Category: Focus

One Stitch at a Time ~ I Will Not Be Defeated!

“To conquer frustration, one must remain intensely focused on the outcome, not the obstacles.” ― T.F. Hodge

Utilizing my OLW to aid me with a dilemma today, so I sought out my list of focus quotes and the above fits today perfectly.

So I’m dealing with a little frustration today, and for the last couple of weeks but I am going to keep moving because the outcome – a pair of comfortable and fashionable socks is on the horizon.

Right now I’m trying to work through picking up a dropped stitch. All kind thoughts and prayers welcome!

I will not be defeated!!!

Sock Euphoria turns to Drama

My early week euphoria has been replaced by drama! My last post proved to be premature and  I believe I jinxed myself because not long after that posting I realized I had dropped a couple of stitches!

If you  recall,  part of my motivation for working on this project is my OLW – FOCUS, so instead of being defeated I  stepped away from the project for the day which turned into several. Feeling confident that I had enough time to FOCUS I picked up the socks again last night. After a few hours of knitting and feeling satisfied with my progress, another error was located!

Just as I was about to complete the shaping of the toes and move on to the heel, I realized I had once again goofed and needed to figure out how to correct my mistake! I tried to use my “phone a friend” to help me out of the dilemma, but she was no help.

Choosing not to be deflated or defeated I took a shot of what I had created and resigned myself to the fact that I would have to start over again! A more seasoned knitter would probably be able to determine where the mistake was made and just back track to that spot – that does not describe me, so it’s back to the drawing board!

There is always a light at the end of the tunnel and my light came in the form of another outlet for my creative energies. One is taking the time to create this post and the second is to edit some photos, and hopefully create some art that I’ll share here.

For now I ask that you take a look at my progress and send messages of good will my way as I again start the journey of creating these socks – two at a time!

An almost complete toe! Back to the drawing board!

I’m Ecstatic ~ So Beyond!

I am jumping with joy right now and I hope you can just feel the sense of FOCUS and ACCOMPLISHMENT racing through my body right now! Yippee!! Yay! Go Shelley, go Shelley!

I am my own personal cheering squad right now because I have reached a milestone in a project that has beaten me up over the last several days! What project you ask – Knitting Two Socks at a Time! Yeah, it’s nothing major in the grand scheme of things, I have not invented some new cure, or solved the world’s problems, but right now at this moment I have solved one of my problems!

Two socks! One needle! Success!

In comparison, the shot below is what this project looked like a week ago, and a couple of times after that but I chose not to document those near-misses!

ERROR – Conjoined Socks

If you have followed this space at all you have read about my OLW – Focus and my plans to work on doing just that this year. Well last month I thought a lot about my word and in many ways I accomplished my task, but there is still a lot of work left in order to unequivocally say that this is the year of FOCUS.

Our prompt for the month of March is to take little actions to give life to our words and today I am working on knitting these socks as my action – and more importantly getting beyond the toes! I’ll post my progress tomorrow, because I plan to have these babies with me all day!

What happens when you focus!

2012 is my year of Focus and boy has this been an adventure and we are only 23 days into the year! As I allow my chosen word to marinate and resonate with me I am finding that focus is a very broad and general term.

When I decided to choose a word focus just kept coming to me because while I don’t think I have a problem focusing all the time, I can get sort of scatterbrained – jumping from one thing to the next. This happens primarily with creative ventures and I think that’s because I have developed a number of interests over the years. So I was/am determined to focus on the key ventures and see them to fruition.

To that end I have enrolled in Kim Klassen’s Beyond Layers e-course. Now one of the difficulties I have found with e-courses is that life just gets in the way of creative endeavors, but I’m determined that will not be the case with Beyond or with Ali Edwards One Little Word e-course.

So at least once or twice a week I make sure to check in on both sites and to produce a little something related to the prompts.

These are examples from last week’s Beyond Layers photo prompt. The goal was to take a simple image and add a layer, but always keep it simple. I think I nailed it! What say you?

Daisies to brighten your day!
Another take on the daisies

For the One Little Word January prompt you are encouraged to take a self-portrait or have someone take a photo of you. I had not gotten around to this portion of the prompt, so when Kim’s prompt suggested either using a self-portrait or something else I decided to try both for my “keep it simple” assignment.

Selfie leaving white space
Still leaving white space, but a fuller view

Not sure what I think of the selfies, but they’re done! Will do more as the weeks progress.
Thank you so much for stopping by and feel free to leave a comment.

A Day of Remembrance

Today many in the U.S. celebrated the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by attending various events or by offering a service to their communities. What a fitting tribute to a man who died in service to others – to give of oneself for the betterment of others.

I unfortunately took today to reflect on myself and try to get my “house” in order so that I might be a better servant. This year I have started a new practice of choosing a single word to lead my life. This started as a plan to infuse some life into my creative endeavors and my work on “Plan B” but is involving into a life plan.

A day of remembrance and reflection in front of the fire.

The warm glow of a fire.

My chosen word is focus and according to Merriam-Webster this is what it means:

fo·cused also fo·cussed fo·cus·ing also fo·cus·singDefinition of FOCUS
transitive verb
1a : to bring into focusb : to adjust the focus of (as the eye or a lens)
2: to cause to be concentrated <focused their attention on the most urgent problems>
3: to bring (as light rays) to a focus : concentrate
intransitive verb
1: to come to a focus : converge
2: to adjust one’s eye or a camera to a particular range
3: to concentrate attention or effort
— fo·cus·able adjective
— fo·cus·er noun
 See focus defined for English-language learners »
Examples of FOCUS

  1. She has an amazing ability to focus for hours at a time.
  1. I wasn’t able to focus the camera.
  1. I wasn’t able to get the camera to focus.

First Known Use of FOCUS
1775
Related to FOCUS
Synonyms: center, fasten, concentrate, rivet, train

As I take my journey with this word I will use it as an intransitive verb, most specifically it is my goal this year to concentrate attention or effort on being a better me in 2012. This means in a nutshell that I plan to look inside and make the changes I need in order to have a positive effect on my personal, professional and creative lives. 
So today I worked on my plans for improvement this year, because Dr. King had a dream that he worked hard for and gave the ultimate sacrifice for; therefore it is only fitting that I work hard on my dreams while remembering him.