Big Changes

Hi Friends! Hope your year is off to a good start. Ours certainly is!!

I haven't been posting much lately because there are other things that have occupied my attention (in a positive way). I just wanted you to know that I'm still around and that hopefully by next month I'll be ready to share some exciting news with all of you. I was planning to type more and post a few pics but I don't want to give anything away so stay tuned…Big changes are coming our way and we couldn't be happier!

New Year, New Look

With the new year comes new looks. I spent New Year's Day taking down the rest of the holiday decorations. That's the easy part. Putting back together my home is the challenge. Since I decorate every room for the holidays I basically pack up all our other decor and then pull it out a month later and try to rearrange the house so it doesn't look like how it did before the holidays. I'm also trying super hard not to spend so I didn't buy anything new except for two orange starfish. Everything else is something I already had or was given for Christmas. I started with the coffee table and the sofa table.  In the past, I had runners on both pieces mainly to protect the wood from sunlight and possible spills. This time I opted to go without the runners for awhile. I figured since we wouldn't be opening the curtains to much this time of year it would be okay to just expose the raw wood and enjoy the way the pieces look without any runners on them. The house is almost back to normal and so far I'm liking the results.

Out with the old, in with the new

A new year is about new beginnings and new dreams. It's a do over. A way to start fresh. To forget your regrets and set your new goals. So last minute on next year's eve I got the idea to make wish bottles. Bottles that would hold our 2014 dream/goal and also accept our 2013 accomplishments and regrets. I quickly put together 3 bottles. One for us "The Zarrelli's", one for my sister and her husband "The Condon's" and one for Tom's sister and her husband "The Henkels". We all got together to ring in the new year and in each bottle I included two of each of the following:

- My biggest regret in 2013 was_____. 

- My biggest accomplishment in 2013 was _______. 

- My 2014 dream/goal is ________.

I wrote our family names on the bottles and 2013 with a Sharpie Paint Pen. Someone asked when will we open these. I said whenever…next new year's…five year's from now…tomorrow. I also said I'll be keeping ours at a place in our house where we can look at it and remember what we got out of 2013, what we didn't and what we wanted for this coming year.

What's your 2014 dream/goal?