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01 January 2012

The Sunday Salon: What's Up For the New Year?


Which one are you?
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year's Day. (Edith Lovejoy Pierce, English poet)
Or...
New Year's Day: Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. (Mark Twain)
Ahh, my friends. Everyone has written such glorious posts on personal, professional, and blogging goals, and I could pretty much blend all of them into what I want, too, since they are all perfect. I want to read more, achieve my professional goals in my day job, and while I'd love to increase my readership here at the blog, I'm really more interested in just having a whole heck of a lot of fun in these areas of my life and be content.

But, to get to some nitty-gritty things? I plan to...
  • Be more creative in 2012: scrapbooking, learning to knit, journaling more, finally learn Italian and not just the hodge-podge of words and sentences I know. Maybe I'll take part in something similar to the #Reverb11 project? Is there something you're familiar with that you can suggest to me?
  • Read more: Young Adult books, science fiction, fantasy
  • Consistency: I want to either post a little more frequently, or post consistently for weekly events (Saturday Snapshot, The Sunday Salon)
  • A Walk About Town: I really want to keep my weekly feature going. I love how it motivates me to traipse about town and record its originality for my own future nostalgia. While everyone can join, it doesn't have a lot of participation, but I enjoy it. The idea, though, of doing it on a weekly basis, for 52 Thursdays in 2012, is frightening in its massive scope of being consistent to that extent! I may eventually switch it to a monthly installment, but for now, I'll extend it in its weekly form for a little while longer.
  • Challenges, challenges: I do better with short challenges, but I'm thinking of hosting a year long one. It will start late because I just thought of it, but hopefully details are coming soon...
  • Drama in the Blogging World: I've read a lot about the drama throughout the year and how blogging has changed for veteran bloggers. For my part, I'm thankful that I'd like to stay far away from the controversy, but I hope veteran bloggers stay around, and continue to participate. I've benefited from their expertise and knowledge, and I know that the new bloggers who will start in 2012 will also benefit. Honestly, I blog because I love to write, read books and record my thoughts, and try new things within this electronic universe. I love seeing the changes that everyone goes through within their lives, reading, and blogging, and it makes me enthusiastic for each day I press the power button on my Mac.
  • Professional Reviewing: I don't think I'm interested in professional reviewing anymore. Halfway through 2011, I was accepted with a fabulous group of other reviewers to actually get paid to provide reviews for Shelf Awareness! How exciting! But, I never wrote one single review for them. Reviews are only published if they are positive, and it made me just a wee bit uncomfortable. The main reason, however, is that I was simply overwhelmed with managing the number of books I was inundated with and my regular day job! While I read several books sent to me, trying to maintain a consistent read/reviewing schedule while my "real" job requires a lot of travel from city to city for meetings that I had to prepare PowerPoints, spreadsheets, and the like.... oh, my, it was challenging to balance it all!
  • Vlogs: I have done a few over the past year and a half, and I'd really like to do more. My husband purchased the Sony Bloggie Touch video camera for me for Christmas and I love it! (It's sort of like a Flip video. The name "Bloggie" doesn't have to do with anything related to blogging, I don't think. It's just a flippin' awesome video mini-camera, I love it).
So those are the things I'm planning to achieve this 2012. For the most part, I just want to see what I can do to extend my creativity a bit more within the blogosphere, and ultimately, to have much, much more fun!

27 comments:

  1. I feel ya. I see these long lists and I think their admirable but ultimately seem so hard to maintain and too much like work. I'm all about keeping it fun.

    My challenge this year will be finding time with the new baby :)

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  2. Oh I feel ya on the Professional Reviewing. Only positive reviews? *humpf*

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  3. I certainly am glad I found your blog this year, and I look forward to being one of your "readers" in 2012. Happy New Year!

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  4. One of the challenges I joined for 2012(Eclectic Reading Challenge)will help me branch out and read outside my comfort zone.

    I've done that a bit already, through blogging, but I could stretch more.

    I like the idea of your Walking About Town feature. I'm going to check that out. I need to walk more (for one thing) and I could find some terrific shots for our Saturday Snapshot posts.

    Here's MY SUNDAY SALON POST and
    MY WEBSITE

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  5. I think getting paid for reviews would quickly lose its attractiveness if I had deadlines and was forced to say something good. To me that would suck all the fun out of it. Still it is an honor to be asked! I like the rest of your goals...sounds like you have been doing quite a bit of thinking on it. I'm envious of the "creative" one. I am so not. I get stuck in a rut and that is where I stay!

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  6. You have some great goals for 2012!

    I agree with your comment related to reviewing books. Honesty is so important.

