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With all my big talk of "I want to learn Flash," maybe its a good idea to get the software first...Hehe. Ok, so I did have Flash on my old computer (the version when it was still from Macromedia), but its time for a sweet upgrade for me with CS 3 (working in CS right now.)

After browsing at a few books, I ended up with Sams Teach Yourself Adobe Flash CS3 Professional in 24 Hours. So far so good, I finished "Hour 1." I'm not a complete newbie in Flash (maybe an advanced newbie) but everything sure looks intimidating when I haven't touched it in years.

Hopefully I can start posting some things here as I am learning. Thank goodness for this blog to keep me accountable. Maybe I'll get somewhere by the end of this year.

Thank you all for the kind words and encouragement for me to attend the SCBWI conference! Every comment received gave me a jolt of energy, I will be sure to report back and share what I've learned.
Is it too late to post new year's resolutions? I've noticed while blog surfing that many people come up with a theme for the new year. I thought it was a great idea, and the word for me would be Structure. On the illustration front I am sailing along, but I've been struggling with work/life balance as a freelancer working from home. I never thought that would be such an issue, since how great is it to work from home? In a lot of ways, it is. But there are alot of downsides that I would like to address this year, and also other little things:

*keep a more regular schedule: I'm admittedly a night owl. There are days when I go to sleep at 5am and wake up at noon. Especially in the winter, I'd like to catch more sunlight. Although some parts of me think why I need to fight this. Its the natural rhythm of my body. But I don't think its too healthy in the end.

*leave the house more: When your work is fun and your work space is five paces away from your bedroom, the days can pass and you realize you haven't left the house for a while. A walk is always good physically and mentally.

*Organizing that paper pile: since I still sketch by paper and pencil, there is the inevitable paper pile next to the desk. To remedy this, I'd like to start learning how to sketch on the computer. I have a wacom tablet and have tried it in the past, it still doesn't seem very natural to me yet.

Other goals include writing my own children's book and learning flash. There I said it. Now I 'm really going to be held accountable!

Ah! Having done my part of my middle son's finish-the-last-few-college-applications frenzy (i.e., cracking the whip, editing, and forking over the credit card), I'm free to enjoy this new year... at least for a few minutes before I crash and fall asleep, anyway. A new year always feels to me like a fresh snow (which we're getting as I type) - pristine and clean and full of promise. I know my cheer will fade in a few days, as the slush turns gray and I break my resolutions, but I'm relishing this peaceful, hopeful moment for now.

Anyhow, this year my main resolution is to make resolutions I can actually keep. The challenge is thus to come up with some keepable ones that don't involve eating more chocolate and reading more books. Hmm.

Okay, this year I resolve to:

• Draw every morning for 10 minutes.
• Post on my blog at least once a week.
• Finally get around to adding the list of blogs I read and update the list of 3-D artists I admire.
• Finish my website and get it online. I HAVE to do this. SOON.
• Learn something new every day (actually an easy one to keep - between kids, NPR, and my internet addiction, I can hardly fail to get my brain stirred daily).
• Walk the dog at least twice a day, even when the weather stinks and we'd both rather hunker down by the fire.
• Do jumping jacks and have a drink of water instead of (or at least before) I dig into my chocolate stash when stress-cravings hit.
• Procrastinate less.
• Send my holiday cards. Soon. Really, really soon.
• Write thank you notes. Real ones. On paper. And affix stamps to the envelopes and mail them. At least some of the time.
• Spend 15 minutes tidying my studio and/or the kitchen table before bed.
• Eat more chocolate.

Doh! Well, I had to put that last one in because my list was getting less and less keepable as I went on. I guess I'll have to think about these some more.

So what resolutions are the rest of you planning? Any I have a prayer of keeping too?