July Goals

Happy Monday! How is it already July? The year is truly flying by fast. I was hoping June would be a month of rest and relaxation...and it did not disappoint. June was a dream. We went to the pool a few times, visited the farmer's market, and went to the library several times. At the end of the month, we went to the Smyrna Pride Festival. I read so many good books and even completed our local library's summer book challenge. June was the month for all the sweet treats. We tried an Oreo cake for dessert, we've devoured popsicles and ice cream sandwiches, and I tried a chocolate cheesecake from Crumbl. We've also been devouring all the berries. We especially love strawberries, and I've been eating Rainier cherries. I bought a couple of small mixed-media, watercolor, and drawing spiral notepads to just play. I'm hoping that these notepads will help me break out of this creative block and overcome my fear of starting a new sketchbook. I'm not sure if I should call it a creative block, because I usually know what I want to try, but the first page always scares me off. 

This month, I'd like to create more. I really want to work in one of my sketchbooks or mixed-media notepads. I'm looking forward to spending time with my family. I'm looking forward to continuing to read good books and take more photos. I'd like to work on a photography exercise I learned about last week. I'm looking forward to celebrating my wedding anniversary later this month. I hope this month is just as restful and relaxing as June was. 

As it's a new month, let's take a quick recap of my goals from June and review my new goals for July. I'm actually looking forward to working on a few of the goals this month, especially my creative goals. 

Recap of June Goals

• Read 1 book I borrowed from the library: I read Felicity by Mary Oliver. I'm still reading Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green. 

• Read 2 books I received from NetGalley: I read five books I received from NetGalley. I read Dear Writer by Maggie Smith, I Hope You Remember by Josie Balka, Lucky Tomorrow: Stories by Deborah Jiang-Stein, The Never Was by Tyler Knott Gregson, and Letters From Gaza.

• Participate in Exhale's blog hop: I did not participate in the Exhale blog hop. I felt stuck on the prompt, but now I have a couple of ideas. I may work on June's prompt sometime this month, as well as the July prompt.

• Try 1 new recipe: Hooray! I tried two recipes. I made a simple blackberry syrup. Now I want to make so many other homemade syrups. I also used Soul Food Holistic Healing's recipe to make Black Butterfly Lemonade. You can check out the recipe here. 

• Make time to play with my memory-keeping supplies: I finally took some time to work on some layouts in my 6x12 Project Life album (our family album) and used so many of my Stories By The Month kits. I also made some layouts in my 6x8 personal album. I still need to journal on most of the layouts, but I got the pictures, cards, and ephemera all down.

• Work in my sketchbook/journal at least once a week: Yikes. I didn't do this at all. Here's to hoping that I work in my sketchbook this month. I'm planning to participate in Rukristin's Find Your Voice Summer Camp, and I'm looking forward to checking out the prompts.

• Declutter one closet a week: I didn't do this. It's still on my to-do list and I'm determined to work on this in July. 

• Work on Week in the Life: I did work on this. I decided to document my week using the Week in the Life notebook. So far, I have only written things down, but I still need to put down ephemera.

July Goals

• Read 2 books I borrowed from the library
• Read 2 books I received from NetGalley
• Participate in Exhale's blog hop
• Try 1 new recipe
• Work on a photography exercise
• Declutter at least two closets
• Work in my sketchbook/journal
• Make at least 1 scrapbook/Project Life layout

What are your goals for July? How did you do in June?

Thanks for visiting!

Until next time...

Photo by Sixteen Miles Out on Unsplash