Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you and your family and hope your 2012 is a safe, memorable and blessed one.

I’ve made a couple of resolutions this year, my first time ever making resolutions.  I’ve always thought them a little silly and why wouldn’t you just change things or do new things when you want to??  Despite my best efforts and despite that fact that New Year’s Eve is often an odd time for me I am constantly ‘romanced’ by the newness of New Years Eve and the ‘romance’ of the thought of a brand new year about to begin full of promise, full of mystery and full of a second chance if you will.

This year has been no different with a very full and BIG 2011 I felt I needed to make some resolutions, although they’re more like challenges to help me get through.  My challenges are all about getting the most out of my year and living it to the full, participating rather than sitting back watching and complaining rather than what I see some ‘resolutions’ being about, changing yourself and trying to be a better person.  I try to be a better person all the time, I try to be a better version of myself, especially after I’ve done something that isn’t the best me.

So…this year I’m fully engaged with my two blogs, although if I was really smart I’d have just created one and I’ll probably end up merging them.  I know I should have created pages but I’m an indecisive sort of person and I like the two things I’ve started, I like the different look of each of the blogs and I wasn’t sure how it would work, considering one is fairly focussed on my reading challenges, love of books etc and this one is dedicated to my journey with photography.  They’ll merge, I know they will and this post will probably be on both of them 

The remainder of my challenges are below…stick around and see how I go with them.

•  participate in a reading challenge
• be more social on twitter and good reads/library thing [links to the right  ]
• participate in a photography challenge [or two, i've signed up for two and seem to have created a new photo a day for myself, well it hasn't happened yet but I see it happening and think it will be cool!]
• complete a unit of my study…if i don’t finish soon it will deflate me!
• complete my origami calendar

I know there are a lot, and boy it will be a big year of challenges and doing and participating! The challenges will require me to participate and be social and put myself out there.

So, if you’re doing any challenges or creating resolutions, I hope you do well and would love to hear about them.  I’ll of course post updates to these on here.  Again, wishing I only had the one blog, but I sooo love the names of my blogs…I can decide later, right? I don’t have a following so maybe thats what I’ll need to do.

January 1 2012 - Dove

The bag lady...

Well, that's just what I feel like at the moment...that or the book lady.

I am like a mad thing downloading ebooks onto my new iPad; just in case I'm anywhere and need something to read.  At this rate, I could live for 2 months on the books I have stored and I'm still hungrily searching for more. I've just remembered a few that I have stored on my old laptop, they will of course need to be retrieved to help my virtual library grow.

And the bags, well I haven't exactly accumulated those, but I've been madly searching and researching and looking into and investigating the best, most reliable, most long wearing bag for me.  There are just so many on the market, how does one decide? There are special lady bags, there are backpacks, there are lens bags and sling bags, bulky bags and well, anything else you could imagine really.  Such a nightmare for someone like me really, but in the end, I just wanted everything.

I couldn't of course get everything, I'm on a limited budget and had some birthday money.  What helped tipped the scales was the fact that a wonderful friend got me an e-voucher for Kelly Moore, who makes the most gorgeous bags.  It was either a Kelly Moore or Epiphanie, again a most gorgeous set of bags you ever did see.  So, I've gone with Kelly Moore bags for the moment, because there are always more birthdays and more Christmases and more special occasions in the world.  And if all else fails I can save.  I now have to wait, so the waiting game begins.

I now wish I'd paid the extra and gone for extra speedy delivery, because quite frankly I'm having a really a really difficult time waiting and its only been a week.  I'm checking USPS everyday (or 3 times a day if I'm truthful) and it seems to rarely even move. :( Of course sad face, this waiting is very difficult indeed.  So stay tuned for the bag, I expect to post a picture as I'm super keen for it to arrive.

Have a good weekend and keep yourself sane if you can (I know how difficult that can be) :)

Source: kellymoorebag.com via Fiona on Pinterest

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

1st of December today and it's quite amazing to watch the year hurtle towards its end.

Christmas decorations have been in stores for months, however everyone is now starting to put up their trees and home decorations. I need to start thinking about gifts, but really feel like its too far away. Who am I kidding? We all now it will get ever closer until I'm running in a mad panic the night before.

I'm really enjoying my iPad, amazing birthday gift of gifts it's brought me endless pleasure already, just days into its life with me. I've got books galore stored within, games and a handy notepad. It'll never leave my side again :)

It's been a huge week...both at work and my personal life. In the last few years im left wondering why so many things happen to people around this time. It feels like the time of year when things should sail along for everyone.

This week at work we lost someone dear to us and are still reeling in the aftermath. It will take a long time to recover, but one of the things I realize is that we lost more than a colleague and friend; we've lost someone who strings many threads together in the community, someone who has ties everywhere, someone who you could always see just there. Someone who will never be forgotten and we weren't even aware we'd have tobe ready to say goodbye to.

And that's only half of the story really... The week has continued, as it does and other things have arisen to keep you going on. Even though there are those who wonder how they can, if they should or whether it's irreverent to do so.

I've not taken any photos lately and for various reasons am determined to do so this weekend. I also feel the need to capture the image of something, because after all that's what people are left with. The memories and the images that will last, or hopefully last. Let's hope my next post is more cheerful :)

Source: diycrafts.blogspot.com via Alli on Pinterest