looking back over the past year, much has happened. i feel like a different person here at the end of the year than i was at the beginning of it. it's quite fascinating how those changes occur incrementally and one day you suddenly realize that you're transformed. there have been some constants - photography, noticing the world around me, creativity, inspiration, lists, blog crushes, overthinking and general navel gazing. and it seems like evolution comes up kind of a lot, but i blame husband for that.
i've spent some time looking back on the year in a couple of ways. one, by
reading skimming back over this blog and two, by browsing back through my iPhoto. shall we take a little stroll down memory lane?
january - moving in to the now-famous blue room was the highlight. i also did a lot of those interviews that were going around at the time. my sister visited and we went to
møn's klint and the
west coast of denmark. and we played an
elaborate practical joke on her boyfriend, who was an extremely good sport about it, tho' he did drink an entire bottle of port afterwards. and our
pooka turned 8. 42 blog posts.
february - what can i say, it was the month the
eyeball obsession began. sabin started
riding lessons. we celebrated our
10th anniversary. i learned about fika. i bought a
new sewing machine. i went a little nuts about
TtV photography. 39 blog posts.
march - i met and fell in love with a
nikon D300. sadly, later in the year, i would have to give it back, because it was my work camera and i left that job, but happily, i found a very lightly used one in my favorite local camera shop a couple weeks before i had to give it back, so that didn't matter at all - and i learned that one cannot stay in a job for the sake of a camera (but that was in november, so i'm getting ahead of myself). i opened
my etsy shop and sold my first items. i went a little crazy for
stones. i had a
gorgeous birthday dinner at my very favorite little castle to celebrate turning thirty-twelve. my
kitchen became famous on apartment therapy.
the julie project started. 48 blog posts.
april - i practiced
austerity april, a little exercise in buying less, it largely worked, tho' there was a moment of weakness towards the end of the month in the face of
new music. a little
trans-atlantic learning adventure began. i invented
gin & tonic sorbet. moments of perfect clarity was named
blog of note by the gods at google on april 21, which was a really good thing, because prior to that i'd been having a really crappy day. i continued to be obsessed with
rocks. and
the julie project fizzled out, which was definitely a learning experience. we went to
a funeral. and a
wedding. we visited a
danish vineyard. 47 blog posts.
may -
spring came in earnest. i visited the
west coast of norway for the first time. the idea of
blog camp was born and the first blog camps were
scheduled. the blog camp
blog was created. i got
downright obsessive about
rocks, particularly one i found on the west coast of norway. me and my gin & tonic sorbet appeared in
disco underworld. i wrote my
700th post and mused on what it meant to me to blog. i outlined my long-held theory that
everyone needs their albanian. 49 blog posts.
june - i got flowered
chucks. i attended
nor-shipping. the
first blog camp was held and it was
even better than any and all expectations. i received the most
lovely little stones from
trinsch in isreal and from
lynne in
south africa (see, even others got caught up in my stone obsession). we celebrated the
summer solstice and soaked in the light. i had a
realization (finally) about creativity and about accepting the release of your creativity into the world. michael jackson died and i found that
i didn't care. 40 blog posts.
july - i learned how to make my pictures big. i embarked on an insane project
provoked challenged inspired by
spudballoo - to tell 30 secrets in 30 days. in the end, i told 29 secrets and one lie and no one ever guessed correctly which one was the lie. and i was exhausted by the effort. we spent time on the beach, soaking up the summer sun. kristina and i started
across øresund, a photoblog showing the contrasts of denmark and sweden. i developed a
sociology of mobile phones. we took a mini-vacation to
dublin. and left for a real vacation in singapore
via amsterdam. i added a new country to my list:
malaysia. husband and me started the
livet på landet (life on the land) blog to document our dream of moving to a farm. 52 blog posts.
august - i embarked on a new obsession:
robots. i learned that our child is a
budding photographer. i concluded that
singapore is like disneyland (actually, i concluded that a long time ago, but finally documented it). i
reread the laura ingalls wilder books. i went to
blog camp in england. i
visited stonehenge, which was something i had long desired to do. i developed a
foot fetish. i had a truly
brilliant experience at one of the last
shipyards left in denmark. i started participating in
postcrossing. and woven underneath it all, i developed a disliking for my job, which i'd really loved until then. maybe because they made me sit with more than $10,000 of their debt in travel expenses for an inordinately long time. 37 blog posts.
september - with the autumn beginning, i started to obsess about
light.
blog camp 2.0. i felt the significance of
09.09.09. the
queen came to town. i found
weaving at a museum in randbøldal. i thought about
color. i started
domestic sensualist together with beth. i discovered the wonderful henie-onstad
art museum near oslo. my unease with my job deepened, and even made me ill, tho' i didn't see that at the time - interesting how that works. barbara kingsolver writes in one of her early books something along the lines of how people are so inside of themselves, it's sometimes hard to tell anything. i came to know what that meant in september. 39 blog posts.
october - i turned to
embroidery in order to cope with my growing dissatisfaction with my job (phew, at least it manifested itself positively in some way). husband found a brilliant
old sewing machine for me at the dump. we prepared for our house to be put up
for sale i spent a couple of days in
istanbul, one of my favorite cities. we had a glorious few days touring around denmark with an old
cat love friend during the
autumn holiday. i
couchsurfed for the first time and it was fabulous. 34 blog posts.
november - the
monocules© were born! i found a
real treasure in a used bookstore. i pondered the 20th anniversary of the fall of the
berlin wall. i
closed in in earnest on my 100 creative things in 2009. with only a minor
nervous breakdown, i held a
brilliant thanksgiving dinner for friends and family.
my work appeared in
public bookstore. the
gold edition of
disco underworld came out and i was included! i
voted in the municipal elections in denmark. i thought about and tried to articulate who
this girl was, at least for now. and i left the job which had become the
job from hell, and even in this economic climate, i still breathed a heavy sigh of relief. 37 blog posts.
december - i did some serious pondering and reading about
simplicity. i prepared for christmas and revealed that i'm a bit of a
scrooge about christmas cards. i lost my photo mojo a bit and am still hoping it comes back. i've been pretty introspective as i have tried to decide what's next after leaving my job.
COP15 took place in copenhagen. i sorted a whole lot of sabin's
baby clothes to save and donate. and i have at least three new bloggy-related projects up my sleeve (so stay tuned in 2010). 34 blog posts (and counting).
conclusions:
: :
inspiration was a big theme for me in 2009. i wanted to seek it, understand it, pick it apart, drink it in, swallow it and digest it. i was a little obsessed about it. but apparently i needed that.
: : i changed a lot over the course of the year. what i want from life became simpler (even if the amount of stuff in my house did not).
: : i became a photographer in 2009.
: : i also became an artist. even if so far it's still mostly for myself.
: : i didn't fly enough to retain gold status on my two airlines where i've had it in recent years. and i'm ok with that.
: : i was directly (credited) responsible for the sale of no less than ten nikons in 2009. i think nikon should employ me.
: : i made a lot of connections and good friends in the blogosphere (and in real life) for which i'm very grateful. and i can't wait to see what 2010 brings.