Ah, 2011. The Year from Hell.

Though, honestly, it was the year from hell partly because I kept pushing on things that I should have just let go with the flow.

Good Things that Happened: Was promoted to a full-time design position; Got artwork displayed in a gallery; learned to play guitar; found out people enjoy my singing; took a few short solo trips-- particularly a reviving one to the beach in September; and more.

Hard Lessons that got (or are in the process of being) Conquered: Don't listen to other people's opinions on what will make you happy; Running to a new place or job every time you feel lost isn't the answer, even if it has worked for the past 10 years or so; You can only be who you are and can only stretch your comfort zone so quickly; Lost a lot of people and pets this year; It's harder to mourn people who are still living than the dead;

Basically, 2011 was a lesson in taking control of life and how much one can really overcome. As for 2012, overall goal is going to be "connection". With people, with friends, in the networking sense-- it's something I've kind of lost in all the past years of moving back and forth. When you don't expect to be somewhere long, you don't really connect to people. But you have to. So there's my New Year's Resolution: Connect, be a better friend, learn to open up to people again.

Happy New Year! ♥

I've been finding interesting links all week and posting them mostly via twitter. Just collecting them all here for your viewing pleasure! Includes art/design links and just general interest things as well:

5 Reasons You Need a New Website- website feeling stale? Just not getting the same hits as you used to? Compare your site to this list!

Print Handbook Booklet- The ins, outs and in-betweens of the printing process. Things every designer should know. Too bad it's a limited run, I could really use one of these for reference!

Feel Like a Wallflower? Maybe it's your Facebook wall- The psychological ills of social networking.

Adapting Your Website for the Asian Market- An interesting cultural study between Eastern and Western reactions to marketing... specifically websites. Also check out this Cultural Color Chart

Her Five Year Diary- A fascinating blog chronicling the daily life of a young woman from 1961.

Had the pleasure of seeing White Christmas at the Empire Theatre over the weekend. I'd seen and enjoyed the movie before, so I figured I was in for a decent show. Well, let's just say that it was a fabulous performance. One thing I love about musicals is how they make the music visual. My imagination has a tendency to do that anyway- what with getting a lot of artistic inspiration from music- but I just love a really wonderfully staged musical. The actors were extremely professional. In some scenes it was just fun to watch what the characters in the background were doing! There were little scenes going on in every corner. The cast's rendition of "Blue Skies" was probably my favorite musically, choreographically, and in terms of costumes.

I've been delving a bit into fashion, lately. Not high fashion couture or anything, but just stylishness in general- particularly "cute" styles since one can only work with what one has (and at 5'3", I will never be supermodel tall, thin and sexy ;P). So here was an attempt from this week- got some good reactions to it in real life.

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I've always really liked band posters. Not so much the "official" types with photos of the band, but the types used for individual shows. They rarely have anything to do with the show/band/etc, but the designs are always awesome. I like creating posters anyway, but band gig poster is definitely on my list of career goals (along with book illustrator, etc.). So imagine my joy when I came across this site filled with various band gig posters. There's some really cool stuff there... a small selection...