12 Skills in a Year - Halfway Point Check-In

I know, it's almost the end of August. The halfway point of 2010 has already come and gone. But I wanted to write a quick check-in post about what I've accomplished so far this year with my "12 Skills In a Year" New Years Resolution.

If you aren't familiar with this adventure of mine, please check out the posts already dedicated to this subject:

January - Knitting
February - Blogging
March - Cross Stitch
April - Nothing
May - Coupon Clipping
June - Plarn

  P.S. The July and August posts are coming, I promise. Things got a little hectic at the end of the summer so I've been behind a bit.

Having completed learning the ropes and practicing almost 7 new skills this year, I've gotta say this is one of the best New Year's Resolutions I've ever attempted. For one thing, I have a rough case of anxiety. The severity varies from day-to-day and month-to-month, but having a few hobbies to focus on has given me something besides stress to dwell on, and that's been terrific. Also, just the act of creating something or practicing something new (particularly with knitting) calms my frazzled nerves pretty quickly.

The seemingly endless possibilities of having these new skills are another great thing about this resolution. For the past 2 years, I've attempted to make most of the Christmas gifts for my family and friends. I'm usually scrambling during the last 2  weeks before the holiday trying to come up with really simple ideas and putting them together without much success. This year, I've already completed 2 gifts for my family, and it's not even September! And this time, I'm actually quite pleased with the results and am looking forward to handing out the presents. In fact, it's taken a great deal of willpower not to hand things out already!

I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventure ... now, I have a few more fairly inexpensive skills lined up for the remaining months of the year, but I'm asking for some assistance here. With my family in a bit of a financial pinch that's not likely to let up anytime soon ... do any of you readers have any skills with a relatively minuscule price tag that you'd suggest I attempt in the coming months?