Studio update

My little studio space continues to waffle between chaos and order, but the other day we took one more orderly step forward.

A while back I bought three super cheap ($20 each) black bookcases from Wal-Mart and arranged them in a U-shape against the wall. It most certainly is not my ideal storage solution, but that gorgeous antique wood flat file or bookcase continues to elude me.

The husband took a scrap piece of plywood and cut it to my specifications, and I stained it, gave it a quick coat of polyurethane, and plopped it on top of the bookcases to create a workspace.



I finally found my old sugar mould that I bought years ago in Frederick, Maryland, and I filled it with all my colored markers, rulers, scissors, etc. It makes me happy (SO happy!) to have them so organized.



I also finally organized the area under my small paper cutter, arranging the pantone inks by color so I can find the darn things, and placing labels on the small cans of ink that I mixed by hand.



Let's hear three cheers for being more organized!!

Things to do in 2010: A progress report

I was thinking this morning about the progress I've already made on my list of things to do this year. I have a list of things to specifically accomplish because I do much better if I can check things off a list rather than trying to maintain some vague resolution.

There is something about checking an item off a list that makes me so, so happy.

So here's where I'm at right now, just two full months into the year:

1. Eat a greater variety of food. I listed 10 specific foods to try. I've tried 6 of them so far: bread/pastries from scratch, fish other than salmon, buffalo, turnips, rutabagas, and quinoa. I tried this recipe for smashed rutabagas with ginger roasted pears. I didn't really care for the addition of thyme to it. The smashed rutabagas were pretty good on their own, and I could eat a bucket full of ginger roasted pears. I also included some turnips with a buffalo chuck roast I made. Talk about killing two birds with one stone. The buffalo was actually surprisingly good! It was mixed with so many other flavors, though. So the other night I prepared a buffalo rib steak with this Moroccan Beef rub from Dean and Deluca.

Wow! It was really good. If I didn't know it was buffalo I never would have guessed that it wasn't beef. And it was much more tender than the husband and I expected. I've also made some cinnamon rolls from scratch, tried a recipe for cod that was an abysmal failure, and a recipe for breakfast quinoa with blueberries that was good but a little too earthy for a breakfast in my opinon. So I'm feeling pretty good with my progress on this one.

2. Landscaping. I'm working on the plans for it. The husband is afraid. Very, very afraid.

3. Terrarium. On hold for the moment while I tend to #2.

4. Clean and maintain organization in the studio. I've had a small setback recently in this area. It's on the list of things to tackle this weekend.

5. Learn to sew and quill. These are on the list for this fall!

6. Give up soda. This should be number 1. Not only did I manage to give it up, but I have stayed straight and true. But this summer will be hard. I hate drinking hot coffee on summer mornings, and the thought of an iced coffee makes my stomach turn. Summer mornings without a cold diet coke will be a real challenge for me!

7. Take better care of my garden. I'm really making an effort in this department! I'm starting my next group of seeds today, and I'm attending all the gardening classes I can. I still need to write up all my notes, so next week look for a more complete post about the beauty and joy of composting and soil preparation. And I'll also have a new tutorial for something even more fun than making seed pots out of toilet paper rolls! (Hint: It will serve double-duty as a great chocolate-free present for Easter!)

8. Knit baby hats to donate to needy mothers. First I took a refresher knitting course, then I learned to make a big hat. This week I completed my first baby hat! The color of yarn I used is called cucumber. I bought more than double the yarn that I needed, so now I think I need to take another class so I can make some matching baby booties!



How are all of you doing on your 2010 resolutions and goals?

More things to do in 2010

Here it is, February already, and I still haven't completed my list of things to do this year!

So here are a few more items on my list of things to accomplish:

1. Give up soda, and diet cokes in particular (I can hear the horrified gasp of my old "diet coke break" buddy coming all the way from Michigan!). This was one of the first things on my list to do this year, but I never put it in writing because, well, frankly I didn't think I could do it! But I have done it, and I'm now entering my fourth week of diet coke-free living. There was one day last week where I was so busy and hit a mid-afternoon sleepy spell. I had a diet coke out of pure desperation for some caffeine and found that it has totally lost its charm with me. I haven't had another one since. I knew I'd still be craving something sweet to drink, so I've been drinking things like crystal light. It has really helped with the transition. The first day was the roughest, because I was SO thirsty. I drank about 120 ounces of water that day, but since then it's been fine.

