52 Colors :: Week 52

This post is part of my 52 Colors Project. You can see all of the posts here, or grab your own 52 Colors Project Kit here.

I’m not going to lie, I had a hard time choosing a photo and a color for this last 52 Colors entry. I want to say that it was because I had more photos this week than usual to choose from, but it’s probably because this is the last week for my 52 Colors Project and I kept thinking about what color I wanted to end with. What can I say? I’m neurotic like that.

Ultimately, though, I ended up staying true to the same format I followed all year – a daily color I saw a lot of and noticed this week. It’s courtesy of the ginormous Christmas tree that decorated my sister’s living room, and I kind of like that I’m ending with a shade of green, since green symbolizes growth and new life. Even though I’m ending this project, it’s sort of fitting to pick a color that inherently symbolizes what comes next, don’t you think?

I’m not entirely sure what comes next, blog-wise, but it feels like it’ll be exciting. I’m finding it hard to make decisions since it still doesn’t quite feel like the end of the year to me. It doesn’t quite feel like I’ve been at this particular project for 52 weeks. But the calendar doesn’t lie, despite my inability to accept that it is, in fact, the end of December, the end of the holidays, the end of the year, and the end of this project.

How did that happen? Seriously. In some ways, it feels like hardly any time has passed. This year has flown by. That’s when I have to remind myself of everything that happened this year. I wrote down a list of things I did this year, and I thought I’d share them with you.

This year, I:

• Wrote 246 posts
• Made 70 color palettes
• Whipped up 22 individual Tip Shares
• Moved from Blogger to WordPress by myself, and even with a hiccup that sent both blogs down for hours, I did it in a weekend
• Learned to navigate the world of WordPress
• Moved off Etsy onto my own shop website
• Closed that same shop later in the year once I was honest with myself about the direction I wanted (or didn’t want) to go in
• Started a new shop to give me a place to house digital templates
• Learned (and am still learning) the ins and outs of digital photography and manual DSLR settings
• Had a computer completely, irrevocably die on me
• Wrote a pricing ebook to get artists thinking about pricing their work
• Collaborated on a massive business plan ebook/kit for artists
• Read 50+ books for fun, and a dozen or so for business
• Made a 30 Before 30 list
• Didn’t really finish my 30 Before 30 List
• Turned 30
• Took a handful of eclasses to broaden my horizons (like this one and this one)
• Created (and finished!) my own creative color/blogging challenge
• Created a digital kit for people to do their own color challenge
• Reconnected with my paints
• Traveled to a new city and explored familiar ones
• Got the hang of Twitter
• Coached a number of amazing and talented people
• Did some freelance graphic work for some really fantastic people
• Guest posted for some of my most favorite people (like here and here)
• Participated in a number of blog hops that let me “meet” more people
• Wrote down my thoughts on what makes an artist
• And saw the amount of visitors and blog subscribers more than double from the last year (thank you!)

There’s probably more that I forgot (I’m still a little jetlagged), and this doesn’t really include all of the ideas that have popped into my mind at 2 o’clock in the morning that may or may not have gotten done. Not everything has been completely “up” either (stupid laptop), but this year has been memorable for me, in so many good ways.

So, keeping that in mind makes it easier to believe that yep, the year is ending, and it’s been a good one.

How about you? Are you feeling ready for the new year? Glad for the old one to be over?

52 Colors :: Week 51

This post is part of my 52 Colors Project. You can see all of the posts here, or grab your own 52 Colors Project Kit here.

I’ve spent a good part of this week vegging out and ignoring my computer.

If nothing else, I’ve realized this year that I have a hard time with three things in my life: 1) not being without (or doing without) my entire collection of electronics; 2) not thinking about or working on the next project; and 3) relaxing. But my brain has so full and rushed and busy lately, that I could feel myself stressing over the tiniest things. I could feel my blood pressure rising.

It was clear to me that I needed a break. I think that’s why I haven’t really been in much of a Christmas spirit, my 12 Days of Digital Freebies aside (I hope you enjoyed those, by the way, I had fun making them). Even though it’s one of those things I know I have a problem doing, when I put my mind to it, the relaxing can get done (and I can read four books in three days, if given the leisure to do so).

