It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

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When I type the headline to this post I hear the song in my head. Sadly, I've been well marketed-to because I also picture parents dancing through the aisles of a popular office supply chain picking up back-to-school supplies. Clearly that advertisement worked.


I've always loved Fall. For the most part, I loved school. I love wearing sweaters. I especially love Halloween, Thanksgiving, my birthday (October), and Oktoberfest. And this year, I've added my first vacation in Las Vegas to the Fall calendar and I couldn't be more excited. Look for a blog post on that in late October!

While it seems conventional thinking assigns life re-invention to January, I have always felt the Fall is the best time to reinvigorate personal projects, re-evaluate goals, and to focus on things like healthy eating, exercise, and sleeping well. So in this post, I decided to take a moment to consider the past 8 months and look ahead to 2015.

If you're a regular reader you already know that 8 months ago I quit my job, found a new job, and relocated to small-town eastern Ontario...for love. It's turned out to be a great decision. While I certainly miss some friends and old haunts (a particular pho restaurant comes to mind), the new life I'm building more than makes up for those losses. Friends and family can be visited, there's plenty of new restaurants to be discovered in Ottawa and Montreal, and I'm constantly experiencing new things.

I realized over the past few years that trying new things is essential to my happiness. I'm not alone in this, psychologists agree that new experiences are one key to feeling happy. Once I realized this I found myself able to thrust myself into new experiences with a greater passion. The fear sometimes associated with new experiences is easy to overcome if I simply remind myself of how happy I will feel in the moment.

Some new things I've done in the past 8 months, in no particular order:


Organic Local Hops

  • Learned Zumba.
  • Travelled to Edmonton and saw the Rockies (well, from the airplane)
  • Worked at a trade show...partly in french. (and spoke more french than I realized I knew!)
  • New tattoo by Wes Pratt 
  • Got a tattoo (actually my second, but the first was at 18 and it was very small, so this felt new)
  • Ate an arepa sandwich
  • Visited a new brewery in Halifax (North Brewing)
  • Learned to work from home. (OMG I love this, no wonder everyone wants to do it.)
  • Learned how to administer the 'back end' of an app.
  • Bought my first pair of high-waisted jeans since the 1990's.
  • Started "Walking Wednesdays" with some local friends. It's not complicated, but to paraphrase Mean Girls, "On Wednesdays, we walk"
  • Played softball (To brag; I got a hit at every at-bat. To self-depricate; I never caught a ball.)
  • Visited Griffin Gastropub in Bracebridge
  • Ate a Lancaster Perch roll
  • Caught a show at the House of Targ in Ottawa
  • Visited the ruins at St. Raphael's
Ruins at St. Raphael's
I'm pretty sure there's even more things I did that were new. 
In the next few months, I want to:

  • Learn more French!
  • Do more art
  • Get cross country ski equipment and try out the trails
  • Blog more...always, blog more.
  • Try as many new things as possible

In my blog post about moving 8 months ago I listed five things I wanted to be doing more of:
1. Blogging more often (see above, a perpetual goal)
2. Going to Zumba (check!)
3. Fermenting Things (check...ish. I fermented sauerkraut but it's exceedingly salty and inedible. Will try again.)
4. Making Art. (see above...I'm thinking Christmas gifts will be my motivation yet again)
5. Community Involvement. I've been in touch with the Arbor Gallery and plan to join their board. I am still in the initial stages, but it looks like I will be a volunteer graphic designer with them in the next few weeks.

In closing, I set out in writing this post because yet again I was feeling cruddy that I've neglected my blog. I always enjoy making time for it, because it helps me review my life, and acts as a living diary of places I visit. Recently I got to thinking about the kinds of posts I used to do, about colour, trends, or illustration, and realized that the blog has become less about general topics and more about me. I'm ok with that, because when this blog started it was mainly to establish some of my writing on these topics on the web to help my career move forward. But as my career progressed, and I became published more often on other platforms, this blog became anything I wanted it to be as it struck my mood in the moment.

That said, I want to develop some new direction for my writing in this space and that's on my goal list for the coming months. (Side note, if you are aching for more of my writing, be sure to follow the blog over at Pottery Lane Imports where I talk fashion trends and colours on a regular basis.) What should this space be? What kinds of articles do I enjoy writing most? This is for me to contemplate, before aiming for a blog re-launch in the new year. Feel free to let me know in the comments, what do you like about my blog? What do you want more of? I'd love to hear from you.


1 comment:

tush said...

I agree trying new things warms the heart. Makes one feel like days are well spent. I would like, as your doring Mom, more blogs on small town life,. And to hear your hopes and dreams for your future. But that's just me :) I truely enjoy your road trip blogs and pictures....I love road trips so I can live vicariously through you!