BHAGs

My dad uses the term BHAG at his job-- it means Big Hairy Audacious Goal. That has been running through my mind lately as I've tried to finish all of the goals I set for 2013. I am proud to say that this year has been my best ever as far as setting and accomplishing goals! Finally at almost 25 years old I think I've got a system down that works for me.

BHAG #1: Read the Old Testament from cover to cover. This took reading 3 pages/day, which I wasn't always perfect at, but I caught up by reading like crazy the last week or so and I will be done today! Hooray!

BHAG #2: Read 24 books. I actually read 13.5 books, but I'm not beating myself up about it. After all, there are a lot of books in the Old Testament, right? I can always count those. And if you're curious, I'm not going to set this goal again for next year. Maybe 12 books (one a month) instead of 24.

BHAG #3: Finish Nana and Botz's quilt. Can't remember if I mentioned this before, but it was their Christmas preset for last year. I partly set it as a goal for this year so that I would be even more hasty to finish it. The top was finished to present to them by last Christmas, but then I had to quilt and bind it, which required a trip to Lufkin {thanks Mom!}, so I think I was finally done around the middle of February.

pic stolen from Aunt Sheila's instagram!

BHAG #4: Open an Etsy shop. This happened in February, and the shop promptly died in June or July when I let all my listings expire. Thank you pregnancy. But I'm thinking about re-opening it in January, because I've still been doing little side jobs, like these lovely boot cuffs below. 9 pair in the last week, thankyouverymuch.

BHAG #5: Well, I can't say much about this one, because it happens to be a Christmas gift for a certain someone who may or may not read this in the next week! But it was a big one. And I finished it yesterday.

BHAG #6: Make Steph's blanket. I wrote about the Ann Perkins Blanket back HERE. That was definitely big, hairy, and audacious for me!

Anyway, hooray for goals. I think the key for me was not setting very many! Ha. But they were mostly attainable and things I was excited about. I had smaller goals for each month until about July- again, when pregnancy sickness hit. But overall, I'm going to count this year as a success!!

Picture overload for no reason

I can't say really what we've been up to lately- there's not much to report!. Nothing too crazy or out of the ordinary happening here. Just the regular awesome things. Lots of pool time and outside time and random fun here and there. Aaand... here come the pics. You knew it was coming, right? These are all in reverse chronological order, but I'm so excited that they came straight from my phone that I don't even care to fix it!

I forgot the swim diapers... look at that badonkadonk!

Baby got back

This is as involved as she gets with the splashpad... such a people-watcher

A recent Etsy sale, this one for a dog's Halloween costume!

Lots of pool time at Gigi's

Celebrated National Running Day with these ladies 

Dance parties (and consequently fuzzy pictures)

A little art project for Millie's room

Lots of time at the park

She's soaking up every minute she can with Uncle AJ before he leaves!

Dunking with Uncle AJ. Also, my first animation ever! I like watching the floaties move :)

Millie lines up all her bath toys on the edge and then "feeds" the animals with a spoon.

Millie tried chicken fingers... this was definitely picture-worthy!!

Our week, in pictures

*Some are from instagram, some are exclusive to the blog. Lucky you.

Millie and I accidentally matched

We worked on drinking from cups

And sometimes it wasn't successful

I taped a lot of book pages

Millie fell asleep on my shoulder- first time in probably a year. All my anger towards the long wait at the Wal-Mart photo department immediately went away!

We ate lots of yogurt

And peanut butter chocolate chip cookies

Filled my cart to the brim (and then some) at the dollar store

We had Iron Chef at our house, forcing me to clean (whoa!!)

I attempted a bear hat

Found this (and had a heart attack)

I cut these from the rose bush right outside of Millie's bedroom window

Almost bought this (but I resisted, honey! Though it was 50% off. Hello.)

I had a car full of balloons after a Young Women activity

Millie didn't mind one bit

We played with princesses and sang the Ariel song (aaaahhhhhhh)

Our 3 hibiscus bushes (shrubs? plants? I don't know) bloomed and our house looks tropical!

The Ann Perkins blanket

When Millie was born, Steph and Andrew gave us a ton of baby gear. A bumbo, bouncer, swing, wipes, diapers, clothes, etc. you name it, we probably got some from them! I told her that I would crochet her a blanket in exchange.

Well, Millie is almost 15 months old now, and I just mailed it off to her! Talk about procrastinating. I am the queen. 

The inspiration for this blanket was Ann Perkins' blanket on Parks and Rec:

Steph picked the colors she wanted, I learned how to crochet a granny square, and then we were in business. It started off slowwwwly. We decided on the latter of these two types of square:

There were 8 different colors of yarn, 12 different squares, 8 of each square. 8 sets of squares each had 4 colors in them, and then the last 4 sets were solid. I modified THIS pattern for each square (changing colors every round), then used THIS method of stitching them together. Throw on 2 rows for a border and that was it! Much faster to type it than to do it. The blanket took me about a month and a half total. Most of the time, you'd find me crocheting on the bed/couch with a movie/show on. Thanks to crocheting, I got through the Everybody Loves Raymond series and 1.5 seasons of Project Runway in addition to keeping up on all the regulars. Lest you think me a neglectful mother, I should add that all this was done during naps and after bedtime, before Tyler came home from work (a tiny benefit to his late work hours).

Tyler was playing with some cartoon photo app

Before it was put together

Stitching it together

The border

Finished product!

If you're curious, I used Yarn Bee's Effervesce line. The colors are Shadow, Niagara, Morning Glow, Petal, Razzleberry, Creamsicle, Willowy, and Sardust. The yarn was SUPER soft and great to work with!

So that is the story of the Ann Perkins blanket. And of the last 2 months of my life! I can't wait to see it on Steph's couch. Thanks to Steph for her patience with my slowness, and thanks to Tyler for his patience with my neglect of household duties and with my yarn being everywhere all the time!