One of my goals should be posting my goals as close to the first of the month as possible.

Below is a recap of my December goals. I tried to bite off more than I could chew. Lesson learned. I underestimated how busy the holiday season can be!

December 2011 Goals 

1. Finish reading the two books on my nightstand and start a third.
   It may have been 9pm on December 31 but I finished my two books! The Girl Who Played with Fire and Breaking Dawn. This is a great goal – I brought my book to read during lunches and made it a point to read more before bed. 
   
2. Finish sewing the dress I started months ago. Pitiful! I worked on my dress once  in December. The sad thing is this dress won’t fit me when I finish it due to my growing belly and chest! 
3. Send holiday gifts by December 12. Partial win. I lost my friend’s gift, so I made and sent a new gift this week. 
4. Run 1x a week. This one was by far the easiest to keep!
5. Finish the bedroom makeover. Not quite complete, but got a lot of work done! 
6. Set up the new printer that’s been sitting in my office since August. Not sure why I keep putting this off, but I do. 
7. Practice guitar 3x a week. Pitiful! Of all my hobbies, this is the most neglected. 

Using the handmade owl ornament tutorial I blogged about during the holiday season, I made another hooter for my girlfriend ! I cut this owl much larger than the ornament I made for Christmas. This one features 8″ sides.

• $ Cost – Free! I used fabric scrap and buttons given to me by do-gooder Jim S.
• Time – 45 minutes
• Would I make it again? Yes. These little guys are fun and easy to make. It would be fun to experiment with more than one fabric scrap pattern and additional accessories.

I think it’s funny when people lie about how they met their partner, because they’re embarrassed to admit it was via an online dating site.

It’s not 1990! It’s normal and pretty cool that we have so many options to meet like-minded people.

My parents met in the early 1980′s through what I call the old-school version of online dating. It was a dating service in Tijuana, Mexico where people essentially had “profiles” – pictures with brief descriptions in a book. That’s how my dad chose my mom, and well, the rest is,as they say, history.

Today I read about Hitch.me on Mashable. Nothing wrong with the service, but I have an issue with the video.

It promotes being single as a “problem” and puts a ton of emphasis on college degrees and driving nice cars. Really? Those are the most valuable attributes of your future partner?

What do you think?

Beautiful sunset taken from Incline Village on the last night of 2011.

Like most of the country, we are experiencing an unseasonably dry winter.

And like most of the country, we are all complaining about it. I’ve never been one to wish for snow, but it is absolutely strange to find ourselves in the middle of January without a lick of natural white stuff around!

The weather is so beautiful, though, and perfect for afternoon runs and hikes.

The Child and I recently spent an afternoon with Granan (Manfriend’s mom) exploring Northstar California’s trail system. She happens to be the president of the Northstar Community Services District, so she’s a wealth of knowledge on the trail system and has great tips on how to find lesser-known trailheads!

There are 14.6 miles of trails surrounding the Northstar community!

Did you know that? I had no idea!

Check out the map and how to reach the trailheads in my latest blog for Snow.com.