I am having a decidely low key New Years Eve this year. I've been busy playing catch-up this week, and today, after some mid-afternoon debauchery with R and a nap, I intend to settle in with some Meditarranean food and some new little things (pendants and paperweights) I need to work on, and perhaps even a little bit of writing. I'm feeling more anti-social than usual and I totally blame the weather and recovering from the week with my parents which is always a little draining. Luckily I'm library-free this week and have spent the last couple of days in the studio catching up on orders, finishing the chaps on which I am perpetually behind, and working on some lovely new notecard designs to soon be unveiled.
The holiday was the usual round of various visits over the course of the week, lots of family I hardly ever see, loads of delightful presents --bookstore and Starbucks gift cards, a new saucepan to replace the one I threw away after being too lazy to wash it, yummy soda flavored lipglosses, last season of The Office, and a new dvd player which will no longer necessitate me watching everything on my laptop. There were bad cable Christmas movies and too many cookies, and one night, a bit too much Southern Comfort. The entire time, I was uneasy with the snowfall and ridiculous cold and a general cabin-fever restlessness that always surfaces when I visit and so anxious to get back to the city.
Once again, it has been a crazy wonderful year (okay parts were not so wonderful, including the middle part which sort of sucked) but in retrospect, alot happened. There was much poetry & awesome chapbooks, lovely crafty things, thrift stores, antique fairs, gorgeous art, the new book, a handful of poems in journals, awesome readings, lots of trashy novels and pretty dresses. Not perfect, considering a big chunk of romantic drama (which for the moment has worked itself out) unusual malaise and uneasiness both related and unrelated to the above , and pretty much perpetually being behind schedule on just about everything and a bit overwhelmed at times, but *sigh* such is life in general.
For once, however, I am unusually excited about the new year. There is so much to do in getting chaps out, both the stragglers from 2008 and new ones from Susan Slaviero and Kristen Orser, plus gearing up for AWP (we're sharing adjoining tables with Switchback and Featherproof, which will be fun.) I've also started working our much anticipated full-length poetry/photography extravganza by Robyn Art & Robin Barcus, which will be out in the next couple of months.
In terms of my stuff, I plan on whipping the kissing disease into shape, and possibly sending it to a couple of contests, probably moreso for the possible prize cash and ego boost, since if nothing pans out in the next year or so, I have no problem with just doing it myself eventually. I am also hatching some new collage and shadowbox series projects, and am hoping now that the pre-holiday production & shipping frenzy has slowed, I can work a bit more on these. And always, new ideas for little things for the shop, including map and postage stamp pendants, little conversation heart necklaces, and if I can get the iron-on sheets to work, some canvas totebags.
Until then...
