Crafty J3nn builds habits

[J3NN]

About me: 

Spoiler

I’m 44, I’m married, I have an adult daughter who lives at home. We have three cats, a rescued mocking bird and a haven for lizards and birds outside. I live in Southern California, between Palm Springs and Los Angeles. I work in the healthcare/academic industry, in marketing and communications (web). My doctor/insurance flag me as obese. I’m sedentary because of my job, but in general, my hobbies also tend towards the sedentary. I love to read, write, watch television/movies. Seasonally I have different craft hobbies I used to do, making jewelry, zentangle, crochet and scrapbooking. I love to hike and take pictures so that’s the one outdoor/active thing I would do all the time if I could. I’m a hockey fan, we have season tickets to our local AHL team and our first pre-season game is this weekend.

 

It’s time for me to level up… I’ve been trying things on for size, but I haven’t committed to anything, made any real habits or moved up to the next level. I am floundering a bit and as we go into the holidays things will become more hectic because they always do. So this time I’m largely going to focus on building habits that will help me feel like I’m taking care of myself and not throwing my life away on mindless (some is mindful) entertainment (as awesome as that is). Aside from the habits I have some other things I’ll be working on this time, but I won’t really be tracking them daily, they’re just things I want to do between now and the end.

 

Things I’m working on that aren't challenge related:

Spoiler

• We decorate for Halloween and go all out to make the house fun for kids to visit, but mostly to give us something fun to do that lets us use our creative sides and hang out with friends, so in getting ready for that, we’ll be doing these activities:
  • Planning Party on 9/22 @5pm
  • Select movie/theme
  • Select activities
  • Start prep
• Celebrate Fall Equinox
  • Find the ceremony we used last time for Winter and decide if we want to use that or find something else
  • Celebrate on the equinox Saturday, September 22, this is the same night as our planning party so we may do this early or late.
• Maintain or lose weight

 

The challenge details.

• I have an “adulting” list that is miles long, but I get busy with my entertainment (reading especially, but watching television shows too) and I can lose an entire afternoon without getting anything done. I’m going to bribe myself by allowing myself the opportunity for guilt-free entertainment as long as I do something on the list first. So, anytime I have free time at home, I am allowed to read a chapter or watch a tv show, as long as I do one thing on the list. One thing on the list earns me one show or one chapter. I’m not quite sure how to track this, it will probably be something with the list of to do items getting checked off. I haven’t accounted for this in my grade scale below.
•  I have realized that I am missing crafting in my life, so I am going to take @KnitJoy's example and reintroduce myself to the habit of crafting. I am taking the challenge she did, 20 minutes a day, down to 5 minutes. I will do one of these things for 5 minutes every day (workout days excluded)
  • Crochet
  • Jewelry
  • Fluid Art/Paint pouring
  • Zentangle/Draw
  • Lettering
  • Book page crafts
  • Halloween projects
• I also need to establish some habits so I will use habitbull to track these
  • Brush teeth 2x day
  • Floss and special mouth rinse (daily for prescribed time)
  • Process Mail every day it’s delivered
  • Exercise 2x week (Aim for 1 bonus workout)
  • Post Every other day in the forum
  • Steps 3500/day (tracked by phone)
• Bonus
  • Workout (one extra per week(
  • Create Make the World Go Round Doom List Bonus points for any completed
  • Write Hawaii Travel Blog

 

I’ve found that if I want to really commit I respond well to bribing and penalizing myself, so this is  my grade scale. Every successful item (except the chore/entertainment task) earns me one point. Bonus items earn one extra point each.

 

Grading scale and reward/penalty

• A= 152/169 - Supplies for a new craft project (up to $50)
• B= 135-151/169- A new book series (up to $25)
• C=118-134/169- Donate $15 to political party/charity I oppose
• D= 117/169- Donate $30 to political party/charity I oppose

[J3NN]

Off to a good start I reckon... Monday I wrapped my yarn into a ball to get it ready for project work and I found a pattern to work. The original pattern was $2.50 which is nothing, but I really hate to spend money on stuff, especially since the project is just for fun. I'm trying to use up stuff, not collect more... I found a similar free pattern, so I am going to try that, but it's not as cute so I'm torn.

