I did two things yesterday that told me it’s really the new calendar year, and that the sun’s light is returning. The first one is that we took down and put away all our Solstice and Christmas decorations, including the tree. Well, we did leave some festive faerie lights strung up around the house, to keep our spirits bright on these cold grey winter days. But since our space is fairly small, we needed to have that portion of our living room back, so the tree had to go. It will be saved to become the fire-starter for next year’s Winter Solstice bonfire, a tradition we’ve kept for a dozen years now.

The second thing is that I made my vision board for 2014, which I posted yesterday. The inspiration struck me when I woke up in the morning, so BlackLion and I sat down with mugs of tea and started playing. I adore paper crafts! A lovely creative friend of mine posted a photo of her new art & paper craft work space, which she set up in her living room. That got me pondering whether I have space to do the same, but I think for now I’ll have to be content with using the dining room table.

Tomorrow that very table will be covered in dice and handbooks – we have friends coming over to play D&D. Yay!

Here are some links to help brighten your weekend. I hope you have something fun planned!

Looking for some inspiration as the new year begins? This one definitely got me jazzed up about 2014.

I may have posted this “Archescopes” link before, but I rediscovered it this week and remembered how cool it was. If you don’t know your archetypes, they have a quiz that can help you discover them. From the same website, this article on journal-keeping is also good.

Are you a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? You might appreciate this post, or at least be amused by it.

I’m getting excited about doing another round of decluttering. This website has a ton of useful tips, links, and information.

This is a fantastic article about unschooling, and one of the best things about it is that it didn’t come to me through any of my unschooling-related peeps. It appeared on a completely unrelated e-list – the word on alternative education is definitely spreading!

Have an inspiring, joyful day!