I’m not really a buyer of women’s magazines since 99% of them annoy me immensely, and have done since I was 17. But every now and then I like to pick up a copy of Frankie magazine (not to be confused with the Frankly magazine I help to produce).

It’s been around for a while but in case you haven’t seen it, Frankie is a lifestyle magazine for women, with an arty/crafty bent. I like that it’s published in Australia, that it has interesting, non-gossipy, stories about people who aren’t celebrities. It always has a pretty cover and it’s beautiful to touch, with lovely matte pages.

Anyway, this was touted as a ‘bumper issue’ with a wall calendar I thought my daughter could use, which justified the purchase in my mind. Another magazine on the stand caught my eye, Slow, by the same publisher. It’s also aimed at women, with a mindfulness, slow eating, sustainable- and organic-living focus. I’m not convinced I’ll be a regular reader of this one either, but I like it enough to make it an occasional purchase as well. I’m aware, by the way, that I’m one of the reasons that relatively decent mainstream print magazines go out of print.

I wish that Verily magazine was still in print. It’s also prettygood. It’s available online, and I subscribed to the email updates but that’s not the same at all is it? Digital magazines have their place of course, but I read things on-screen every day for information and for work. And while I do read books for fun on my Kindle app to reduce the load on our bookshelves and credit card account, I still prefer my reading for relaxation to be more tactile.

What else have I been up to? I decided to trick myself into getting out and about more this year by buying a family membership for the Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences. It will give us free entry into the Powerhouse Museum, the Museums Discovery Centre, and the Sydney Observatory, plus entry into some other attractions outside of Sydney that we might get to visit this year.

In the past we’re a bit commitment-phobic to spending money upfront on stuff we might not use. But I figure it’s worth a try this year that we will be travelling once or twice and give me another option for local adventures to go on during the school term with our four-year-old when he’s not at preschool.

Also, in the interests of organising myself a bit better on the work front I signed up for a trial of an invoicing and accounting app for Australian sole traders and freelancers called Rounded. It looks good so far.

What have you been up to in this still-fresh new year? Do you read any fairly general-interest magazines you can recommend?