Off to a good start!

When life hands you lemons, make a lovely painting with them.

That’s what I wrote in this journal, my 2016 gratitude journal. 2015 was, overall, not the best year, but I’m determined to make 2016 much better.

I decluttered my art room workspace (symbolic of decluttering my brain), and had a productive first week of January writing-wise. I also started the year with a course on Illustrating Children’s Books taught by the marvelous Joy Chu through UCSD Extension and am, once again, part of the incredible 12x12 community of picture book writers.

I’ve signed up to go to a renowned writing workshop called Big Sur on Cape Cod for May that I’m excited about, and also plan to take advantage of the fun and helpful writing challenges like NaPiBoWriWee (brainchild of the multi-talented Paula Yoo) and PiBoIdMo (started by super funny and prolifc Tara Lazar) that will help me focus and hone my craft.

As well, I’ve decided that I will stop blogging here. While there are things I love about Blogger, Wordpress has improved much over the past few years, making it easier for bloggers to follow each other, “Like” posts without having to comment, post via my phone, and offering much cleaner looks/templates. So, if you’re interested in continuing to follow my blog, please pop over to One Good Thing. Would love to see you there!

Ultimately, unless there is a good reason for me to keep a blog, I may, in the foreseeable future, move completely over to Instagram whose platform I much prefer.

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams

Is it too early for resolutions?

Maybe it's because I'm old(er), or maybe it's because it's close to the end of the year (with more downs than ups), but I'm already thinking about making resolutions.

For 2016, I vow not to take any more classes or workshops. I plan to limit myself to one conference only...one where I will meet up with some writing friends who live far from me so we can have our little annual social gathering.

I spent way too much on classes, workshops, and conferences this past year. I'd say that it was about a 30% yield on my investment, though I will admit that it was partly my fault.

Next year, I will just stay home and write, do art, and indulge in hobbies such as baking things like this:

I will get back to doing creative things because I love to do them, not because I want to be published or sell my art. I've put this out in a blog post because I want you all to hold me accountable. :)

Did you have a nice 2015 or are you also looking back with some regrets and have already started planning for a better 2016?

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be." ~ Douglas Adams