I kind of don't even know where to start with 2013.

This past year went entirely too fast ( in a scary, I'm-going-to-wake-up-tomorrow-sixty-years-older-aren't-I? kind of way ). Perhaps that's because I worked the hardest I've ever worked in my entire life. I pushed myself much further and much more out of my comfort zone - partly for the good, partly for the bad, partly to pay the bills and partly because I know I'm always capable of doing better creative work than I'm producing.

But there was fun too! A lot of it. There were anniversary Indian dinners, inaugurations, homemade birthday cakes, paintings, TV appearances, weddings, babies, 80s-themes pedal pubs, girl crushing on Jennifer Lawrence, bike rides around the lake, hammerschlagen, concerts, camping, trips to Door County and California, photography, raspberry picking, birthday brunches, hikes, margaritas and best of all - lots of family, friend and manfriend time.

As Zora Neale Hurston once said, "There are years that ask questions and years that answer." This year asked questions. Lots of them. Good ones too. Most had no tangible or concrete answers. Many were hypothetical. And a specific few I'm very curious to discover the answer to in 2014.

Until then, I have lots of catching up to on this blog. So sit back, grab a green juice ( it's not just me detoxing, is it? ), and let's make 2014 about working less, enjoying more and refusing to keep up with the Kardashians. Ya hear?!

To know me is to know that I am a perfectionist.

It's not a quality I particularly like about myself as all that's resulted from it is stress, stress eating (notably, ice cream and Cheetos) and the constant feeling that nothing I do is ever as good as I want it to be. Now, with going back to school and learning about talented photographers, graphic designers and artists on a daily basis, it's hard for me that I am nowhere near being that good yet.

But I try to remember something a wise (and handsome) manfriend once told me, "Progress, not perfection." I try to remember it again and again, because it's about the truest thing I've ever heard.

It's easy in this insanely connected world to feel defeated when browsing the Internet and envy so many people who are creating amazing things, running their own businesses, writing intelligent AND witty articles, managing successful blogs and sharing all their rightful talents with the world. The Internet makes it so easy! That's the beautiful thing about it though - the fact that we can share our lives and work with people all across the earth, most of whom we've never met.

But it can also suck the creative soul right out of you! It can leave you (read: me) feeling like your ideas aren't as good or as worthy. That what you do isn't at that high of a level, so why do it at all? That's where the ol' perfectionism and impatience kick in and make you (again, read: me) feel bad that you aren't there yet. This feeling has hit me especially hard lately.

In an effort to both escape the comparison trap and better myself, I am giving up the Internet. Okay, okay...not the whole Internet, but I am limiting social media + blog reading to 10 minutes per day. Six-hundred seconds, that's it. Because it's finally time I step away from the computer and spend my precious free time creating things instead of reading about people creating things.

Less computer, more practice. Practice makes progress. Progress > perfection.

Am I right or am I right?

P.S. This is a watercolor of a jellyfish I did in my inaugural effort to step away from the computer and create more. I liked it so much, I framed it. It's now hanging comfortably and happily on my bathroom wall. I'd say it's a dang good start.