2011 Goals

Now that January has had a few days to settle in, I figure it’s time to look back at my goals for 2010, see how I did, and make some new ones for 2011.


2010 Goals

1. Re-organize the bookshelves

I kicked major home improvement booty on this goal, if I do say so myself – and I do! For well under twenty bucks, the bookshelves went from this look (it still makes me cringe!)

To this look.

I am a happy crafter!


2. De-clutter the counter top and the office/craft room

I only met this goal halfway. The counter tops still look like this.

They aren’t horrible, just not as styled and neat as I would like! The craft room, on the over hand, went through a major overhaul. This junky mess,

Became this lovely workspace!

Keeping it this neat is a struggle, but I do what I can.

3. Save like insane people for our future house.

Heck, yeah! We are still the crazy, “live on one income and save the other” people, but it has started to pay off. We have started to talk to some builders to get ballpark prices, and we just may be able to break ground before the end of 2011!

4. Have more people over.

This was kind of a fail. See this year’s goal list!

5. Learn to sew and complete a big project.

I thought my big project would be a sofa slipcover, but it turned out that this little dress tutorial sent my blog stats and follower numbers spinning.

Who would have thought? It knocks my socks off!

6. Make fancy cupcakes.

Done.

And done! Yum!
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Now, on to my goals for 2011

1. Redo our coffee table

I love our thrifted coffee table, but I think I’ll love it even more with new hardware and a dark stain on the whitish/blondish bottom

2. Be a better blogger

I’d like to set up a more consistent posting schedule. Take better pictures, and comment more on other blogs. All of this takes a lot of time, but I really want to try!

3. Top the Alice Dress

I’m not looking to create a sewing tutorial that tops this dress in blog hits, but I would love to make something that shows me that my sewing skills have grown more skillful and creative.

4. Have more people over

Last year I really wanted to deepen and expand our friendships, and that has happened through a table group at church and a monthly girl’s night with three friends from college. What hasn’t happened is an increase in hosting people in our home. I’d like to invite lots of friends over for dinner this year!
5. Do not bring anything into this house that won’t also find a home in our new house.

I have a feeling this is going to be super hard. I have a thrifting/dollar store/sale rack weakness.

Before I buy any new junk, I need to ask myself. Do I love this? Am I willing to go through the trouble of packing this up in a year or so? Can I visualize this in our new home? I’m going to try to stay strong!

I think that’s enough to keep me busy for one year! If you’ve listed your own goals/resolutions on your blog, please leave me the link in the comments! Hang in there! We’re all in this together (name that TV show!)

<3
Hattie

Falling for fall

It was in the 70’s today. The 70’s people! That is unheard of in Virginia this time of year! Anyway, the cooler temperatures got me thinking about fall and a few of the things I’d like to do/make/try to celebrate the season.

1. Go camping with some fabulous people

Brad bought a huge (as in larger than our bedroom) tent last year and is itching to try it out. This year we’re planning to stay near Crabtree Falls.

It’s only a 2 ½ mile hike to the top of this beauty and we’ve heard tell that Spy Rock and a swinging bridge are also nearby. I think I’m abnormally excited about the swinging bridge!

2. Go apple picking.

I wanted to do this last year, but it just didn’t happen. However, we plan to camp near several orchards, so I think apples are much more likely to be in my future this fall.

3. Make something super yummy with said apples

I’ve been drooling over this Apple, Cheddar & Thyme Galette from Fresh365 all summer. Must. Make. Apple & Cheese goodness!

4. Craft out of my comfort zone.

I’ve been avoiding the whole chalkboard paint craze – until I saw these awesome chalkboard rocks from pottery barn. It seems to me that these would be super easy to make and I can just see them with little leaves and acorns drawn on. Maybe even sweet quotes and little love notes!



5. Get my sew on part 1

It’s time to go crazy in my new sewing space! I think this gorgeous belt from sew for home

... is the perfect project to kick off fall. I love the wear things belted and I have a ton of vintage buckles that would be super fun to use.

6. Get my sew on part 2

My twin soul Tracy and I fell head over heels for this J. Crew wool skirt. The price tag, however? That we didn’t love. I’m going to attempt to recreate this with a few tweaks. For instance, Tracy and I are both school librarians with dress codes that require a little longer skirt.

So, those are my goals for fall fun! Anything you’re especially anxious to see here on the blog? What are your own fall plans?

