Well I always seem to promise that I'll update more, and yet I never do. I'll still try to do so more this year, but I can't guarantee anything!

2010 so far has been an interesting year. I went on a wonderful roadtrip over the Christmas holidays - from Adelaide to Brisbane (for Christmas) then to Sydney (for New Years) and then back to Adelaide. It was so good to catch up with my family and friend's in my other two homes. I've missed you all so much!

The rest of January was spent taking advantage of the time before Matt had to go back to Melbourne. Then I spent 3 weeks cleaning, scrubbing and organising my flat from top to bottom. I rearranged furniture and have set up a nice little work area. Though I do plan to be leaving here soon, as I'm moving in with a couple of friends.

Then February came around and that means the start of TAFE right? Ermm... no, sadly life had different plans for me! I got what I thought was a really bad sore throat the first weekend of Feb. The Dr thought it might be tonsilitis, but the meds didn't work. A blood test proved the worst, I have glandular fever. I had the excruciating sore throat for a week and a half, plus the GF has caused Hepatitis (ie inflammation of the liver) so I have to be really careful of what I eat. I'm over the acute symptoms finally (I had a fever for 6 weeks!) but I'm absolutely exhausted, which I'm told could last for quite a while.

Sadly this has affected my whole life. I'm lucky to make it into TAFE once a week, so I've had to massively scale back my major project plans (and it's possible I might not even be able to do it) and I've missed all my millinery classes so far Thankfully they're easy sewn hats so far, so I should be able to catch up. I've had to put all my costuming projects on hold which sucks so much! I'm supposed to be going to the Jane Austen Festival in April, for which I had originally planned a whole weekend wardrobe! I'm still hopeful I'll make it, but it means I'll be lucky to get 2 or 3 dresses made in time. *sigh*

I don't see myself doing any major costume work til May or June at the earliest. As such, I don't actually have a 2010 costume list like I do most years! It's actually really nice not to have a deadline or a plan and just be able to go with whatever happens. I have some thoughts surrounding costumes for the ACG Ball (August) and Melbourne Armageddon (October), but otherwise, I don't have any firm plans.

The good thing is that since I'm practically housebound, I'm inspired by my other hobby - papercrafting. It's a really fun and creative hobby that I've always enjoyed, but it's always taken a back seat to my costuming, since that is so time consuming! It's really nice to be able to just sit at my desk and colour in pictures, cut out pretty paper and create pretty things! So I guess that's a positive!

I've uploaded a whole lot of photos from the second half of 2009 that I managed to get off my photographer friends. There's still quite a few more to come, so I shall hopefully have some more updates soon!

Take care all!

Abi