In between

I often feel like the week between Christmas and New Year's is a strange week. We are still in Christmas mode, but also starting to really anticipate the clean slate that a new calendar brings. We want to hold on to the Christmas spirit, but are also starting to really look internally at ourselves and think about how we can grow and change. I have finished my 34 before 35 list and have decided that even though I still have a few days before my birthday(New Year's Baby here) I am starting now on a few things. There is nothing that says you can't start your New Year's resolution before the ball drops so I'm starting now. And if there is a rule that says that well too bad!!

Here is my list of 34 Things I want to do before I turn 35!
1. Knit 3 scarves. My grandma taught me to knit and while I still am working on getting it all together I will make at least 3 scarves this year. Might do more, but that is my goal.
2. Learn calligraphy. I also want to do more with my handwriting this year. I was always the girl experimenting with my handwriting. Always doodling and changing.
3. Learn more about book binding. I would love to do some different binding with mini books and stuff.
4. Have 100 sales in my Etsy shop. I've got 2 so far!
5. Have 75 followers on my blog. Working on some fun things for the blog this year.
6. Maintain 50 items in my Etsy shop. I have so many things I want to make and hopefully it will be hard to have 50 items in my shop all the time because hopefully things will be selling!
7. Do more sewing. I want to make doll clothes, clothes for Audrey and lots of stuff to put in the shop.
8. Read Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera I have had it forever and need to read it.
9. Create digital cards. Think the cards you get at Christmas. Great for birth announcements, birthday invitations, Graduation open houses, wedding save the dates and more.
10. Declutter. I am tired of all the junk we have. I have started with my scrapbook stuff and actually look forward to creating because I don't get caught up in the stuff.
11. Be proud of me. I have always had a hard time when someone tells me I create beautiful things and I'm talented. Need to learn to accept it.
12. Do more reading of creative/business books. I have a massive list of them to read.
13. Learn to design elements in Photoshop Elements. I really want to learn to make digital elements for digital cards and stuff.
14. Drink 3 bottles of water daily. Mostly to drink less pop each day. I am a huge pop drinker and need to cut back.
15. Do more with photo editing. One thing is I want to go back and do some things with my older pics and also there is so much more fun stuff I can do with pictures.
16. Have 10 custom orders. I would love to have more, but I really want to make more custom items for people. Be it banners, cards or scrapbooks, bring it on.
17. Really learn the ins and outs of PSE. There is so many things I could do that I just haven't taken the time to learn yet.
18. Procrastinate less. I have been working hard on this. I am horrible at procrastinating and then doing everything at the last minute.
19. Learn more about letterpress. I love the look and would love to learn a faux way to do it. Of course I'd love to own the letterpress by Quickutz, but that won't be happening soon.
20. Menu Plan. I HATE going to the store constantly to get stuff for dinner. I also would love to see us eat a little better and know that will help us with that as well.
21. Read 2 classics. I have a list I want to read and while I'd love to read more, I'm being realistic and thinking 2 might be all I get to this year.
22. Add photo editing to the business. This one may not happen until later in the year, but I want to figure out how to do this at some point.
23. Clean up my external hard drive. It is a mess. So many things on there that are horrible pictures and on there multiple times. Makes me dread having to look for anything on it.
24. Stay better caught up on pictures, editing and uploading. Upload to Shutterfly, Flickr and other spots. Also be better about backing up.
25. Do more with movie maker. I would love to create slideshows, etc.
26. Cross Stitch 3 projects. I have so many I want to do and also a few projects I need to finish.
27. Read 1 fun book a month. I love to read, just have a hard time making time for it. Hopefully this will force me to read more.
28. Scrapbook 4 layouts a month. I can't remember the last time I actually made a layout and want to get back to it.
29. Bake more. I love to bake and although my kitchen is TINY!! I want to bake more.
30. Send more cards. I really want to do more with giving friends birthday cards and just send cards in general. Imagine how much happier we all would be if in the midst of bills and junk there was a card just to let you know someone is thinking about you.
31. Make Dart a Dakota book. He is still struggling a lot with losing his sister and I think a book of his own might help. Another reason to get my hard drive cleaned up.
32. Participate more at Flickr, Etsy groups and Etsyprenuer.
33. Do "A Week in the Life" project. I have always wanted to do this inspired by Ali Edwards, just never taken the time. I may not do it when she does, but I will complete it.
34. Do more to encourage Handmade Items!! I don't care if it's jewelry or cards or what, I just really want to do more to encourage buying handmade.

