Can it be 2012?

Can it be 2012 already? 

Can it be that the last time I wrote in my blog was July 16th!?

Can it be that I haven't been here for 6 months? 

Yes, I'm afraid so.
(Dmitry says, "It is 170 days from the start date to the end date, but not including the end date
Or 5 months, 17 days excluding the end date. But who's counting?")


And even though I have good intentions of being back here, truth is, I'm not sure how consistent I can be. All I know is I'll try.

I look back on the end of year posts from 2009 and 2010 and see that I did favorite photos of the year....and I know that I have barely picked up my camera in the second half of 2011. Not because I don't want to enjoy my photos and my memories, but I think I lost my artistic way a bit. Around about August 2011, I hit the brakes on my creative life and shifted gears and my energies to my new job, because, for the first time in over 6 years, I genuinely liked my job and every person I work with. Not since I was teaching at Westwood College, have I felt that I was in the right place career-wise. Not since Westwood and my dear Frank, have I had a boss who appears to care so much about her employees that I really wanted to work hard. And when you consider how much time you spend working, it's so good if you want to do it.

I've made about 4 digital scrapbook pages in the past 6 months. If you've been here before, you know that is basically nothing compared to 2010 and early 2011.

I took some online classes, Soul Restoration II (yes, I'm a Brave Girl, too), 21 Secrets, and Supplies Me with Jane Davenport, and In the Sun and I'm proud of the results. I've grown my drawing skills and my mixed media repertoire. But, sadly, I fell of the Art Journal Caravan, after 2 years. I traded pixels for pencils and have gotten back to basics. The resulting art work has been harder to share, since I never like the way they photograph and there are many more steps to sharing my art than when I was doing the digital pages.

And finally, it's January 2nd, 2012 and I have yet to share my one word (details for Ali Edwards One Little Word are here) for this year. But, that's what has steered me back here. Because it's important. It's important not to beat myself up for not blogging the last 6 months of my life (mostly because I was focused on my new job and my family).

It's important to me to choose a word that will guide my year, as I have in the past. 2010 had me focused, 2011 was organize.

And this year? 

Wow, this has been a tough one. 

There were so many that I wanted to choose, for several reasons. I need to think a bit more about it and I'll here be back to share what I've decided.