Goodbye 2011!!!

Wow...not a single blog written for a complete year!!! That is just sad, ha ha! I guess when it comes right down to it, I have trouble actually executing the action of writing... ^^; But the allure of blogging is undeniable and one of my big resolutions for 2012 is to write as many as I can!

2011 has been a big rollercoaster of a year.

The shipping part of my CD's release has definitely made me a more patient person, not to mention it's helped me grow an impressive writing callous! I've learned the ins and outs of running a small online store. I've grown very fond of the people working at my local post office and know them all by name. My handwriting changed from chicken scratch to something actually presentable. I learned more geography this year than I ever learned in the entirety of my school years...Carmen Sandiego would have a hard time hiding from me now.

However other than practical knowledge, the release - and its relative success - finally cemented the fact that this is truly what I'm meant to do, what is needed of me in this life, and that I need to invest more time, more effort, and more of myself than ever before if I want it to be a true working self-produced career. I wrote more songs this year than I did in the last 5 put together. Some are going to be on the next CD, and I'm so excited to set them loose in the world.

My family has had quite a few rough spots this year, which has made it almost impossible for me to work as much as I would have liked on my recordings, and I had to postpone many of the online projects I was doing for fun in order to fit in my new responsibilities and things I needed to do to keep us afloat financially. This has not been fun or easy for Stella Voci and Winged Muse Studios members, who have been left with few if any projects to work on. Unfortunately we have lost a few of our ranks due to personal reasons and/or out of complete disgust for my long waits between projects >w< I know you miss me.

I did a few paid music jobs to try and make a little extra...one of which was a commission to write an original song for the video game "Dragon Nest SEA" which finally fulfilled my dream of composing a song for a real game. Once the Shanda Games company finally decides to put "Song of the Goddess - The Eternal Path" back in the game, I will eat the other half of my happy-cake.

In other news, I got engaged, to my lovely boyfriend of 4 years, Kevin. The prospect of a wedding scares us to death, and the COST of a wedding even more so. We plan to elope sometime next year. If we have a musical child in the next 10 years, I will be thrilled. Although I will probably be blessed with a sports prodigy.

Many of my fans have become close friends this year, and some close friends have become, well, VERY close friends. I have rescued and I have been rescued. I have laughed and squeed and huggled. I have cried and cringed and just plain lost it. I have mended some wounds and severed some ties. Found my long suppressed temper and honed it well. I'd say it's been an educational year in the social arena....the internet is a long and dramatic textbook of human psychology....with both sweetened and poisoned pages. Totally worth every lick though!

I'll end things with a quick list, and a few resolutions:




10 THINGS I LEARNED ABOUT MYSELF AND THE WORLD THIS YEAR.

1) I am a Hello Kitty fan

2) An African Grey parrot can shoot crap about 5 feet.

3) A good Sharpie will last an entire year.

4) A good Sharpie is worth its weight in gold.

5) Former Morning Musume member Ai Takahashi makes my heart flutter.

6) Have a great idea that will make Youtube better? Uh Oh. Youtube has already disabled it.

7) I cannot eat at two houses on Thanksgiving, Easter, and Christmas. Engaged life sucks. Sincerely, YOUR STOMACH.

8) One word. Netflix.

9) Learned (and accepted) that the artists of this world are made up of differing and individual ratios of talent, willpower, and hard work....

10) ...and that every year I grow more humble as I watch the brilliant talents of others bloom and blossom before me.




10 RESOLUTIONS FOR 2012

1) I have spent a good portion of my life suppressing my love for the color, pink. No longer.

2) Release Album #2

3) Elope.

4) Do my best...the best I can...at the right time.

5) Learn a new instrument

6) Fly (I'm not specifying how)

7) Improve my confidence...kill my stage fright

8) Hit a B5

9) Write the 'Ballad' .... the one I'll never top.

10) Survive the 2012 apocolypse...providing there is one :)



Love you all and hope your new year is filled with all sorts of new adventures, loves, and successes. Thank you for continuing to listen to my music even through dry spells and rough months. Never can quite relate how much it means to me that there is a group of awesome supportive people out there that want me to continue doing what I love most. What I wouldn't give to sit down with everyone and share some Pocky~ @.@

MUCH LOVE!!!
~Kate / Erutan / katethegreat19 <3