Fresh Starts -- New Goals and Plans

I am both excited and apprehensive about the next few months.  As I've mentioned previously, we will be selling our house (hopefully) or leasing it (not the preferred option) and making a new home in the Phoenix area to be closer to our children and grands.  The Man had "use or lose" vacation time and has been off work since just before Thanksgiving keeping busy doing a myriad of things around here.  Besides all the bathroom fix-ups you can see HERE, he has done some serious cleaning in HIS garage.  He actually proudly announced to me the other day, that he was getting as organized as me.  Well, that's not likely, but I am glad he aspires to be more organized.  HIS garage was a MESS!

After being sick for several days, the challenge of getting all the Christmas things packed away has been just that, a challenge.  I felt better yesterday and managed to get everything out to the sunroom.  That's the staging area to get it packed into the crates and hauled out to the garden shed.  Once that's all done, all the tabletops (well, pretty much all flat surfaces) will get a good cleaning or polishing.  Then the fun can begin.    Okay, first I will have to reorganize my decor closet in the sunroom.  Yes, I just did that before the holidays, but it got seriously messy during the Christmas chaos.  I love looking at my supplies and collected items and planning out new tablescapes.  My plan for decor is to keep it simple and, hopefully, appealing to anyone who might be a potential buyer.  I have already gotten some great suggestions from some Blog Sisters and I truly appreciate any and all.

One of my ongoing projects in 2010 just got wrapped up yesterday.  I have been working on an album called Project Life which you can check out HERE.  This has been such a fun and memorable project that has made me look closely at each day and record a "happening" with a picture and a bit of journaling.  These pictures have been of some very mundane things like the dishwasher (aren't we all glad we have this workhorse?) & an organized laundry closet (go figure) to snaps of our children and grandchildren when we've been together.  This album is like a picture diary of this past year, and I get misty when I look at some of the photos.  This experience has also increased my confidence in taking pictures, but I still have a ways to go in that arena.  Becky Higgins  hasn't asked me to do this, but I find her to be a really sweet, generous and inspirational young woman.  These Project Life kits that she has created are just wonderful.   I purchased one for both my daughter and DIL for Christmas, and they are excited to get started recording everyday life.  I thought I'd share just a few pictures of my album.

The album is very sturdy and a fun color.

This is my dedication page which is to my family.

Everything you need except the photos & the journaling are included in these kits.  I thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful colors & the cute journaling cards.

This was my closing page.  Can't believe it's been a year.

I'm truly looking forward to this blogging adventure as we move into 2011.  I'm hoping it will help keep me grounded so as not to get too freakily weird over the house sale and all that.  I have lots of projects going on in my Play Room which you can see HERE.  Every day life must go on, right?

Are any of you into the "One Word" idea for the year?  I learned about this last year from Ali Edwards ,    but her first post about the idea can be found HERE.  I took the concept to heart & chose my one word carefully.  It was "passion" and I've tried to make it a part of my every day life this past year.  My word for 2011 is "patience" because I'm going to need a lot of that this year.

After a day-long break from writing this post, I can now say that all the Christmas decor is safely packed away.  Whew, so glad that's finished.  Will I be reminded of all the work of putting it away when decorating for the holidays of 2011 roll around?  Probably not.  Well, I might get reminded by The Man, but will I pay attention?  Doubtful, truly doubtful.  I did some polishing and cleaning of flat surfaces yesterday and will do more on Monday, but haven't started the process of bringing the normal decor pieces out.  My mind is abuzz with ideas and I keep jotting down notes.  I'm really looking forward to the fresh start.

Hope all of you are enjoying some fresh starts.  Thanks for stopping by and please come again soon.
CAS

I just knew you would want to see this!  She's actually just holding the spot on the shelf for the above mentioned album.  She is so helpful.