2. Be better about tending to my garden this year, and also expand the variety of things I'll grow. Last year I got too busy with house projects and just didn't have time for the garden. This year will be better, and I can't wait for all my new seeds to arrive!

3. Learn to sew! Once I get reacquainted with knitting, I'm going to learn to sew. My mom gave me a very basic lesson last year. I don't want to do anything fancy, but it would be nice to be able to make simple things like curtains, pillows, and pretty summer skirts.

Speaking of knitting, I'm taking my first knitting lesson tonight! It's a beginner/refresher course and we'll be making a scarf. Later this month I'll be taking another lesson on how to make their "two-hour hat." After that I should be well on my way to my goal #4 to knit some baby hats!

I already bought my yarn for the class. The solid yarn on the left is for the scarf, and the multicolor yarn on the right is for the hat.



I forgot how much Sadie loves soft things (socks, piles of yarn, fleece blankets) and the yarn wasn't sitting on the stool more than about 30 seconds before she walked right over to thieve it!

Progress

I'm pleased to announce that I've already made significant progress on one of my goals.

Here's my studio space on Tuesday morning.



Here's my studio space on Wednesday afternoon.



And here's my studio space on Thursday afternoon. I still have a LOT to do, but at least I can see the floor now and I have a much better chance of finding what I'm looking for!





So what's the reason for jumping straight to goal 5? Well, for one, my head was about to explode because of all the clutter. But the main reason was that I had an appointment yesterday morning with Ted, the foundation repair expert, and I didn't want to be totally embarrassed.

Wait, what? A foundation repair expert?!

Fortunately, he had moderately good news. Or bad news, depending on how you look at it.

If you'll recall, we haven't been able to finish the tile floor in the living room and kitchen because of a problem with the sealer on the last pallet of tiles. I am still waiting to hear back from DalTile about how to fix the problem...

But the delay has been a huge blessing in disguise, because over the fall and winter, our house started moving.

I first noticed some hairline cracks in five of the tiles that straddle the line between a section of new concrete that we poured and the original slab of the house. They have slowly grown wider. Although a huge bummer, this wasn't totally unexpected.



But then I noticed a crack in the wall where it meets the ceiling in the back part of the living room. The crack has slowly spread and widened. And the alarm bells really went off when I noticed right before Christmas that a section of the concrete from one of the older sections of the house was starting to sink!



Thank goodness this section wasn't already tiled or I'd have a colossal mess on my hands.

The good news from Ted is that he doesn't see any particular cause of the problem. I had worried that the huge globe willow tree was causing problems. When the people before us put on the last addition, they built to within a few inches of the tree! I had resigned myself to the fact that the tree would have to be cut down and I'd lose the great shade it provides in the summer. But Ted doesn't think the tree will cause significant problems over the next 10 years, but if we cut the tree down, in 10-15 years the roots will rot and disappear, leaving a giant sinkhole under the house! No thanks. The tree lives!



The bad news from Ted is that he doesn't see any particular cause of the problem! He said the house is moving because houses move, and the movement has probably been exacerbated recently by the extreme cold this year (coldest winter in 40 years) and the fact that the house has so many different concrete slabs that may not have been tied together when they were poured. This means that there is very little that we can do to control the cracking.

What we will do is install some slab piers along the crack where the slab is sinking. This should bring the two pieces back to level and prevent them from sinking again, but he said the slab will continue to move and crack all around it, though hopefully without sinking again. It will be 4-6 weeks before they have room in their schedule to install the piers, so I guess Dal Tile gets a few more weeks to get me some new tile!

Things to do in 2010: Part 5

Of all the goals I have for 2010, this might end up being the biggest. It has three parts:

1. Clean up the space that is currently reserved for my little studio.
2. Keep everything related to my little studio in my little studio. The guest bedroom will be reserved for guests, a bed, my desk, and minimal storage of paper and envelopes on the closet shelves only. Likewise, the kitchen counter and table will be reserved for kitchen items only.
3. Once my studio is cleaned up, keep it clean. And keep my desk clean. No more piles of paper and cards and envelopes and tags and scraps of paper. In fact, I like an idea I saw a few months ago to clean off my work surface at the end of every day. It's true that I'm more motivated to work on a project if I'm not faced with mounds of clutter.

Speaking of mounds of clutter...

This is what my studio looked liked yesterday morning.



