2012, bits of the year in review

So, I am not brilliant with New Years eve and find it a tad conceited. Surely every day is a new year because it is a year since that day last fell?

Plus I have a string of miserable or anticlimatic new years eve experiences to draw cynicism from. However, I had an interesting chat with a lady about Janus, who is a roman icon/god who looks both forwards and back.

In the principle of self evaluation and looking to the future, here we go!

Awesome 2012 things!

• Creating my Gearpunk range and having to confidence (lots of deep breaths) to go meet the Steampunks - Steampunks are awesome folk and my Gearpunk range took me to London, Bristol and Cardiff.

• Inventing new polymer techniques to create the Gearpunk range - this did my artistic self worth lots of good.

 

• A Quintet of Dark Tales - my most successful and accomplished performance so far, the set worked, the stories worked, the costume worked and people came and enjoyed themselves.

 

• The First Purky Party - Blasting onto the scene at the Cat Cafe, enjoying some media exposure and proving to myself that this could work. (also included here the follow up events The Grand Purky Tea Party and Captain Purky's Christmas Party)

 

• Disovering Glass, after nearly six years of promising myself that glass work would be more prominant I finally invested properly and have had a great time.

 

• Meeting Mister Man, we met randomly at a party we had both (independently) decided we were too tired to attend but went anyway. Fireworks and romance have ensued since.

 

• Occassional pangs of confidence and self belief, these have been short lived but precious and often sparked huge innovations in my work.

 

• Rediscovering painting and graphic design, made me rather happy when I was laid up for a week in July. I had terrible bronchitus and could not work. Canvases, old sketch books and voila, away I went.

 

• Arcane Encounters - a brave venture in paranormal entertainment. The evening was well recieved and I intend to put on a similar event in 2013.

 

• The Dark and Curious Market - Another amazing idea that needs more time and work put in but started promisingly.

 

• The Magnificent Maker's Market - under attended but promising, this event with be further explored in 2013.

 

• Moving house, I finally escaped Purky Towers, which while a positive place to be when I moved there in August 2011 was starting to drastically drag me down.

 

• The Support of my lovely friends, while we do not see each other often enough when do spend time together it is totally reinvigorating. 

 

• The Birth of Captain Purky - originally a sort of jokey moniker on my facebook so I did not have to admit to working full time for someone else, Captain Purky has become his own entitiy. A beautiful front for my businesses and a lovely excuse to buy multiple new outfits. Keep an eye out for the Captain in the future.

 

• Purky Productions, she is in her infancy but as the sister company of Purky Products, she handles the events side of things.

The Not So Awesome....

• Three Purky organised events in a row that didn't make an initial profit....luckily they are the opening moves in a grander scheme so over the course of a year we should be ok but my confidence was somewhat shaken. However the attendees and traders were all very pleased to be there.

 

•  Phileous Mogg being struck down by a rapidly moving vehicle. He is fine, my bank balance is still recovering but there was never any chance that I would deny my best (furry) friend treatment. He has settled into the Purky Enclave and is doing very well.

 

• Crippling depression....I need to do something about this. Although my deep lows tend to inspire very positive action, for example the First Purky Party came about because of my overwhelming sadness and feelings of inadequecy.

 

• Overwork, Averaging 60 hours a week at Job 1 and then taking on 10 to 20 hours a week at Job 2 in June, July and August was somewhat exhausting emotionally and physically but I quite enjoyed the money. I am also kinda proud that I did what was needed to ensure that I stayed afloat.

 

• Customer service - I need to work harder with this. Face to face I love dealing with customers but often go all shy over internet or phone communication. No idea why, promise to work harder. My customers mean the world to me x

 

• Actualisation of Grief - For some reason this Christmas has been much harder than the last in terms of missing my Mother. I am guessing it is because the feelings have bedded down and everything is much less raw, so I am feeling more of it?

 

• Exes of all varieties....
• Rivals of all varieties....

 

• Lack of creativity, I have had huge gaps and interuptions in my creativity this year and most of the time it has been due to emotional or physical exhaustion so I intend to pace things a bit more carefully this year.

 

• Lonliness, this is a hard one for me. I am quite the closet isolationist but I crave human interaction even if I am too shy to seek it out. Once I take a deep breath and throw myself in, I can pretend that I am not shy for a while and have lots of fun but that takes a lot of work. I am lonely at Job 1 for lots of reasons and I do not see my friends enough in real life.

 

• Blogging, or lack of. I love blogging, so why do I not do it more? I tend to get overwhelmed by what is going on and then struggle to put it into words and pictures. I promise to try harder x

Now I am feeling that maybe this introspection has gone on long enough now, so I am going to sign off but tommorow my Resolutions for the New Year will be up on here :)

I have most probably forgotten lots of stuff but hope you enjoy the overview 

Much Love

Captain Purky xx