The Well-Appointed Desk

Tina:

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Ana:

Thanks to some advice from the fine folks at Wonder Fair, Bob picked up a few lovely stationery items for me. The staff advised him, “I don’t think she has this..”, “I have never seen a review for this ink…” and so forth. I was as tickled by the watchful eye of the Wonder Fair staff as I was by the actual gifts. I got two small notebooks/sketchbooks (both Clairefontaine paper, reviews soon) and a packet of Kaweco highlighter ink. I also got my very own Gelli Plate and Soft Rubber Brayer and I’m looking forward to making lots of textural papers for collage (one of my goals for 2019).

I cannot contain my holiday enthusiasm to just stationery. This year, my darling husband got me a Sphero BB-8 to keep my R2 company. I love getting a toy for the holidays, it makes me feel like a kid again. I spent hours on the floor racing them both around and entertaining (?)  my cats.

Laura:

We actually didn’t do much in the way of Christmas gifts this year since we’re saving our pennies to travel in 2019. I did make one splurge on myself, a Fringe Supply special edition Field Bag. I mentioned before I was lusting for one in a different colorway and I couldn’t help myself. It’s already got a knitting project in it!

Not a gift, but I spent the holidays playing with a Karas Kustoms Starliner (review forthcoming). So that’s what’s up in inky news!

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Of the four ladies who write for The Well-Appointed Desk, I am the last to share my New Year’s resolutions.  Because of this, I was able to read through those of Tina, Laura, and Ana (secretly hoping that their resolutions would inspire me to figure out what I’m going to do!).  I loved each of their ideas.  However, I felt overwhelmed thinking about adding resolutions on top of what I already have going on in my life!  How on earth could I add more?

So I sat down to write out my thoughts on this.  Of course, I would love to lose weight, get in shape, eat better and have a perfectly organized house! But with a chaotic household with four kids, two cats, and a dog, the house is usually in disarray, I have no time for working out and I end up eating leftovers for most meals.  So those resolutions are more or less broken before I can even write them down.

What I want for the new year is to be calmer, happier, more focused, and less distracted by the stuff that doesn’t matter.  Usually, I go about this by trying to get rid of the unimportant stuff in my life so I can make room for the things that are important. But when I’m not looking, that open space fills right back up with more junk.

I started to wonder if maybe I should focus on the things in my life that are important first, then trim away the things that are distracting me from what I actually want. Maybe the space that is made in this fashion will be filled with what I am focusing on instead of junk. If it doesn’t fall under one of my big three categories, I can push it to the back of the To Do list.

For my new year, I want to focus on Family & Friends, Work, and The Fun Stuff

I look forward to the start of the New Year and my opportunity to re-evaluate my goals and plans for the coming year. For me, it’s about goal-setting and the like rather than giant RESOLUTIONS.  I like to go through my mental bucket list and see if there’s anything I can accomplish in the coming year.

I’ve been so busy with work that its been hard to focus on the “what’s next”.  It took a few days for me to be able to decompress and reflect. This year was way too busy and not keeping track of things in a physical way created a feeling that I had lost whole months. Does this happen to you?

There are a few things that have topped my list though.

Get back on my bike. I love riding bicycles. I’m not an athlete about it. I just like the feeling of pedalling, the breeze in my face and the quietness of being on a machine that is human-powered. Bicycling has the added benefit or being a physical activity which I need to do more often. I sit on my duff way too much.

Find a planner/calendar system and stick with it. I am often asked to review planners which makes it easy for me to jump from system to system and then abandon them. I’d like to stick to a system for a whole year and be better about tracking day-to-day events. I tried Austin Kleon’s system (also this link and this one) for a bit in the past and I like the concept of it but need to find a different way to keep track. I need to integrate it into my daily carry somehow. Whether this is three notebooks in a cover (like a Traveler’s Notebook or a Roterfaden Taschenbegleiter) or three separate books, I don’t know. If anyone has better recommendations, let me know.

Make time for personal creativity. Last year, between work and my blog, I didn’t have much time for anything else. I didn’t have time to knit, read or do any of the other creative endeavors I wanted to explore. This year, I want to carve out time for this since it’s important to me. I have a dress half-sewn, the start of material for collage projects and many, many balls of yarn patiently waiting to be knit into something.

I’m sure I have smaller goals I’d like to accomplish, but these are the big ones. What are your goals or plans for 2019?

by Tina Koyama

I have only one resolution for 2019, and it’s the same as the one I made (and kept – at least halfway) a year ago: Clear out my studio of all unneeded art and craft materials, office supplies and stationery items. Yes, I still hoard use art and craft materials, office supplies and stationery items, but my needs and interests change. Last year I filled many bins with books and craft supplies that I hadn’t used in a long time and hauled them all to appropriate charities and nonprofit organizations. I felt so much lighter, and I made space for current collections and other interests. After doing the job on half my studio, though, I ran out of steam, so I’m looking forward to finishing the job on the other side of the room in early 2019.