Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone!  I hope everyone had an amazing day. I spent mine with my family. We had a late Christmas this year, and decided to spend the holidays combined into one big party. I cooked for 2 days and we had an amazing abundant Christmas.  The best part of celebrating Christmas on New Year's is taking advantage of the post-holiday sales!

One of my favorite memories from the weekend's festivities happened on Saturday. My daughter and granddaughter spent the weekend with us. I made Christmas shaped pancakes for my granddaughter on Saturday morning and later in the day we made cookies together. She is such a joy and I can't express how amazing a feeling it is to be able to watch my granddaughter grow and change. Above you can see a collage of images of her many different faces from 2011.  Several of those were taken New Years Eve...she is a blessing.

What have I learned from 2011

The end of the year has brought most of the chaos to a screeching halt and I am left to pick up and sort the pieces.  I am looking forward to less hours at Michael's. The one thing I have learned from the chaos of working two jobs (1 full-time and 1 almost full-time) is that there have been many hours I have wasted in the past.  Take nothing for granted, especially time...once that hour is passed you can never, and I mean NEVER, get it back.

Backup your hard drives!  I lost two hard drives and hundreds of photos that I can never get back. Keep your photos saved online somewhere as well as to CD/DVD. Once your drive dies...you will be very lucky if you can get any data recovered from it - if you are that lucky it will probably cost you a very shiny penny or two....  Don't wait to get your favorite photos printed either.  You never know when you will have a moment to put together a scrap book page.  When the moment arises, be ready!

Plan ahead....from finances to card making - its always better to be ahead of the game rather than behind. Buy your Christmas gifts all through the year - then have a less stressful Christmas - especially if your working two jobs and you have no time to shop - you can have all done before the season hits!

What to expect in 2012

I made the decision to keep my part-time job Michael's and I have resolved to continue my card making and scrap booking throughout 2012. With that in mind I have a few goals for 2012.

1. I want to stay more organized throughout 2012 - to do so I plan to purchase some sort of organizational product each month.  With my employee discount and the amazing sales that Michael's always has on their organizational products, I believe I will be able to outfit my crafting area and stay better organized. I spent Saturday organizing my crafting area...I want to keep it that way throughout the year.

2. I want to create a minimum of one scrap book page a month. With a growing granddaughter it can't be that tough to do.  I have a year and a half's worth of photos to start with...and my photo pile is growing by leaps and bounds!

3. I have decided that I need to start months in advance on my Christmas cards...making 53 cards at the last minute is NOT as fun as it could have been.

4. I have also resolved to do better with Birthday cards for 2012.  I have a few cards made already for January and only 1 or 2 left to go. I want to have my cards for the next month planned out by the 15th of that current month and spend the last 15 or so days of the current month putting them together.  I have about a zillion calendars and have elected to use one specifically for Birthdays.  I plan to post photos of my already sent cards at the end of the month they are sent in... that post will occur on the last Friday of each Month and will include a product supply list.

5. For my blog, I resolve to post at least once a week (boy am I behind!)....I have lots of ideas for weekly blog posts but as any blogger knows, when your new at blogging you have to work at it to keep it up....  Baby steps.....one post at a time. It's way too easy to let life zoom by. The last 3 months went so fast I couldn't keep up - it left me extremely frazzled and I know I have probably burned some bridges that I wish I hadn't due to having way too many "iron's in the fire" so to speak. My apologies to any "bridges" I may have torched during my chaotic mess of a life.


What have you got planned for your 2012?