January 1, 2014

My year in review.

Happy New Year everyone! I've been quiet on the blog. I've been visiting/staying in Butler since mid November! It's great to spend time back home with Dustin and friends. At the same time, it feels like I've been on constant vacation. This can be good and bad at the same time. Ha! I'm ready for consistency and my own bed. Not to mention, my husband! He was here for a week during Christmas, but had to return home for work. I miss him so much!



So yesterday, I realized I hadn't done any thinking about my "year in review". Something I really love to do! This last year has been so different for me, I was curious about it. It was my first full year away from my home town. It was one of the most relaxing and stress free year I have ever had! Seriously! Nothing is the same living in Virginia. We don't have the huge network of friends and family that keep us busy. So Travis and I got to spend a ton of time together. It was wonderful! I also discovered reading. I always thought I hated to read, when in fact I don't think I had time to give it a chance.

So after looking through my facebook, instigram and flickr I came up with a list of awesome things that I got to experience in the last year. In no particular order:

~ Dyed my hair one bright color! (Bucket list accomplishment) In fact, my hair had been pink, purple, blond, blue and teal all this year.
~ Went to the Dominican Republic for the second time.
~ Read 29 books! This is CRAZY compared to my normal 1-2 books a year.
~ Bikes!!!
   -Rode my first Metric Century in Frederick, MD
   -Rode from Carolina Beach to Wilmington, NC and back.
   -Rode from Ocean City, MD to Rehoboth Beach, DE
   -Rode from Pittsburgh, PA to Washington DC (then to home in Alexandria, VA)
   -Rode a total of 1,777 miles (according to what I actually rode on Map My Ride)
~ Did my first craft fairs in DC & Virginia
~ Joined a CSA and experienced SO MANY new veggies
~ Painted several new paintings
   -Commission for Valerie
   -"Neigh Kids" portrait for my mom
   -Commission for Crystal
   -Fireflies (Commission for Jill & Michael)
   -Axis of Evil
   -Your Kiss Is On My List
   -Teef
   -Just Try
   -Morning Problems
~ Discovered my love for Urban Sketching
~ Saw The Last Unicorn on the big screen and met Peter S. Beagle the author

I'm sure I will think of a million more things later. . . but this is enough to realize how blessed my life has been.
I'm so excited about what the next year holds.  Now...time to formulate my 2014 goal list!