Showing posts with label year-end summing up. Show all posts
Showing posts with label year-end summing up. Show all posts

Saturday, January 10, 2026

More Words for the Year, Books, Movies Tracked


Even though my intention word for the year is: Alignment, here's a fun one that came up on the Merriam-Webster Dictionary account on Bluesky to predict what's in store in 2026 for me. Of course I had to go look that one up even though I kind of knew what it meant, something to do with electricity...
gal·​van·​ic gal-ˈva-nik 

Synonyms of galvanic
1
a
of, relating to, or producing a direct current of electricity
galvanic cell
b
caused by galvanism  
used especially of the corrosion of metallic objects as a result of electrolytic action
2
a
having an electric effect intensely exciting
galvanic performance
b
produced as if by an electric shock
had a galvanic effect on the audience

Just a fun prediction for the year ahead. I don't know if I really want to have an intensely exciting year, or maybe just one where the electricity actually stays on! 

Okay moving on to books, as I talked about last year, I decided to switch over to The StoryGraph for tracking my book reading. I quite like it, much quieter and less ad focused than GoodReads. 

That's a pretty good number of books read for me in a year. Next is a long graphic of all of the covers of those books pretty much in order of how I read them through the year.
It's a visually fun scroll to see all those covers together in one image. I'm again reminded of the Granny Squares quilt idea I had last year.


Also on TheStoryGraph, they have an easy way for various challenges to be tracked, so I did the 52 Book Challenge. And yes, I got 100%, some of them were a little hard to figure out which book to read, or how to fit it into a prompt, but just a fun diversion, made me pick some books I might not have read which was a good thing to get me out of my reading ruts.

Then there's the movie tracking website, Letterboxd, where I keep track, sometimes review and enjoy reading what other viewers have to say about movies. That's an even longer list, 154 movies watched, so I'll spare you the year's graphics on that one and that's just the last part of the year.

Why is tracking so fun? 

Sunday, January 04, 2026

Summed-Up 2025

 The year 2025 is completed and "in the books", and before I shelve mine completely away on the very long bookshelf that is this blog, it's time for another yearly summing up. Fair Warning: this is quite a long post.


The 1SE video for 2025, all six minutes or so of it, shows a lot about how I spent my time all year. One second per day. Looking back on last year, it's pretty representative, showing the daily studio work, all the family/pets, gardening, and so very very much traveling. Not that I'm complaining about getting to travel of course! It's just been a year of being out and about and away from my workroom, more than is usual.

I published 17 Wandering Wednesday posts about all these travels. Non-local travel locations included  Tahoe, Chemainus Canada, San Juan Bautista, San Francisco 2x, Spokane 5x,Copenhagen, London England, Ashland, Portland.

I'm going to use the same format as I did last year to look at what all got accomplished in my studio.

Finishes

Sky Structure for the Sister Artists exhibit.
Our Mistake for the Stretching Art & Tradition 25 exhibit.
Spring Speaking to Summer for the BAMQG exhibit at the SMCF.
Another year of participating in Index Card A Day
Made napkins out of toweling fabric.

Big Steps Completed
Pieced the blocks and assembled the top of the Old Town Mystery Quilt
City Sampler Backing and binding done and the quilt is at the long-armer being quilted.
Almost to the center of my Kawandii
Finally found the right background so I can start my Circle Sampler
Made the Bohemian Wife Backing and binding.
Pieced many more blocks for the Y.E.S. coat.
Made 11 more Stamp Quilt blocks and cut out 11 more.
Made several parts of the paper-pieced Candy quilt.
Made blocks for the new BAMQG BOM 
Actually started working on the Oxbow Tote!
Pieced the blocks and sashing for Patchwork Palooza
Pieced the first clue for the new mystery quilt Lupine & Laughter.

Community Giving
Made and added the binding.
Made and added the binding.
Made the Postage Stamp and HST blocks from the pre-packs and sewed into a top.
Seven Postage Stamp blocks

Oh my goodness, that's quite a lot really! I was feeling a little poky and a bit down about my production for the year given all that went on in my non-creative life this year. As per usual my productivity continues to come on in fits and starts throughout the whole twelve months. Not a surprise as a lot of this is still very dependent on how I'm physically doing which changes a lot from month to month (and day to day!). And with all of that traveling, and helping my mom through her move it feels like it's been a decade in a year. Thus, this has been a very good exercise for me to go through every year here on ye olde blougue as I also discovered over the last two years. I think I'll continue this going forward.

Tuesday, January 07, 2025

Year of Books & Movies

 I love the year-end lists that the various apps that I use supply to sum up the media that I've consumed for the previous year. For movies, I've been using Letterboxd and apparently I watched 153 movies last year.

And according to GoodReads I read 53 books last year:

My Year in Books
16,312
pages read
Juliezs
53
books read
  • MY 2024 BOOKS
The Marsh King's Daughter by Karen Dionne
Knee Ability Zero by Ben Patrick
The Invisible Hour by Alice Hoffman
Slow Horses by Mick Herron
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due
Dead Lions by Mick Herron
Unwinding Anxiety by Judson Brewer
The Insatiable Volt Sisters by Rachel Eve Moulton
The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson
The Ferryman by Justin Cronin
Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
it was amazing
Throne of Jade by Naomi Novik
The Swedish Art of Aging Exuberantly by Margareta Magnusson
Sourdough by Science by Karyn Lynn Newman
Quilts from Tilda's Studio by Tone Finnanger
Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Japanese Quilting Piece by Piece by Yoko Saito
Patterns by Drusilla Cole
You Like It Darker by Stephen        King
The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher
Fever House by Keith Rosson
it was amazing
The Last Murder at the End of the World by Stuart Turton
The Secret Hours by Mick Herron
Urban Shaman by C.E. Murphy
The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
The Devil in Silver by Victor LaValle
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice by Elle Cosimano
Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie
Remina by Junji Ito
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
it was amazing
Real Tigers by Mick Herron
Network Effect by Martha Wells
The List by Mick Herron
Witch King by Martha Wells
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
it was amazing
Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells
Grendel by John Gardner
Whalefall by Daniel Kraus
Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay
The Old Man by Thomas Perry
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
Growing Things by Paul Tremblay
Survivor Song by Paul Tremblay
Crafting a Better World by Diana Weymar
it was amazing
The Little Spark - 30 Ways to Ignite Your Creativity by Carrie Bloomston
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
A Book That Takes Its Time by Irene Smit