Blog-olutions

Happy New Year!!

We're back from our fabulous whirlwind Christmas tour of Pennsylvania.  Our big trip meant lots of time with our wonderful family, lots of relaxation, and an even greater appreciation for home, sweet, home (we missed it after a week!)  The early parts of this week have brought lots and lots of projects, and it's starting to look like the former glory of this home may not be completely lost, and that we may even find it in the semi-near future!  Since returning to Ithaca, we've painted the bathroom ceiling, bought a washer and dryer (YAY), drywalled the new master bedroom closet, hung the trim on the closet & replaced the baseboard/crown in the room, built a work bench, and organized the basement.  I really can only claim credit for the painting and the purchasing...my hard-working hubby has done the rest.

Clearly I've got lots to show you in terms of renovations, but that's not the point of today's post.  I was thinking a bit about it being New Years and all, and considering those infamous New Years resolutions.  Don't worry, I'm not going to blab on about exercising or health food or anything.  I am thinking of New Years resolutions for my blogging.  Here's what I'd like to do with the blog in 2011:

1) More show, less tell.  I've heard from the grapevine that certain people (namely my lovable brother) actually boycot the text and only look at pictures.  For him, and for the rest of you, I'll try to take and post more pictures of our progress, rather than simply writing about it.  (P.S. Give me a pass on this entry...the increased viewing will begin next time I write a post!)

2) Forgetting perfection.  I'm a perfectionist (I know, HUGE shocker, especially to those of you who knew me in high school).  While I'm learning to let that go with a work-in-progress house, it definitely carries through on the blog.  I hesitate to post until I've come up with a creative title (my personal favorite here), taken nice pictures, completed a project, cleaned up, written a novel, etc, etc, etc.  I imagine that you'll all continue to read (and perhaps even enjoy it more) if I let go a bit and share things about the house and our progress a bit more organically.  At the end of the day, I didn't create the blog to impress you all, just to share with you because so many of those I love are far away from Ithaca!

3) Host a virtual open house. As a result of my perfectionist approach to sharing things online, as well as the limited number of hours in a day, I have yet posted a tour of the house. I'd like to work on sharing a before (and eventually after) room-by-room tour of our home. Maybe that can be a January-February resolution instead of a 2011 resolution - don't want to leave you hanging too long!

4) You tell me, what should this resolution be? Maybe it was just my family, but has anyone else ever had resolutions made for them?  Growing up, I often remember my mom saying, "Your New Year's resolution will be...[insert new good habit here]."  Most of the time, she filed in the blank for me with "going to bed earlier" because then, like now, I had more interests than could neatly be compacted into 16 waking hours.  I think it was really just her sweet way of showing us her love and her commitment to our continual growth as human beings.  And proof that mothers always know best.

But anyway, I find it's actually an enlightening experience to have other people make your resolutions for you.  Justin jumped right on the bandwagon when I told him about it, and assigned me to drink more water in 2011 (isn't it wonderful that I have all these loving people who care about my health & well-being!)  So, please (PLEASE!) let me know what you think I should do with my blog in 2011.  Perhaps you'd like to see more posts.  Fewer posts.  Less wordy posts.  Exclusively renovation posts.  Step-by-step how-we-did-it posts.  Perhaps you enjoy my posts where I detour from home renovation and write about other, only tangentially related, topics.  Maybe you hate reading those ones.  Maybe you'll keep reading no matter what I do (thanks, Mom & Dad!!) 

The bottom line is, there's no point in me writing a blog that you don't like to read, and as we've reviewed, I'm a pretty busy girl, so I don't want to waste my time.  Let me hear it - I want to know what you think my 2011 "blog-olutions" should be. 

Oh, and while we're at it, my New Year's resolution for YOU, dear readers, is to post more comments.  All you have to do go down to that little box at the bottom of the post where it says "Post a Comment."  Tell me what you think, ask a question, or just say hi, and click "Post Comment."  I simply like to know that you're out there in big-ol' cyberspace.  :)