Since my birthday is also New Year's these are also my resolutions. If you are making New Year's Resolutions, what are they? Are you a typical "Get Organized, Lose Weight" resolution maker or do you get a little more in depth? I would love to hear what your resolutions are.

I realize I never finished the Days of Christmas and while I had something else planned, I think I know what I want to do to finish them. I will get them posted later today or tomorrow.

On the 3rd Day of Christmas

I am worn out after not feeling well and class parties. Why in the world were we in school until today, I have no idea? I am looking forward to a few days off.

Still so much to do, but 3 things I am looking forward to at my moms.
1. The dining room table full of goodies that I get to help make. At least I'm hoping she still has some stuff that needs to be baked.

2. All the decorations. I love that my mom goes all out at Christmas. A tree in every room. All the touches I remember from my childhood. Can't wait!

3. Seeing my cousin Henry. He is 6 months old and I can't wait to snuggle him! And it will be nice to see his mommy and daddy, but they only come along to bring him. Hehe! They live in Texas so we don't get to see them often. Of course I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of my family as well.

On the 4th Day of Christmas

A boy stayed home from school sick and then shared it with his mommy. Why did I teach him to share?

Yes, I missed yesterday. Dart woke up in the morning with a sick tummy. He stayed home and was pretty much fine after about 10:00, but was glad he stayed home. About 5:30 last night I felt like I could have gone to bed and slept until morning. I ended up going to bed about 9:30, which for me is EARLY!! I still felt bad this morning, but pushed through it. I'm still not 100%, but have no choice but to keep going. Still a lot to do before we leave tomorrow and before Christmas.

4 Traditions we have:
1. Opening 1 gift on Christmas Eve before Church. Each "kid" gets to choose one gift to open. We usually try to make sure the gift they pick is something other than clothes.

2. Giving 3 Gifts. When I was the only grandkid they went a bit crazy and bought a ton of gifts. Well when they were finding gifts in February that were never opened or missed on Christmas they decided something needed to change. So my grandma talked to friends and several of them mentioned giving 3 gifts, just as Jesus had received 3 gifts. My mom usually goes with clothes, books and game or movie, and toy. Now that doesn't mean there is one piece of clothing inside. Audrey usually has a HUGE box full of clothes. I'll admit when I was younger I hated this. All my friends got lots of gifts. Now I look back and realize I always got the things I wanted most. It really makes my kids stop and think about what it is they REALLY want.

3. Opening 1 gift at a time. We don't all get to go crazy and open all our gifts right away. We start with the youngest and they pick one and we go from there to the oldest and start back over. This way we all get to see what everyone opens and it makes it all last a lot longer. It usually takes us about 3 hours to open gifts.

4. Christmas Eve Dinner at my mom's. It's nothing fancy, just lots of finger foods and hanging out. And usually we try a new "adult" drink, but we also have our favorite Pomegranate Martini.

On the 5th Day of Christmas

So I had something else I was going to do today, but then my mom told me about something that happened to her today and I decided to go in a different direction. Will most likely do my original plan tomorrow instead. Oh and I'll share the story about my mom after my list.

5 little things you can do that will make a huge impact. The Christmas season tends to bring out the best in people. We seem to smile at strangers a little more(despite the stress we all feel). If nothing else it reminds us to be nicer to people.

1. Drop some change in the Salvation Army buckets. Especially if you have kids with you. Hand them a few pennies and let them drop it in. Explain to them why they are doing it.

2. Take some of those cookies you baked and drop them by the local fire station.

3. Spend some time at a Nursing Home. There are lots of older people who get very little visitors.

4. Thank someone who does a job you can't imagine doing. Trash man, fast food worker(I'm sure they get lots of grumpy customers this time of year), Police Man, etc.

5. Smile at a stranger. You never know what a simple smile, something that takes no money, very little time or effort can do for a person.

