Doing a little catching up & a freebie

Here we are in 2016 and I don't know about you, but these first nine days (nearly 1/3 through the month!) have been busy and productive here. Some people asked me if I was doing New Year's Resolutions this year & I thought about this cutie I snagged back when:

If anyone knows who created this, please let me know so I can give credit.
No resolutions for me this year. I think monthly goals- 3-5 at most - are more reasonable. I gave you the first of monthly blank goal sheets. Have you filled out your January goals yet? I'll show you mine. Correction, I will when I can figure out which folder I stashed it in! It's not where it ought to be but I found my work-in-progress goal report. Anyway, I started creating a blank goal report for myself using the NY kit. Make a journal block out of the rectangular frame too. So here is the preview of the January art journal set:

and the link:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/57614067/2016%20freebies/goal%20sheets/ws_Jangoals.zip
Each month I will have a new goal page set for those who want to use them.

Came across the above photo one late night when I had a few minutes to web surf. Gee, if I'd seen it sooner, I could easily have done that for Christmas. Didn't get my tree up because I didn't have time or energy but the book tree - super easy.

I knew I'd be signing up for the GoodReads reading challenge this year. Signed up to read 50 books last year and was short by about 3. Saw lots of reading challenges and decided I'd make my own. For one thing, some had silly items like, Read a book with a yellow cover. Really? So I downloaded a bunch of good challenges, read and compared and added my own ideas. I will read 50 books or more for the GoodReads Reading 2016 Challenge. Additionally, I'll share my list of items to be included. Some of the topics can apply to either fiction or non-fiction and some books will cover more than one category. Overlap is fine. Here's my reading challenge for 2016:
* A book that has been on my TBR for more than a year. [TBR means To Be Read]
* A book published in 2016.
* A book which has won an award (National Book Award, Pulitzer Prize etc.).
* A book in the fantasy/sci fi genre.
* A murder mystery.
* A dystopian novel.
* An autobiography, biography, or memoir.
* A book by a favorite author.
* A book by an author I've never read before.
* The first book in a new series.
* A book I own but have yet to read.
* A book that was banned at some point.
* A book published before I were born.
* A book translated into English.
* A book at least 100 years older than me.
* A book about a culture other than my own.
* A book about science/medicine
* A book about a historical period.
* A book with non-human characters.
* A book of short stories.
* A book based on a true story.
* A book about some place I would love to visit.
* A book about a favorite past-time.
* A self-help book.
* A book about religion or spirituality.

If anyone is interested, I'll pack up my reading challenge along with the form on which you can track what books you have read. And I came across this listing about classics and checked off those I have read in green. Had to make a box for one that was covered by a book cover. You might want to check off what you've read in another color.

And on a final note tonight, I thought this was good: