Week 5: Fall Focal Points

This week’s “me” day has been taken over by a stat holiday, forcing me to share it with everyone else and re-categorize the day as ‘weekend’. I guess if this is the only bad aspect of having Mondays off then things are still looking pretty good, but it does change the landscape of my week and it definitely cuts into my quiet time for writing.

For the last many months, we’ve been spending most of our weekends working on a big renovation that we were aiming to finish by the end of the summer, so it hasn’t exactly been relaxing. We’re behind schedule, of course, but the end is in sight and I am very excited at the prospect of having my weekends back. (I can really hardly remember a time when I had a span of more than a couple of weekends in a row that didn’t include some kind of home renovation or a bunch of chores, so I guess I’ll have to wait and see if this “free time” ends up living up to my dreams.) This is especially exciting because they’ll be fall weekends.

Fall is my favourite season, for sure. I love that little bit of chill in the air when you head out in the morning; it feels like new beginnings to me.

On top of my general, yearly excitement about fall, I recently read a book called The Renaissance Soul: Life Design for People with Too Many Passions to Pick Just One, and I am feeling really inspired about how I want to spend my upcoming free time. I won’t go into detail about the book, although I really enjoyed it and would recommend it. Essentially it’s about how to incorporate a wide variety of interests into your life and get the most benefit from them, without feeling too frazzled.

My main takeaway was the part about Focal Points. This fall I am planning to conscientiously set aside time to work on 4 different interests that I have been wanting to focus on. I have come up with a ballpark idea of how much time I want to spend on each one, how I am going to incorporate that time into my schedule, and in a general way, I know what I want to accomplish. I’m not planning to be too strict about anything; I just want to start off with some guidelines.

My 4 Focal Points are going to be: Writing, Swing Dancing, Stained Glass and Secret Design Project. Here is what I have in mind for each:

Writing: Aside from this blog, which is an early start on my fall Focal Point plan, I also want to write some stories. I wrote one kids book story for a project that I’m working on with my Shiftyville partner, but that is in her court now, as my part is done. I did enjoy writing it though, so I want to try to write a few more.

If you think this is weird because you know me as a dedicated childfree person who doesn’t really enjoy being around kids, I don’t really have a good response. It’s a fun genre.

Swing Dancing: It doesn’t take any self-discipline to go social dancing once or twice a week, but I would like to attempt to actually improve my dancing by practicing outside of that, and as almost 6 years of not doing so shows, that must take some effort.

Michel and I recently compiled our video recaps from all the dance workshops we’ve attended and there are more than 60 of them! Most of them we haven’t looked at since the day they were recorded. We have tons of material to choose from, it’s just a matter of making the effort to do it.

The one hitch in this plan (that I just thought of as I was writing that last paragraph) is that I was imagining us practicing in the amazing studio we converted our garage into. Unfortunately, we have yet to do that and it’s not going to happen by this fall, so I might have to think on the logistics of this one a bit more…

Stained Glass: I spent my last year of art school working in stained glass, and then continued to do it as a hobby for a number of years afterward, as well as working at a decorative glass studio for 5 years before I went to school for interior design. It’s been at least 10 years since I’ve done any stained glass work and I miss it.

The goal for this one is to make a fun, colourful floral panel to replace the boring rain glass in our front door. I will probably start off with one or two smaller projects first, to get my feet wet. I am prepared for the possibility that I won’t enjoy this as a hobby anymore, and that would be fine, but I’m really hoping that it’s interesting and challenging enough that I’ll at least get the door panel done before I call it a day. Best case scenario is that I love it again and then I’ll just keep going.

Secret Design Project: While I work out the kinks on this one, I don’t want to say too much, but it’s an idea I have for a side business. Interior design related, but not the full spectrum of services. I’ll leave it at that for now.

OK, so maybe “free time” isn’t what I’m looking forward to as much as not having a big project with a deadline hanging over me. If this all backfires and I end up spending the entire fall sitting on the sofa knitting, I would probably be okay with that too.