To put it lightly, 2023 has been a bit rough.
Creativity
- I completed a Short Story in the Star Wars Fandom. It has yet to be edited, titled, and posted, but I was pumped to finish the draft.
- I Participated in QB2023 as an artist. You can see my creations here.
- Completed Spirit of the Fox for the Big Moxie 2023 Q2.
- Signed up and started in Rough Trade – July 2023 – Sentinel Challenge with a story Yuri on Ice and Sentinel fusion called Transitions. Sadly I never made it past the first post due to real-life complications.
- Added the Zelda Hyrule Crest to my fandom painting collection (8×10 Acrylic with gold foil on canvas)
- I moved my site off wordpress.com hosting to Hostinger. WordPress continuously frustrated me with its limitations, even with the paid plans. So far I’ve been quite happy with the move. (And learned a few more new things related to hosting and DNS.) I also reclaimed my old domain of lillikira.net
- I also did some dot-based painting experiments. (A blank wood wreath, a mandala, and my logo)
- I painted a blank ceramic house I picked up after the 2022 holiday season in time for Christmas 2023. I’m quite pleased with it.
- I Started and gifted over a dozen plant propagations. (Three varieties of Hoya, a bunch of Pothos, two African Violets, and 2 different succulents (of which I can’t remember the name). I also donated a bunch of spider plant babies to a local charity.
Looking back, I did a lot more creativity-wise than I realized.
Personal
- I said my last goodbye to my tortie, Tarma, on January 9th, 2023 at thirteen and a half years old. She had developed a lump in her abdomen that was diagnosed mid November 2022. She was my baby girl and had stolen my heart from the first day I saw her in a pet supply store. I brought her home on December 16th, 2010 barely two weeks after I moved into a cat-friendly building. Twelve years was much too short.
- On February 11th, 2023 I welcomed Asora, a nine-month-old Siamese into my home. She helped me a great deal with the loss of Tarma, and has quickly staked her own claim on my heart.
- At the end of June, my mother suffered an accident which unfortunately had a huge impact on my energy for creative endeavors. How she managed to dislocate and tear rotator cuffs in both her shoulders at the same time remains a mystery. Needless to say, a great deal of my time and energy was focused on her care and recovery in the following months. (She is recovering well, albeit slower than she would prefer).
- I also gave a good chunk of time (and appreciated the distraction and ability to decompress) to playing Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. I pushed off fighting Ganon for months in fear of how the game would end in regards to Zelda’s situation. Thankfully I wasn’t pushed into a frustrated rage and emotional upset (though I’m still considering some fanfic plot ideas because of it). This in turn led me to start replay through of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
- It also looks like I have a big move coming up in 2024 (*crosses my fingers*), so most of my goals going into the new year are most likely more organization, packing, and downsizing related. But I’d like to finish and post some more writing projects as well.
