Resolutions 2014
January is definitely the best time for making plans for the new year!.
Usually I don’t feel attached to certain dates when it comes to plans making or / and giving myself feedback, because changes in life usually happen without any regard to New Year, birthday or other significant time points. This time I feel different though, because so many things changed during last year. We also have alot of plans for 2014, so I decided to follow the tradition and make a list of what is already achieved and what is still coming up.
2013
Last year I finally finished my 10 years long IT carrier (computer coding job, for those who is not familiar with the abbreviation) with no plans of coming back. Although I’ve been planning to leave IT for a while, the break up wasn’t easy – my last job was very stressing, with a lot of broken promises and paper wars. Family problems added up – and by the time I finally decided to cut loose, I was an emotional wreck. Luckily I had my husband by my side, and he was the only person who supported me on this decision.
Immidiately after resigning from the IT world, I happily announced that I would become a full time blogger. Turns out, it was pretty naive of me to expect that working from home on my own for the first time in my life, in a field that is totally new to me (I’ve been a hobby blogger all this time, not knowing much about PR’s, price rates and collaborations), while recovering from a long period of stress would be a piece of cake. Soon enough I realized that I was wrong – jumping into the cold water and effortlessly swim into the sunset is, apparently, not my style.
I needed a year (yes, a whole year!) to recover from the stress, to educate myself about working on my own and to decide what I am going to do next. It’s weird how I was raised to believe that running a business “is only for certain people” who “have money to begin with” and “simply CAN do it”. Was this the legacy of Soviet times..? Now I know that with enough will and persistance anything is possible.
Another change that happened last year was that I finally got back to drawing. As a kid, I used to draw a lot, but a true soviet art school taught me one thing – you are either born Van Gogh (or Repin, whatever) or you shouldn’t even try. Apparently, soviet schools never heard of actually TEACHING their students. I might be too harsh – I admit my judgment is based on one school. Whatever the reason, even though I was taking different art classes later on in my life (and was praised for my abilities), I always felt sort of ashamed of my works. Eventually I stopped drawing alltogether. Only now I finally feel I sencirely don’t care – I can draw again. I didn’t dare to get near painting yet – but it will certainly happen in the future!
All in all, 2013 was the happiest year of my life so far. I spent it with the most amazing guy I ever met, I’m finally free from the profession that I didn’t like, I’m becoming a new person and I don’t give a shit about opinions that bring me down. In fact, nothing really brings me down anymore. It is true that I don’t have as much money as I used to (yet), it is true we are all on our own and there’s noone to watch our backs. We can do and achieve anything. Isn’t it the best feeling?
Oh yes, in 2013 I finally got pixie cut I wanted for years and then decided to grow my hair again
2014
Where should I begin… we have so many plans. Here are the major ones:
- Last year I started to learn Illustrator and joined my husband on his microstock portfolio. He sells photos, I sell illustrations. My works are pretty basic for now, but as I’m planning on making progress, and fast! After all, microstocks should become our major source of income. I wrote more about microstocks here.
After we develop our microstock portfolio, we want to make some major changes -
- We want to find a new house! Our current apartment is way too expensive because we live in the center of the country, although thanks to rather awful public transport situation here in the city, it takes ages to get anywhere. Besides, we have the most idiotic living room (in a form of a huge square) and a tiny work room, which we both share daily. We love to be together, but this room is WAY too small. Turns out, we can hire a whole freaking HOUSE of 4-5 rooms for less than what we pay now, somewhere in Limburg. I always wanted to live clother to the German border – I love the nature there, and it’s not as crowded. Since we both work on the internet, all we need is, basically, internet. And a big room for my man’s photography studio. And a walk-in closet. I won’t compromise on the last one!
After we more to the new house -
- We want a kitten and a doggy. Scottish fold and a mittel-schnauzer, please Or any other kitten, because my husband is the cats’ man and he says he would love any kitten. Me too, obviously. But I never had cats, so I will have a lot to learn! I am a doggies girl, and since we used to have 2 mittel-schnauzers – Archie and Gray, who are in the doggies heaven now, I cannot imagine having any other dog than a bearded little schnauzer. I seriously CAN’T WAIT! We might even take a kitten before moving to the new house…
And what about the blog?
- I started my blog as a fashion blog, then turned it into a lifestyle blog, then back to fashion only, and now I want it to be a fashion and lifestyle blog again. Final decision. My idea is to turn my blog into a fashion and lifestyle magazine for joung (and joung in spirit) people, who obviously love (mostly) rock-inspired fashion, heavy rock music and traveling. Coming up are posts about Spring / Summer 2014 trends with related DIY projects, photography tutorial for bloggers, fitness programm review, style updates and also personal diary posts. It will take some time for me to rearrange (which includes new blog design and moving to WordPress), so please bear with me trough this (hopefully) short period of rare posts. Right now I’m busy with putting my old IT-related closet out for sale on RmH shop and (for Dutchies) Marktplaats (more on it in a separate post).
Last but not the least – guitar!
- This year (after we establish our microstocks portfolio) I will return to playing guitar. This is like the biggest challenge for me – worse than drawing – since somewhere deep inside I’m absolutely sure, that you are either born with the ability to play guitar, or you should lay the guitar back where you took it and fuck off. Obviously it sounds terribly stupid, but it’s a very stubborn problem that prevents me from playing guitar in front of anyone, including myself! When I finally can play guitar at the level of complete songs without sounding like I’m going to murder someone’s ears – this would be a victory!
That’s it for now
