It’s been 364 days since my Quest46 started.  {If you’re new to my blog, Quest46 is a group of 46 goals I gave myself for one year following my 46th birthday.  You can read about it here.}

Observations after a full year minus one day:

• Time is an elusive thing.  A year feels like an eternity and yet you blink and it’s over. I’m learning to be grateful for everyday.
• While I didn’t complete everything, I did more than I would have had I not made the list.
• It was a great exercise in giving myself permission to change things around because life has a way of getting in the middle of your plans.
• I had a difficult time just sticking to my list.  As I remarked in an earlier post, crafting opportunities are glittery gifts from angels.  You just can’t say no. 😉
• My ability to conceive the magnitude of some projects needs improvement.
• I have loved this Quest and am eager to start Quest47!  Tune in tomorrow.

Here’s my final recap of Quest46.

1. Memorize Psalm 91.  I learned that memorization ain’t my thing.  However, what I did love was reading this Psalm every day and meditating on the words.  I may not be able to repeat it back to you, but in a year’s time, I’ve come to know the depth and breadth of God’s love for and protection of me in new and amazing ways.
2. Lose the rest of my weight and increase my fitness.   This was a major struggle this year and it’s not for the lack of trying.  I developed tendinitis in both feet, a bone spur on one of my ankles and rode the roller coaster of blood sugar as a diabetic.  While I didn’t budge on the scale, I did lose a clothing size (yea!).  I maintained my exercise by walking the dogs everyday and doing a variety of exercises here and there.  Can you tell I’m not a fan of exercise.  I know I need to be so I’m changing things up a bit and trying some different tactics.  We’ll see.
3. Find and implement new ways to honor Mike daily.  You’d have to ask Mike if I was successful in this. 😉
4. Make albums for each dog.   I did not finish this, but still want to.  I have the albums and the pictures all sorted.    
5. Crochet a Ripple Blanket.  This was one of those, “Oh, it will only take a week” projects.  I’m still not finished, but will finish.  
6. Plant a vegetable garden.  This did not happen.  Maybe this year.  Maybe not.
7. Journal 52.  While I didn’t do this every week, the process introduced me to the world of art journals.  What I learned is that I need to be better at being okay with crappy looking pages.  That’s a struggle for me, but I think if I learned that it would be a good thing for my creativity.  Listening to this podcast from the Paperclipping Roundtable inspired me to soldier on with this project.  It’s a really good podcast – give it a listen.
8. Read 24 new books.  The 21 books I read:
The God Ask
Manage Your Day to Day
Unbroken
The Go-Getter
Yes Please
Scary Close
Aunt Dimity’s Death
Platform
Death of a Snob
Death of a Perfect Wife
Death of an Outsider
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
Undone: A Story of Making Peace with an Unexpected Life
Virals
Murder Most Frothy
Decaffeinated Corpse
French Pressed
Espresso Shot
The Signature of All Things
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
All the Light We Cannot See

