12 things I did in 2012 to make my life better

Some years seem to fade into the next, with little division between them. They're part of the fabric of our lives, but they're by no means the flashiest or most exciting of times, and so it can be difficult to recall with much detail years later. Others are fraught with problems, pain, worry, and perhaps even heartache, as it seems like a break can't be had, no matter how hard you try. At the risk of jinxing myself a mere four days before the ball drops and 2013 launches, this year did not fall into either of those two camps. In fact it was, over all, rather wonderful.

And busy! Wonderful and busy, yes, that sums up 2012 rather accurately, if you ask me! As I sit here at the end of December, twelve months to flip through in the pages of mind, a flood of thoughts come pouring over me and I'm reminded of some of the elements that helped to make it such a great year. There were many, and I feel exceedingly blessed that such was the case. Goodness knows I've had my fair share of years I'd love to erase from my memory forever, if such a thing were possible, but 2012 was certainly not one of them.

As there are twelve months in that year, I thought I would take the opportunity today to share, correspondingly, twelve things that I (or in many cases, we, as in Tony and I together) consciously, intentionally did to help improve and enrich my –and our- life.

It isn't every day, or should I say, every year, that I have a list like, and I don't want to forget the key highlights of 2012 that helped to make it so superb as the years roll on, so without further ado, my I present (in no particular order) a roundup of some of the reasons why this year rocked.

1.) Moved to British Columbia: The year kicked off on an exceedingly busy note, as we made the life changing (and rather sudden) discussion to leave Toronto, after six years of life on the East Coast and move for the first time together to my home province of British Columbia. There were many motivating factors behind our decision, and it was not a choice that was reached lightly by any stretch of the imagination. Fortunately this decision has proved to be one the best we've ever made, and I don't think a single week has passed without one of us saying how truly glad we were to be here, near family, with a better health care team, a nicer climate, and a home we love to pieces.


2.) Got a new house: And speaking of that house we adore so much, it ranks amongst the most important (and wonderful!) improvements in our life this year. After more than seven years (the duration of our marriage up until the point we moved provinces) of living in homes that ranged from shudder inducing to okay but chocked full of problems, we were fortunate enough to find a beautiful little condo on the most serenely lovely street anyone could ever ask for. The house, while not huge, is modern, safe, nicely laid out, and an absolute joy to live.


3.) Spent time with family: Before moving to B.C. we had always lived thousands of miles away from both of our families. Though that statement still rings true for Tony, whose relatives all reside in Italy, we now live in the same province as the bulk of my small family, some of whom even live right here in Penticton with us.

Having the ability to interact with relatives again, be it for a quick "pop in" visit or to celebrate the holidays, as well as to have extra help when I'm going through an especially rough patch health wise or need transportation and assistence to get to a medical appointment when Tony is working, has been an indescribably wonderful gift for both of us (Tony and my family hit it off famously, which sure makes life a lot easier for everyone involved).


4.) Created a craft room of my own in the basement: Though I did technically have a very small room in our last apartment that was designated as my craft space, its teeny size meant my supplies and finished projects were woefully overcrowded and it was hard to clear my mind and focus at times in such a cluttered space. It took a while to set up throughout the spring and early summer, but I'm thrilled to report that since then I've had an awesome, much (!) more spacious craft room of my own to work, play, and just kick back and relax in (this having been a dream of mine for all as long as I can recall).


5.) Got our first car: Though some people are a bit sceptical when we tell them this, it wasn't until early on last spring, just a couple of weeks after we moved to B.C., that Tony and I finally got our fist vehicle (neither of us had ever had a car before in our lives, and though my parents always did, Tony's had not, so this was really and truly his first set of wheels!).

As you can imagine, this has helped improve and enrich our lives in many ways, and is also significantly easier on me from a health standpoint than taking public transit or having to walk long distances to get anywhere. Now, several months on, it's almost mind boggling to think that we'd gotten by in large cities for all those years without a car.


6.) Finally found a feedreader that I love: This might sound like a small matter, but to me it really wasn't. For years I'd bounced around from one feedreader to another, failing to find one that I felt really worked for me and as a result over falling behind on staying abreast of my favourite sites. Last spring I tried Bloglovin and fell head-over-heels in love with after the first day. It's the only feedreader I use now and has been such an instrumental tool in my ability to better follow (and in turn comment on) some of my favourite blogs.