 

I did get back to the gym last night after missing last week. I'm having back pain and fighting some plantar fasciitis as well, so that's not been helping me. But it was good to be back, and my trainer always adapts the workout so I was able to get in a full workout without hurting my back more.

 

My phone pedometer seems to be wonky... I'm not sure I can trust it anymore, but I'm going to use it for this week and see how bad it is. Maybe I'll download something else and use both and see which seems more accurate. So I'm tracking my steps, but I'm not sure they're accurate. The weather is finally cooling down in the evenings so I could start walking again if I don't reach my step count through the day, but of course it gets dark earlier too so there's that to contend with.

 

I forgot to do the mail the first night, but I got caught up and did it last night, so hopefully that will kick me into gear there. The other habits are all going well. It's stupid that just be tracking it I start doing it. Why can't my brain make me do it without having check it off. I didn't have a huge reliance on star/chore charts in my youth, what gives?

 

We're brainstorming what to do for Halloween as our theme... Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, traditional Halloween, the Princess Bride, Gypsy caravan with a card reading table, Cowboys, Pirates, Medieval... so many options. 

 

Oh, and my husband's birthday is coming up and I want to surprise him with a Calvin & Hobbes themed birthday so I'm working on that too. I ordered him a watch that's one of those sketchy sites online... I hope it's the real deal and comes through. I'm going to hand make a C&H birthday card, and I'm trying to figure out a birthday dessert too. I'd love to come up with a whole themed day, but we'll see if I can pull that off. But I'm going to count any work on this as my crafting stuff, because it will be largely creative and that fits the bill.

 

[Bean Sidhe]

Hey J3NN

 

I am so excited to see what you guys come up with for halloween. I think Princess Bride could be fun and hasn't been overdone.

 

That being said, it sounds like you will have plenty of things to work on for your craft goal. Good luck.

Following

[J3NN]

Doing okay but entertainment over the weekend deterred me from crafting. We made a decision to go with a Harry Potter Halloween and spent hours shopping and brainstorming so I'm going to count that even though it wasn't tangible. Other habits are doing good so yay me!
Onward!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Bean Sidhe]

Oooh, Harry Potter Halloween sounds so cool. So excited to see what comes from your efforts.

Good luck.

[J3NN]

Update:

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	7	25	28%
Adulting to do list/read	0	5
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	8	35	23%
Floss	8	30	27%
Mouth rinse	8	14	57%
Mail	6	30	20%
Workout	2	10	20%
Steps (3500)	4,357	3500	124%
Forum Posting	4	17	24%
Bonus
Workout	0	0
MTWGR Doom List	0	0
Write Hawaii Travel Blog	0	0

 

Doing good this challenge, it's motivating me to keep it up. Not only am I doing my daily habits, but last night I crafted for closer to an hour, or more, instead of just my five minutes, so that was good.

 

I did install a new pedometer app to compare it to the in phone app and they are definitely not tracking the same. I'm going with the numbers from the new app (Accupedo) for now. It feels more motivating, even if it's inflated. I am still struggling with the plantar fasciitis in the right heel, so I haven't been walking as much as I'd like to.

 

Today I had jury duty and even though I plugged in my Kindle to charge it and downloaded new books, when I grabbed it this morning it was completely dead. >:| so, I quickly found a book I bought a while back and started reading it instead. It's a leadership book, Leading at the Edge: Leadership lessons from the extraordinary saga of Shackleton's Antarctic expedition by Dennis N.T. Perkins. The tale of Endurance is one that has stuck with me, even though I can never recall details, certain stories remain and the leadership of Ernest Shackleton is a model I hope I emulate. When I found this book I knew I had to get it. I'm now 63 pages in (even though I was released from Jury duty at 11:15 and have been home all afternoon) and have started a my own "expedition log" answering the questions posed by the author at the end of each chapter. The examples compared with the questions have inspired me with new options for work challenges and it's been quite fun to dig into new ideas.

 

BTW, I had a job interview last week for the job I applied for after I got back from Hawaii. I think it went well and that I'll pass to the next step, but I likely won't find out until next week.

[Bean Sidhe]

glad to hear the job interview went well and that you are doing well. Its amazing to me sometimes when I say "I just need to do 5 minutes" can turn into an hour or more.

