Photo a Day

day #8 sky

day #9 daily routine

day #10 childhood

day #11 where I sleep

day #12 close-up

day #13 in my bag

 

day #14 something I'm reading

Read a little more about what the heck this Photo a Day thing is anyway, right over here.

And by the way, I have finished reading The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton. It only took a couple of weeks, which may not be fast by anyone's standards but my own. But in my defense it was a pretty big book and I don't have a whole lot of free time. But boy when I did I devoured that thing. There is some disturbing content and it's not an altogether happy story, but quite amazing, fascinating, and true. So do what you will with that information.

#photoaday

So I have decided to participate in a little thing called the January Photo a Day Challenge. There is a list of topics and you take a photo every day to go with each topic. The list is as follows.

I picked up on this challenge a little late, so I started on Day 4.

letterbox

something I wore

makes me smile (full disclosure I took this photo the day before, but I didn't think I needed to take another one)

favorite

 

I will be back again next week with a roundup of this week's photos. Have instagram and want to join in the fun? Just start uploading your photos on the given day and tag it with #photoaday and #day(number). Not following me on instagram yet? My name is dropandanchor, so look me up and drop me a line!

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.

docked

Loving all of the retro-inspired accessories for new technology these days. Because everything doesn't really have to be shiny and silver (or gleaming white) and BORING. Good design is good design and these things work.

The clock dock for iPhone

 

 

The V-Luxe iPad dock for ease of video watching.

Christmas traditions

Being our first Christmas as married folk, the mister and I have been busy discussing holiday traditions we grew up with, talking about what we want to carry on for our little family and coming up with new traditions that are our very own.

First, let's just get this out of the way, but presents are to be opened up on Christmas Morning. Not Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day. Christmas Morning. I have fond memories of waking up at approximately 4am (sometimes probably even earlier), sneaking down the hallway into the living room to see all the presents under the tree. My siblings and I would try to locate all of our gifts under the tree (this became such a problem that my parents actually stopped putting names on the gifts, making for some awkward moments when they realized they had given you someone else's present to open), we would peek in our stockings and usually fall asleep on the living room floor before we would dare try to wake up the parents so we could open presents. Those are my memories of Christmas. Those are the memories I want my children to have. So. Christmas Morning.

The next one we decided on is Christmas breakfast. Today it was more of a noontime Christmas brunch, and that is fine by me. It was delicious.

But the most exciting Christmas tradition is the Christmas lights tour. The mister found a website that tracks crazy lights and displays, and put together a map for us to go out and track them down. And let me tell you, there were some beauties.

These people kind of blow my mind. The time, money, and imagination that go into these displays is like nothing I will ever have so visiting these houses is like going to another world. I love it. And it was the perfect way to end our Christmas day.

it's beginning to look a lot like...

 

New garland I made from pages of an old encyclopedia (they do have a use after all!). Gingerbread shakes, gingerbread lattes, cranberry bliss bars, oh my. Decorating the tree, undecorating the tree, bowl full of balls. The nutcracker gang. Foggy winter mornings. Sugar cookies in my beloved KitchenAid.

It's beginning to look a little bit like Christmas around here. Now if only I could put presents under the tree without the puppy eating them all.

greetings

I can't believe it's just a few weeks until Christmas and I haven't posted a single Christmas card! I'm still not really in the holiday mood, but I saw this card today and just loved it so I had to share. The owl and fox are pretty cute, but the mouse just slays me. Precious.

Letterpress from the always adorable hello!Lucky

let's get out of this country

I've been reminding myself that the mister and I promised we would take a real vacation for our anniversary. A delayed honeymoon if you will. And that anniversary is coming up quickly enough that it's time to do some serious prepping. For starters- figuring out exactly where we're going, doing the research, booking, and getting passports. I for one have sadly never been out of the country. No, scratch that. I went to Canada when I was somewhere around 10 years old. Just to the other side of Niagara Falls. I remember seeing black squirrels there. That's about it.

Anyway it's time for me to get a passport and take a good European vacation already. So I've been doing what any reasonable person would do. Looking for accessories for the passport I need for the vacation I hope to take in the near future.

I could go trendy:

Or cute: 

Or classic:

But I guess the important part is just that I GO.

hoop dreams

I don't even know what to say about what I'm about to show you. There is apparently so much talent out there that this one person can create something every single day for an entire year. And none of them suck. They are all perfectly composed using materials practically made for this purpose and oozing with charm and personality. 

Lucky Jackson has unfortunately stepped away from her Etsy shop in order to dedicate herself to the 365 day project, and thank goodness because if she could maintain them both at one time I might just throw up my hands and wonder why I even bother waking up in the morning if I can't be so inspired and productive.

I want to line a long hallway with these embroidered portraits. So Much Love.

pucker up!

Just a little something to make you smile today, spotted on A Cup of Jo.

Getting ready for our trip to the grocery store, doing some prep for Thanksgiving dinner! How are your plans coming along?