Closing the blog

Hi all. I'm here to announce that the end has finally come - it's like Brooke said in a recent(ish) comment. Things have really slowed down around here, and as I've been running the blog on my own (if this can be called "running". ha) for a long while now, so I think it's time to call it a day. I'm still doing my own Chrysalis challenges each year, and I encourage others to do the same! But this was after all intended to be a year-long project which started back in 2011, and it's been a fair while since we were in that year! ;)

Thanks to everyone who's followed the blog and commented over the years. I will keep the blog up but I'm going to add the captcha thing back on (I know, BLASPHEMY) because I have been getting spam messages lately and they're annoying me. Don't get me wrong, Blogger captures most of them so I don't have to deal with them, but I still get email notifications of the comments. haha.

So yeah, I'm putting captcha back on, so at least if anyone is truly desperate to leave a comment, they can do so. ;)

I will finish this post by saying that I do have my own blog which I still update regularly, and it features a lot of talk about writing and general creative stuff, so if you can't be stuffed wrestling with captcha but want to get in touch, you know where to go!

This blog was hoppin' while it was hoppin', but it's time to call it a day. Thanks again everyone. It was fun and awesome and all that. :)

The sun sets on the Chrysalis blog!

It's October!

And I am on track with my Chrysalis goal for the year. I also have a plan for next year's Chrysalis challenge - I will be attempting to create one new piece of fine art each week.

Also, NaNoWriMo is coming up and I have a plan. I'm a bit nervous that I will fail, but I'll still give it a shot!

What are you up to? How's your year gone?

Mid-year check-in

Oh, I know...I know. Nothing much is happening on this blog. I can report that I stumbled across Jenn again - it's always great to chat to that lady! But Winter is still floating somewhere in the ether. I still hold out hope that she will return to us someday soon. But I'm pretty sure she's busy with her last year of school, or her first year of college. I can't remember which it would be by now...

Anyway...it's the middle of the year! I don't suppose that comes as news to anyone, but it does surprise me just a little. How is everyone going with their creative/other goals for the year? For me, it's been necessary to accept that I can't always be perfect and achieve all my goals 100% of the time. But I am still getting stuff done, and I'm enjoying (almost) every minute of it.

In other news, I turn 32 tomorrow (July 25th...this blog post will be posted on July 23rd, but in Australia it's actually July 24th right now)! It's a mid-week birthday, not ideal, but I will still be enjoying a birthday dinner at mama's house, with other family around. That lady is too good to me!

Hope all of you are doing well! Tell me how you're going with your "stuff" so far this year!

Errrr, it's been a while! ;)

I know I haven't posted in a while. In my defense, slightly, I was away for a month. Still, not much of a defense is it? hehe

My creative goals got put on hold for the most part while I was overseas. The only thing I did during that time was take photos, and those are not on my goal list at all. But I did keep blogging over at my main blog, only because I'd scheduled most of the posts (the A-Z Challenge is going on, you know!).

But now I'm home, and set to get back into the creative stuff! I sure need to catch up in some areas.

How have you guys gone during March and most of April?

Late February check-in :)

Yeah, I've lost track of the weeks, so let's just measure by the part of the month we're up to!

How's everyone going? I've done a lot of photo sorting in recent days, as it's probably the easiest thing on my weekly task list (aside from catching up on reading Michael's Princess Caitlin/Catrina stories, that is). I've got really far ahead in that goal, to make up for the weeks in March/April when I will be out of the country and probably unable to sort any photos at all. My goal is to get that far ahead in other areas, too, though I will probably take some stuff on the plane with me (like printed-out Catrina stories, or printed-out novel chapters to edit, stuff like that). But anyway, the point is that I'm sorting photos but not rushing ahead in any other area. Though I did read an extra Catrina story last night. ;)

I'm very, very close to finishing my first NaNo novel (a YA paranormal, or is it supernatural?) from last year. It's currently at about 60k, and will probably end at not much more than that. Then I have the next novel to move onto, which I reached 50k on but which may be longer than the first (it's sci-fantasy). It's been slow going, writing 1k a week, but it's also been more relaxing than most of my writing projects are.

Anyway... My travels. A friend and I are travelling to Paris, then London, then going on a tour of the U.K., in March/April. Should be fun, and cold, and should leave me with a whole bunch of new photos I will need to sort upon returning home. But I still have a few weeks to go before I get to say I'm leaving! A few more weeks in which to try and make headway with my goals!

