It’s the last day of the first month of 2014. Well, dear me. How did that happen? It doesn’t seem so long ago when we were just greeting each other happy holidays and happy new year.
Incidentally, today is also the first day of the new lunar year, according to the Chinese calendar. So, here’s my wish of health and prosperity to you and your loved ones for the year. 
So, how has January 2014 treated you so far?
Mine’s been a mix of crazy busy work, good family fun, and interesting personal projects.
Been working on new strategies for clients, and looking at possibly doing extra work for one of my clients during a short-term campaign. Also organized a trip to Singapore in a few days’ time – my first work trip in 2014. And, I’m really looking forward to it.
Had to send-off my parents-in-law early in January back to their home in South Africa, after they’ve spent three weeks with us over the holidays. And tomorrow, my mom would be heading home to Manila too. And, during the time that they were here, we’ve managed a handful of day trips and a couple of holiday getaways.
Also managed to hold our first birthday party here – for our son, who turned 10. I’m hoping to share a bit more on this some time. But, who knows if I’ll manage to blog this special milestone birthday.
Part of my wish this year is to organise and to attend a few more get-togethers because I really suck at these things. So, we had some friends over for an afternoon tea (we also visited them a couple of weeks back). And, my family and I attended a good friend’s birthday party.
I’ve been keeping up with three artsy projects so far. And yes, they’re all on my To Blog list too. But, if you’ve been following me on Instagram, Twitter, and Flickr (all @shaicoggins), you’ve probably seen some of my progress photos there. Sometimes, they get posted on Facebook as well. Oh, and yes, I’ve started practicing my hand lettering again. This time, purely analog.
When it comes to media, this month, I’ve managed to watch 4 new movies (two of them musicals) and read 4 new books (only 1 is a novel). I’ve thoroughly enjoyed 3 of the 4 I’ve watched (Frozen, The Sapphires, and Les Miserables the 25th Anniversary Concert). My kids and mom watched Les Mis for the first time, and now my daughter is really keen to watch the live stage version.
And, as for the books, I am somewhat torn about A Discovery of Witches. I liked it, but didn’t quite fall in love with it like I wanted to. I’m not sure if I’d like to read Book 2 yet. Will have to see, as I have a huge To Read list as well. My favourite nonfiction read of the month is I Just Like To Make Things by Lilla Rogers. Great for the artsy crowd.
On another note, if you’ve visited the site recently, you might notice that I’ve redressed the blog again. The last theme I tried just wasn’t working out, so I thought I’d give another theme a try. Another fresh start for 2014.
My plan is to keep tweaking the theme to reflect the new direction that I would like to take the blog this year. I’m also planning a big categories revamp. Hopefully, making things easier and simpler. That’s the idea anyway. But, I am fully aware that when it comes to this blog and me, I tend to overcomplicate and overthink things at times.
That’s why I have been keeping away from blogging again the last week and a half or so (apart from the fact that my days are well and truly full )- even though I told myself that I would really want to keep a 2-3x/week blogging schedule.
So, whenever I think of my delayed blogging deadlines and my growing list of ‘things to blog about’, I just end up panicky. That’ sehyo I’ve been staying away.
You’d think that after 15-odd years of blogging, I would have known better than to keep doing such things. But, somehow, this being my first blog, and my personal blog, I can’t seem to escape some of my silly habits. Still working on it, though. Not giving up.
Anyway, there you go. The Cliff’s Notes version of my January 2014. Not that anyone really would want to know the details. But, I can’t help but record these things, mostly for my own note-taking and memories.
In any case, hopefully, I’ll manage to catch up with better blog posts soon enough.
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