Whoa is right.

Since October, I have been ridiculously busy, between printing projects, editing work, and getting ready for Christmas. And I really felt like if I took just an hour or two to at least organize some of the piles, I'd fall into a black hole somewhere. And I didn't have time to fall into a black hole, so I left the piles alone.

And they multiplied like bunnies.



Part of the problem is that I was keeping every box that entered our house. I hate trying to wrap Christmas presents and not having any boxes on hand. But I think they were breeding at night when I turned out the light.



I am happy to report that as of yesterday afternoon, all of these boxes have been removed and will be taken to the recycle center this weekend.



One of my biggest problems has been the lack of any good options for a workspace or storage. The room is very small, and I really need some magical piece of furniture that has gobs of storage underneath and a large, flat surface at the right height so that I can stand there for hours on end mixing ink, cutting paper, folding cards, packaging note cards, etc.



My idea of magical furniture is an amazing antique wood cabinet with lots of drawers and a gorgeous patina. Let me tell you, they don't exist in my neck of the woods. Rather than prolong the agony, I finally just went to Walmart, and for $60 I got three book shelves that are the perfect height. I arranged them in a U shape against one wall. I need to find a nice thick piece of plywood to put on top for a work surface. I'm still looking for that magical piece of furniture, but for now this should work just fine.



I also love this wood chest. I got it at an antique store in Frederick, Maryland, about 10 years ago. It's really simple but I love it because it is lightweight and easy to move around. Unfortunately, it was in the line of fire when we had the bad leak in our ceiling over the summer and has bad water stains down the front. So I'll refinish it this summer.



I started on this project yesterday by removing all the boxes. What a great feeling to have them gone! I have a bunch of editing and printing work this week, but I am committed to spending two hours a day cleaning and organizing until this project is finished!

Things to do in 2010: Part 4

I just returned from several days in sunny Tucson, Arizona.

When I'm not printing my heart out on my new press, I work as a freelance medical/technical editor. A former colleague recently contacted me about helping her organization to revise some training materials. So, I spent the last few days working with 3 midwives to revise a set of materials that are used in developing countries to help educate and train community members in basic life-saving skills for pregnant women.

I love working with midwives, particularly those who work in developing countries. They have the most amazing stories--both heart-warming stories that make you feel warm and fuzzy, and tragic stories that make you want to cry.

One of the midwives will be traveling to Ghana and Liberia in the coming weeks, and she'll be carrying with her about 250 hats for newborn babies, knitted by a group of women from a local church in Tucson.

Seeing those tiny hats reminded me that once upon a time I learned to knit and I really enjoyed it. I never had the time to learn to knit sweaters and such, so I stuck with small baby blankets and scarves. I haven't knitted at all in the past few years, and I'd really like to get back to it. I find it so relaxing. One thing that has kept me from jumping back into it is that I can only knit so many scarves... Without a specific purpose, there isn't as much incentive for me.

But now I have a purpose: Making baby hats and blankets for tiny babies in other countries. Their mothers often have nothing.

Nothing.

So I'm going to dust off my knitting needles and take a refresher course. For sure I'll be stopping in at the cute little knitting shop we have downtown called Tangle.

And I would love to make these baby hats.

It can become a hassle for the midwives and doctors I know to carry the hats with them to the countries they visit, so I'm looking for specific organizations dedicated to this cause working in other countries or even in the US. A quick search this morning produced two promising sites for donating the items: Afghans for Afghans and Algerian Action. I'll have to read more about these organizations. If any of you know of any good organizations that need some knitted baby caps or blankets, please let me know.

I still have a lot to do on the house this year, so I'm setting a (hopefully reasonable) goal of refreshing my knitting skills and then knitting 25 baby caps and/or blankets this year. Anyone care to join me?

Things to do in 2010: Part 3

Number 3 on my list is to finally get around to making a terrarium. I wanted to do it all last year. I started one with some succulents, but then it got stuck on the table behind my small press and I forgot about it...

Better yet, maybe I'll make a mini indoor garden. I love all things miniature, and these tiny gardens are absolutely adorable. I might have to make a xeriscape version of them.

From The Garden Barn and found via How about Orange.

Things to do in 2010: Part 2

This probably should be #1 on my list: Finish the landscaping around our house.

Accomplishing this task will involve moving several tons of large landscape boulders, moving several tons of dirt and gravel, building two rock walls, building two retaining walls near our creek, and selecting and planting all the plants and flowers.

