January - A Look Ahead

2010 - it’s time everyone to hang up a new calendar! And look at what I did! I created the graphic as part of a monthly series this year on my blog. Using Photoshop, I combined a few textures (thanks to Shadowhouse Creations), text, and some cool brush sets. I hope you will enjoy these visual treats throughout 2010.

And I want to happily announce that this is my 2-Year Blogging Anniversary! Can you believe it? It has been quite an adventure. I have grown in the process and made incredible friends. I have done pretty well in keeping it up, despite some time constraints and life detours along the way. It’s funny to see that I published 144 posts in each of the past two years, an average of 12 per month! Talk about consistency! Please come back to visit me again in a couple of days because I have plans for a special anniversary giveaway. Okay?

Now, what’s in store for this month? Not surprisingly, the top priority is our homebuilding project! We have been incredibly busy this past month, meeting with terrific subcontractors and making countless decisions, large and small, to create our new home. We have been dutifully checking off our ‘to-do” list for selecting plumbing fixtures, electrical fixtures, appliances, cabinets, countertops, tile, paint colors, and security/audio. Whew! And it has been great fun! Only a few more decisions are left to finalize.

This month will find us primarily monitoring the building process; answering any questions posed to us by Builder Mike; and dutifully writing out the checks to pay the bills. We can’t wait to see the structure rise up and take shape. Of course, I will be sharing many snapshots with you along the way! Ah, I won’t bore you exclusively with the project, and I'll make sure that I include some pretty travel photos too!

Hubby and I are, once again, immersing ourselves in learning Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop Elements 7. I feel a bit schizophrenic going back and forth between these two programs. I know how to do many things in Elements and haven’t learned how to do the same techniques on CS4. It’s a wee bit frustrating, LOL. To help us learn various techniques and tricks quicker, we are currently using a free one-month trial access of training videos on lynda.com, thanks to our purchase of CS4. The videos are a cruel reminder to me that I know virtually nothing about how to use these powerful digital imaging programs to their full advantage. I still feel low on the learning curve. Before our trial period is over, we may very well decide to upgrade to a paid account and continue with our studies. I know that I take pretty good technical photographs, but I want to learn how to make my images even more special!

Ah, so now you are probably fidgeting in your chair, wondering when I am going to talk about travel plans this year. Yeah, yeah. I haven’t forgotten! We’re pouring over travel brochures and web sites now! With the homebuilding project running through the end of May, we are not going to take any long trips in the first half of the year. We might take a small jaunt in early spring if the construction progress and Builder Mike do not need our attention. In the second half of the year, we plan to take a tour or two. We were looking at international travel options, but the recent security failures and imminent terrorism threats made those thoughts fly right out the window. So we’re setting our sights on U.S. trips. Where, you ask? We don’t know, but we’ll figure it out!

One of our long-term goals is to lose weight and get in better shape. Life has settled down for us a bit, and we’re heading back to the fitness center. Now if I can just quit putting food in my mouth…

To wrap it all up, we’re going to be hunkered down in general this month at our rental home. We will be overseeing the homebuilding project and engrossing ourselves in some personal learning and health improvements. And perhaps we will make some decisions for this year’s travel adventures. Sounds like a plan, huh?