Someday I think I’d fancy a white kitchen with red accents…. 

It has been a wonderful 12 Days of Christmas. We were able to take enough days off of work to give us this 12-day break, and it’s been chock full of adventures worth recording here for posterity’s sake! Although the first day off was a little rocky (I ended up having to work, even though I was out of office on PTO), but once we got on the road and made it to Indiana things cleared up. There’s not much that being welcomed with a glass of champagne and a big hug can’t fix. We enjoyed dinner and a pre-Christmas gift exchange with the in-laws — good food, good times and lots of great presents!  Including but not limited to: And that was just the…

Is it bad that my resolutions haven’t changed from last year’s? Everything I was thinking and feeling at this time last year still applies… with 365 days worth of experience tacked on for proof. So, along with yet another new blog design, I’m posting my resolutions for 2012, as well as last year’s Proviso for a New Year’s Revolution. Although the general concepts are the same, I’ve added updates that apply since I first made these resolutions for 2011! Paint more regularly (it’s been rather sporadic since 2008)–and complete the paintings I start.2012 update: I took a few classes at the Palette & Chisel studio in 2011, and plan on doing a few more this year — being in the right environment has a lot…

This is a song called “Snow” by my favorite band, Sleeping at Last. It is from their “December” EP which was part of a year-long collection of EPs (one for each month of the year, containing 3 songs each) called “Yearbook“. The video below is a compilation of shots sent in by fans… Here are the beautiful lyrics… My favorites lines are in bold and these words are floating through my thoughts tonight, on this last day of 2011:The branches have tradedTheir leaves for white sleevesAll warm blooded creatures make ghosts as they breatheScarves are wrapped tightly like gifts under trees Christmas lights tangle in knots annuallyAll families huddle closelyBetting warmth against the coldAll the bruises seem to surfaceLike mud beneath the snow So we…

I wrote this post earlier this month (as you might guess from the title, right around the Daylight Savings Time change) but, for whatever reason, didn’t post it. The feelings still apply, though, so I’m posting it now! Just some thoughts on the passage of time…. I can’t believe how quickly this year has flown by. 2011 is waning fast and there’s so much I have yet to accomplish! I’ve given myself plenty of excuses for not being as productive as I would like…. starting a new job with crazy hours being the most prominent on the list. Nonetheless, I feel like someone’s been winding the clock forward since March, like Daylight Savings Time decided to skip ahead several months rather than just an hour….