7.) Hammered out a blog schedule that works for me: Speaking of blogging, this year was the first in my life when I really felt like I hit a good, manageable (under the circumstances this year dished out) blogging schedule and pace that worked for me. I'm not going to delve into detail too much on this topic now though, as it's a subject I'm planning on devoting a whole post to early on in 2013. So stay tuned to hear more on this particular improvement (and how what works for me, may help you, too).



8.) Starting taking regular wardrobe snaps: While we're on the subject of things that involve the good ol' interwebz, this year marked the first one for me in which I regularly began documenting my vintage outfits through photographs (nearly all of which are taken by my highly talented hobbyist photographer husband, Tony). While that is certainly awesome unto itself, for me, an even more important element of this act (taking snaps) has been the fact that it's helped me tackle, and better handle, some of my self-esteem and body image issues, as well as to no longer be quite as painfully shy in front of the lens.


9.) Organized my wardrobe better and more efficiently: Much as with my craft supplies at our old home, there was precious little closet space or anywhere to store my wardrobe at our last place. This house however has more of both and and as a result I've (finally!) been able to better sort, organize, and display my wardrobe. A point which makes me so very, very happy - and which makes getting dressed now a snap compared to at our old apartment.


10.) Worked on making (more) peace with my body: Whether justified or not, I've struggled greatly with my body image throughout my whole life, in part because of the way I was (cruelly and completely unjustly) treated regarding my appearance by certain family members when I was growing up, as well as the fact that I was teased mercilessly as a child by my schoolmates, sometimes due to certain elements of my appearance. Battling a multitude of chronic illnesses everyday certainly doesn't help how I feel about my body either, but the older I get, the more I love my body - flaws, imperfections, shortcomings and all (a topic I discussed here last spring), and hope dearly that this positive trend will continue as the years roll on.


11.) Discovered I could wear most brooches: As you may recall from this post last May, I discovered that, if I placed at least a couple of layers of fabric between the metal and my skin, I'm often able to wear brooches. This might sound like a strange thing to mention, but for those who didn't catch my post about this point, I'm extremely allergic to nickel, a metal which is found in a large amount of jewelry (thus preventing me from wearing said jewelry), however this discovery has opened up the whole wide world of brooches to me and I've been wasting no time in building up a delightful collection of them ever since.


12.) Got outside more: Though there were numerous long stretches (the lengthiest being almost almost all of August and part of September), as there are every year, when my health wasn't doing well enough for me to leave the house, thanks to the fact that we now live in a much better situated neighbourhood in a town we love (and delight in exploring) and have a car, I've been able to get out of the house more frequently, whether for everyday tasks like running errands or setting off with Tony to neighbouring communities and towns.

Throughout 2012 we had fun doing everything from doing a photo shoot at an orchard in East Kelowna to going fishing in the dark, visiting Polson Park in Vernon to spending as many Saturdays as we could out garage saling around town. I can hardly wait to see all the awesome places we'll hopefully be able to go, and the wonderful memories we'll make while out and about, in 2013!





{My deepest thanks go out to 2012 for being such a splendid, meaningful, and highly memorable (in a good way!) year. I have my fingers firmly crossed that the coming year will be one of great happiness, success, and fun, too - not only for me and my family, but also for each and every one of you and your loved ones, too. Vintage New Year's card via Miehana on Flickr.}

♥ ♥ ♥

Peppered amongst this list there were other things, big and small, that also helped rank this year so highly for my both me and my husband, but these are the ones that jump out as me on this fine winter's morn first and foremost.

I'm not saying that 2012 was without its hiccups, worries, and rough patches, but for a very, very pleasant change of pace, I don't feel like they were the predominant factor this year. Perhaps that was part luck, maybe life gets a bit easier to tackle as you get older, or, who knows, the universe might just have wanted to smile on us throughout the course of the past dozen months.

Whatever the case, I can't begin to stress how grateful I am to have enjoyed such a terrific, productive, happy year. Only time, that great and mysterious unknown, will tell what the future has in store for us, but I can't help thinking - knock wood - that it's bound to better than many years past thanks to these twelve things and the improvements they brought into our world in 2012.