December 10...

A little treat while watching some fun holiday shows!  I think maybe I should have had my own peanut butter whoopie pie instead of splitting it. It was so good!

(And with this I have finally hit 150 posts!)

December 8 (cont'd) and 9...

This is how Saturday night ended.  John was hit and run as he was pulling into our driveway!  The person never slowed down and passed him on the left as he was turning.  Hit the tire (so lucky it was a little closer to the door) and destroyed the front end.  John tried to follow them, but the car couldn't go anywhere with the front end hanging off.  People suck.  A lot.  So there will now be lots of fun figuring transportation out and unexpected bills because it's coming out of our insurance.  Sigh...  

The only silver lining I could come up with - because John had to be at the airsoft training class he organized, I couldn't make it to my dad's house to help the siblings clean out the little bit of furniture there.  We all agreed that I would have been too emotional about it anyway and it was for the best.  I've more than made up for missing this over the past few years.  I'm feeling pretty sad about the house now being empty and kind of dread going there again to see it that way.  It's been a long time coming, but it's too soon if you know what I mean.

December 9 - I used a little bit of my Holiday Bonus from work to splurge on some fun things for me (there were 2 great coupons that I just couldn't pass up) from Kiehl's and Studio Calico.  Now even though life is more than a little crazy I'll have a couple deliveries to look forward to.  

And can I say how happy I am that I am actually keeping up with my December Daily photos!  And they are all actually printed off too!  Hopefully next weekend will have some free time for me to work on the album.  I bought the Studio Calico December Daily kit this year - love, love, love the album and the papers and the stamps (ok all of it!) - and have got the Ali Edwards 4x6 pages all printed out and ready to go.  I just need to do a little decorating, a little stamping and some journaling.

December 5, 6, 7 and ...

December 5 - My first "scratch & sniff" holiday card!  Rub the tree and it smells like the tree!  Love it! (Thank you T&B!)

December 6 - Looking forward to using this stamp set!  New Year's Eve plans have been made - dinner at Mexicali Grill with drinks at home.

December 7 - Brought out John's festive holiday mug for the season!

December 8 - Shopping for one of the kids in the families we adopted at work.  Fun and stressful (because I want to make them happy) at the same time.

December 3 and 4...

December 3 - I bought these pretty plants for me and my pod mates to bring a little holiday cheer to our desks.

Love this homemade glittery card from my in-laws!

December 2...

Today we kicked off the holiday season with our annual tradition of breakfast at Annie's and going to the Festival of Giving Trees.  Each year we try to win a tree and support the fundraising efforts of this great cause.  We'll be waiting by the phone this afternoon for that call to come and get a tree... fingers crossed!

December 1...

A relaxing day spent at home watching the big, fluffy snowflakes fall all morning and the birds swarming (and emptying) the feeders.  Lots of printing of papers and printables for my December Daily/Journal Your Christmas album and starting the 25 Days class at Studio Calico.  Life is good today.

Enjoying summer and crossing things off the list...

It's been a busy summer at work and dealing with taking care of/trying to sell my dad's house, but I have been really good about working toward crossing things off the summer bucket list...

Go kayaking 4 times

Build the deck and set up the canopy and sit outside…often - The deck is underway and should be done in the next couple weeks.  We are both so excited to get this all set up and are planning mornings with coffee outside and cocktails and friends at night.  Might be the best addition to the house yet!

Go to the ocean and get my feet wet and sandy

Grow some veggies and herbs and use them

Have a yard sale (August 11) - Lots of purging taking place for this.  This Saturday I'm getting together with the girls to start organizing/pricing all of our scrapbook stuff that we're selling.  This week is placing the newspaper ads.

Take a hike or two

Go. See. Do.

Read 6 books – preferably outside on the deck with coffee! - Done!  Just started book 7 and some of the reading has been outside with a beverage or two. :)  This is the most I've read in a long time.

Go on a picnic with wine and cheese and bread

Eat salad at least once a week – try new ones - Not doing well with this one.  I've fallen in love with ground pork taco salad and that's all I want lately!  

Learn how to grill fish

Lobster.  Melted Butter.  Ocean View.

At least one weekend road trip to somewhere with John

Make fruit salad - While no actual salad has been made, I've eaten lots of watermelon and summer fruit.

Pick berries

Have a fire and make s’mores

Go camping (in the camper even if it's not completely done) - The man is planning this today!  This will also take care of the s'mores too. 

So there you have it!  This terrible procrastinator and failure at crossing things off my lists is making progress and feeling so good about it!  No panic attacks that it's almost the end of July and I've done nothing "summery".  We've gone out for ice cream for dinner twice this summer so far and are looking forward to doing it again.  