I'm going to get a head start on things now by finalizing the list of plants and flowers. One of my goals in selecting the plants, besides choosing things that will thrive in the various locations around the house, is to select plants that will benefit hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees and other pollinators.

High Country Gardens does a great job of highlighting plants for this purpose. Here are a few that I really like:

Agastache neomexicana (New Mexico hummingbird mint)

Dalea purpureum (purple prairie clover)

Echinacea 'Tiki Torch' (hybrid orange coneflower)

Penstemon mexicali 'Red Rocks' (red rocks hybrid beardtongue)

Lavandula intermedia 'Alba' (white flowered French lavender)

I'd also love to get some of the gorgeous roses from David Austin Roses. In particular, I'm looking for some white or light pink climbing roses for two areas around our house. I love these!

Iceberg climbing rose

Generous gardener climbing

Things to do in 2010: Part 1

I am just starting to put some thought into what my New Year's resolutions should be, and already I've decided to have a list of things I want to accomplish in 2010 instead of general resolutions that I can't cross off a list.

First up on my list is to expand the number and variety of things that I cook at home. I came up with a list of 10 things that I want to make an effort to include in my regular meal plan, or at least try once to see if I hate it. I'm a bit embarassed to admit that I've never tried things like beets, parsnips or rutabagas!

1. Parsnips. I see these and other root vegetables listed over and over in recipes, but for some reason these things never make it into my cart at the grocery store. I saw this recipe for roasted parsnips in the latest issue of Sunset magazine, and I decided there's no time like the present to start trying them.

Their other suggestions included mashing them with butter and milk like potatoes, mashing for a soup with crumbled bacon and thyme, shredding raw parsnips with apples and using in a creamy slaw with green onions and grapes, and frying thin slices in hot oil for parsnip chips. Sounds pretty good, huh?

2. Turnips. See #1 above. They just doesn't ever see the inside of my shopping cart. But this recipe for glazed baby turnips and carrots sounds easy enough that I'm willing to give them a go.

3. Rutabagas. Am I starting to sound like a broken record? Are you starting to wonder how I've managed to spend so much of my life living under a rock? But smashed rutabagas with ginger roasted-pears? Are you kidding me? Sign me up!

4. Beets. For some reason, beets have always made me feel slightly uneasy. But this year I'll try 'em. At least once. We'll start with some beets and caramelized onions with feta.

5. Chinese cabbage. Just recently I bought regular cabbage and made two varieties of slaw. I can't remember the last time I bought cabbage before that. I'd like to expand into some of the other cabbages out there, and the Chinese cabbage looked like a good place to start. So I think I'll order some seeds for tenderheart Chinese cabbage and see how it goes.

6. Quinoa. I've heard so much about how good and healthy quinoa is, but have yet to try it. This recipe from Gourmet for quinoa with mango and curried yogurt sounds good.

7. Bison. I've had a bite or two of the husband's bison steak or meatloaf when we've been out to eat, but I haven't really tried making a meal out of it yet. I love beef, but I fear what it is doing to my cholesterol level. So I'm hoping I can get past the mental image and learn to like bison. Did you know that bison has just 1.8 g of fat and cholestrol verus beef's 18g? I'm ready to dig right into this NY strip steak from High Plains Bison!

8. Risotto. I tried making this once several years ago, and I really liked it. I'm going to make an effort this year to make it more often and try some of the bazillion variations out there. I absolutely love cornish game hens, sweet potatoes, and cranberries, so this recipe for cornish game hens with sweet potato risotto and cranberry sauce sounds perfect.

9. Fish (not salmon!). I try to cook salmon fairly often, but I generally avoid all circumstances that involve any other kind of fish. I'm too intimidated by the thought of preparing them (and the thought of eating most fish sort of makes me want to gag). But the husband really likes fish, and we have a lot of good fishing holes pretty close to us where we can get some darn nice trout.

The cookbook I got on our trip to Boulder, Utah, With a Measure of Grace, has a great-sounding recipe for cowboy skillet trout, which involves a molasses marinade and a cornmeal-pecan breading. Yeah, I think I'm gonna like having trout.

