How has your 2009 been, honestly? My own experience hasn’t been that great. Despite all my insistence that this was going to be my year, that I was going to be successful, have a great social life and generally be brilliant at everything, very little of that has transpired. I’m still:
- In the same job, because there simply aren’t any vacancies!
- Because I’m still earning peanuts I don’t get out very much, preferring to scrimp and save for the bigger occasions.
- I’m not as successful at my outside-of-work activities as I’d like to be.
All this doom and gloom a little out of character for this blog? Well, yes, but I intended to write a mid-year review on which of my goals I’ve achieved etc. and I’d be lying if it was all happy and joyful.
Still, the summer is here, misery can’t be blamed on Seasonal Affective Disorder anymore, so in the spirit of resigning myself to waiting out the recession, I’ve come up with a list of dirt cheap or free ways that I intend to make the summer of 2009 sparkle brightly!
- I plan to read more, preferably in the sun somewhere, perhaps the park, or in the back garden with a glass of rosé and a bowl of strawberries.
- I’ll go on long, but slow (exceedingly slow and with overly-frequent breaks in my case) and rambling walks, getting to know the town a little better and hopefully discovering some hidden gems!
- I’ll take lots of photos, of everything! Textures, flowers, interesting people and buildings, anything that catches my eye. I’ll go out with my camera with the specific intention to come back with lots of wonderful snaps! Now that I’ve figured out how to do it with my camera, I may try my hand at HDR too.
- I’ll sit by the open window with my laptop and write whatever comes to me!
- I’ll take advantage of the seasonal produce and eat lots of fresh fruit, including of course, my favourite – loads of strawberries!
- I’ll make use of the huge amount of craft supplies I have, making lots of fabulous things!
- I’ll write long letters in my best handwriting and send them to people.
There are loads of fabulous ways to make the summer sparkle, even when funds are low! How are you planning to take advantage of the summer season?
I understand you hun. I wanted this year to be 100 times better than 2008 but so many awful things have happened to me including: friendships wilting away, car crashed, family members being robbed other family members being incredibly sick, dealing with self-image issues, being overworked at school. But still now that it’s summer things are starting to look up and while 2009 might not be better than 2008 I think that in the end all those things that happened will just make us stronger to get an awesome 2010
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I hear you! For me, 2009 started off fantastically (I woke up in Germany, that was amazing!), but I’d planned to have ‘Frock & Roll’ up and running by February and to have done a LOT with it by then, and it wasn’t finished until June.. this put me behind a little bit! Also, while I know it’s going to help me in the long run, this year has really been about study, study, study, which takes up so much of my time and makes it difficult to complete some of the other things I’d love to do, like take on an internship at a magazine and volunteer.. BUT, having said all that, it’s still been pretty good, it’s just taken on a different path than the one I had anticipated.. this was a great idea for a post, I was thinking of doing something similar and reviewing my resolutions for 2009 against what’s actually transpired!
2009 has been alright so far. I graduated from uni and have walked into a job. I think that was lucky. But that did mean that I didn’t have time to just chill out.
I love your plans, especially about writing handwritten letters. People don’t do that anymore.
These are all really good ideas… they put me in a good mood just READING them so you’re definitely going to benefit from actually doing them.
You should listen to lots of happy and beautiful music too! Maybe while you’re taking advantage of your craft supplies… music always makes me feel more creative.
I hope to hear you being much more optimistic at your end of year review =)
So far 2009 has definitely been a let down for me as well, but I do like your list of creative (and free) activities to make the summer better. Here’s to a better rest of the year!