(Plus, stuff about New Year’s Resolutions.)

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, and I definitely want to make newsletters a more regular part of… well, my life. Rosh HaShanah is coming up, which is the Jewish new year. The way I approach New Year’s Resolutions is:

-The secular New Year (January 1st): My career or skill-related goals; learning app development and Romanian to a B1 level are the ones I’m considering.

-Rosh HaShanah (usually sometime in September): My personal goals, things that would elevate me spiritually. I’m unsure what I’d like to work on. But I know I have more growth to do, and am determined to keep working!

The secular New Year is also coming up. Now, I’m allergic to free time, so I decided to pick seven resolutions last year. Yeah, crazy, I know. So how did I do?

Damn well, actually. I finished 5/7 of them, and the 2 I didn’t finish are with good reason.

Ones I finished:

-Learn shibari/rope tying: I didn’t become advanced or anything, but I did learn a basic single column tie, along with a few basic knots I memorized, and how to improvise. Always more to learn, but I consider this one done!

-Create my own tarot deck: Shockingly, this only took the first four months of the year! Picking digital collaging as a medium proved to allow me to do quick but elegant pieces. You can buy a deck and see some examples here: https://scarlett-creates.square.site/product/waking-dream-tarot-deck-78-card-introspective-fortune-telling-deck/1

-Get into phone photography (and make a mini-collection of my favorite pieces): This has been something I’ve wanted to do for a LONG time. And I LOVED doing it. I got to experiment a lot and learned to appreciate the world in a new way. I also got to model for other people!! I took a portrait photography class earlier in the year which also definitely helped me elevate my skills.

-Create a cover for my erotica novel: This particular story has been finished for a long time, but I finally got around to putting it into a physical book! I commissioned one of the best artists I know, and did the typography myself. Then another friend helped with the formatting of it. It’s really great to have such talented friends, and I’m happy it’s finally up!

-Get involved with dance and stick to it consistently: For this, I have to thank my good friend; she wanted to go to ballroom classes, and circus arts (what I was planning) didn’t go well. But I ended up LOVING ballroom so much! As I type this I’m preparing to go to the next semester of classes!!

What I didn’t finish…

-Learning Spanish to a conversational degree: This was going well at first. And I didn’t stop because I lost momentum. I stopped because… well, the world’s on fire, and I needed to speed up the Romanian citizenship process. Unfortunately, because of the new law that passed THIS year, I have to learn Romanian to a conversation level (B1, in case you’re curious). So I didn’t really abandon this goal: I just pivoted. And I’ll bring this goal into 2026!

-Changing my middle name: For those who don’t know, I actually changed my name in 20…16? I think? Yeah. My first name was easy: I’d already been going by it for a few years. But I came up with a middle name, uh, pretty hastily. And I’m not happy with it. My middle name was named after my great-grandmother, who I never got to meet. But the more I learned about her the past few years, the more I related to her. So I’m gonna go back. Yeah

-Plugs!-

YouTube Channel (mostly just timelapses for now): https://www.youtube.com/@scarle.creates

Micro-Drawing Newsletter, published a few weeks ago: https://buttondown.com/scarlett.creates/archive/the-benefits-of-a-micro-drawing-practice/

-my hobby is hobby collecting-

Hey! One of my New Year’s Eve Resolutions (2025) was to get into phone photography. And well, I think I was successful! I even have a mini portfolio here: https://skaet-2025-phone-photos.straw.page/

You can see the full portfolio above, but two of my favorites are these:

For those who don’t know (probably not many of you), I went to Dashcon 2, and it was awesome!! I made a collage zine about it. I was initially going to add more narrative, but I was like ehhh, I kinda like it how it is. It makes no sense but I love it. You can read it here (for free, but donations are appreciated): https://skaetlett.itch.io/dashcon-2-a-skaetlett-adventure

-illustrations by a reformed weeb-

I’ve been doing a LOT of landscape art lately.

Okay I know I said reformed weeb but I’m proud of these pieces and they’re anime style, I don’t want to hear about it. The following illustrations are for some stories (and now a series) that I’ve been working on. I got back into character art and it’s been Pretty Cool! Also thank god for fabric brushes!

-Shitposts and Memes-

My new favorite stickers I’ve ever made, ever.

Fav. Picture of Me!

I think my next entry might be the full 2025 Art In Review? These take a while to write, and I’m heckin’ busy. I’ll probably write a few other things though! See you then, fellow creatives!