Awesome Of The Day

Have you heard of Instagram yet?  It's an awesome Iphone photo app that makes me feel like a photographer, which I most definitely am not.  Basically, you take pictures, choose one of their cool filters to use on the picture, put a caption, and post.  It is super easy and super fun.  There is a whole network of people on Instagram, sharing awesome moments of their lives through pretty pictures. Plus, it's free, so you can't beat it! Anyway, I'm relatively new to using it, so there is a ton of fun stuff I'm sure I'm not telling you, but you get the point. 

This past month, I've been participating in a January Photo a Day challenge. Each day there is a different theme or subject - open to your interpretation.  Once you post the photo, you tag it with #janphotoaday, and anyone who searches for that tag can check out your photo.  It has been pretty fun to do and I have really been made more aware of my surroundings and photo-worthy moments.  Here are some of my favorite shots so far....

Here is the rundown on what you are looking at:

• Day 4 - Letterbox - This is the mailbox wall at our apartment complex.  Needless to say, we live in a pretty big apartment complex.  I like the perspective on this one.
• Day 7 - Favorite - The caption on this one was "My favorite way to spend a Saturday. Crafting it up with a friend." This was a day spent making goodies for the bestie's baby shower. P.S. - the lavender rose scented bath salts came out smelling delicious! 
• Day 12 - Close-Up - This is a close-up shot of some tasty sopapillas we had with breakfast on our way to Austin. Yum! If you aren't sure what sopapillas are, you should definitely look into that!
  
• Day 21 - Reflection - This one is pretty self-explanatory, yet still awesome. It's me times infinity!

There is a February challenge that has already been posted, and I'm thinking I just might participate again.  I've had tons o' fun with this app, and if you get a chance, you should definitely check it out! 

20 Days Have Already Passed!?

The month of January is quickly flying by, and I haven't updated my blog at all! I am happy to say that 2 of the things on my list have (sort of) happened.  First off, I sent out some thank you notes to some wonderful ladies that helped me with planning the baby shower of my very best friend in the world. I have tons of notecards and stationary that I don't put to use nearly enough, so it was nice to choose some pretty cards to send out to friends.  Does anyone else have 10,000 address labels that they have received from various charities and organizations?  Places I have never even heard of send me address labels.  I'll never in a million years use them all before we move.  Anyway, here are the letters I sent out!

The second thing from the list that I have managed to do (sort of) is juicing.  I've only done it once, but that is exactly half of the amount that I did it all year in 2011, so I think I'm off to a solid start!  I managed to score a practically new juicer from a coworker for $20 last year and I've hardly even used it.  I'm working on changing that though! Now, I'm no juicing expert, obviously.  I have only done a bit of research online and I've seen the late-night infomercials just like everyone else.  I can say that even after once batch of juice, I was feeling pretty healthy.  Here is what I used...

What you see here is:

• 2 Carrots
• 1 Red Delicious Apple
• 1/2 Cucumber
• 2 Plums

This is what I got from all of that goodness:

Almost one and a half cups of foamy, fruity deliciousness.  I have to admit, the room temperature juice is a little off-putting.  Perhaps next time I will make sure to refrigerate everything before I juice it. The urge to juice was sudden, so I just ran over to the little store across the street to pick up the fruits & veggies. The cucumber in this mix was a bit overpowering, so I will probably omit that next time.  Overall, not too shabby.  I tried to convince Mr. Nerd to try it, but he was not having it.  At least he helped me clean the juicer afterward!

So, 22 days into the new year and I've already done 2 things on my list. Not too bad! I can say that the past 22 days have been pretty awesome, so it seems that I'm moving in the right direction!

2012 Goals

I hope everyone had a safe and Happy New Year!! We spent a quiet night at home and had some champagne at midnight. We had a traditional New Year's day dinner with some pork chops, coleslaw, and black eyed peas.  A friend joined us for dinner and she brought her 1 month old baby girl. She was so small and sweet! It was quite a change from our usual New Year's celebrations, but still very enjoyable. I had a chance to sit down and write out some of my goals for this year. These aren't big goals, but I think that the list will probably grow as the year progresses and one exciting "BIG GOAL" will probably surface at some point.  I'm all about baby steps.  So, without further ado, THE LIST.....

1. Learn to crochet
2. Write in my journal daily
3. Write more thank you notes and letters
4. Volunteer at least once per quarter
5. Read at least 4 books ( I used to read all of the time, but I just haven't been making time for it lately.)
6. Make a lasagna from scratch
7. Go to at least one concert (another thing I used to do quite often and haven't made time for)
8. Organize my closet and the linen closet (I'm dreading this one)
9. Juice at least once a week
10. Get a massage
11. Send someone flowers on their birthday (I love getting flowers, so I'm going to share the joy!)
12. Take some sort of class

There are a few more goals of a more personal nature, but I thought these would be fun to share and document here.  I'm really looking forward to this year and making it as awesome as possible. I hope that you are on your way to having an awesome year too! Happy 2012!