new year; new day.

So, it's 2011. Huzzah! I must say that it is starting off very well. Having a job helps. A lot. I feel like 2011 is a completely new me. I'm rearranging absolutely everything in my life to make it fit this new schedule. Which is crazy considering I have worked since I was 16 and only recently had a bout of unemployment... but it really, really changed my lifestyle in that time. So I am getting back to it.... it is taking lots of coffee and some very sleepy mornings, but I'm doing it. I must say though it is a bit stressing. As you can probably tell I haven't had much time for blogging... just trying to keep the house in order on top of working full-time is daunting. I have absolutely now idea how mothers do this with children. I mean, really. Is that even possible? (Also, mom you are my hero.)  But I am not complaining. I am very happy with my life right now. I like my job very much so far. I hope that it continues to please me so much. I have the best friends and family. And we finally feel like we are not so stuck. Even though we are not going to get rich anytime soon, it's nice that we are both working again and feel better about doing things and progressing with other lifestyle decisions. Being stuck is no fun.

And so, this New Years Eve really seemed different. So many changes happening right in that moment. It was very exciting and we were happy to celebrate with so many of our close friends. My favorite photo from the night-- a pretty one of the girls -- sequins, champagne and countdowns.

I tried to find photos of all of our friends that we celebrated with that night. Was unsuccessful, but alas here are a few faces-

And now we are finally settling into this new year. Not very quickly, but we are. I think it's going to be a great one.

Do you remember my little list project of 2010? I wanted to both touch base with my initial happy list for the year as well as the lists that I kept up with throughout. First things first.


2010 happy list:

01. go to at least two concerts. (& then some more)

02. spend an entire day at the beach. (made it a whole 2 weeks)

03. take a spur of the moment road trip. with nowhere in mind. pull over & a cheap hotel & drink some cheap beer with good friends. (no spur of the moment, but we had one hell of an awesome road trip to SD!)

04. go camping in the middle of nowhere. (two times, or three)

05. go snowboarding.

06. fly a kite.

07. start a book club. (shooting for this winter yet)

08. play bingo.

09. grow tomatoes in my backyard. (-)

10. write something {a story, a poem, a novel, anything}. (I am checking this off, but continuing into 2011 with this goal.. didn't write as much as I would like)

11. photograph a national monument.

12. bake a pie from scratch. (sadly no, but I did bake a lot of other things from scratch!)

13. watch my baby sister graduate high school.

14. watch my wee baby sister play the spoon in her beauty & the beast school play.
15. visit wilmington, nc or portland, or.
16. build a fort & sleep in it. (-)
17. get a tattoo. (-)

I am very happy with the progress of my happy list in 2010. Especially since I was not working and we were on a limited budget, we managed to make it a pretty awesome year. I will be making another list for 2011. Because it does make me happy. I'm not one for resolutions really, but I think that a must-do happy list counts. It's important to be happy. And it's easy to forget the little things. Oh, and I like to make lists for things.

As you may have noticed, I only made it halfway on my weekly random lists last year. So, rather than rushing to finishing them or stopping altogether, I'm going to continue with them through 2011 and finish at the end of this year. I think it might be better this way anything since so many things are changing. Stay tuned.

I hope that 2011 brings wonderful things and happiness to us all. I don't think I can go wrong since I walked into 2011 sporting a gold sequin jacket... that has to mean something really rad, right? (Apologies for really weird and random photo- was actually checking to see if my lipstick was okay via Stacey's camera, but my jacket is the real star.)

xo's
Chelsea