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Posting this from deep within the digiscrapping trenches: it has been months since I last posted, obviously, so let me fill you in on the happenings highlights of this year and what is coming next. And so this is the Christmas Message for 2020. This post kinda rambles and is kinda meant to be read as an open Dear Friend type letter. Here goes …
As this year winds down, preparing to be reborn tomorrow, I hope that this epistle finds you and yours all in good health, great cheer, and celebrating in the spiritual tradition of your family.
This year, every single day, the biggest and definitely the most important matter that was and still is always on my mind, is my sons.
My eldest is turning 18 in a few months! I can’t believe it! My baby who was 775g at birth is nearly 18, I am so very proud of how much he has achieved, the obstacles that he has conquered, his reserved nature and the gentle strength of his character as he now stands on the brink of manhood … and … my younger son is turning 16 in less than two months! Little munchkin has grown up so much in the last two years, he has such a wonderful creative talent in music and an incredible ability to work with electronics and has such a mind of his own that he just decided to get his ears pierced!
My heart still feels the joys of early motherhood – the wakings in the middle of the night – the joys of watching them taking their first steps. 
Two major birthdays coming up so lots to look forward to and lots of celebrating to do in 2021.
I love both of my sons with all my heart.
From the public life side of things:
This year my sketchPLATE offerings were finessed to a high degree: the processes behind them are now fully established and overall I am very happy with the way that each of them is created.
This year, I also discovered that I simply adore podcasting … videos remain on the to-do-list, but I think a make-over is still higher up on that list before I start videoing.
In the middle of the year I submitted two designs to a printing house to check for colour correctness and saturation levels when printed on fabric; the results were even better than I had hoped! The test swatches that came back are really quite good … big plans for 2021.
However, this year also saw the website here deal with numerous threats, a hacked plugin and a full blown bot attack continually crashing the server, culminating in late-October when a DDOS attacked open a vulnerability and took my site offline.
It wasn’t until mid-November that things finally calmed down and I was able to recover data, although the very last post that I posted still needs to be recovered … on the to-do-list.
The upside of that whole fiasco is that my backup system works, I found the best way of securing backups and my recovery system is also in place.
During the last few months I was also actively searching for a new vehicle.
Then suddenly, in late-November, after months of not much success, finally I secured a classic Toyota TownAce … my Lady Lusso.
She is 23 years young and needs a lil bit of tender loving care to finish converting her into my home away from home on wheels.
So now I am kinda stuck between my old car which is broken down and the new van which is not yet fully fitted out … needing to sell my old car ASAP to finish off my new van.
Please, dear gods of the internet, please, show the perfect buyer my beautiful Desert Lady so that they can live long, prosper, and go on many 4WD adventures together.
Be that as it may, I have the driving end of my van completely finished off with new carpet, seat covers and freshly detail cleaned trims.
However, the cargo bay section needs a lot of work to get it finished but at least for now it has been made water tight: there were 22 holes in the floor! 22 of them! My head is still spinning from using the clear silicon sealant gel on that many holes in the floor.
I have also bought the underlay, reflective heat shielding and wooden battens ready for when I can scrape together my pennies to purchase the wooden paneling … REALLY looking forward to when that job is finally done…
Anyone wanting to help by making a donation of eight (8) sheets of 1200 x 396 x 7mm plyboard?
The exterior of my van just needs a couple of minor repairs to scratches and stains.
My ultimate dream is to have Lady Lusso resprayed and create a bunch of digiscrap inspired decals to adorn her with …. I had a crazy dream about 15 years ago of using the exterior of my car as the canvas for a macro-scrapbooking project.
My day is now at hand!
In closing, last year my 2020 New Years ***One Little Word® ownWORD was BUILD … I have certainly built this year.
Built a lot of business processes and this website from a blank canvas WordPress into what you now see here.
I have also built resilience, built compassion, built empathy and understanding, built relationships and rebuilt the connection with my sons, conquered fear and anger on more occasions than I can even remember, rebuilt trust with myself, built knowledge, built wisdom, built honour, built character, built my bank account so that I could buy my van to build-out and then actually started building-out my van, built dreams, built designs, built a store, built a social media presence, built a business.
So on the foundations of all that I have built this year, for next year, 2021, the new year coming … my ownWORD is PROSPER.
This time next year, I plan on posting that I bought a home in 2021.
Do you have an intention for next year? What is it? I would dearly love to know. Hit reply below to share.
Wishing you a very Happy New Year!
With much love, light and brightest blessings.
Anita
PS: You may have noticed that I didn’t mention one very particular topic of worldwide interest … … … … that is all.
*** In order to clearly feel and focus on my personal New Year mission, because I intend to OWN each and every year ahead, I will be using my specially selected ownWORD in future years.
Thank you.