While catching up on Chestnut’s blog, I found out about a blogger challenge to post a photo from a year ago and reflect on the changes since then. I knew just the photo I wanted to use. Here I am relaxing in my new home in Winterfell Ebonshire back in late December 2007.

As I’ve written here this year, where I call home has changed a bit since the above photo. When I took this photo last year, I’d sold my first plot of land in Apparition Wood and made the move to Winterfell Ebonshire thinking that I’d be there for quite some time, and then came the addition of my castle in Ivy Falls and my brief time in Winterfell Sonnet before eventually deciding to live full-time in Ivy Falls. The castle has also seen some cosmetic changes this year as I decided to redecorate completely just a few weeks ago.

And my home isn’t the only thing to have changed this year. My appearance has also evolved a bit. Last year at this time I was still wearing a lot of ETD hair and Tete a Pied skin (now Fleur of course), but then in January 2008, I began wearing more LF CHAI skins, eventually wearing the Cream Siyu most of the time throughout 2008. That’s also around the same time that I began to wear more and more Exile hair until some point where I realized I just wasn’t wearing any hair that wasn’t made by Kavar and just deleted all the other hair from my inventory.

I guess the biggest change has been a mental one as I decided to push myself to play with creating things in SL. I had no idea a year ago that I’d start my own little shop Shine, and now here I am having so much fun creating eyes and even thinking about expanding the shop to include some of the accessories I’ve been working on this year. I’ve enjoyed learning more about Photoshop and about the building tools in SL, and it’s still a bit of a rush to have someone buy something I’ve made.

And of course there’s no way I could talk about 2008 without mentioning Kavar and Kere. They’ve impacted my life in such amazing ways, and it’s hard to believe I’ve only known them a year. As I look back at some of the highlights of 2008, I’m reminded of how many of my greatest moments this year have been thanks to them and/or shared with them.

That girl sitting in her new home last year had no idea how much things would change in a year, but I think she’d be thrilled with the outcome. I know I am! Looking ahead, I hope that 2009 will just continue on with more positive changes, a lot of learning, and good times spent with my favorite people.