9. Make a scarf for Margaret.  Here’s the pattern, and it is finished!  
10. Make birthday cards for family and friends.  Finished.
11. Send two “thinking of you gifts” every month.  I managed to complete 11 of these.  I still love the idea, but I think I’ll do less.  I didn’t have trouble thinking of people or things to send them… it didn’t always fit into our budget.
12. Complete 6 online classes.  This did not happen.  I’m still going to try next year, though.
13. Start a 5 year – daily, one-line journal.  Loved doing this and will continue.
14. Learn how to make paper.  This did not happen and the intrigue has left me.  Maybe it will come back in the future.
15. Make Christmas stockings.  Didn’t happen last year, but plan for this Christmas. Maybe…
16. Learn 12 new recipes.  I made 4 new recipes. #1.  Pumpkin Pie (low carb)  #2  Creme Brulee (low carb)  #3   Broccoli, Ham, Mozzarella Egg Bake  #4 Ham, Onion, Pepper crustless Quiche  I learned that I’m not a very adventurous cook.
17. Learn how to weave.  I learned very basic weaving and loved it.
18. Record 12 card making video tutorials.  Did not do this.  Still thinking about it for next year.
19. Make a smaller soap box and make different scented soaps every month.  I made a soap box out of cardboard and one batch.  Lavender Rose. Yummmmm…  This will be a project I continue because we love handmade soap.  
20. Paint Kitchen Cabinets.  This will happen next year.  
21. Learn how to dye with natural ingredients.  Still interested in learning how to dye, but not so much with natural ingredients.  I’m more into bold, bright colors and that’s hard to achieve with natural dyes.  
22. Work 52 items off “My Todo’s” Board on Pinterest. Completed 66.  #1 I made paper beads using old books, bead cores and Utee Ultra Thick Embossing Resin.  #2   I made dog collars for a friend’s dog.  #3  Homemade Soft Scrub Cleaner #4  Made Valentine heart wreath with dyed coffee filters.  #5   Made homemade mosquito repellent.  Smelled good, but didn’t work.  #6   Made dog chew toys.  These were super popular.  In my {Make Madness} blog series, I checked off 31 items. In my {DIY From Scratch} blog series, I checked off 29 items.  This was a no-brainer project for me.  
23. Make mini-albums of dogs I dog-sit for Christmas presents.  I’ve changed my mind several times with this project. I’m back to doing the mini-album idea, but it won’t happen for another year.  Too.many.dogs.
24. Make Mike a Dr. Who Quilt.  Have cut the panels, downloaded the patterns and found my embroidery hoops.  Will happen this year as part of a larger project for Mike.
25. Start a fairy garden.  Didn’t actually do this, but I  did start a Pinterest board to curate ideas.  Hopefully this next year.
26. Paint patio furniture.  Didn’t happen, but plan to this next year.
27. Plant a cutting garden.  This is one of those projects that lives in my mind and not in reality.  It’s a wonderful thought, but not very practical for our backyard.  
28. Make dog biscuit gift bags for Christmas.  This was going to be a Valentine gift, but that didn’t happen.  It will happen this Christmas 2015.
29. Complete all the achievements of the 7 Minute Workout.  Started this, but didn’t continue.  I’m willing to concede that my tendinitis played a huge role in me not continuing.  It’s not an excuse, but it is my reason.
30. Beat my time in the Urban Cow Half Marathon.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to do this.  My feet are much better, but long distances do nothing to help the tendinitis.  I haven’t given up on the idea, but right now I need to find other ways to exercise.
31. Finish Central Park Hoodie.  I will finish this when I have the Ripple Blanket done. 
32. Read through the Bible. 1 chapter per day.  Started this on January 1, 2015. Up to 1 Chronicles 26.
33. Make birds for wall tree.  The birds arrived!!!  18 of them.  Check them out.
34. Declutter and decorate Master Bedroom.  Started decluttering using the method found in the book “The life-changing magic of tidying up” by Marie Kondo.  Have not decorated though.
35. Make Cloth Art Journal.  Using my planner idea, I made an art journal cover and filled it with blank art journal books.  I’ll be sharing more about this in the future.
36. Learn to knit socks.  Found the pattern and the class.  Will wait until Central Park Hoodie is finished (31).
37. Work on Project Life every week.  While I’ve kept track of journaling and photos throughout the year, I haven’t finalized the deal by actually placing them in an album.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with this.
38. Transcribe Da’s tapes.  This is a project that I delegated.  I transferred the audio files to cd’s and my mom listened to them and transcribed them.  Now I just have to decide how I want to proceed.
39. Make dog beds for my Etsy shop. Completely revised how I make these beds.  Originally I made various sizes of dog beds and also made the custom inserts.  Sadly I couldn’t make people happy with the custom inserts (too flat, too full), so I decided to design a single size dog bed that can accommodate two standard pillows.  I tested my pillows on the dogs that I watch and they all gravitated to the larger bed regardless of the size of the dog.  Everyone’s happy!  Donated a bed to a pet rescue for an auction.
40. Pray for my nieces and nephews.  Everyday.  I’m really enjoyed this and plan to continue.
41. Add a new item every month to Etsy shop to build variety and inventory.  This is an area where I have great ideas in my head, but haven’t translated them into reality.  Need to really work on improving in this area.
42. Put together a team for the local SPCA Doggie Dash in June.  Did not happen.  Maybe in the future. 
43. Photo-a-day using the Collect App.  Love this app.  Here’s the year minus November 2015.

44. Read Pride and Prejudice.  This was not one of the books I read.  Still want to.
45. Knit 1 square per week for Knit-a-square. I managed to knit 12.  Not a very good offering.  Will try better this year.
46. Be a better blogger and blog-reader. Post consistently. Comment regularly.  Work on this everyday.  Really pleased with my {31 Days of Cards} Series, my {Make Madness} Series, my {DIY From Scratch} Series and my {Bird, Bird, Bird is the Word} Series.  Although I love the continuity of series, I burn myself out really quickly.  I also struggle with the fear of boring people to tears with my posts.  Not giving up though.

Until next time,

We’re really exhausted.  A whole year to you is seven to us.  And you’re telling us we’re going to do this all over again plus one.  We’d better finish our naps so we can be ready for Quest47!