Ought nine y’all! Hoe-lee! In light of it still being January, then, I want to talk for a sec about New Year’s Resolutions. See, I’m not real big on making them: I tend to be of the opinion that I don’t need some new page on a calendar to interest myself in doing better. I don’t hold at all tightly to vaguely romantic notions that a new year will mean the turning over of new leaves, that something as arbitrary as a chronological numeric assignation to the position of the earth and the sun and the greater cosmos will result in me, all of a sudden, saving enough money and getting in physical shape stellar enough to become an astronaut, or something. Nuts to that; let me do my own thing ’cause it’s working for me so far.

Ahem: that said, get ready for my “but.” BUT I think I’ve done a good job the last two years with sticking to my repeated resolution of wanting to sew more. In 2007 and again in 2008, I did just that. I increased my repertoire of abilities and finished projects, I devoted more time to getting better and sitting behind the machine, I became more comfortable in feeling capable at this hobby. So for 2009? Same goes: I want to sew more. Also this list of eighteen additional resolutiony things:

1. Stop buying so many damn pairs of shoes.

Now this is not to say that I will hop on the rehabilitation wagon for shoe addicts–I just need to stop buying so much stuff that’s cheap and may or may not fit me. I have superior and discerning tastes: I need to start spending that way (uhm, # of times not amount per se).

2. Start sewing with the good stuff.

For real. What is all this awesome fabric doing languishing? who am I saving it for? why do I not have a mustard yellow wool skirt or a polka-dot trench coat or a damn goldfish dress yet?! and so on.

3. Make more art.

Mail art, fabric art, photo art, cupcake art, guerilla art, wardrobe art, acrylic paint on cereal boxes art, yard art. Art art art! I’ll even try to post more to VP in terms of how this will be actualized; I want to do some collaboratory stuff with my best buddy Brian, in Chicago, and my best lady Beck. Speaking of the latter, I may cop her experimonth style and come up with a couple projects where I do some stuff every day for a calendar month. I’m toying with the following ideas: getting up at 5:00 a.m. every day; do some art every day; watch a new movie every day (though that’s an awful lot of movies).

4. Eat better.

Which is to say, more regularly. Lunch is good. Not eating for 20 hours every day, four or five days a week is a lame habit.

5. Relax, dammit.

Allison: remember this? remember sitting on your butt and having a nice beer and just vegging in front of the telly for a bit? Grab hold of that frame of mind a little more often–it’s good for you. Unclench the stress and antsy mood in favor of giving yourself a break sometimes. Like, a lot of times.

So there it is. My official list of 2009 New Year’s Resolutions. Whether or not I’ll actually stick to them remains to be seen, as well as whether or not I’ll actually post anything on the ‘Pants about it all, but, you know. One day at a time.

(Update: jesus effing christmas. I should’ve guessed that BIG BUT in a blog post’s title would unleash the spamly floodgates, but SHIT man. No more comments, for real. Sorry for the two-point-four people out there who care.)