updating

Well, here we are, six days into 2011 and I've already slacked on the blog!

I spent the holidays "up north" and had a white Christmas. Quite a change of weather from 2010, when I was in Arizona. Actually, it wasn't as cold as I was afraid it would be -- the piles of snow even melted while I was up there! Brenda and I didn't even have COATS on when we went out for sushi on New Years Eve in the Chicago 'burbs. That was a-mazing. It sounds like I headed south just in time for the temperatures to plummet back down to their normal frigidness.

I got to kick off 2011 with my bestie in Illinois. We had martinis, sushi, martinis, a movie and greeted the New Year. It was calm and mellow -- the way we are hoping 2011 turns out to be. We packed a lot into our girls' weekend (Hooch the French mastiff and Baxter were the only boys allowed exclusive access): sushi, bubbly, Little Fockers, afternoon tea at the Drake Hotel downtown, movies, naps, baking, Panera, Lou Malnati's pizza and more. The only thing we didn't get to check off the list was going snowshoeing at the Morton Arboretum -- and that was only because there was no snow!

I'm now home -- the car is unpacked, the Christmas decorations are packed away once again, and I'm catching up on all the things I let slide while I was gone. I have a few packages to send out, a few Christmas cards (well, they are now late New Years greetings and going to become Valentine's Day greetings if I don't get moving!) to send out, cows to track down and resolutions to keep.

Kidding about the last one. Sort of! There is a Project Life scrapbooking project I would love to do, but not only are the packaged projects sold out on Amazon, but it's out of my budget right now.

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Life-Turquoise-Edition/dp/B0049MFPW8/ref=pd_sim_k_1
So instead of doing the pre-packaged Project Life, I'm creating my own. I found a do-it-yourself calendar with write-in dates, plenty of room for journaling and blank pages to add photographs and embellishments. It fits in nicely with my desire to take more photographs this year. I'm planning on heading out for a hike this afternoon with Baxter and the Nikon to see what we can find. The sun is shining and the weatherman promised it would get up to 55 degrees today!