In January my brother is going to have open heart surgery. He is a 17 year amazing athlete who loves to run almost as much as he loves anything in his life. He found out during cross country this year that he only has one coronary artery. He was passing out in races, which he has never done before. They ran several tests and discovered the lone artery. That was not what was causing him to pass out though, lack of salt and fluids were the cause of that, but because of that they discovered this other problem. He has done a few stress tests and the results baffle the doctors. Last stress test he did the only reason they stopped him was because the EKG machine ran out of paper(24 minutes after he started running). No damage to the heart. The doctor as of now is not allowing him to do any kind of exercise, they are hoping that the surgery will allow him to return to running, maybe not competitively, but at least let him run.  He will be having surgery in Michigan(they live in the Kansas City, MO area). He will be at the University of Michigan hospital because the doctor there is not only a pediatric heart specialist, but also a coronary artery specialist. My mom will work her last day at school tomorrow until the middle of January. She told me tonight that the youth group at their church made up 2 baskets one for my brother and one for my mom and step dad. They were full of magazines, candy bars, card games and more, just stuff for them to do at the hospital. However, that is not what changed my mind. My mom is a special ed teacher and this morning she had a special ed "breakfast" meeting. During the meeting at some point they presented my mom with a gift. A gift of over $700 they collected to help with expenses. My mom who is not a crier at least not like I am said she couldn't even talk about it without breaking down and crying. It was a nice reminder of what this time of year is all about.

On the 6th Day of Christmas

My favorite Christmas books:

1. The Polar Express-Love the book as much as the movie.

2. There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell!-Audrey loves the Old Lady Books. I love that they have them for the various holidays.

3. Who Will Guide My Sleigh Tonight?-Such a cute book.

4. Who Will Help Santa This Year?-Audrey cracks up at this book.

5. If You Take a Mouse to the Movies-We have all of the books in this series and this is one of my favorites.

6. The Night Before Christmas-This isn't the version we have, but I figure the cover is the only difference. We always read this one after Midnight Mass before the kids go to bed. Audrey asked about it as soon as we were pulling the books out.

Any others that we should add to our collection? We have a ton, these are just our favorites.

On the 7th Day of Christmas

7 things I did today:

1. Slept in! Was so nice. Especially when I woke up and realized next Saturday there is no way I will get to sleep in.

2. Worked on teacher gifts. Still have a ways to go.

3. Made dough for candy cane cookies. I love candy cane cookies and can't wait to make them myself.

4. Watched "A Very Monkey Christmas", "Bah Hum Duck", and now "Christmas Vacation".

5. Made snickerdoodles and Peanut Butter Kiss cookies.

6. Watched Mizzou basketball put up some 116 points. Great win.

7. STAYED HOME!! Never left the house today.

8th Day of Christmas

8 Yummy foods I can't wait to eat.

First up some sweet stuff:
1. Sugar cookies. The kids and I are going to make sugar cookies this weekend. I have 3 different recipes to try since I'm still searching for that perfect sugar cookie. Do you have a tried and true sugar cookie recipe? Why is it so hard to find a GREAT one.

2. Fudge. My mom makes yummy fudge.

3. Candy cane cookies. Another yummy one the kids and I are making this weekend. One of my favorite cookies at Christmas.

4. Divinity. I'm hoping the weather will be good so I can have this at my mom's. I'm not even going to attempt to make this fical candy.

Now for the other foods.
5. Spinach Dip. Not something we have all the time. Usually Thanksgiving and Christmas. So good I usually end up filling up on it and have no room for anything else.

6. Mushroom balls. I have no clue what they are really called, but we always have them on Christmas Eve and I'm looking forward to chowing down on them.

7. Breakfast Casserole. Okay so this one we have on Christmas morning, but it's still counting because I look forward to this every year. We make it the night before so all we have to do Christmas morning is pop it in the oven while we open gifts. So good and this is the only time of year we have it.

Last but not least, and not a food:
8. Pomegranate Martini's. We always have these on Christmas Eve before Midnight Mass(Hey we are Catholic). So good and you don't taste the alcohol, which might be not so good. No wonder we are always the group singing the loudest and so happy at church. Honestly though we love the priest at my mom's church and would enjoy Midnight Mass even without these.

What are some foods you enjoy? Do you only have them this time of year?