I need to post some pictures soon.  I have a TON of Instagram pictures to share.  I hope everyone is enjoying their summer too!

Summer...

Summer is here and I've been inspired by Ali Edwards and other bloggers to make a "Summer Manifesto" to remind me what it is I want to really do this season.  Summer always seems to get here so quick (spring is just a blip) and then I blink and its fall.  I miss those days when I was a kid and summer seemed to last forever.  I want to try to get that feeling again.  So here's my plan for Summer 2012...

Go kayaking 4 times

Build the deck and set up the canopy and sit outside…often

Go to the ocean and get my feet wet and sandy

Grow some veggies and herbs and use them

Have a yard sale (August 11)

Take a hike or two

Go. See. Do.

Read 6 books – preferably outside on the deck with coffee!

Go on a picnic with wine and cheese and bread

Eat salad at least once a week – try new ones

Learn how to grill fish

Lobster.  Melted Butter.  Ocean View.

At least one weekend road trip to somewhere with John

Make fruit salad

Pick berries

Have a fire and make s’mores

Go camping (in the camper even if it's not completely done)

I tried to make the list something that could be done in the 93 days we count for summer.  I've already started a new book and the veggies are started too.  The deck plan is done and next weekend the shopping for supplies begins.  I'm off to a good start. 

Life...

In a funk and feeling reflective…
 

I should have known that posting that video as my theme song for this year was going to come back and bite me.  It’s how things go for most of us sometimes.  I decided to really make the best of this year and to try and do things differently to get a better outcome.  As soon as I started putting that decision into practice, things started going a little bit down hill and it’s been a bit bumpy since.

A couple Sundays ago, as I was organizing my paperwork to do my taxes, we notice a not so good odor coming from the basement and the general vicinity of the (relatively new) furnace.  UGH!  After some inspecting and John venturing into the crawl space it was determined that there was something blocking the chimney.  So, we gather all kinds of tools and supplies and off he goes back into the crawl space to see what he can do to avoid an expensive Sunday service call.  As he is doing that, I finally got my act together and did my taxes…all 3 returns all by myself. I figured out which state return to file first (I live in one state and work in another), navigated my way around TurboTax and rocked it all out in 2 hours (by which time John has declared the issue fixed and we are on our way to getting the house back to warm).  I turn around from the computer to share the good news and promptly notice that the (only 7 year old) TV we’ve had playing in the background does not look right.  Not only does it not look right, it looks really bad.  And it resists any attempts to fix the picture.   Lovely.  There goes 1/3 of the refund that I JUST found out I was getting!  Off we go to get a new TV (and that’s a whole different story to tell!) and have a nice lunch. 

John has been sent up to Maine to work more than usual and for longer stretches, so it’s been just me and the pup at home.  And that makes everyone a little bit stressed.

My newish boss has been having some growing pains settling into this new firm and his new position and he’s been sharing the frustration.  This does not making going to work each day fun and it’s getting a little bit old.  Hopefully this phase will pass and the office can go back to being some place I really don’t mind going every day.

I woke up Saturday morning to a text from my sister asking me to call her when I get the message.  Never a good thing.  And it wasn’t.   Someone I once loved…spent 4 years with…almost married…had died.  At 48.  I haven’t seen him in over 20 years, but it is makes me very sad to know the path he chose to walk and how his life ended.   I cannot comprehend not being able to get out of your own way and make choices that are consistently bad for you with profound repercussions.  I cannot imagine how hard this is on his family.  I know they did their best (as did I when we were together) to help him with his demons.  But no one can solve someone else’s problems for them no matter how hard they try.  My heart is heavy and I truly hope that his soul is at peace now. 

All of these little bumps combined with the ridiculous mid-life worries I’m trying to work through have put me in a funk that I am having a hard time snapping out of.  Even a little retail therapy with my friend yesterday filled with lots of scrapping supplies and inspiration couldn’t do it.  Still crabby and cranky and still wishing for a little lightness in my step.  I know that “this too shall pass”, but I’d like it to pass now. 

Tomorrow is a new day and another chance to find the sunshine.  I’m going to try to do just that.

12 on the 12th...

I finally remembered to try this challenge.  It helped that I just recently got the Instagram app and I've been having fun playing with it.  Here are yesterday's pictures:

Now I just need to learn how to make a cute little collage of the pictures.  Looks like I'll be doing some searching and studying this weekend!

A theme for 48...

It's been a great birthday week and I've got some pictures to share, but this song has been replaying in my head a lot and I'm adopting it for my theme song for this year...

It is a good life...

