Learning To Love The Number 50!

It's January (just), it's cold and it's my birthday!!!

Our joyous, family Christmas and fun, new year celebrations are now but a distant memory. Still, whereas many of my friends and colleagues seem to have fallen into a post- Xmas depression, I on the other hand am excited at the prospect of a new year and the new opportunities and challenges that it will bring.

Part of that enthusiasm is because I get an extra celebration this year, that sees me through the January blues, it was actually my 50^th birthday(!)

‘No way!’ I hear you exclaiming at your screens, ‘How can that be when you don't look a day over 21?’ Well, the truth is (as you can see by my picture above) I can't quite believe it either, but the fact still remains that I am now of a more ‘mature disposition’ and I have a room full of celebratory ‘50^th birthday’ cards to prove it!

So my obligatory thought process has been this;

1. Do I go into emotional melt-down and face this big birthday with fear, dread and feelings of impending doom for the year ahead? Particularly as I now markedly enter the next ‘age bracket’ on various consumer survey forms – how depressing is that?
2. Do I embrace the opportunities of the year ahead whilst giving thanks for the many exciting experiences that I have had so far and throughout the previous 50 years?
3. Do I ‘up my game’ and thrust myself into ‘ creative overdrive’, realising that I may not have many years left in me to have fun and live life to it’s ultimate max?
4. Should I have a few ‘G&T’s and devour a full box of chocolates whilst I mull it all over?

So in the end I decided…..wait for it….( a drum roll please…)…. to go for a combination of three of the above , options B, C & definitely option D. Obviously there is nothing that I can do about turning back the clock to adjust my advancing years so I intend to grow old disgracefully but happy and as creatively as I can possibly afford.

This is also a year that I have decided not to make any New Years resolutions – why make them just to break them. I'm not foolishly going to set myself up to fail when I don’t have to!  However, I am sure of one more thing - I intend to create on a more regular basis this year. In fact my only other resolve is to immerse myself in seeing, creating, hearing and participating in artistic pursuits whenever and wherever I can.

The key to achieving this is simple, to use the limited time that I have available to the max. If I only have 30 minutes then I will create a tiny project from start to finish, no matter how small or simplistic it may be, the aim is simply to create at every spare opportunity, using any media, any format and in any space, not just in my studio at set times.

So…I have set myself a task to create something every week of the year for 50 weeks in total. Can you spot the not-so-subtle theme here? But, and this is important to note, if I miss a week I will notbeat myself up about it but simply make two or more items as soon as I can, the following week.

That's it! A simple and effective plan that I hope will keep me happily working and creating all through the year – 50 items to be completed, large or small that I will share with you all as I complete them. Please don't send me hate mail if I miss a a week because I just won't be bothered and will be too busy working on several exciting projects for the following weeks.

Hopefully, you will share this epic creative journey with me by using some of my explorations and themes to inspire and create pieces of your own. It would be great to see what you make too so please feel free to share your images with me via my Facebook site and/ or my blog.

Let's resolve to be even happier this year and to sharing our creativity with our loved ones and friends. Here's to 50 weeks of fun in 2016!  And if you haven't had a look around my site, please feel free.  I'm uploading new products all the time, including some new workshops for anyone who lives in and around Cheshire, Manchester and the Peak District.  Or for those who fancy a woolly weekend away!

Oh, and please do add comments, or posts to my Facebook page. Always nice to know who's part of this Pink Alpaca family!

Jacqui xxx