Yesterday was my 31st birthday. It was awesome, I was up til two getting totally wasted (well, that's if you count becoming increasingly frustrated by 1and1 and Wordpress and then doing dishes until someone poliltely reminds you that it's a bit past your bedtime as getting wasted). I did spend the whole day with my friends (well, that's if you count my mother, husband, grandmother-in-law, and houseful of wonderful children as friends)(I do, for the record). I got exactly what I wanted for my birthday (lunch) and people from all the way around the world wished me a Happy Birthday (thank you, God, for Facebook). All in all, it was a stellar birthday.
I decided to give myself the gift of Deviant Art for my birthday. Hubby and I took a two-month unscheduled hiatus from the on-line world, and I used that time to really connect with my family and think about what was important. We also spent some time decluttering our home. Our home is tiny and stuffed with books on every subject you can imagine, which we love, of course, but it had come to a point where books were taking up the space we needed to spread out and live a little. That's symbolically pretty potent. We got rid of at least half the books (that still leaves us a lot) and formulated a plan for the new year. Part of that plan involves me focussing in on my photography (no pun intended) to the exclusion of some things that I really want to learn but don't have the mental space for, like making soap. Instead, as I move forward with my life, I will invest my knowledge into bettering myself and other artists, and invest my financial success (which I'm SURE will follow this plan) into supporting other craftspersons, so that I can still have beautiful, homemade things in my life. Because that's how it should be.