here's where I say happy new year

I thought I could get away without writing this post, but somehow I can't escape the guilt. As a blogger it is my duty to round up the old year and welcome in the new. It's just something we do.

                                                                                Source: brentfosterphotography.com via Jeanne on Pinterest

So here's 2011 in a nutshell:

Moved into our first house

Got married

Got a puppy

Kept one of last year's resolutions and finally listed some knits on Etsy (and had 5 sales in the first month!)

That's really all that sticks out at the moment, but really that is quite a lot. Big, momentous, life changing, time consuming things. 2011 was a year to remember.

So what of 2012? 

I've got some things up my sleeve. 

 I'm so happy I finally kept my promise to launch my Etsy shop and it is my biggest goal this year to really take it seriously. I have been working on branding (business cards, packaging, banners for blog and Etsy shop) and researching everything from business licenses and trademarks to accounting programs and taxes. I'm setting goals and planning rewards for myself. It's kind of all I can think about these days. It's too easy for me to get discouraged and demotivated so I'm proud of myself just for getting this far and it's enough to propel me forward for now.

The second big goal for the year is travel. We promised ourselves we would take a vacation to Europe for our anniversary. A delayed honeymoon. My first time out of the country (except when I was something like 10 years old and my family went into Canada for a day on a big camping trip up the East Coast). The mister bought me a passport case for Christmas so it's almost official. I should probably get that passport. Maybe.

And there are always less exciting goals, like figuring out how on earth to keep the house clean on a regular basis and planning monthly date nights. Working on that whole work/life balance thing people always talk about.