2007 - Create

I don't do New Years resolutions, so I haven't really thought of a great pile of specific things I'm going to change this year. I already made the commitment to getting fit and healthy and losing weight at the end of last year, and thankfully my motivation seems to have returned home after yesterdays post, almost like it knew I was talking about it (its ears must have been burning or something). So I have been thinking about what I would like to achieve this year.

I grew up in a household where we didn't set goals, and all through my schooling etc, it was never something we talked about or witnessed in an obvious way. I am sure there were girls at my school who set their goals and achieved them, but my personal friends were a lot like me, most of us wanted to grow up, get married to some spunk, and have kids. And so that's basically what I did. I never had big career aspirations, I was never really passionate about anything other than having kids.

I have since developed some passions, and in retrospect have found there were other things that really lit me up inside, I was just never encouraged to think that I could do anything with those things. I have always been passionate about horses, I used to ride the neighbours horses, then when there was no riding, I would feed them, brush them, clean up after them, talk to them, or just sit on the fence and watch them, but my parents never had the money for us to have horses of our own, so once my neighbours moved I was left horseless until I was old enough to pay for my own horse riding.

I was also passionate about photography, I used to carry my dad's old SLR around with me everywhere! I am not in so many photos because I was usually behind the camera. My brother followed on from me with the love of photography, and while I was at home bringing up babies he managed to start earning a little extra money from photography. He cant support himself on his photography, but he loves it none the less, and does it in his spare time. I am currently lusting after a Canon 400D digital SLR, which I am hoping will appear for my birthday this year, then I want to go wild taking photos, and learning all I can to become a better photographer.

One of my earlier jobs BC (before children) involved teaching others to use Desktop Publishing and other graphics software. You know what - I loved that too. I also was introduced to Scrap booking 6 years ago - total love! Then my life got so busy with three small kids that I let that fall by the wayside too.

As well as all that I have in the past, sewn, knitted, embroidered, stitched, done woodwork, pottery, beading... lots of crafty things. And you know what, I loved all of them, I loved that feeling of creating, of taking something and changing it to fit my vision. It wasn't always a good vision lol, but it was my vision, and I felt a sense of real satisfaction to look at what I had created.

The last few years have been barren creatively for me, so much so that I have lost much confidence in my ability to be creative. Linda posted about giving your new year a theme, and I really like that idea, so I am borrowing it for myself. So I have decided this year will be a year of creativity for me.

And to kick it off, I have finished my first scrapping layout for 2007. It is part of an album my sisters and I are making for my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary, and will document the story of their lives as we know it. Please excuse the dodgy photos, I am still grappling with my scanner when it comes to scanning 12 by 12 inch layouts, something I plan to master by the end of 2007 the year of creativity :-)