But I remembered just in time that hey, I’m two entries from the end of my 52 Colors Project (I’ve been ignoring my camera, too). So, I hurried off to snap a few pictures, because I’m not going to miss a week with only two more entries to go. And with the setting sun hitting my camera just right, I think I snapped one of my favorite photos. I’m digging that grayish, creamy winter white color that some of the leaves are turning, though I don’t exactly remember seeing that bush do that before (but what do I know about nature).

Later today, I’m heading off to join family festivities, so I just wanted to take a minute to say that I hope your holidays are fun! If fate and flights and the weather all cooperate, I’ll be back blogging by the end of next week.

Merry Christmas!

52 Colors :: Week 50

This post is part of my 52 Colors Project. You can see all of the posts here, or grab your own 52 Colors Project Kit here.

See this? It’s physical evidence of my recent art buying spree, and this isn’t even all of it. I maybe went a little overboard, considering I already have another stack of art waiting to be framed… which is larger than this stack.

Don’t tell the artists.

I had this great notion of an art wall, with frames and ledges and mats. Have I worked on said art wall yet? No. Have I bought the frames? Nope. Have I bought the mat boards, at least? Uh-uh.

I also haven’t bought any Christmas gifts yet, either, which should make the next two weeks insane. Or insanely exciting, one of the two.

All I can say is that Christmas snuck up on me this year. Like a ninja. A stealthy, stealthy ninja. I don’t know how that happened, exactly, but I do know ninja attacks are very rarely foreseen. I also suspect some warping of time, too. Tricky ninjas.

Anyway, I’m off to take care of a little shopping.

What are you doing on this Sunday?

In case you’re curious, within this stack of prints is work from Mae Chevrette, Sixth and Main, 74 Lime Lane, and Life Through the Lens.

52 Colors :: Week 49

This post is part of my 52 Colors Project. You can see all of the posts here, or grab your own 52 Colors Project Kit here.

Between the rain, the cold, and the fallen leaves, I can’t pretend winter’s not here anymore. It showed up with a vengeance this weekend, let me tell you.

Though I will admit the colors of the fallen leaves are fantastic right now. Don’t you think?

Before the chill set in to freeze me, I spent an awesome evening on Saturday with four of my best friends. We talked about everything including politics, religion, high school, books we read, movies we have no intention of seeing, and why we were all relieved to have not had to dress up as we stuffed our faces with a potluck dinner and had copious amounts of wine. I couldn’t have picked a more perfect evening out with the girls, and it was just what I needed to relax.

The rest of the weekend was spent working on a spontaneous project that came to me last week, thanks to a bout of holiday inspiration. I’m putting the finishing touches on it right now, and details will be posted on Wednesday! I think it’s going to be a good one, and I hope you like it.

How was your weekend? What did you do?

52 Colors :: Week 48

This post is part of my 52 Colors Project. You can see all of the posts here, or grab your own 52 Colors Project Kit here.

Is it bad to confess that the holidays wear me out? I’m internally bracing because there’s still a whole month to go.

Whatever the opposite of not relaxed is, that’s what I’m feeling. I think the idea I have of relaxing holidays is both not realistic and completely imaginary. I don’t remember them always being this frantic, but then again, I’ve learned that holidays look different as an adult than they did as a child. The holidays back then probably were quite relaxing when the hardest thing I had to do was get up, unwrap gifts, and smile for the camera. Or, get up, get dressed, get in the car, eat food.

It looks a little different from this side, am I right?

I’m sleepy.

But as I peeked out the back windows of my sister’s house, I caught a glimpse of this little flower. It’s the last one on the bush/vine thing, and it’s holding on for dear life. Through some windy and rainy days last week (and several warm, sunny days, too), it’s still there, like a metaphor waiting for me to notice.

So, I’m keeping that image in my head because I didn’t get everything done last week that I wanted to get done, which sucks, and it’s looking like I might have to let some of it go because I just flat out done have the time to get it done. That also sucks.

I’m also mentally adding that line from Finding Nemo: Just keep swimming! Just keep swimming!

Someone wake me up after the new year.