Happy New Year

Paul and I just spent a week away, heading to Adelaide via Mount Gambier and back again spending a night in Halls Gap. We saw the New Year in with friends holding a musicals themed costume party, me as Sarah from Labyrinth and Paul as the construction worker from the Village People movie.

2011 was the year I gave up on LJ and started writing LJish blog posts here as well as craft posts. I began the year over at LJ with this list of things to achieve:

Work Stuff:
Writing The Book
Going on tour
Finishing, polishing and editing The Book
Bringing together ideas, writing a proposal for and selling the next series
Writing more short stories

Non-work Stuff:
Honing my drawing/painting skills (start life drawing classes)
Continuing making things and learning new skills (craft and art)
Reading more (or listen to audio books when my back is too stuffed for reading)
Walking more
Spending less time sitting at the computer making my back worse

Wow. I actually did nearly everything. The only item I’m not sure I achieved was walking more. It’s not that I didn’t do any walking though.

So what else did I do in 2011?

* Finished watching all of the films in the ABC Top 100 Films list except for Wings of Desire, which I still haven’t been able to get hold of.

* Was transfixed by the QLD/NSW/VIC flood news footage.

* Used up most of my silk painting materials at a Craft Day.

* Had the paving finished off, which was effectively the last bit of the big renovations.

* A week or so later a picture rail fell down and our lounge flooded.

* Opened an exhibition, at which a chat with the curator of the gallery about “contemporary with a small ‘c’ versus contemporary with a big ‘C'” that sparked lots of thought about art and whether I really fit with the art group I was in.

* Tried Ethiopian cooking.

* Tried a few printing methods and decided it was waaay too messy.

* Rearranged the workroom and decided to call it ‘the studio’. (Name didn’t stick though.)

* Was transfixed by the Christchurch quake news footage.

* Saw Hawkwind with Paul (and liked the support band a lot).

* Culled my cd and dvd collection.

* Culled my to-read pile down to 130+ books.

* Got my stash down to ten kilos.

* Got all my unframed art framed, updated the gallery site and managed to sell some work.

* Was transfixed by the Japan tsunami news footage.

* Launched a friend’s book.

* Was ‘filler’ at Supernova. (As we writers are next to the Big Stars.)

* The neighbours arranged to replace the fence and ‘fix’ the retaining wall. Then a tree branch fell on the fence. And the garden bed started washing through the holes in the shonky wall repairs…

* Had to say a final goodbye to Peri Peri, my 19 year old feline companion of 16 years.

* Finished making the pattern for and sewed up two sets of robes for characters from my books, photographed friends wearing them and started doing character sketches.

* Signed up for The Sketchbook Project.

* Adopted Slinky.

* Decided I wouldn’t start a BA in fine art, which is just as well because…

* Got RSI and had to give up knitting.

4 thoughts on “Happy New Year

  1. Quoting: … except for Wings of Desire, which I still havenโ€™t been able to get hold of.

    We have it – and the sequel, “Faraway, So Close”. You’re welcome to borrow them sometime, or to come around and watch with us and the kittens ๐Ÿ™‚

  2. That’d be great. I’m a bit shy about rocking up to someone’s house and demanding things, though. And I must admit, the momentum has gone out of the top 100 movie watching challenge now.

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