<3
Hattie

New Year, New Goals

Happy New Year’s Eve! Today I am resolved to take down the Christmas decorations (even though traditions dictates this should not be done until New Year’s Day – what can I say? I’m such a rebel!) and reflect on some goals I’d like to accomplish in 2010. I’m not big on making resolutions, because keeping them hasn’t exactly worked out for me in the past, but I do like to stop every now and then and set some goals. So, in no particular order, here are a few of the things I’d like to accomplish in the coming year:

1. Re-organize the bookshelves. My very first blog post ever focused on reorganizing the shelves by grouping books by size. During the summer I added to this by making newspaper baskets to hold all our DVDs. But when I look at the shelves, they still bug me. They look more busy and cluttered than I’d like. So, one of the first things I’d like to do in the new year is tackle these shelves once again!

2. De-clutter the counter top and the office/craft room. I really have no idea how to accomplish the counter top clean up. I’ve already removed little used gadgets like the coffee grinder and can opener. Still, it feels like the counter top looks more like an appliance and jar police line up than a pleasant workspace. Any suggestions would be great! Just don’t ask me to store anything else in a cabinet, because it’s already more congested behind those doors than 95 on the day before Thanksgiving!

3. Save like insane people for our future house. I’d really like our dream house to be perched behind us in this picture. Unfortunately, while the low interest rates make it a great time to buy a house, they also make it a rough time to save money to build a house. Our “high interest” savings account has plummeted so much that pretty soon they will be making us pay them to hold our money. We really need wisdom in this area as we try to make the best financial decisions and have patience.

4. Have more people over. I really enjoy playing hostess. I like cooking, and setting the table, and fun game nights with friends, but we only had a couple of people over for dinner all of last year. To be perfectly honest, this is mostly because Brad and I have really struggled to find friends our age in our area. After college, most of our close friends scattered all over the state, and only a handful of people we know actually live within 30 minutes of our home. We would really like to meet other couples who think it is fun to discuss cabinet hardware and paint swatches, and enjoy competitive games of Apples to Apples, and would rather have dinner at someone’s home than go out on the town.

5. Learn to sew and complete a big project. I think my ultimate goal is to become a confidant seamstress and make a slipcover for our plaid sofa. I’ve had the slipcover tutorial from Pink and Polka Dot bookmarked for a year! Now that I have a machine, I hope to actually tackle this sucker.

6. Make fancy cupcakes. My mom gave me a Wilton kit for making filled cupcakes with swirly icing, so I’m hoping to make the ultimate cupcake.

Ok, that’s enough for now! I’m sure I’ll think of many more things to add to my list as the year goes on. How about you? Any big resolutions or goals for 2010? Do tell!

<3
Hattie

School's Out for the Summer - Well, Almost!

I feel like summer is almost here ( OK, so it's really five weeks until summer break, but it feels like summer is almost here) and that means it's time to make some plans for my 7 weeks off from teaching. Here are my goals, some fun, some home improving, some just silly.

1. Do something about the bathroom - The bathroom is my least favorite room in the house, thus the reason it has never been pictured on this blog. It is very small and has a lot of issues, some of which I have no control over, but I'm determined to do what I can to improve things. At the very least, I want to make a sink skirt (but not your granny's sink skirt) to hide all the plumbing and other ugly stuff.

2. Put my feet in the ocean -It's been over two years since I've been to a beach and that is far too long when VA Beach is less than three hours away.

3. Paint stuff - I may go overboard on this one. I tend to go nuts and feel that everything in the house would look so much better with a coat of white paint. We have two white dressers, a white TV stand, three white bookshelves, a white nightstand, a white accent table, white cabinets, white table and chairs, white iron bed, white desk, white china hutch, and white armoire. It would have taken much less time to list the thing in our house not painted white. Nether the less, I still want to paint the little cabinet in our kitchen, and the bench in the hall, and maybe a few more bookcases. My goal is to paint these a color other than white. Well, except for the bookcases, they would look so good in white. . .

4. Do very Richmond-y things, especially free and cheap Richmond-y things - Summer calls for picnics at Maymont, window shopping in Cary Town, movies at the Byrd, and at least one outdoor concert. I also want to try some new things like the ghost walk, check out the addition at the VA Museum, and finally use my free teacher membership at the Science Museum.

5. Blog more regularly and start a book - Maybe. I think I can handle the increase in blogging, but I think I'm probably doomed to fail on the book front. It would be nice to actually give the 'ol creative writing degree a little workout, but I know how lazy I am. We shall see.

6. Generally make good use of the time and money - this includes not sleeping half the day, actually accomplishing something each day, volunteering (Vacation Bible School here we come), saving money, getting more in shape/less pear-like/able to use more than the ten pound resistance band/actually use the resistance bands/not leave resistance bands in sloppy pile behind the bedroom door, and not spending money on exercise equipment that will end up in a sloppy pile behind the bedroom door.

OK, that seems like a pretty good list to start with. Summer here I come!

Do y'all have any plans, exciting or otherwise?

<3
Hattie