I'm so excited and yet so nervous.

I LOVE this more than I love most things in my life.
Seriously.

So I am kind of nervous to read this.
It's the fear of being disappointed I suppose.
Of course I am going to read it.
Of course.
I'm just going to wait for a little bit longer......

A fun list...

I really like this list from Mighty Girl........100 Skills Everyone Should Master.
I feel like I would really like to master these skills...all 100 of them.
The Life Lists she has going on are pretty rad as well.

The lazy ass way to hang a picture...

Recently I was hanging some pictures in my house. It was late and I was soooo tired. I was almost done, I had two pictures left to hang.
I measured the first one out & hung it & then I was REALLY tired and didn't want to measure the second one. I was sick of it!
This is when I had an Aha Moment (as Oprah would say). I had seen plumbers paint the back of plumbing parts and then put them to the wall. The paint would then be on the wall and the plumber would know where it needed to go. I decided to use the same idea for my picture....but I couldn't use paint, I wanted something that would come off the wall after I put the nail in.
I thought & thought and came up with peanut butter. I thought I was a real genius. The only problem? Our peanut butter was extra crunchy, not going to work.
I started looking through our pantry and realized Nutella would be perfect! I felt like a genius again.
Here's the Nutella...

Next I just painted the Nutella onto the claw thing on the back of the picture frame. I kind of globbed it on so that I was sure it would transfer onto the wall.

I then placed the picture on the wall where I wanted it to go. I wanted the bottom of each picture to be even with each other. Anyway, when I pulled the picture away from the wall you could see the Nutella marks in the perfect shape of the claw.

All I had to do was hammer the nail/hook thing exactly where I wanted it to hang relative to the claw.

The final product. It turned out perfectly!

The photo I took makes it look like it is a little off...but they were hung so the bottom of each picture was even and they were level. :)

I was thinking this may not work if the picture has a wire on the back, but I think other types of hooks and loops on the back of frames would work.

I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.

I have lost almost 300 games.

On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the game winning shot,

and I missed.

And I have failed over and over and over again in my life.

And that is precisely why I succeed.

~Michael Jordan

Forgiveness is the fragrance

that the violet sheds on the heel

that has crushed it.

~Mark Twain

Yep, another list...

Along with my New Year's Resolutions and my yearly Word, every year I make a list of fun little list of things that I would like to do. Sometimes this list contains items from my 'Things to do Before I Die' list and sometimes the items are so small that I wonder why I even write them down. It could be that I like to cross things of my lists, more likely it's because I don't want to forget.
Nonetheless, I thought it would be fun to share.
Here is 2010's list in no particular order.

1-Ride in a hot air balloon. (But only if I reach one of my private goals)
2-Have my grandparents over for dinner.
3-Start planning & saving for our 10 year wedding anniversary in 2011.
4-Go to the downtown Farmer's Market this summer.
5-Spend a day alone enjoying & photographing the International Peace Gardens.
6-Spend a day alone enjoying & photographing the Tulip Festival in the spring.
7-Spend a day alone enjoying & photographing fall foilage sometime in October.
8-Spend a day alone enjoying & photographing winter/snow.
9-Spend a day thift shopping.
10-Be sure to send all family & friends birthday cards and/or gifts ON TIME.
11-Read a lot of books. This year I read 50 exactly. This year I'll shoot for 25.
12-Own this Instax camera & include the pictures in my Project 365.
13-Decorate for Christmas. Maybe even get a tree!
14-Paint my piano.
15-Throw a great party for my hubby's 30th birthday.
16-Write a letter to a teacher who made a difference in my life.
17-Have a sleepover girl's night at my house with family.
18-Have a "craft night" with some of my girlfriends.
19-Teach the friend who's sewing machine I've had for months how to sew.

My Resolutions...

I am a pretty private person in general.
So to share my resolutions with the world is a little....well, embarrassing? I don't know what the word is, but I feel a little weird about it.
At the same time I feel like I should share because that will make me more accountable. The compromise I decided on is to share a couple of my resolutions, the ones I'm not super private about. :)
So, without any further ado, my
New Year's Resolutions for 2010
1-Smile at strangers more often. I feel like when I am out in public I wear my grouchy face a lot, even if I am not necessarily grouchy. I would like to be a little more conscious of others and get out of my own little bubble a bit more. A smile is all it takes I think.

2- Project 365. A photo a day for a year. Yikes! I think it will be fun and yet challenging. Here is a link to my blog that I will be posting the photos to approx. once per week. Here is a link with a bit more explanation as to what Project 365 really is.

My word for 2010 is Inspired.

We will open the book.
It's pages are blank.
We are going to put words on them ourselves.
The book is called Opportunity

and it's first chapter is

New Year's Day.
~Edith Lovejoy Pierce