquire a fan base, or to build up a reputation. It's like the difference between a well made store and a garage sale. I'm hoping to hone my skills into something more marketable. Not easy :/ and I hate the politics of it all. Sent from my SM-N920V using Tapatalk

Ha! Yea I suppose I could include a little about me and my hobby lol. I do a lot of things, but mostly I work in woodworking and crochet, but I've been known to do a lot of other things like cosplay and leatherworking as well. I just really enjoy creating things The part where the challenge comes in, is I'm trying to overcome my fear of selling my items. I think they are great and a lot of people could really enjoy them, but it's fear of failure really. I'm going to create a line of products to put out and really give it my all and see what comes of it.

Hello, I am very excited to embark on my first challenge. I have tried to make it detailed and fit my life well. Hopefully not taking on too much for my first time. I have actually decided to start my challenge early (today) and I'll try to update often Level up my health: Pack a lunch for work 4 days a week 16-19 = A 14 = B 12 = C 10 = D 8 = F Keep track of calorie counts every day 25-28 = A 24 = B 20 = C 16 = D 12 = F Level up my life: 14 hours of cleaning 12-14 = A 10 = B 9 = C 8 = D 7 = F Level up my hobby: Complete 5 unique items, including how-to blog posts 5 = A 4 = B 3 = C 2 = D 1 = F Prizes! A = Drill Press B = cricut cutter/curio C = Wood Burning Kit D = Donate $100 to Random Acts Charity (Good Charity) F = Donate $100 to PETA (BAAAAAAAAD) That's the plan any ways. I look forward to a great beginning challenge! Until next time....

Thank you for your encouragement Fluffy. I am not currently on Etsy but that is primarily where I expect to sell, although I should most likely look into a few other sites as well. I'm worried etsy has strayed a bit far from their "handmade" roots, but it's such a popular site that I'm sure it will be a good place for my items. If you know of any other good places to sell out of I'm all ears lol. I had a question also, the next Challenge starts on the 7th? I found a list of all the dates before but I can't seem to find it now....

I spent all day working on my wood working projects for the HP line yesterday. I'm really excited about it, and I made a lot of progress. At the same time though, I have so many doubts. They are the same doubts that have always kept me from selling my work in the past as well. Even though I've made something a million times, and I think it's well made and sell worthy, it's a hand made item and it's never going to be "perfect". People don't seem to understand that. What if nothing sells? Then I've wasted all of my time money and effort for nothing. On the other hand, if I don't try it, I'll never know. I'm just having a hard time being positive about the whole thing. It's what I want to do, I just need to not allow my fears to get in the way....

Definitely seemed like a good challenge indeed! I hope you continue posting as I love reading these. They give me ideas for things to put in my challenge and others successes make me want to do better on mine I like good 'ol pen and paper too though Sometimes it's nice to have something tangible. Hope you got lots out of the challenge though!

Awesome thread. Seems like you are crushing your challenge! Way to go. Good luck on finals.

You got an A! Yay

Woo! 10 points to Gryffindor! Seriously though, I admire your spirit, I hope you pass this class with flying colors lol

Wow 10 page paper by tomorrow......