Happy 2012! And New Year Resolutions for 2012!

Happy 2012! I am hopeful that this will be a good year! We went to a very nice party to ring in the New Year last night! Thank you Marc and Staci for opening up your home and Happy Birthday Staci! Her husband is so cute, he prepared champagne flutes with raspberries in them and a strawberry garnish on the side for all of us to toast at midnight and to sing Happy Birthday to Staci! I love it when the guys get into the accessories of the evening. Plus their home was so beautiful... it has inspired me to add a couple of things to my to do list for 2012!

I'd like to share my new wreath for New Years. I was shopping in Target in November and saw this multi colored foil wreath there. They had solid colors in red, green, silver and blue. And then they had this multi colored fun one. I thought it screamed Happy New Year! So I bought it and glue gunned some left over party goods from a previous New Years. I found some plastic bulbs at target that were in all of the right multi colors and attached them with a pipe cleaner. Something festive for the front door as we transition into another year. Blessings to everyone and may you have good health and happiness in 2012.

This is also a good opportunity to write down my New Year Resolutions and reflect on the ones from last year.

1. Clean out the clutter from the closets. Accomplished. I did this last year. I just need to finish the closet in the guest room. This year I will organize my craft room and the few drawers that I did not finish in 2011.
2. Put Jack's room together. I had wainscoting added to his new room and painted it. This year I need to purchase his furniture (headboard, desk and bookcase) and move him into this room.
3. Read books for Book Club before the meeting. Yeah! I did this! I joined the Reading Challenge 2011 that was on Goodreads.com and not only read the eleven books from the Book Club but and additional four books! This year I would like to read twenty books.
4. Layouts. I wanted to do a layout a week. I did not do this. In fact, I fell far short. I finished one layout for my sons Boy Scout Album and one layout as a Christmas gift (previous blog entry), and an album that I gave as a gift. I made all of the graduation cards this year and hand made all of the gift tags that I used on the Christmas Gifts. But that was it. This year I would like to get more layouts done. Possibly finish and album altogether - such as my sons Boy Scout one.
5. Blog more. Huh! This did not happen either. I will make more of an effort here, even if I blog about cleaning! Or maybe write about some of the great books I have discovered lately. I write reviews for each of them on my Goodreads page, but that does not translate to this blog.
6. Travel. I took my daughter on a Mom and daughter trip to Huntington Beach for three days. Just the two of us. This was a first for me. I never traveled without David. Lauren and I had a great time. We stayed at a hotel that had a bridge over to the beach. We hung out there one day. We walked to the Farmers Market they have on Tuesday nights. We saw the biggest Great Dane I have ever seen! It was a horse Dane! I would like to travel a bit further this year some place.
7. Purge stuff I do not use. I was able to purge so much out of my closet over the summer. I had bags and bags of clothes. I cleaned out Jack's closet and gave bags of clothes and books he has outgrown to his tutor. Fun to see Jacks clothes on her son at the Christmas Program and on their Santa visit. "I recognize that shirt!" Plus I cleaned out Lauren's closet and got rid of a bunch of her old stuff too. And the linen closet got a purging. This year I need to purge my MAGAZINES! And I'd like to clean out my craft room. I would like to say that I hung all of my tablecloths on the thick hangers that linen rental companies use and have them in the coat closet. This is very helpful in finding the linens to put the table together. Plus they do not wrinkle. I also have the small garden flags hung on Jacks old kiddie hangers according to seasons. This was helpful too.
8. Curtains in the Family Room. The curtains I added this year went into the breakfast nook. Did not realize how expensive custom curtains are. Could not break the bank for the Family Room ones this year. So new curtains in the Family Room will carry over into 2012. Plus I need to put curtains in Lauren's room. Jackson's I bought the fabric and will sew them myself this spring (hopefully).
9. Exercise. I did this! Yes, I started running in August every Saturday and Sunday morning. I lost ten pounds doing this and can now fit into some clothes I was not able to before. :) I'd like to lose another ten and I will be happy.
10. Play a board game with the kids. Although my intentions were good, but once a week was not possible with their schedules. I did play Texas Hold Em' this past year with them, spoons, and we found a new game called 5 Second Rule which we have played alot this past month.
11. Get together with friends. Will keep this on my list to do again.
12. Bake more. Did not do this. Will try and do this in 2012.
13. Organize my garage. Did not do this either. Definitely needs to get done in 2012!
14. Love more. I made an effort to do this. I was able to hug and kiss my children more. Walk hand in hand with my husband when we go out, send a greeting to friends for no real reason other than to say I was thinking of them.
*15. I need to put the Gameroom together.
*16. Keep my eyes open for another career opportunity.

I added the last two. But upon reviewing my goals and resolutions, I am happy with the progress I made. I think writing them down on this blog helped! Even if no one else reads it - it helped me! Happy 2012!