100 Things Wrap Up

As I've been thinking about what my new 2011 goals list might look like, I took another look back at 2010's 100 Things list to survey my success rate and I'm happy to report that there are a bunch of items that I did accomplish that I didn't get around to blogging about.  The final tally for the list is 37 completed projects, including these:

1. Fingerprint poem - I did actually blog about this here and here.  Although, I don't have a 'polished' version (i.e. something I would send out to a journal), I'm going to officially consider this one completed.

2. Write a haiku.  Behold the glory of the one practice haiku that I jotted down in my notebook this year (titled 'Sunday Morning')!

Wash of early light

Long curtains, rising slowly

Then softly falling

Not pretty, but I DID write one.

34. Hold an arts night - I imagined this on a grand scheme: tons of artsy people crowded into my tiny apartment, wine, ideas, projects spread out everywhere.  In practice, my arts nights played out on a smaller scale, but were still incredibly inspiring.  Special shout outs to Erin and Bethany for being such fabulous art night buddies!

43. Create an ideas journal - I wrote this goal in the hope that I could consolidate my ridiculous and scattered practice of having anywhere from 3 to 12 note books floating around at any given time.  Big ones, small ones, full ones, empty ones... it's pretty messy, but I just can't commit to one.  Still, even if I couldn't whittle the journal goal down to a single notebook, I've certainly filled enough of them with my ideas to satisfy this particular entry.

46. Enter a poetry competition - I'm counting this!

53. Make a stationary set - This was part of my top secret, pre-Christmas activities.  With the aid of a letterpress rental from the lovely and talented Tanya of Snap & Tumble, I made custom, blind-embossed stationary for some close friends and family.  Now that all of the gifts have been unwrapped, I can post a few pictures of the finished works.  Letterpress is such a fabulous medium and I'm so glad I was able to hang out in Tanya's studio again.  I would highly recommend the experience!

73. Research local printmaking - While I don't have a specific thing to 'show' for this one, I feel like I've spent the whole year exploring Toronto's printmaking community.  There's so much more out there to see, but I've definitely become a lot more familiar with the scene as a whole and plan to keep exploring in 2011.

84. Learn the hymn from Junebug - The hymn is 'Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling'.  I'm not particularly religious, but I grew up in a predominately Christian community and certainly learned my share of hymns.  If you've seen this movie, then you can probably understand why this particular hymn is so striking (even more so if you also grew up in a small rural community).  This is my favourite movie and I sing this hymn to myself all the time.  So beautiful (the movie version is much prettier than the one at the link).

97. Listen to live jazz - The Rex.  First week of December.  Fabulous.

99. Make a donation to a local charity - T and I chose to donate to Kid's Help Phone this year.  There are so many causes that I wish we could support, but in the end we chose this one as something that's close to both our hearts for many reasons.  We try to contribute to smaller things throughout the year, but this was our bigger 'trying to make a difference' effort.  I certainly hope it helps such an incredible organization and the kids who use it.

100. Fully document my goals list - Certainly not the most well-executed of my 100 goals, but I did try and show as much of the process - all the glory and horror - of my creative work.  Now if only I'd gotten around to making that darn pot roast!