Planning for 2012

When my husband requested a joint calendar-session a few days after Christmas, my heart sank a bit. I had only received my beautiful new handmade calendar from Susanne Muuss the week before Christmas, and all my commitments hadn’t been entered into it yet. So although I kept track of them on a separate sheet of paper, I hadn’t really done the definite step of ‘making them mine’. 

Notes for next year's planning
waiting to be transferred to my calendar...

Add to that the fact that I still haven’t got quite accustomed to having to talk with my husband’s calendar when I am thinking about dates and commitments on my side, and you might understand my feeling of discomfort. He is very cooperative in accomodating my various activities and commitments. But nevertheless, for quite a while our calendar sessions tended to turn into slightly strained relations because I would have mentioned a date, he had not had his calendar with him, but I felt safe, because after all I had communicated that specific date, but it had not found a way into his calendar...

Anyway, this time we did fine. Everything I had told him before was actually noted in his calendar, the one new one still fit in without any problem, and the one where I had already messed up earlier will somehow be manageable, although with some difficulties where we need to make special arrangements for child care for part of my absence.

However, this conversation led to a new state of awareness on my part. My God, I hadn’t quite realized how much I had heaped onto my plate for 2012!

But there it showed up, newly put down: several weekends with teaching commitments in the first half of the year, then add to that my participation at the German Quilting Guild’s Patchwork Festival in Einbeck as a vendor with my fabrics, and my planned trip to Birmingham in August. And a solo exhibit in Ste. Marie in September – where they require you to show only new pieces. Certainly a legitimate request that one doesn’t put up only old stuff. Although I am quite sure that many people who will be visiting there will not have seen much if any of my things before. But it leads to quite a stressful situation for the person exhibiting: You have to produce quite a lot in a relatively short time, and everything has to be good...

But the good news about this is that I won’t ever be bored until the middle of September. Focussing will be the main topic of the year! And I can catch up on sleep afterwards.