Goal Progress: Week 1 - Mint Green Sewing Machine

In case you missed it, I came up with Four Simple Goals last week to work on by the end of this year. The concept was inspired by Elsie’s post on A Beautiful Mess- I loved the idea and I decided to come up with my own goals, which are:

Here’s my progress report for the week:

Goal #1. Make all of my own Christmas gifts

So far, this goal is in the planning stages. I’ve been checking out Pinterest and my favorite blogs for ideas and tutorials. Here are some of my favorites so far:

messenger bag

potholder

map magnets

Goal #2. Try a new recipe every week

I did it! This week I broke away from my typical recipes and made something I’ve never tried before. And guess what…it was good! And healthy too!

I had some quinoa lying around and I had never tried it before, so I decided to make some kind of vegetarian dish with it. I looked for recipes online, but none really sounded good to me, so I ended up making up my own. If you would like to re-create it, here’s the recipe:

Quinoa-Barley Salad with Tomato, Red Onion, and Feta

Ingredients:
          1 cup quinoa (dry)
          1/4 cup pearl barley (dry)
          10 grape tomatoes, cut into pieces
          1 small red onion, chopped
          cilantro, chopped
juice from 1 lemon
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
          3-4 tablespoons olive oil
          1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
          salt and pepper to taste

Step 1: Cook the quinoa and barley according to directions on package, drain, and let cool. Combine them in one bowl.

Step 2: Add olive oil, lemon juice, vinegar, and salt and pepper and mix well. Adjust amounts to your taste!

Step 3: Add the tomato, onion, cilantro, and feta and mix well. Refrigerate until chilled and then enjoy!

I’m not sure how many servings this recipe makes, but I know it kept me in lunches for about a week! It seems to keep well in the refrigerator and it was nice to have something that didn’t require heating up.

Goal #3. Get rid of excess stuff

So far, I’ve mostly been sorting through and organizing my things and deciding what to do with them. I’m kind of a visual person, so having things sorted into clear groups really helps me. Last weekend, I was hard at work doing this:

Phillip and I bought this shelf last week at Costco and it has come in really handy. He and I have both been selling stuff online and it’s gotten a little out of control with the stuff everywhere. Now that things are somewhat organized, I’m hoping to work on taking pics and listing a lot of new items in my Etsy shop this weekend, including vintage clothes and some of my fabric. Stay tuned!

Goal #4: Use re-usable shopping bags.

I’m planning on making some of these as soon as I finish getting my sewing area set up:

(Click pictures for link to pattern)

As you may have noticed, though I promised a goal progress report after one week, It’s actually been more like two weeks since my original post. I apologize for that delay, it has been a busy couple of weeks for me. Part of it is because I’m going to be selling at my first craft fair in November! Despite how long I’ve been sewing a crafting, this is the first time for me to sell at a fair and I’m both excited and nervous and have been frantically sewing to get enough inventory made for the sale. Anyway, I promise I’ll keep you all updated on that and post some sneak peeks of what I make!