A Year in Review

365 The Final Images

The final images from my 365 challenge. Enjoy! 

Owls

I am loving owls at the moment. 

"Killer Whale"

Funny comic to light up your Friday. 

Side note - I feel that the recent events with this killer whale fully justifies what many consider my "illogical" fear of whales. Whales kill people. They may not mean it but they are big and in water and they kill! So there haters.

New Haircut - New Beginning?

Maybe, maybe not - but a change is as good as the rest.

Apple's Sexy iPhone App Ban Explained - Techland - TIME.com - StumbleUpon

Apple's Sexy iPhone App Ban Explained - Techland - TIME.com - StumbleUpon

How about don’t download it. Who are these women and why can’t they just get a grip? I don’t have any use for the Bible Phrase a Day nor does it apply to my belief system but I am not asking Apple to take the app away.

A change this way comes...

365 Outtakes December

Valentines Love

Pancakes in bed, gorgeous flowers and awesome Bluetooth for my iPhone?

Best husband ever.

November 2009

365 Outtakes

Tiny Words

Dedicated to J.D. Salinger

This is Perceptions from Puddles

Left is *Em*

Right is *Jess* 

A New Year

A new year, a new layout, a new challenge?

It has been a couple of months since we all said good-bye to 2009 and I am just stopping for a moment to catch my breath and reflect upon the year that has passed and all there is to look forward to in the year ahead.

A year ago today (a year exactly. this was not planned I am no where near that organised) I started last year's personal challenge which was the "Year of Jessie". So did I succeed? That is a tough one. I did make a conscious effort to stick with the Year of Jessie plan, really I did. I saw out my 365 photography challenge to the end and am loving the results. It forced me to shoot everyday and to learn to look at my own photos without criticizing every part of my self (well most of the time anyway) and my work. I did continue to lose weight and get healthy this year while managing to except that I wasn't a contestant on Biggest Loser and any loss was a good loss. I spent time with friends and having fun - sometimes a little bit too much fun (ahem, Emma and Rob's housewarming).

So where did I drop the ball? I was going to stop thinking the grass is greener some place else. This has apparently been challenging. Once again we have returned home from a trip to Perth more confused than ever on where we should be and what is the best choice for us and our family. I am constantly struggling with myself at the moment as to whether or not the pull to move back to Perth is one of a practical and strategic nature or, if once again is a case of things aren't perfect here so they must be better there. I fear it is the latter of the two.

The key factor of the year of Jessie was to hate less. I believe my words were to keep my prickles but avoid becoming thorny. Out of all the goals I set myself for last year this was the one that I kept close everyday. It is a hard one to know if you really succeeded on or not but looking back now I think I did alright. Is there room for improvement? Of course! But I definitely gave people the benefit of the doubt a bit more and realized (often due to watching myself make mistakes) that no one is perfect and that is okay.

So what does this mean for this year? Keep on keeping on I would say. With the following goals in mind:

• Stress less - anyone who knows me knows that I stress at an unhealthy level. Must stop that! 
• Quality time - tying in with stressing less, I want to spend more quality time with those I care about this year. I want to use that time to do memory making activities instead of just going through the motions.
• Write more - that "novel" sitting in my laptop is not going to write itself. Since I have wanted to write a novel for as long as I can remember I need to make it a priority to sit down and type it out. Take the challenge and not get scared when it is hard. 
• Give more thought to my photography. I gave a lot of time last year to my 365. Taking a photo everyday was awesome and really did get me shooting more. But often the shots were rushed and I just got what I could. I want to take more time this year to plan out shots. Get an idea and follow it through. Take the time to play with certain shots and ideas until they become something I can be proud of. 
• Love better - I often take the people that are closest to me for granted and don't show them the love that they really deserve. This will change. 
• Make the best with what I have. Stop looking for the next best thing and realize that with a few tweaks, what I have could be paradise. 

So here we go - another year, another personal challenge. Let the "Year of Quality" begin.

Going in with eyes wide open

October 2009 365 Outtakes

Tumbling Away

Just as an FYI - I have also started a Tumblr blog which I am spending a lot more of my time on now. I will still be posting on this blog for sure but for cool things I stumble upon, little quips, etc check out my Tumblr.

Also if you have a tumblr I would love to follow you so please comment with your Tumblr address.

September 2009 365 Outtakes