 

Keep up the good work.

[J3NN]

Here's my update:

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	9	25	36%
Adulting to do list/read	0	5
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	12	35	34%
Floss	12	35	34%
Mouth rinse	12	14	86%
Mail	10	30	33%
Workout	2	10	20%
Steps (3500)	4,069	3500	116%
Forum Posting	7	17	41%
Bonus
Workout	0	0
MTWGR Doom List	0	0
Write Hawaii Travel Blog	0	0

 

Things are going well. Workout was a failure this week... We'll have to do some soul searching there I guess.

I have a craft lunch scheduled next Tuesday so that will be interesting. I'm almost finished with my little shark so it's time to start thinking about my next project. I like the amigurumi patterns, I've been wondering what I could make as gifts for family. I'm going to have to go up into the attic to find my yarn... and find a place to store it if I'm going to need access to it. I guess that can be my Sunday project.

 

I'm unmotivated at work, so glad it's Friday... Had horrible nightmares last night too, so it was a rough night. Tomorrow we're having our Halloween planning party, so that should be good. I'm making chili, I don't care if it's still supposed to be over 90, it's almost Fall and I want Chili!

[Wobbegong]

I'm sorry about your nightmares and workout struggles, but most of your habits look pretty on-track! It seems like you're doing great! I hope your Halloween party went well

[J3NN]

As far as weekend's go, it was pretty good. My Plantar fasciitis, or whatever this is, really acted up Friday night after we shopped for hours for Halloween stuff, I've been paying for that all weekend. But the shopping went okay, we found some other small details to bring things together.

Saturday the party was good, someone found out that they'd been committed to a dinner that night so they came over early, so it was like we had two parties, but it was good. By the end of the night we'd mapped out the plan for Halloween night and scheduled our night to carve/paint pumpkins, and another fun activity night to go to the Stranger Things Halloween nights at Universal Studios, so October is going to be a busy month.

 

For the Harry  Potter Halloween we have a Lucious Malfoy, Bellatrix Lestrange, Professor Sprout, Tonks, Hagrid and either a Professor McGonagall/Professor Snape/Dumbledore (someone can't pick)... For our decorations we're going to make the driveway into Professor Sprout's Greenhouse, we're going to turn the front yard into the Forbidden Forest with Aragog, a patronus and dementors; and we're going to set up a potion's classroom where we'll give out the candy. We  have some other ideas too, but we'll see how we do with this stuff. So now I have to get busy making my costume. I think I need to make a cape with some embroidered embellishments across the collar. At least that will be fairly easy. I'll just get a neutral maxi dress I can wear under it as layers and wear my boots, so that will be easy. Oh, and her hat, I will make that too. I wonder if there are patterns for a fancy neck. I should have looked at JoAnns when I was there today, but I was on a one-track mind mission and forgot.

 

Today my crafting project was a bracelet for my husband's birthday. So I went and bought the stuff for that and got that made and hidden so I won't have to worry about his birthday sneaking up on me in 11 days. 

 

Beyond that, things are going okay.

[J3NN]

Challenge update:

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	13	25	52%
Adulting to do list/read	2	5	40%
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	15	35	43%
Floss	14	35	40%
Mouth rinse	14	14	100%
Mail	12	30	40%
Workout	2	10	20%
Steps (3500)	4,254	3500	122%
Forum Posting	9	17	53%
Bonus
Workout	0	0
MTWGR Doom List	0	0
Write Hawaii Travel Blog	0	0

 

Workout is failing, I have my stuff and it's class night, so we'll see if I can go tonight. My body misses it.

Everything else movin along...

[Bean Sidhe]

So the Harry Potter Halloween sounds great and while you may not be doing great with the exercise, I think your still doing pretty good with the other stuff. Just keep working at it. I know you can do this and hopefully the foot thing starts behaving. Trust me, I know how you feel and it stinks when walking isn't easy

[J3NN]

I made it to the gym last night! And we had a sub, so it was an easier class which was great for my coming back. AND he had us do stretches including some for the foot, so all in all a good night, and a good reward for making myself go when I really wanted to go home and curl up with my book.  But... every time I cough my abs remind me it was still a workout. 

