My 2009 hard:
- Overwhelm, and the frustrating search for balance. Being afraid to turn work down even when I need the break.
- Lack of progress on some household projects, because we just don’t have the budget for it at the moment. Living in half-done (or half-undone) spaces can be unsettling.
- Ending the year with a lot of things still on my to-do list, things I had hoped to be able to cross off this year.

My 2009 good:
- The book! It was published! It has my name on the cover! It lives on bookstore shelves all over the country! It’s the weirdest (in a good way) thing to walk into the bookstore and see it sitting there.
- The amazing growth of Cleveland Handmade, the Etsy street team I’m one of the leaders of, and our super-successful holiday shows. What a wonderful, supportive community of artists we’ve been able to attract.
- A couple of new editing clients and some *fun* new projects. I like my academic clients, but it’s nice to work on books on decorating, or jazz, or pop culture once in a while.
- Some good progress on untangling some knots that have been following me around, and a solid plan for having all of that behind me by the end of 2010.

Happy New Year, everyone!
.-= Lori Paximadis´s last post … Best of 2009: Place =-.

The hard
- The PhD dissertation Thing, not liking it, not wanting to quit either.
- In the third year of living relatively far from friends and family, I feel resentment for me always being the one to travel in their direction. Realising some friendships will probably need to fade out to make room for new ones.
- Feeling a lack of friends that live near me to be in contact with regularly.
- Being single in the sense of not having someone to share my innermost thoughts and feelings with.
- Missing my flight to London and not seeing my friend.
- Not taking enough time to refuel.

The good
+ Being experiment-ey. I like changing my ways, especially when reversible, and even if it is considered eccentric. Growing towards the true-est version of me.
+ Travelling to Africa. And Sweden. And Berlin.
+ Meeting Havi and Selma in Berlin and experiencing the aftermath of a good Shiva Nata session by mixing up all the languages I have in me.
+ Being single. It has some good to it too.
+ New found addiction: sock knitting.
+ Reconnecting with old friends from highschool.
+ Having found more exersize-ey stuff that I like to do, therefore keeping up with it.
+ Being car free the entire year and not missing it one tiny single bit.

For 2010
More experiments.
More expotitions.
New connections with people.
Being me out loud.

(Must be a big one, to envelop an entire year. Scenes of the Big Chicken Episode from Hercules: The Legendary Journeys come to mind. But that chicken was kind of scary and was named ‘Discord,’ so I’m not going to take her as an example.)

The Hard:
- Horrible horrible horrible job. I spent almost the entire year on the brink of walking away, feeling stupid and hopeless and cramped and waking up nauseous every morning.

- Relationship issues and relationship therapy. Relationship therapy was oddly nice, when I’m looking at it disinterestedly, but the ISSUES – awful. And painful. And scary.

- Being burgled. Some lout stole a bunch of electronics, but the worst thing is he probably kicked our little cat and now he’s much more easily scared than he used to be. You can have my stuff, but you don’t get to touch my animals, dammit! (And yeah, that’s on my dammit list.) The condescension of the insurance guy didn’t help either. “Oh, you’re the computer people. Yeah, I would’ve had your report finished this evening, but now it’s going to be Monday.”

- Breaking up with my band – a band consisting of three lifelong friends and a newbie (me) was never going to be equitable.

The Good: more than I can mention!

- All the lovely internet people I met: Havi, Naomi, Mark, Charlie, Leonie, Fabeku, Victoria, Julie. I learned soo much from everyone. I can honestly say you completely shifted me around – I feel like I’m on the springboard for something brilliant next year, thanks to you.

- My Mastermind Group! I started one early in spring and we’re having so much fun. Not that many results yet, but we’re professionalising and have a lovely goals list for the next 6 months.

- Fixing my relationship!

- Getting hitched! And the best of all, getting hitched with all our best friends as witnesses but without having to give a huge and nerve-racking party. Instead, we just played board games all day and ordered take-out. And second best of all, I got to wear a green dress!

- Figuring out my Style Statement: Genuine Radiance!

- Finding the courage to mention something like having a Style Statement and what it is where other people can read it, even though I’m not over the ‘OMG what if people think it’s silly!’ fears.

- Travelling. Went to Zürich to visit a friend, to Athens for cultural edification annex summer holiday and – basically on a whim – to Edinburgh for our pre-semi-honeymoon. Best of all, my husband (still have to get used to that word) is starting to enjoy visiting new places as much as I do, so I foresee a great future.

