Taking Stock 2025

Hello friends and Internet strangers,

It's been a whole year since I last wrote. Not much has been happening around here. How about you? 2025 went by really fast. I mean it's good right? If time passes slowly, it would be awfully boring.

Want to hear something funny? I spent nearly the entire year thinking I was a year older than I am. It was only recently that I realised my mistake. What a nice bonus. Suddenly I became a year younger. Also a bit worrying. What's wrong with my brain?

It's that time of the year when I feel a little blue. Maybe it's the end of yet another year on earth. Maybe it's taking stock of what I've accomplished the whole year and realising I haven't done much. Could it be the increasing amount of scrap fabric I've accumulated? Or maybe it's the weather. The endless December rain due to the wet North East monsoon. Clothes not drying well, contemplating buying a dryer but knowing I won't because there's no space for one.. the usual year end blues thinking about my purpose in life, laundry and how to look forward to another year of the same.

There were a number of things I wanted to achieve this year. Did I achieve them?

Youtube

Amazingly, I kept going with my youtube channel. In all honesty, my youtube channel isn't very successful as I've not managed to get a big audience. Youtube is flooded with sewing tutorials so it's not a surprise. Maybe one day I'll get sick of it and stop making videos. But at the moment, the motivation is still strong. If you would like to send some love, subscribe to my channel! (I beg you)

These are the stuff I made for my youtube.

Digital Art

Last year I got into digital art and man, the progress was slow. I kept learning and forgetting. Re-learning and forgetting all over again. Now I know the basics well enough. As for the advanced digital art techniques, it's too hard for me to remember. What I hate about aging is you forget stuff very easily. 

This was my first piece of digital art. Is it horrific? 

I tried to improve it. Or maybe it wasn't worth improving.

I'm quite pleased with this one even though everything is very flat.

I liked it so much I made a free-motion quilt version, lol. It's quite scary to look at, isn't it? I don't know why I'm so attracted to it though. It's me, by the way. 

When I started drawing digital portraits, I didn't want to draw other people in case they get offended by how the drawing turned out. So I chose myself as the subject. I mean, how am I going to get offended by myself?

Here's another portrait I did. I actually LOVE this version even though my lines were shaky and my knowledge of Procreate was very basic. 

Here I improved on the drawing technically but I didn't like it as much. Kinda creepy.

I tried to go back to a naive style of drawing.

I made another attempt and here I tried not to get the flat look by adding shades. As you can tell, I haven't quite learnt how to draw hair yet. I also generously added brown spots to my face to make it more realistic.

This is the last portrait I did because I got sick of my own face. Here I wanted a more cartoon look and I think I succeeded! I drew my face super long because people are always reminding me that I have a long face. 

"You have a very long face." 

"Wah, your face very long."

"You know your face is very long, you know? You know?"

I doubt I'll ever forget I have a very long face thanks to the constant reminder.

What do you think of my digital art? Should I stop scaring people with my drawings or should I continue?

Comics

Last year I told you I have a vague dream to create comics. I was actually interested in a Far side style of comic - a one panel thing. Realistically, I don't think I have it in me to make any comics. I may have the humour bit but the execution of the humour in comics is truly hard. Not long ago, I came up with a few ideas for a one panel comic. Then, believe it or not, I completely forgot everything and since I did not write it down, I couldn't recall a single idea. So until I get another idea, this dream may be over.

Painting

I've not made much progress in painting. Before I could master water colour, I started trying out another medium - gouache. My god - this is such a difficult medium to handle. I think I'm way better at water colour. Gouache is not a forgiving medium. The mistakes are very glaring. I'm very close to giving up. I mean, painting isn't something I'm good at in the first place. On the other hand, painting gives me a lot of peace. It frees my mind of my worries.

These are some of the stuff I've done. I'm learning from books and Skillshare. (if you use my link, I get 1 month free if you get a subscription) To be honest, Skillshare is hit and miss. There are lots of video classes but you need to go through a whole bunch (of mediocre) to find the good teachers. The plus side is the subscription is very cheap. I got mine at 50% discount. 

Free-motion Quilting

As you know I fell in love with free-motion quilting last year and yes, I'm still in love. But I didn't invest in much time on it in 2025. Just a few small quilts for my home, nothing worth showing. 

Health

Overall, I thought 2025 was pretty good for me health wise. I managed to overcome my hives problems as in I can live without taking hives medication anymore. It's getting better and although it's not completely gone, I don't stress over it anymore.

I've also gotten better with my digestive health from following the Fodmap diet. Now and then I still get into trouble eating something forbidden but honestly, I've improved so much it's unbelievable.

Unfortunately, I completely neglected my physical fitness and didn't exercise at all. I'm likely paying for it now. Lately I noticed old problems like neck pains (myofascial) have come back. It's sending me into a panic and now I've started doing light pilates at home. I'm starting swimming as well. If all goes well, as in, I don't give up, I aim to swim once a week. Today was my first swim and luckily it was a non-rainy day. As hubs was off, I made him go to the pool with me. Having not entered a pool for so long, it was really refreshing swimming in the water. It wasn't cold and my old bones creaked (or cracked) here and there. I stopped swimming a few years ago because my skin got very dry. But now I have to choose between dry skin and debilitating muscle pain. Anyway, I've no one to blame but myself. I kept wanting to exercise and I never do. Yes, this is the kind of person I am. Procrastinate until it's too late.

I finally did my Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). It was on my list and I got it done. Never got around to doing my will though so I'd better stay alive until I do.

Travel

Yup, my family is still on a travel kick. One day we'll run out of money and it'll stop. So I should enjoy it while I can. This year we travelled to Osaka, Melbourne and Bangkok.

You probably know we heart Japan. But Osaka? I LUV. I don't even understand it myself. I mean Osaka zoo doesn't even have gorillas. What kind of zoo is that? But Osaka feels more like Singapore and is less crowded than Tokyo so that could be the reason. I guess I feel more at home in Osaka. Also Osaka is close to Kyoto where my gorilla family lives. We went in January and it was cold. 

My daughter booked us a fantastic room with a view. (Hotel Hankyu International)

I've yet to visit a good flea market

Kyoto zoo

Nagoya

In July we went to Melbourne so my daughter could see her penguins. It was also cold and super windy. The day we arrived while looking for our hotel, we found ourselves on this long stretch of road with nothing to block the wind. And believe it or not, we nearly got blown off by the wind. We hurriedly dragged ourselves into an alley. I thought it would be like this throughout our visit but it only happened that one time.

After our spectacular hotel room in Osaka, the one in Dorsett Melbourne was rather disappointing. The service sucked too.

Hubs said with my grey hair, I blended in with the locals in Melbourne. Also, we were browsing at a craft market and it was partly outdoors and cold and suddenly we realised the true meaning of Christmas in July. Lol. 

Food in Melbourne is very expensive. Like $17 for fried rice at a food court? Are they mad? How do the people in Melbourne survive? Once I bought kimbap and I was told to pay a weekend charge. I paid. The kimbap wasn't very good. One time we had pizza at a place we walked past and it was sold by the slice. Very expensive as well but omg, such mind blowing delicious pizza. So worth it. 

Another thing I observed - Melbourne buildings are full of graffiti. Awful ones not the artistic kind. In Singapore we cane people for vandalism regardless the artistry.

In October we returned to Bangkok to keep my daughter company as she was there for a concert. Nothing much to say about our return to Bangkok except that I bought more elephant pants and on the day we returned to Singapore, hubs and daughter had a big fight at the train station. Needless to say, I swore I'll never travel with them again.

And how was your year? See you some time in 2026.