[J3NN]

Disappeared because I came home sick with a fever on Thursday and today is the first I've come up for air, so all my streak's are starting over, but I guess my body needed a break.

 

I have a "quick-chat" about the job I applied for tomorrow morning. No vibe at all to tell if it's a good chat or bad chat.

 

No gym this week, they're between sessions and taking a week off, but that may be better since my body apparently wanted a break.

 

Been ordering up stuff for Halloween, so my costume is coming together fairly nicely, at least in theory, we'll see when it's all put together.

 

Start my first buddy read tomorrow on Good Reads, so looking forward to that. 

 

That's about all I've got for now. I think I"ll go crochet a little...

[Bean Sidhe]

So how did the "quick chat" go? I am sorry you were not feeling well. I am glad  you are feeling better. And sometimes, we just need to let the body recover. Here is to hoping this week goes well too.

[J3NN]

The chat was ripping the bandaid off... I was told that even though the hiring manager was ready to hire me, the administrative champion wants someone with 20 years of experience in the field... even though the field hasn't existed for 20 years. So the poor hiring manager is having to go back to the drawing board completely. Even though she interviewed NINE candidates...

 

The good news is that I didn't get a job that looks like it's going to be underpaid, demanding, unrealistic hours and undersupported... and I still have my job and wasn't unhappy to begin with.

 

In other good news...I won a skin care regimen from a consultant for Rodan & Field, so in my next 4 week challenge I'm going to make skin care one of my habits and by Thanksgiving I might have a, uhm, I don't know what I'll have... good facial skin I guess

 

Being sick messed with my routines. I am out of habit, so I forgot to craft last night. Yesterday was tough and I was still not feeling 100% better so I guess it's okay, but I felt bad when I remembered... and I did remember, just not until after I'd gone to bed. So maybe I'm starting to build this habits after all. 

[Bean Sidhe]

I am so sorry you didn't get the job. It does sound like it may not be worth the hassle, but it still stinks when they were so close to hiring you. 

 

Congrats on winning something. I think it will be a good experiment next challenge to see how the skin stuff goes. Either you will learn you love the stuff and how it makes your skin feel or you wont.

 

I have never met anyone who didn't have their routines messed with by being sick. Hopefully you feel better soon.

[J3NN]

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	20	25	80%
Adulting to do list/read	2	5	40%
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	20	35	57%
Floss	20	35	57%
Mouth rinse	21	14	150%
Mail	18	30	60%
Workout	3	10	30%
Steps (3500)	3,744	3500	107%
Forum Posting	15	17	88%
Bonus
Workout	0	0
MTWGR Doom List	0	0
Write Hawaii Travel Blog	0	0

 

• “Adulting” vs. Reading
  • I finished the Star Crossed series, and I haven't been reading except at lunch, so this hasn't really been a problem.
• Crafting for 5 minutes every day (workout days excluded)
  • I'm most pleased about this one, I've mostly finished my first project, started a second and already have my third picked out. I'm still not doing a great job of remembering every day, but then when I look over my day, I realized that I'm working in crafting without realizing it at all. Like yesterday was my husband's birthday and I made his birthday card instead of buying one.
• Habits
  • I'm doing okay, but not great... but I'm building the habits and that's what counts, so I think I'm on the right path.
• Bonus
  • None at all

[J3NN]

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	23	25	92%
Adulting to do list/read	3	5	60%
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	22	35	63%
Floss	24	35	69%
Mouth rinse	25	14	179%
Mail	20	30	67%
Workout	3	10	30%
Steps (3500)	3,913	3500	112%
Forum Posting	16	17	94%
Bonus
Workout	0	0
MTWGR Doom List	0	0
Write Hawaii Travel Blog	0	0

 

