Goodbye 2015

2015 was a tough year. I'm glad to say goodbye to it. I've said goodbye to a few things in my life this year, and welcomed in some different things, practices and attitudes. I think it will be for the better. One big change in particular is going to make things very different next year. I'm sorry to be so annoyingly vague, but I think it would be wiser not to say what it is, until it happens.

In some ways, I feel like I've achieved very little this year. I've only finished a handful of craft projects and didn't work much in my art journals. I went out very little, except for trips to the Cat Café. On the other hand, there were a few firsts. I did my first painting on canvas, and my first attempt at NaNoWriMo. I wrote several stories and other pieces, including reviews of games on the blog. I discovered many new blogs and became more outgoing in leaving comments and interacting with people.

Unfortunately my laptop died earlier today, so I'm writing to you from my iPad while sitting at my art desk. Brushes are sticking out of glass jars all around me, waiting to be used. I can look out over the fruit trees in my backyard and I can see birds flitting amongst the branches.

But I'm getting off track. Because I don't have access to the spreadsheets on my laptop, I can't pull all of the statistics that I normally do at the end of the year, but I managed to scrounge a few. I haven't figured out whether I can post photos yet either, so sorry for the lack of visuals.

Books finished:
full-length: 14 (11)
short & manga: 38 (4)
Currently reading as of today: 13 (9)

Blog posts:
69 (17)

I'm very pleased to see that I posted more in my blog this year. My aim was to post 1 to 2 times a week, so I'm happy with that. I also read a little more and I'm hoping to spend even more time reading next year. As well as crafting, painting, gaming and other generally fun things!

Finally, without further ado, we come to the second annual:

Apartmentcat Favourites Awards
This year it was very tough to choose, in every category, so I've chosen a top three in books and movies (in no particular order, of course). As for blogs, I've enjoyed reading so many this year, both new and old, that I just couldn't choose, and I've decided to leave that for a separate blog post.

Books:
The Pillow book of Sei Shōnagon. Although it took me a long time to read this book, I adored it and found it very inspirational. I wrote about it here..
✽ The Greatest Show on Earth: the Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins. I found this book on a tram one night. I started reading it immediately and couldn't put it down. It has the clearest explanations (to me) of scientific principles that I've ever read. Weirdly, it also inspired several paintings.
✽The Life-changing Magic of Tidying by Kondo Mari. This is turning out to be a very strange selection of books. Oddly, it was another page-turner. I wanted to know more about this woman who inspired millions of people and changed the way they think about their possessions. She changed the way I think about my possessions. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say: confirmed and refined it.

Movies:
✽What We Do in the Shadows. This hilarious movie from New Zealand is a spoof mockumenary about a group of vampire flatmates.
✽ Fist of Fury. It's true. I'd never seen a Bruce Lee movie before this year. Shameful! His skill was incredible and I finally know what everyone was talking about.
✽ Summer Wars. This cute anime is about a student who has problems in both the real-life and online world when he accidentally releases a virus that threatens to create global chaos.

That's it from me for 2015! I hope to get another laptop very soon so that I can keep working on my stories, not to mention blogging! I have so many ideas lately that I want to share.

Have a happy and safe new year everyone!
xx