This beautiful image is by Griottes

I hope you and yours have all had a wonderful Festive Season. My little family and I have had a lovely time which involved far too much food and wine and lots of rambling conversations and catching up with other family members. As you might have guessed, one of my (many) New Years resolutions is to get back into blogging again. As well as being a useful means to convey some of the concepts that surround a new series of illustrations, I find that it can help me to clarify some of my own thinking process and ideas. Hopefully you as a reader, find some of my posts interesting too. If not I apologise :)


sorry, original source for this image is unknown 

It seems that many of us exhaled a collective sigh of relief as 2013 ticked over into 2014. I had seen a few images like the one above, asking for 2014 'to be good'. It wasn't until a friend on facebook made the connection that so many people commented that 2013 had been a terrible year for them; I know that has been the case for quite a few of my friends. Is it to do with our subconscious being superstitious at the number of the year? Have many people found it tough floundering through yet another year of recession? Or did many people have events that were sad and significant occur? Hopefully you yourself had a good year in  2013.


Woodhill Forest

One of my missions this year, is to make the time to get out in nature more. When life gets too busy, it can be so easy to bury yourself in work, forgetting about doing the things that you love and that inspire you. Getting out at Woodhill on my mountain bike was a fabulous way to start the year. Sadly it has been so long, that my family members whose butts I normally kick, kicked mine. I am determined that that shall never happen again!


Coastline at Mount Manuganui

 
Another thing which I aspire to do this year, is being grateful for all of the positive things that happen in my life. Not only on a grand scale but also all of the little happenings that occur daily. Some people go as far as making gratitude jars, I aim to just make a mental note at the time of the event or a little quite summary at the end of the day. For me I aim to balance out the frustrations that occur in daily life by focusing more on the positive and to consciously count my blessings, which are many.


A sunset sky at Matakanaval

 
Hanging out with friends and getting to see some of my favourite bands live is also something that brings me great joy. Starting the year dancing to Fat Freddies Drop and Shapeshifter for me is now mandatory I think. What makes you happy? How to you like to start your year?
So far 2014, you have bought me fun, good people, laughter and a truckload of ideas to explore in my painting. It hasn't even been a week yet, but already I like you a lot!