I am working a more on number 1 (write one book). Carpe Noctem is really becoming more fun the more I write.

I have booked a west end show, so that makes 2 a certainty.

The first to be completed! The successful goal was to complete one knitting project, the baby things for my work colleague is the first thing I can tick off although I am sure I will keep knitting more things this year in general.

 

24/7 Goals:

1. Write one book
2. See a west end show
3. Write a second book
4. Create/keep a writing schedule that works for me
5. Keep working on arappleby.com
6. Work with an agent/publisher
7. Complete one knitting project
8. Complete some crafting cross stitch project
9. Keep doing daily positive aspects
10. Complete one minor savings goal
11. Get Christmas wrapped up early (ie. Halloween)
12. Learn a new song on guitar
13. Work on the schedule and make it work for this year
14. Do another “on the fly” project
15. Draw or sketch something to a point that you are happy with it
16. Learn how to do winged eyeliner freehand
17. Win the lottery
18. Dress up and go out for an evening
19. Buy a Kat Von D eyeliner
20. Read five books this year minimum
21. Get a tattoo (either finish one or get a whole new one)
22. Create a budget that works really well
23. Go ice skating at least once
24. Enjoy 2019 as much as you possibly can!

I hope you all had a lovely Valentines or Galentines or whatever you wanted to call it this year. I spent Valentines day this year sat in front of the screen doing writing! Which was if I am honest long overdue. I procrastinated a lot recently. But we celebrated Valentines day a couple of days earlier, for those interested, we had a great day playing Mario Party and we even cooked a delicious dinner, and we watched a nice movie, and decided on an adventure together this year…

So I hope you are liking the new projects on here, knitting and wording alike. It seems this years writing trend for me has been the new Carpe Noctem story and Knitter Knatter although admittedly I haven’t exactly done much writing for the big project although there is a lot of change in the air for it.

I have been really enjoying writing Carpe Noctem but more so the fun of having an endgame to be working towards. It’s not got the same sort of certainty as the big project. Mind you, having thought about it, it doesn’t have to. I have found Knitter Knatter a bit tricky mainly because stopping and taking the odd pictures when I remember that I am meant to be doing it messes up with the flow but it is interesting to see it materialising from nothing. Though it feels unusual to write about knitting in any way other than a passing comment.

The writing schedule is still pretty easy to procrastinate on so I might need an entirely new tactic… Just got to work out the best way to move forward.

February has felt a bit more stressful than usual. I would guess putting too much pressure on myself for things beyond my control. Plus beating myself up for not writing as much or as often as I believe I should be. I love writing, but it is easy to give into the feeling of being tired. A distinct lack of energy to do anything. I’m working on that.

That no more spending rule didn’t go well this month, simply because there’s too much fun to be had. Maybe next month, there’s no Valentines day in March so more chance then…

I hope I stick to the “schedule” for March and manage to smash a few goals.

Nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page…

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA

xxx

Well so far I am working on 1. write one book already, and part of that means 4. create/keep a writing schedule that works for me is a given. Hopefully this new balance will help with number 5. keep working on arappleby.com to really make this more of what I had thought it could be.

Lets see how next month will go but there are a few goals going at once this month to see what I can start to tick off one by one. fingers crossed.

24/7 Goals:

1. Write one book
2. See a west end show
3. Write a second book
4. Create/keep a writing schedule that works for me
5. Keep working on arappleby.com
6. Work with an agent/publisher
7. Complete one knitting project
8. Complete some crafting cross stitch project
9. Keep doing daily positive aspects
10. Complete one minor savings goal
11. Get Christmas wrapped up early (ie. Halloween)
12. Learn a new song on guitar
13. Work on the schedule and make it work for this year
14. Do another “on the fly” project
15. Draw or sketch something to a point that you are happy with it
16. Learn how to do winged eyeliner freehand
17. Win the lottery
18. Dress up and go out for an evening
19. Buy a Kat Von D eyeliner
20. Read five books this year minimum
21. Get a tattoo (either finish one or get a whole new one)
22. Create a budget that works really well
23. Go ice skating at least once
24. Enjoy 2019 as much as you possibly can!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

I hope the first month of 2019 has treated you all really well.

As you can see there has been a little change to the content of arappleby.com after a lot of consideration I decided to make this site much more me. If that makes sense, so to me that meant including some of my other passions, namely knitting at the moment. It’s something I do to relax but it’s also something I am proud of even if I am still learning after nearly 20 years on and off, new patterns, stitches and difficulties. I am still passionate about writing, without a doubt.

The new feature,  Carpe Noctem has been exciting to write and I am still going with it, I really enjoy the new way of testing out the waters on new techniques and ideas that I am working on. Speaking of writing… I am trying a new schedule, or at least I am hoping to come up with making this a much more manageable year for writing. I think last year I set lots of expectations for myself that I couldn’t meet because I made the goals too hard to achieve realistically. That of course had a knock on how much time I would spend doing something that was meant to be fun that ended up stressing me out. So this year, my two set writing days I am going to split a bit more evenly between my projects. Today is obviously website day!

Well I had the start of January off of work, the first week at least. I spent it relaxing, I didn’t write once, but I did have some quality time with my other half which was great. We managed to spend time cooking together and getting to relax, it was also his birthday! Which was lots of fun, he had a good day which was all I wanted for him. He got a bit spoiled but isn’t that what birthdays are for.

Back to work blues hit in pretty hard. I’ll be honest, I want to spend more time writing, but I need to afford to live a life. It was ok a few years ago when I didn’t have these same goals and things I needed to save for, I could make the sacrifices that I now can’t afford to. But also at the same time writing was largely a form of therapy and I desperately needed that time. This year is going to be all about finding my balance. Writing and work.

I’ve done a little bit of writing this month which compared to the past few months with all the Christmas hubbub has been a good change, not at the writing rate I want to be this year but I am making progress onto the amount of time and quality I am aiming for. A regular set day or two for writing a week is a good thing.

This month has really triggered a “no more spending” ruling after looking at the things we are doing this year… lets see how that lasts… Time to start saving up again.

Nothing changes here in terms of throwing plugs in for my amazon books on my author page… I haven’t lost my hope just yet.

May luck and adventure be on your side!

ARA

xxx