Big ambition = epic fail

So on the day before it "expires" I am finally posting my "48 before 48" list. I had so many great ideas and so many fun dreams, but 48 things is a lot to get through some times and, as you can see, I failed to accomplish most of them. It makes me kind of sad, but life doesn't always work out like we plan. Tomorrow is a new day and there's a new list to be made. I liked the challenge and I'm going to try to come up with some more reachable, realistic goals for this new list. So, without further ado, here it is:

48 before 48:

1. Take a road trip with John

2. Go to the Worcester Art Museum

3. Read 20 books (15 done)

4. Go to the gym at least 3 days a week (4 weeks off allowed)

5. Blog at least once a week (really messed up this one!)

6. Lose 15 lbs. Done! I’ve lost 38 lbs. since the beginning of last April!

7. Get and hang curtains in the living room and dining room

8. Put pictures on the walls

9. Go to Salem with Tina, Brian, John and John T

10. Go to the beach and collect shells

11. Keep up with my Moleskine 2011 journaling (fell off on this one in the spring)

12. Start a photography journal

13. Complete “The Photographer’s Workshop”

14. Hire a landscaper to help figure out the plan

15. Scrap 20 pages

16. Upload and organize photos at least monthly

17. Create and hang one canvas project

18. Try 10 new recipes (1 down)

19. Plant and harvest some veggies

20. Get my email in box down to 250 emails or less

21. Go to Tower Hill Botanical Garden

22. Paint shelves in John’s office

23. Get a new dining room set

24. Get a new roof and fix the chimney

25. Go camping in the new camper (We couldn't go with the older dog and then winter came and it was definitely not happening before the next birthday)

26. Go 4-wheeling with John

27. Try the 8 minute meditation plan

28. Get rid of 1 large bag of clothes

29. Take a hike in a local park/forest

30. Re-learn how to sew

31. Learn how to use my lensbaby and all its pieces

32. Submit a layout/project for publication

33. Learn how to use John’s table saw and sander

34. Refinish a piece of furniture

35. Become debt free (except for the mortgage)

36. Go kayaking…maybe buy one too! (DONE!)

37. Lower my cholesterol

38. Rent a “dream” lens and go on a photo safari

39. Visit Portsmouth, NH – Went Veteran’s Day weekend with the girls, but didn't really do more than visit a few stores and enjoy the hotel

40. Create 12 art journal pages

41. Run a mile (run the whole time) – working on this, but may never be able to run the whole thing…

42. Plant bulbs for next spring

43. Clean and organize shed – almost done!

44. Have a yard sale

45. Sell/donate unused scrap supplies

46. Create a card stash so they’re ready when I need them

47. Visit an island – Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Block Island, Vinalhaven…

48. See the eye doctor

Some of these are going to be on the new list, but there are definitely some new things I want to add.

Time to say goodbye to 47 and prepare to embrace 48. Ugh...

Today's photo...

Yes...two posts in one day! Shocking!

I've tried to do a photo a day a couple times and I just lose steam and inspiration, but I do need to post more of the pictures I actually do take to inspire me to keep snapping.

Today's picture was the pile of papers, embellishments and planners/journals for the year. I've managed to create the cover and fill in the pocket pages for the My Planner calendar and I'm trying to figure out what to write in my new One Line A Day journal that John got me for Christmas. Oddly, I feel more pressure to write just one line than I do when I need to fill a page. Seems like it needs to be something important and some days, life is just not that interesting.

Off to finish up filling in the calendars with birthdays and days off...

Farewell to 2011...Bring on 2012!

Time to say goodbye to last year and begin anew. I wish I could bottle these feelings of wanting to accomplish lots of things and dole it out throughout the year. I'm so energized by the possibilities of a brand new year and empty calendar. I made the best of 2011, but it was a hard year in some ways and I watched a couple friends go through some very hard times. I'm ready for an upswing in life. I'm ready to embrace the possibilities and opportunities given to me and make something magical happen this year. 2012 is going to be good!

I've participated in the "One Little Word" challenge the past several years and I'm jumping on the bandwagon again this year. I thought I had my word for the past month or so, but when it came time to commit to it, it just felt a little off. I couldn't come up with one word that rang true with me. So instead of one little word, I've picked three: Go. See. Do. This sums up my dreams and plans for 2012. I've had this song by Asha Ali playing in my head for days: The Time is Now. I am a procrastinator of the highest order and that needs to change. Life is moving fast and putting things off is not how to achieve the life I want to live. I'm inspired right now to change things up and I am hoping I can keep this momentum up for a while. I know it will wax and wane throughout the year, but I have found having my one little word mantra has been helpful in the past. I'm taking this class again too: One Little Word with Ali Edwards. It's a once a month reminder to stay on track.

I hope that 2012 is more than you hope it can be!