2011 Recap: Creative

2011 was a pretty exciting year for me creatively. 

Write Club, our writing critique group, is going strong. We've collectively sold 1 novel, published 6 poems, and produced several essays and stories.

Kayla, Vanessa, Leila.

I've joined a Wednesday night Dinner-and-Writing Group, that eats and writes respectively. The hostess, Hope, also happens to make dynamite ice cream. Here we are, all dressed up, on a field trip to The Magic Castle. One of our friend's husband's just happens to be a magician.

I finished a draft of my novel in the first part of the year.

(My agent stopped agenting. I got angry. Then I got back to work.) 

I wrote two comic book stories. I just had a signing of one the books last week.

Unite and Take Over: Comic Stories inspired by the Smiths

*My song was "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side"

And I got to work with the generous, talented cartoonist Tara Abbamondi (Aka GingerCurls.)

I also wrote a comic book story, Seeing-Eye Sheila, for Womanthology, a comic anthology by women artists and writers, with proceeds going to Global Giving. I was paired up with Canadian illustrator Joanne Ellen Hansen to create our story.

I wrote two essays. One essay, "Me, Myself, & Gwyneth" for the zine, GirlCrush. GirlCrush got a ton of press, and was put together by two inspiring, savvy chickies: Jenna Wortham and Thessaly La Force. 

Oh, so good...

I also wrote an essay for Dear Teen Me, which was really fun. Check it out online. 

I attended the Mighty Summit, a conference run by the ever inspiring @lmayes and @maggie, that made a surprising impact on me. It also made me rethink some of the issues that I deal with in the creative process. 

I'm now working on several of the goals I set at the Mighty Summit, including:

I'm working on a new writing project.

I took online photography classes. (I've been wanting to take photography classes for a long time!)

And I just signed up for a four week Italian language class that I'll start in 2012!

By the way, I was also in a Mighty Summit pyramid. I'm on the bottom and looking down, but damn it, I was in a pyramid. 

I was the Days of our Lives Social Media Fanbassador for the Day of Days Event. Here's a couple of shots with some of my favorite actresses!

And, I was hired as the Head Content Writer on a new social advocacy start up, ChangeMyWorldNow.Com, that launched October 1st. I worked on it until this month, and will start again in on it in 2012.

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Looking forward to more creating in 2012. What about you?

2011 Recap: Art

My Two Favorite Pieces of Art in 2011!

By Craig Damrauer 

I can't find the creator on this guy. If you know who it is, please let me know! Thanks!

2011 Recap: Travel

Hello Friends and Family!  

I've decided to recap this year in a few different posts. 

First up, travel. 

J and I went a lot of places this year, mostly in the name of matrimony. We had friends marrying on both coasts, which was a really fabulous way to spend a lot of money ON AIRLINE TICKETS! Oy. 

But worth every trip. And we also had some work, family, and leisure trips just for us.  

 Jordi and I took a road trip to Las Vegas! We ate at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill, gambled a bit more than we said we would, and saw a spectacular wet-mess of a show. And of course, we didn't gossip.

 J and I doing our best "Texas Gothic" at a SXSWi Girl and Guy party in Austin.

An artsy photo of our friends Chris and Crystal right after their wedding in Truckee.  

 This was the view outside of the lodge J and I stayed in Truckee/Tahoe. This is how I imagine the Swiss Alps look 365 days a year.

 Debi and Matt rehearse their vows in NYC's Ft. Tryon park. 

The marriage went off without a hitch (except for the heatwave!)

 Girls' Night out in July, NYC. Meredith, Sherine and I are trying not to sweat the heatwave inside Beauty & Essex. 

 Our niece came to town. We needed to shop. We needed to try on bad fur. Whew.

 Leila, new wife of Jon, getting toasted at The Hope Club, Providence, Rhode Island. 

She was a stunner. Super fun wedding.

 Disneyland with my brave niece, hilarious sister-in-law, and hysterical nephew. I am the only scaredy cat, looking away as we prepare to drop down the Tower of Terror. I hate this friggin' ride so much. 

 My other sister in law and our nephew show us how to ride ponies, Oakland style.

 J and I traveled back in time to the 1920s, San Francisco. It was a gay old time.

 This is what Thanksgiving weekend looks like in Los Angeles. 

Our Oakland family gets to bask in the sun!

 And our "LA Family" - Friends Steve and Vanessa - celebrated the weekend with us, too.

This month, Mumsie treated us to a cruise down south. This photo makes us look like we were very formal- and we were for one night! I figured you didn't want to see the rest of the photos of us in our yoga pants and tank tops, though we do look very relaxed. You'l have to take my word for it. 

That was a fabulous, funny, trip especially with 70 mph winds.

And here's a quick action shot of our nephew and his great aunt opening a present under the Christmas tree in Connecticut. I like how psyched he is about trucks, trains, and anything with wheels.

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I hope you got to go somewhere fun this year. Show and tell me where you traveled to- and if you have any good recommendations, let me know!