I love the idea of a fresh new start at the beginning of every new year. I have been giving a lot of thought over the past few days about my New Years resolutions for this year. I do feel like they are pretty much the same every year. I always seem to need to lose weight. I stopped using that 4 letter word that begins with “d” a few years back and now I just say that this is the year that I am going to start taking better care of myself. And by that I mean…eat more fruits and veggies, drink more water, eat less junk food,and try to be more active. I don’t think I am an inactive person. But it seems that with age and a slowing metobolism just doing home remodeling and gardening is not enough. It’s time to start an intentional exercise plan! It’s not a bad idea anyway. Mabe I will meet more people if I get out of the house and start walking and riding my bike around the neighborhood.
I also hope to become better organized. I’ll start with one closet or drawer at a time and work my way through the house. The problem is that I have to change my bad habits or by the time I get all the way through the house I will have to start all over again! It all starts with one bad day when you just want to get the laundry off the bed. So instead of pairing your socks together you just grab all socks and shove them all into the drawer. Then the next day all you want is a pair of matching black socks and knowing that you just bought a package of six pairs of black socks a few weeks ago. But some had dots, some stripes ,some just plain, but do you think I could find 2 that matched?? NO! It’s because they were allowed to co-mingle in the drawer so the poke-a-dot sock ran off with the striped sock and the plain sock took a liking to the purple fuzzy sock! I’ll probably find them partying under my bed with the dust bunnies! Hey..thats my story and I am sticking to it! We don’t really know what goes on while we are sleeping!
I am anxious to get back to work on fixing up “Evergreen Cottage”. It seems like it has been months since I have worked on it. Theres still so much that needs to be done. I really need to try harder to finish one project before starting another one. I still have to go back to the 3 rooms that i have been working on and finish things before I can move on to anymore projects. I have 3 doors sitting in my garage that I have to finish sanding and repaint. Doors are NOT easy to refinish! I also have to replace outlet covers and little stuff like that. I am anxious to get to my kitchen. It is so ugly and unpleasant to be in. Could be the reason I have done very little cooking since moving here. I can’t afford to completely gut it and start over like I wish I could but I do have some ideas just for sprucing it up a bit. I have had to work in far worse kitchens. But hey I am half way there with my “Shabby Chic” decorating plan…I got the “Shabby” part down…just need to work on the CHIC a bit more.
I am also excited about doing more sewing and more photos of my dolls. I get inspired by so many things. I have a stack of fabrics with ideas swimming around in my head of the beautiful outfits that I would like to create. I hope to start selling more of my doll clothes too.
Well lets see…if I continue my list of plans for the new year you will quickly get bored and I will lose my faithful followers to my humble little blog. I do appreciate you all so much and hope that i won’t disapoint you this year. I will continue to share my world with you such as it is! You never know what you will find…pictures from a day out , a new outfit for my dolls, a lucky thrift store find,or a newly painted wall?! Seeing pictures is always fun so heres just a quick look back at some of the things that I have shared this past year.
January 2011 I shared pictures of this dress that I made for my Ellowynes. It was the 1st time I got back into my sewing room after Skips passing. I thought it would do me good to get back in there and sew again. Sewing brings me joy. Skip was a very big supporter of my sewing endevors.

Febuary 2011 I wrote about keeping a gratitude journal. Which by the way is something that I intend to do again this year and will try to keep it going for more that 6 mo. this time! I shared this picture of a hot air balloon drifting over my back yard.

March 2011 March marked the 1yr anniversary of my blog. That month I showed a look back at some of the highlights and important moments of that first year blogging. I also shared my laundry room makeover from my Georgia house. It wasn’t terribly exciting but it was a definate improvement over what it started out like.

April 2011 In April I shared pictures of my Georgia rose Garden.

May 2011 May was a very sad month for me. My precious kitty girl “Fuzzy B” died from kidney failure just 4 short months after losing Skip. I was feeling so very sad. I had her for about 15years.

June 2011 June is the month that Shawyn and I moved back here to Virginia and I jumped right in and started fixing up my little house.

July 2011 In July we were invited to spend a day in Cape Charles with Jennis family where we had a wonderful day!

August 2011 In August we had a hurricane come through the area…but nothing too serious for our neighborhood. I also shared pictures of my Shabby Blue bedroom makeover.

September 2011 The high light of that month had to be the pictures taken at the Neptune festival in Virginia Beach. The sand sculptures were awesome!

October 2011 Halloween is always fun! I showed you my “WEB SITE”.

November 2011 In November Shawyn and I went back to Georgia to spend Thanksgiving with Levi and Jenni. And we also visited Fort Monroe in Hampton and really enjoyed taking photographs there and learning some of our areas history.

December 2011 And of course December is all about decorating the house for christmas. And I gave it a name! “Evergreen Cottage”

Well thats enough looking back……….heres to hoping that we all have a GREAT New Year!