- I made a painting! And there’s more in the works, and I’m loving it.

- And even my job. I met some lovely people who told me I’m NOT stupid and worthless and I found a coach who helped me reconcile two ‘ARGH, can’t budge on this!’ issues into one harmonious ‘ah well, if this happens I’ll do that’ decision. I’m still kinda floundering, but it’s getting much better and I’m not as invested in the outcome anymore. Which, strangely, makes the odds of a good outcome a lot better. And guess what? Now I don’t need my supervisor anymore, he’s actually starting to be willing to help me. Go figure.

2010 is going to be AWESOME!

So I will spare you that but want to just chime in with the loads of other people who are counting this site and its wonderfulness (including Shiva Nata, hooray!) as a huge part of The Good of 2009.

Oh, and since one of you asked: I can confirm that 2010 rocks. Over in GST +1 time zone, we’ve had 11 hours of 2010 so far and I really think you’re all going to love this year. :D

I would write a chicken, but I’m still trying to get my mind around your statement that you’re “at quarter capacity, because of arms.”

I’m just…well…gobsmacked pretty much covers it.

Here’s to healing and happiness and ducks. (And chickens.)

The Hard
- Money was hard all year, with a special low point in March where I had to borrow a pile of money I have yet to pay back.
- The economy sucked, there was a recession, and the desire to smack people going around saying “no recession!” was very hard to resist. One of my Big Clients is a Credit Union, and they would like you to know that there was in fact a recession, and it sucked and still kinda sucks.
- Bad stuff happening to everyone around me! My BFF had the year of the awfulness, culminating in a last kick to the metaphorical balls yesterday.
- Death stalked this year, not anyone I was close with but friends, friends of friends, a vendor, not to mention famous people. Way, way too many people died, and it sucked.
- Too many aches and pains and just generally feeling like things suck, physically, and not enough energy.
- One of my biggest hobbies is slowly dying out, and I’m not sure what or how I’ll replace it. Fortunately the good friends I’ve made through it still like each other, even as we all go our different ways within (and outside of) the fandom.

The Good
+ Slowly the money thing is coming around. I’ve learned a ton about business this year, and slowly everything is starting to gather momentum. I’ve invested money in my business, as well as time and energy, and I’m actually starting to see a return.
+ Did a ton of decluttering and now I’m feeling a lot more settled into my apartment. I’ve only got a few stray boxes left from my various moves, and it’s pretty awesome.
+ I launched Antemortem Arts, and I’ve gotten a lot of great feedback, if not so much with the sales, though I’m hopeful that 2010 will help change that.
+ I made a ton of new connections online for my business, and I can see there’s fruit ripening there, too.
+ I think I’ve done more art in the past year than the previous 3, and it feels really, really good.
+ My cats are awesome. Pod came into my life at the end of 2008, and even though his middle name is Fucker for a reason, he’s kept me on my toes. Even Bella’s getting used to him, sort of.
+ My friends are awesome, and their lives are (mostly) looking up.

What I’m Looking Forward to Next Year
= More Biggification of both my Ittybizzes
= A further shift towards Creativity
= More energy
= Reducing my debts of all kinds and working towards more positive cash flow
= A bit more social leaving-the-house-ness
.-= Amy Crook´s last post … Happy Christmas Commission =-.

Wishing you a Happy Healthy 2010 filled with everything you want for yourself with greater ease and less pain. You’ve helped me change my life – thank you so much.

The hard was mostly letting go of a ton of grief – in one form or another and how I fought doing it for so long that it made it even harder than it already inherently is.

The good is
-having gotten scrupulously honest with myself and others, I feel soooo much better in every way possible
-lost over 50 pounds this year
-decreased back pain as a result of a year of physical therapy and consistent doses of exercise and yoga
-my kids are relatively happy and very healthy Thank God
-being home on NY Eve feels in my pj’s is the activity of choice rather than feeling like the “lone ranger”
-greater understanding about who my right people are, both personally and professionally
-dance of shiva epiphanies
-a hugely supportive online community
-discovering havi’s work and using it
-discovering jen louden’s work and the amazing community she has
.-= char´s last post … The Patient Power Manifesto Continued. . . . =-.

ANYway, I used to hatehatehate orange, but now it makes me happy, feel inspired, and invigorated. I also love turquoise and teal for the same reasons.

And I got my Dance of Shiva DVD today and omgomgomgomg thank you! <3

If anything, I’m still pondering what quote from Dune will make me think of the principles of sovereignty for my theme next year.

Happy New Year, all!