How are you all going with your goals/projects/what have you?

Somewhere between Week #5 and Week #6 check-in/up?

Hey everyone! You may have noticed that there's no particular rhyme or reason to when I come by and post here. Mostly it just occurs to me suddenly that, "Oh yeah, I wanna hear how those guys are doing!" So, I guess that's what you can talk about here in the comments - how your weekly goals are coming along so far this year. Have you got any monthly goals instead? Or how about just year-long goals?

My goals are in their usual state, coming along at a slow and steady pace. I now have a new problem to add to the list, though - a possible entire rewrite of a novel I had thought largely "done". I got some really helpful critique, which I shall at some point write about in my "main" blog. For now, I sit and I stew and I plot a possible rewrite.

How are you and your goals going?

How's everybody going?

I've lost track of my fellow Chrysalis hostesses :( I think they're floating in the portion of space known as "real life has taken over". I miss them! But the show must go on, as the saying goes!

How's everyone going with their creative/other goals this year so far?

My goals are mostly on track, but the health goals are on hold temporarily while I recover from a minor surgery I had on Friday. My writing goals are going well, and I'm a little bit ahead in some areas. I'm finding it quite easy to get in my 'slacker' time, which possibly means I'm not doing enough. But I'm not going to expand on my goals just yet, 'cause I think that could lead to exhaustion!

But now it's your turn - let's have your updates!! :)

Week #2 check-in/up

Hey everyone!! How's everything going? Are you meeting your goals? Do you even know your goals yet?

I'm finding it interesting so far this year, because I'm working on a fair few projects at once but I feel like I'm not doing much. I guess last year was really busy and I was working on one given project at a time, and throwing my all into it. This year is a little different. But I'm liking it - the variety keeps things interesting and fresh!

What's a creative project you're working on or planning to work on right now?

Week #1 check-in (check-up?)

So, let's have a rehash of week #1. For me, I had the following goals:

• Revise one chapter of a WIP (any WIP)
• Revise one Chrysalis story from 2011
• Read one Catrina story
• Attend a yoga class (fitness)
• Beach walk 1 (fitness)
• Beach walk 2 (fitness)
• Write 1 song
• Write 1000 words on a WIP (any WIP)
• Sort 100 photos & transfer to iPhoto

I achieved most of these. The only one I didn't do was the yoga class, but I did an extra beach walk to make up for it (or to "sort of" make up for it? hehe). The song was the first thing I got done. I revised a chapter of one of my hugely overblown novels (it was 148k or so at the start...needs to be more like 95k!), which was quite satisfying (slash and burn was involved). I revised my first Chrysalis story and decided it will be shelved, and I won't try and publish it or anything. I wrote over a thousand words on one of my unfinished novels from NaNo 2011. And I technically put a lot more than 100 photos into iPhoto, but only about 100 were newly sorted.

All in all, a productive week, but I'm finding that it's better not to be locked into any particular day for doing any particular task I've set myself. It's good to have so many things to work on, so that I can pick and choose!

Anyway, over to you! How'd you guys go with your weekly goals?

What's your "weekly" goal, then?

Come on guys, share your plans with us!

In my case, I'm actually planning on doing a lot of things on a weekly basis. Posting on my (other) blog, revising a chapter of a WIP (whatever WIP I'm working on at the time), going to a yoga class, walking by the beach... There are more, but I'll leave it there. Except to say that I do have a Chrysalis-specific goal, and that is to write one new song a week.

If we're going to do this "choose your own adventure" version of Chrysalis, then I want to know what you guys are going to choose (barring Mayan Apocalypse, as Michael pointed out :D). Some of the ideas floating around were a) doing one short story per week again, b) writing one novella a month for 2012, etc.

Still waiting on that Exit Survey, by the way, but you'll see it here when it's ready! Meanwhile...how about a little Entrance Survey for 2012?

1. What are you going to aim for with Chrysalis in 2012? It can be any goal, as long as it's weekly!

2. Do you have a strategy for how you're going to handle 2012's writing/whatevering goals?

3. Were you satisfied with your progress (in whatever you were doing) last year?

4. What do you aim to do differently this year?

5. Do you like fluffy bunnies, or shorn bunnies, or neither? :)

6. And finally...what other question should I put here that my mind isn't brilliant enough to come up with?