Spitballing

new year's resolutions, etc

Well, my friends, this is my first newsletter of 2025.

I want to start by saying I love New Year’s Resolutions.

In the past, I have loved daily practices, 30-day challenges, and goal setting. I love pretending you get a fresh start, a redo, a blank slate. More recently I’ve felt a little tired, a little less excited to get the momentum going. Is it perhaps that I am burnt out, or do these things feel less rewarding?

Are there new habits I want to establish? YES. I am planning on mediating every day in 2025. I started on January 4th, which might have given me a reason to give up in the past: it won’t even be a full year! my inner perfectionist moans.

But who is really keeping tabs except myself? And is the point to do a thing for 365 days or is the point to be calmer and listen to myself more? I know the answer.

This is what I did today.

There are a lot of things I want to write on the proverbial clean slate of 2025:

• doctor’s appointments

• using less packaging

• cooking more

• little weights for lifting while watching tv

• buying less / keeping a list of what I want to buy and sitting on it before I do

• attending Hoyt’s monthly mending days

• working on children’s book illustrations

• honing my craft (in italics because it’s a very vague and lofty goal)

• creating a different promotional email, just about classes and shows

• working on my retirement account

• moving more of my organizational materials to Notion

• be rich in socks / buy plenty of socks / buy any pair of socks I want (these don’t apply to the sit-on-it-before-you-buy-it rule—you don’t want to see the current condition in the sock drawer)

As of yet, I’m not sure these are my New Year’s Resolutions, I’m spitballing. I give myself until February 3rd (my birthday) to firm up some of these ideas and make them into full ✨New Year’s Resolutions.✨ Perhaps I will not touch Diet Coke this year? Perhaps I will buy an ice cream maker (after I sit on the idea for a month). Perhaps I will not make a bunch of ✨New Year’s Resolutions.✨

I’d like to write a new introduction note for my 2025 newsletter, here are a few ideas:

• ice cream reviews, minutia of mothering, why I like drawing, and other ephemera.

• weekly letters reflecting on art making, take what you need and leave the rest

• just rambling (rename the newsletter rambling? Are there other newsletters called rambling?)

• friends / drawing / rambling

I’m spitballing!

The big ✨New Year’s Resolution✨ I make every year is to take January off from drinking. This year, I haven’t been drinking since last May 1st. Although I’ve given myself permission to have a drink again if it seems right, I feel pretty satisfied with the occasional non-alcoholic beer or a soda-and-bitters at the bar.

If you know me you know I’ve thought, talked, and navigated my relationship to alcohol for years. I spent an entire year sober in 2020 and thought I’d never drink again. I’ve had dry Januarys since 2014 when my son was born, and I’ve been known to add on dry September, or even abstain in June. I have made myself draw my drink while I drink it so I can slow down and enjoy it more.

My issue with drinking is that I want to do it every day. I like to have 1-2 drinks while making dinner, which is great because then I eat, don’t drink anymore, and don’t get too drunk. BUT I do get grumpy, and I do feel not great after that 1-2 drink buzz wears off. Not drinking has been really challenging for me in the past and I have primarily used friend accountability and my code of a 30-day challenge (you have to do it all) to make me stop.

We could talk about drinking for days, but this newsletter isn’t about drinking. (

Holly Whitaker

writes a great newsletter about recovery if you are looking for one). This newsletter is about ✨New Year’s Resolutions✨ and I’m finding it interesting that as my resolution approach softens, so does my relationship to drinking. You heard me say I’m allowed to drink if it feels right, but it hasn’t felt right.

In 2024 this is the part of the email where I would come up with a suggestion or a prompt that I might leave you with for the week. Do I want to keep doing that? Maybe? I realize I can create a poll:

Let me know what you think, and I will continue to percolate on this newsletter, my resolutions and the ways the turning of the year means I get to start everything over, even though everything is still the same.

Thank you, as always, for reading. I appreciate your attention and your eyes.

Much love, Lettie Jane

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Tidbits:

• If you’ve been looking for a way to transport your pet hedgehog around town, look no further. Unfortunately, we have yet to find a bunny equivalent.

  

• Rosemary suggested that 20th Century Woman might be a perfect movie and after watching it last night, I don’t think she’s wrong.

• I blasted through Ready Player One by Ernest Cline while doing a puzzle over the holiday. It was a cinematic adventure audiobook celebrating the 1980s that I could not put down. We came home and watched the movie, which was quite different from the book, in many many plot points (the book’s momentum is built around solving clues and playing video games, the movie needed to add some action), but the virtual world was pretty wild to see animated.

Upcoming Classes:

February / March classes are live, in case you missed January sign-ups:

• Intuitive Drawing (Saturday AM) (5 weeks)
  Dates: Saturdays, February 22nd – March 22nd
  Time: 10:00am – 1:00pm

• Deeper Drawing (Saturday Afternoon) (5 weeks)

  Dates: Saturdays, February 22nd – March 22nd
  Time: 1:30pm – 4:30pm

• LINE TIME is the magical monthly podcast I make in collaboration with Sanae, Breesa, and Jason. It’s a 15-minute invitation to make an abstract drawing.

• Calendars are sold out! If you missed buying from me online, you can still purchase them in Portland at Flutter, Radius Art Gallery, or Paper Jam.

• I will be showing and selling original artwork from the 2025 Calendar:

  Opening Party

  Friday, January 10th 5-8pm

  Radius Art Studio / 2324 SE Belmont St.

  

• Many Queens Tarot is just $25.10 and makes a great gift.

• So many beautiful PRINTS at Buy Olympia!

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Bun Updates

We are bunsitting the legendary Zeb again. Our family is OBSESSED with this bunny. He is cuddly, licks constantly, always looking to be petted and will snuggle up against you. He isn’t skittish at all. Matt and I watched part of our movie with him wedged in between us, alternating between petting him and him licking us, but then he decided to claim us as his own by peeing all over us and the magic was dampened.

An incredibly handsome gentleman.