2016: One Simple Word

Hello there! I hope that you are having a nice day.

Well, here we are into the New Year and I only now just decided to post about my word for the year. The last time I did this was in 2013. Yikes! Did three years already go by?

In any case, once again I decided to pick a word that I will live by this year. One that shouldn't present a challenge in and of itself, since I pretty much do this on a daily basis anyway. The word is:

LEARN

(to gain or acquire knowledge of, or skill in something

 by study, experience, or being taught)

The challenge was not to decide what I would REALLY like to learn to do, or do better, but to stick to it until I get it down. And we all know how that goes! So I got to thinking about what things I already love to do, and how I could make them better. 

I love cooking, flowers and gardening.

I love creating textile art.

So, how about taking vegetable skins, 

and flowers grown in my garden...

...and learn how to make natural dyes for the textiles

that I use in my art.

This is nothing new for others in the art world,

but it is certainly something new for me.

I bought these books last month,

and will give it a try!...

Then, I started thinking about my blog

and the photos that I take for it,

most often shot at close range,

and decided that I could make THOSE better too.

So I finally gave in to purchasing a macro lens for

my Canon ("real camera") with which I 

will attempt to learn how to take much 

better photos of the things I love for my blog...

The books are really good,

and hopefully will give me a start...

I didn't have much time to play with my lens

during the holidays,

but the day that it arrived

(bought used on eBay and in pristine condition)

I did fire off a few photos of the stuff

on my dining table.

Not great photos,

but fun to see the close-up detail

and the blurry background.

I concede that I have a long way to go!

All of the books shown above were purchased on abebooks.com,

or on Amazon. I usually compare the prices and condition of any given book

between the two sites.

Many times the books are new and a fraction of the cost of what

you would pay in bookstores which never provide very good discounts 

even on older books. 

And I have never been let down on the condition of any used book that I have bought.

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Of course,  Mr. Perch would likely tell you that my word of the year should have been

STOP

(as in stop buying books)

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And yes, I do know that you can buy books to read on your iPad, but where is the fun in that?

Please do come back next year at this time and see how much I have accomplished with my word!!

What are your plans for the new year?