Best Nine of 2015: Pretty Much Sums Up My Year

Yup, these nine Instagrams sum up my year pretty well. Here’s why:

Top Row (left to right)

1. I made a lot of stuff on paper this year, including this doodle (which is also one of my favourites). I dabbled with watercolours, pens, stamps and collage. I intend to spend more time with most of those in the coming year (it’ll be my third #yearofmaking, you guys!).
2. Halloween, Star Wars, family. Yup.
3. My kid “graduated” from daycare and started kindergarten. This is a photo his daycare gave us. When asked what he wanted to be when he grows up, he answered, “I want to write books like Mommy. Books for kids.” *sniff*

Middle Row

1. I started baking challah this past fall. Instagrammers seem to be into it for much the same reasons I am: bread baking is fascinating, and challah has the added benefit of being braided. It’s like my yarn-loving hands were made to make it.
2. I saw my grandmother over the summer on a hot day when I was wearing a sundress and she called me a sexy bitch.
3. See #1 above.

Bottom Row

1. Our little vintage trailer. I think this photo was from before our Superlong Camping Trip, when we were still in the throes of getting it ready. I sewed new curtains for it, a blanket for the kid, and a quilt for us. The trip was, hands down, the highlight of our year.
2. I started weaving, and I think I love it. I haven’t actually managed to take this first go off my Cricket loom yet, but I will. I also picked up a wee tapestry loom, which I have high hopes for in 2016.
3. Aaaand, the wee trailer parked in front of our house after we returned home from our trip. We’re already planning to spend a couple weeks camping in it in July, and I hope we manage to take some weekend trips this spring, too.

This was a year I spent a load of time making things out of yarn again after a somewhat lengthy hiatus (helped in no small part by my first Year of Making, during which I took on a load more crafts). It’s also the year I got solidly back into my reading groove. I spent a fair bit of time messing around with collage, and with carving stamps. I developed a great beginner collage class (which I’ll be teaching locally again this coming spring, and which I intend to adapt to an online class), and I recently also agreed to teach a beginner stamp-carving class (I’ll also adapt that one into an online format, for I have this new online-class site going, and I intend to fill it up so it becomes the kind of summer camp for grown-ups I’ve been dreaming about making).

Looking Ahead

I’m not entirely sure yet what I want to focus on most in 2016. I’m sure I’ll figure it out over the next week or two. I’m excited about getting the Camp! site set up fully and populated with great classes/adventures, and I’m also excited about a writing contract I recently signed on for, which is entirely outside the art and craft industries and will hopefully be a fabulous opportunity to sharpen my writing skills and do a bit of editing, too. Yes, I think 2016 will hold a lot of writing and a fair bit of teaching, which is a nice combination to look forward to, for sure. What are you looking ahead to in the coming year? Any big goals? Small ones?

And hey, happy New Year!