Hi y’all! I hope everyone has had a simply fantastic holiday season. I can’t hardly believe that 2016 is right around the corner! If I start thinking about all the things I didn’t get done this year, well that makes me madder than a mosquito in a mannequin factory! For this last installment of Dear Polly in 2015, the questions are looking to the future.

Do you set goals for your scrapping Polly, or do you just let it flow?

That’s a great question! I am a pretty big believer in setting goals to keep me motivated. The one thing that I have learned is that I have to make sure that my goals are challenging, but manageable. I would love to say that in 2016 I will scrap 250 layouts, but we all know that that’s prolly not going to happen. I like to chunk my goals into quarters, so for each quarter of the year. The first quarter runs from January to March, so a realistic goal I might set is to complete 25 layouts during that time. Then, as the second quarter approaches, I’ll see how that’s going and set a goal for the second quarter. I haven’t finalized my goals yet, but they are something I am really thinking about.

I am freaking out about MOC 2016! What can I do to get ready to be successful with MOC 2016?

Girl, I hear you about MOC! Hand on my heart, I have never completed a MOC! I am feeling this year though, 2016 is going to be my year. A few things that I am doing to get ready:

1. Sketch out some time to get the layouts done. It’s pretty unrealistic to think you will do a layout each day, so figuring out when you are going to sit and get the layouts done ahead of time will help create a plan for success.
2. Gather photos. The one thing I have struggled with in the past is having enough photos to complete 31 layouts in a month. Trying to capture pictures along the way makes things even more stressful, so I am looking to have a set of photos ready to be scrapped that I can use for a variety of layouts.
3. In the same line, get some versatile products ready. I am trying to identify some kits that are on the versatile side that I can pull from.
4. Set up a notebook. This year I am setting up a notebook with a half page per day. That way, I can quickly jot down the challenge, some notes about what I think I might do, and do a quick sketch of a potential layout. I am planning to do this when I first read the challenge for the day so that I can capture my thoughts right away for when I have some time to complete the layout.

Well that’s about all for this month. I so look forward to seeing y’all in 2016!