10. Bread (and biscuits and pastries). I love carbohydrates but I need to come up with a good way to control my intake of them. Allowing myself to eat only those carbs that I make seems like an easy way to do it. I want not only to learn how to make good bread, biscuits, and pastries, but also develop the patience to actually make them. My previous experience years ago with a bread making machine doesn't count. I'm talking about old-school style, kneading and rolling dough. I might start with the blue-ribbon black-powder buttermilk biscuits from With a Measure of Grace. We had them at the restaurant and they are a-mazing. And with pictures and recipes like this one for spinach feta bread, I'll probably spend a lot of time on The Knead for Bread.

What about you? Do you have any new foods that you want to try? Better yet, do you have any recipe suggestions for any of the foods on my list?

A new year

We leave today to drive to NM for a few days at my parents' house. Sadie's already singing that tune about going over the hills and through the woods, to grammy's house we go! She's looking forward to beating up her sister, Lucy.

Do any of you have any resolutions for the new year? I like this idea to come up with a list of specific things to accomplish, rather than just general resolutions.

I had planned to work on my list this week, but the death of my beloved horse, Mac, on Tuesday has really taken the wind out of my sails. I had him for 23 of his 29 years. He was my old show horse, and we had a heck of a time together when I was a youth. My parents said he'd seemed a little sick since the weekend. On Monday I googled his registered name, Bar Silver Too, just out of curiousity to see if any of his old show records were available. In a hint of things to come, I found that his breed registery already considered him deceased.

I had hoped that he'd hang on until I got home today so I could see him one last time, but on Tuesday afternoon my dad called and said that he'd taken a turn for the worse, and that it was time. He was always at the top of the pecking order, so he was buried at the highest point of the property, where he used to stand and watch over all the other horses. I'll miss his soft nose and warm brown eyes.

Locks of love

I found today that one of the best ways to celebrate a birthday is by removing about 20 pounds of hair. It's quite refreshing (and a lot lighter!).

Before



After



I've been planning on cutting my hair for about a year, but I struggled to grow it as long as possible so that I could have a mighty long contribution for Locks of Love. I hope they find a good use for that rat's nest!

Change for the fun of it

The other day during one of my random internet wanderings I came across The Fun Theory, an initiative by Volkswagen to change the behavior of people for the better by making it fun to do. They have a great series of videos demonstrating their experiments on the website. I love the piano staircase. And it's true: more people will change for the better if you make it fun.

My 3/50 Project: April

The other day I mentioned the 3/50 Project. It's a great way to support small businesses in your local community.

Basically, each month you choose three local, independently owned businesses and spend $50 (in total) among them.

I'm totally on board with this idea, and I'll post here the details about what I buy each month.

I'll admit, though, that I didn't do such a good job in my first month. Rather than a 3/50 project, it ended up being more of a 2/150 project. But, um, you have to start somewhere, right?

I visited two local nurseries--Bookcliff Gardens and Mt. Garfield Greenhouse and Nursery--and bought plants. Lots of lovely, beautiful, colorful plants. I love plants. Some women buy shoes or clothes. Me? I buy plants. As often as possible.

I bought flowers for hanging baskets.

And I bought flowers for containers.

I love these guys. So simple, yet so cheery.

And I bought two of these perennial fellas to add to the small garden by the front porch of the house.

Oh, and I bought two flowering almond shrubs (the husband's favorite), but their blooms are fading and they look too rough for their photographic debut.

So, what are you buying as part of your own 3/50 Project?

3/50 Project

This is a great idea I found via Simple + Pretty.

It's the 3/50 project: Spend $50 per month (total) in three different independently owned stores in your local area. What a great way to help our small businesses in these crazy economic times.

Find out more at the 3/50 project website.


My first stop will probably be at Enstrom's, the makers of The World's Best Almond Toffee. (Hands down.) My second stop will probably be at one of the locally owned garden centers. Or, maybe I'll skip the toffee this month and visit three of our locally owned garden centers. Oh, how I love buying flowers...

Living hygge

My morning blog journey took me to a place called Picnics Under the Moon. It's a new blog, started by Christiana and Aimee from Ferm Living's Clever Spaces Blog. The blog is for daily posts about living hygge and discovering joy in the smallest moments. I love that idea! For those of you asking (like I did) what is hygge (pronounced hoo-ga), it is "a Danish word that goes to the heart of living well. Hygge is anything — and everything — that creates warmth, brings joy, or gives life meaning. In a word, hygge is coziness. In a few more words, it is a rainy day on the couch buried in blankets, laughter with friends, or a cup that fits perfectly in your hands. Personal yet universal, hygge can be found in the smallest of moments when we remember to look."

