Happy New Year!

Why hullo there 2011! You've been fabulous so far...with you, you've brought sunshine to Western WA and cool temperatures that have allowed the thundersnow we received in the last few days of 2010 to stick around. It's absolutely gorgeous, aside from the fact that when we back out onto our street, there is a brief period of time that the minivan slides sideways down the hill.

I have no resolutions for you, but i do have aspirations.

Granny Square project: too much too soon. I started working on two projects requiring these, and per usual me, i picked something totally challenging that overwhelmed me and reverted to something completely too simple that bored me to tears and the enormous size of the project gave me a severe case of assembly line-itis. I only was able to finish 29 6-inch grannies for my king sized bed blanket and 6 8-inch squares for the wool rug for Cookie Monster's room this year. I'd like to get both of these finished this year along with all the other projects going on. An insight i recently had coming back from our Christmas trip in Idaho was that i need to visit Idaho more often, as long as i hire a driver. I finished 8 6-inch squares in 4 hours! :)

Chicken Quilt: i have finally acquired all the material i'll add to the quilt. Now i have a notion of spending two 30 minute sessions a month on finishing it.

Craft Room: i have a big transformation project in this area of the house needing to be complete by summer. In doing so, i need to get some other projects started...like putting together photo albums and weeding out scrapbook paper. I've realised that i'll never ever scrapbook like the pros, because i am too cheap to invest in all the cutting tools and paper trinkets. I've come to terms with the fact that i am a simpleton...photo corners and a colourful or sweetly designed paper do it for me--especially because that brings the total cost per page to something like $1.25, not including the cost of the album or the page protectors!! I don't need bling and stickers made in China to make my album sing, especially since i have some photographic ability occasionally. :) However the ones i've been duped into accumulating over the years i shall try to make use of where i can. I can't devote a ton of time to this, however, i am thinking if i can get few pictures developed every quarter, i should be able to keep up with placing them in an album once a month.

Weight loss: now that a majour weight loss program in the country that i belong to has changed enough to mimic the ideas that make sensible, lifestyle-changing dietary habits that make sense to me, it has been pretty easy for me to eat more sensibly. The challenge will be the exercising. Although, i have to say, the Just Dance games are captivating. It's safe to assume there will be a Zumba video purchase in my future. I try not to make deadlines or huge weight loss goals, as it just stresses me out which in turn makes me munch more. I'd like to just keep on the steady path of trying to learn how best to feed and tend my ever shrinking body each day.

Family Pictures: namely of Cookie Monster. Last year was an abysmal year for updating family of her development via means of our personal blog. This year, i've avowed to commit to One A Day...taking a picture of C.m., no matter how imperfect the photo or boring the subject, and post it for the family. I am kicking myself for not doing this last year, as it would have been keen to see when the incisors came in over that amount of time. Maybe this is a project you'd like to work on also with children or grandchildren? If so, drop me a line in the comments and i'll start a "Best of the Month" post...we can all share together.

I am sure there will be more added to my list of aspirations throughout the year. However, i'd like to try to focus on these the most. It will lift my spirits if i can make headway on these projects this year.