    Happy new years!

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  7. Happy New Year!! Love the new look. It says Natalie :)

    I echo your sentiments for 2012 in terms of reading, blogging, and daily life. I can give you pointers on knitting or some helpful websites at least. Let me know when you are ready :)

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  8. Have fun learning to knit! My great-aunt taught me when I was 5 or 6 and I've loved it ever since. Youtube has great tutorial videos and there's a site called Ravelry with all sorts of free patterns and a message board full of nice people always willing to help and explain how to do things :)

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  9. Great goals! I hate the blogging drama too. Seriously, this is something we do for fun and because we are passionate about it. Why can't everyone play nice and stop acting like it's middle school?

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  10. I've been blogging for three and a half years and have managed to stay away from the drama the whole time. You're certainly a veteran blogger now. Happy New Year to you and Jason!

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  11. I love that you cast about for some great 2012 ideas without limiting yourself, Natalie. Like you, I'm aiming for more consistency along with following my book passions versus trying to figure out which direction most folks are heading towards. Good luck with the knitting (I'm too impatient and have to stick with needlepoint!) and let us know what you think of your new video toy. That intrigues me!

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  12. Happy New Year! I haven't set any goals simply because I'll feel WAY too much pressure. However, I do have a few, and first on my list is a blog redesign. I've wanted one for ages and figure my 2-year blogiversary is a good excuse for it. Love the way yours turned out. :)

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  13. Hope 2012 is a wonderful year for you.

    I wouldn't like the idea of getting paid to post positive reviews. I want to read honest reviews good or bad.

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  14. Great goals! Happy new year to you! :)

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  15. Excellent goals, Natalie! And it's interesting what you said about Shelf Awareness. I've thought of pursuing that particular line of reviewing, but I fear I'd end up in just the same boat.

    Cheers to a successful, enjoyable 2012!

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  16. I too have a lot of creative projects that I have started over the last year of so that I really need to get back to and wrap up. Maybe this year...There has been a lot of drama in the blogging world this year and I have decided when it eventually gets too ridiculous I will only review my own books and stop receiving review copies. I love the new look by the way!

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  17. Best of luck with your goals! They all sound fun and sensible to me. I think mostly focusing on having fun is the best way to make sure we remain sane. I can't imagine how I'd ever carry on blogging if I ever lost sight of that. Wishing you all the best in 2012 :)

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  18. I love reading everyone's posts on goals as well :) I'm hoping to be more creative as well and start scrapbooking a bit. It was something that I wanted to try a few years back and never did. I'm also hoping to work on my cooking skills (they are seriously lacking) and try out some new recipes. I hope that you have a wonderful 2012 and are successful in whatever you do.

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  19. Great post, Natalie. Wow, being a part-timer has its advantages, because I had no idea there was any problem in the book blogging world -- like you, I hope to continue to interact with all the great people I've met in the past few years! I love knitting -- so glad you're learning!

    I can't wait to hear your challenge idea, because I still have some room in my schedule :) Have a wonderful 2012 -- I'll look forward to your thoughts on books, food and life!

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  20. wishing you a happy 2012! i enjoyed your goals and plan to jot down a few of my own. my main focus right now is to get back into the blogging/commenting saddle--i fell out after my trip and never got my momentum back. i'm working on it for the new year. :)

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  21. Love that Mark Twain quote. You can always count on him to have something sarcastic to say, haha. Good luck with your goals this year!

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  22. I'm planning on doing A Walk About Town post soon...I promise! I love that you've started that feature and hope you keep it going...even if it is just monthly. I can see how doing one every week would be a bit of a challenge.

    Happy New Year!!

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  23. I am the later quote, but I am going to try really hard to keep my goals.

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  24. I'm still thinking about my reading goals this year. One goal that keeps coming back to me is to read more books. From children's fiction to picture books, to non-fiction, audio books, women's fiction, etc. Just read more books.

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  25. Happy New Year! You have established some wonderful goals, many of which are some of my own. Good luck sticking with them! I know you will do an amazing job.

    (And just to hint at how long it has been since I've stopped by your site, I absolutely love your design. It is so pretty and calming.)

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  26. Happy 2012! Love the quotes. DO you know Scribacchina? -blogs about books and words in English and Italian. I have the link on my blogroll under the WP listings.
    Do have fun with your King challenge.

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  27. Can't believe Shelf Awareness would pay you for reviews only if they're positive. So weird, glad that you're still writing over here rather than doing that sort of "review." Hope that you had a great New Year's. And while I'm not usually one for challenges, I'm curious to see what yours is going to be.

    btw, love the new design!

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