• “Adulting” vs. Reading
  • I did this yesterday with crafting versus chores while watching shows, I didn't get through my whole list of chores, but I did much better and got some done, better than none.
• Crafting for 5 minutes every day (workout days excluded)
  • I'm definitely getting into this habit, it's becoming very easy to do a little something every day. Yesterday I crafted so much I was all crafted out... but I was focusing on Halloween stuff and trying not to wait until the last minute, so it was definitely good and worth it. I made my collar for Professor Sprouts robe and started embroidering it. It was slow going at first but I got the hang of it. It just got too dark for my bad eyes to keep going, so that's going to be a hard one to do in the evenings. I started working on my Havana scarf this weekend too, I've never crocheted with patterns in the stitches, other than lacework, so this is fun and interesting. I feel like mine isn't turning out right, but I can't figure out why, I think it's because I've been staring at it too long and so I can't see the forest for the trees. I'll try to post pictures this week.
• Habits
• • Still going and if I just look at last week, my scores are really good. I'm still struggling with teeth 2x a day, but 5/7 is better than I did a month ago, that's for sure. Gym class starts this week so we'll see if I can get that habit back in line. It's a new session so we could have new class members and my old trainer said she was considering coming back to teach this one, so I'm looking forward to seeing the format this time.
• Bonus
  • None at all

[Bean Sidhe]

It sounds like your doing great. I will say I always love when I realize I have been doing my chores and not even thinking about it. I hope Husband had a good birthday and being able to set yourself a reading time and then just sticking ot that is hard. I am currently working with an Agent on that. She keeps "falling into books" and not getting her jobs done.

 

Keep it up.

[J3NN]

Here's a picture of the start of my beachy Havana scarf. I'm really enjoying the pattern work and hating how work is getting in the way!

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

[Bean Sidhe]

Youngest agent just walked in and saw your scarf and said "that is so cool... I love the middle stripe. Its so bright." So that is 2 in our house that think it looks great.

[J3NN]

Update:

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	24	25	96%
Adulting to do list/read	3	5	60%
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	27	35	76%
Floss	26	35	74%
Mouth rinse	26	14	186%
Mail	23	30	77%
Workout	4	10	40%
Steps (3500)	3,934	3500	112%
Forum Posting	18	17	106%

 

• “Adulting” vs. Reading
  • I'm hardly reading at all, it's kind of crazy. The chores are winning, so that was good. I think I'll lose this for next challenge.
• Crafting for 5 minutes every day (workout days excluded)
  • I had a headache last night so I didn't do anything after making dinner except lay on the couch and watch tv. :/ The second part of the pattern has been released for my crochet-a-long, but I haven't finished the first section yet so I'm getting behind. I also have Halloween work to do. This weekend is going to be very busy crafty-wise.
  • On a side note, we found this store in Anaheim called Geeky Mama's, it was such a neat store. It's a vintage shop, clothing mostly, but they've taken all the clothing and made it geeky. For example, they'll take a vintage dress and add a collar of Harry Potter fabric, or they'll take a man's jacket and add panels of storm troopers, or a tunic, and add ruffly sleeves that are Nightmare before Christmas. They also have art creations that are all our favorite shows. It was just an awesome store and very inspiring for the crafty heart. Here's a great Star Wars example.
• Habits
• • I'm at the point where if I can close out with 80% I'll feel like I'm doing okay, I have 151 points so that's the high end of my B score, so I'm still feeling okay. I'm so much better than I was without tracking and I can feel a difference in places, so it's paying off.
• Bonus
  • None at all - guess I wasn't in it this month.

[J3NN]

So I earned 170 points because I kept going on the mouth rinse far past my commitment (I had some left so I just kept going). Even without that, I got 154 points, so I nailed this challenge... even though I didn't get my workouts in. I was hoping to reach a min. of 80% for each goal I set on here, and I did pretty good there. With my workout, last week I did get back to it, but the second workout really aggravated my plantar fasciitis, so I'm nervous about going back tonight. 

I forgot to weigh in yesterday, but if you count week 0 to week 5,  my weight loss was 1.2 lbs. So I'll count that as a win also.

 

All in all a decent challenge. Onward to the next! 

Final:

	To date	Committed	Reached
Crafting 5 min day	27	25	108%
Adulting to do list/read	3	5	60%
Habits	0
Brush Teeth x2	31	35	87%
Floss	30	35	86%
Mouth rinse	30	14	214%
Mail	26	30	87%
Workout	5	10	50%
Steps (3500)	4,199	3500	120%
Forum Posting	18	17	106%

[Bean Sidhe]

You did great this challenge. Congrats. I am sure you will rock next challenge as well.