Happy new year to be

I'm a little early on this, but I'm wishing you well for 2024 and wouldn't it be nice if there was slightly less of the bad even if we don't get more good? Though I must show you one tiny bit of good: I made progress on the sock I started years ago and had to rip back to the cuff. I might actually be able to wear these ones come April!

 

2023 was jam-packed for me personally with loads of positive change, big and small. I am definitely happier and less stressed than I was at this time last year. And I accomplished some dream goals, ranging from decluttering the house to winning an award from Crime Writers of Canada for my unpublished crime novel. 

And I have hopes for 2024. I want to do a little landscaping at the rural property we look after - something that's nice to look at and smell, but also useful to local insects and wildlife. I have a manuscript to revise, another to write, and a third to finish. I'm hoping to do even more decluttering, but at a more relaxed pace to match our evolving use of the house. I have some books to read in a group next year thanks to my having finally joined Instagram, and I'm adapting my planner system to make it easy to keep track of that.

Of course the most important first step in planner setup is to make little art pieces to post over the sticky adhesive marks on the Filofax cover page, and to buffer the damage inevitably caused by the zipper pull that's part of the Malden binder design. 

Because frankly, when things get messy, it's nice to step back and look at a part of the plan that's untouched since the start, when everything was potential and not at the 'worse before it gets better' stage.

I hope your 2024 is great but also that your lead-in to 2024, your New Year's Eve and Day, are exactly the balance of fun and peaceful that's right for you.

Any resemblance to
a baby new year or aged old year
is purely coincidental and socky

Thanks again for coming to see me today and I look forward to meeting up next Saturday!