Hygge is definitely a concept I'm trying to achieve in my own life right now, so I'll be checking in on this blog frequently!

Mission: Organization

Remember how I mentioned that my words for 2009 are "embark" and "simplify"? Well, today begins my two-week odyssey, the end result of which will hopefully be a simplified and more organized life.

I love this photo I just saw from Ferm Living on Remodelista; it seems to sum up everything I hope to accomplish: clean, organized, simple, fresh.

Have a happy Monday!

Embark and simplify

One of the things I love about my "real" job as a medical/technical editor is that sometimes I get involved with a really complex project. I love doing research for my work (it's like a big puzzle to me) and following different paths to see where they go; and there's something about my brain that loves making connections between the varied things I find on those paths. For editing, this comes in handy because it allows me to notice subtle inconsistencies in a document and I can point this out to the authors. Sometimes it's an easy fix, and sometimes its the first pull on a thread that unravels the whole sweater. But I digress...

In my "i-wish-it-was-my-real" job, which now includes this fledgling blog, I also find myself following different paths on my walks through the blog world, taking every fork in the road and discovering some really fun things along the way. Things I'd probably never see or find otherwise. This morning I discovered (via the blog rich inner life) a concept that you choose just one word to inspire your whole year. That piqued my curiosity, so I followed the link to the list of words to consider for 2009. And there it was, er, there they were: my two words for 2009—embark and simplify.

I wanted to pick just one word to focus on, but these two words really sum up the year that I have in front of me. I chose simplify for obvious reasons. My daily life has been taken over by clutter, and my passion for doing things to the nth-degree (my friends don't call me "supersize" for nuthin') means that my life can sometimes get a little crazy. Part of my clutter problem is due to the fact that we've been in the process of a major remodel on our house for over a year now, and we currently have next to zero storage space. The kitchen is done and two bedrooms are partially done, but otherwise we live in a state of constant construction; we're doing the bulk of the work ourselves (my husband and I are pretty handy that way), so projects are done as we have time/money for them. Between a wedding last July, our work schedules, and having all of our resources poured into our new 30x50 workshop (and future barn), little has been left at the end of the day for the house. 2009 is going to change all of that.

And that's where my friend "embark" comes in.

This is the year where I will start on so many new things: finishing the house, starting on some landscaping, getting my letterpress studio really up and running, and perhaps some other big life events.

Last weekend we started a project to finish the built-in shelving units in my office/studio/guest room. It's still sitting in the middle of the living room now, but it will hopefully go into its new home tonight. Next week is going to be busy for me with "real" work, and after that my husband leaves for 2 weeks in Australia for work (dirty rat). I'm planning on spending the two weeks he's gone to start the work on these two little words, and I hope to keep up the momentum.

So, here is an overview of tasks for each of my words. I'm writing this here so the world is my witness. I hate failing (especially when people know what I'm up to), so this should be incentive to get all of this done in 2009. Gulp.

Simplify:
1. Organize my office/studio; a place for everything, and everything in its place
2. Organize my piles of magazines, clippings, and internet links; record here the things I want to keep, and get rid of everything else
3. Organize and clean out the workshop (half of which is currently filled with boxes of stuff that we can't unpack yet) and hold the mother of all yard sales this spring
4. Simplify the consumable objects in my life—I really don't need 12 different hand lotions or 9 kinds of salad dressing or lipstick in 15 colors (um, I never even wear lipstick)

Embark:
on the house:
1. Tile the floor in the two bedrooms
2. Suck it up and tear down the existing bathroom to expand it (i.e., embark upon possibly weeks without our one and only bathroom!)
3. Convert the garage to our master suite
4. Landscape the backyard and two side yards
5. Fence our property so I can (finally) move my horse up here
6. Tile the rest of the house
7. Paint
8. Take care of all the other details that need to be done

on my studio:
1. Create at least 6 new notecards and 3 new sets of wedding stationery
2. Keep this blog going with a goal of at least 4 posts a week (probably a lofty goal considering the house projects, but I will try my best!)

on my life:
1. Wear dresses and jewelry more (I saw this on another blogger's list of resolutions and liked it. My husband will love it)
2. Take more time to see the sights around me via hiking/camping/biking/rafting with my husband

And now I shall begin.