Happy 2012 from our home to yours! How were your holidays and New Year? We were blessed with a wonderful break – gatherings with family and friends, awesome houseguests, many mornings of sleeping in, crazy eruptions of laughter in the house and constant eating. We all put on a few pounds, I think. (Among visiting Chicago favorites, we tried a new place, Slurping Turtle – yummy!)

Amazingly, my brother-in-law didn’t have to shovel our driveways and walks – not once this break (Merry Christmas, bro!). But it did make for a weird Christmas according to my little one (Where’s the snow? I want to eat snow, but not yellow snow.).

Every year, I marvel at how quickly time seems to pass. I think about what we’ve done over the year, remember people who’ve touched our lives. And, I quietly make resolutions for myself – mainly personal improvement things to enrich my family life. I’ve only shared one simple resolution on the So This is Julie Facebook page… to finish more projects than start. If you know me, I’m forever dreaming up things to do. And while my Pinterest boards show all my “someday” projects, I feel like I need to teach my kids about completing projects, too. I love that they know their mom is a crafty nut.

I’m totally excited for 2012 and all the sewing, papercrafting and cooking ahead of us. Thank you for reading along, all the comments and support… health, happiness and peace!

update :: sites to visit for journaling and renewal this 2012

New Years Manifesto | New Year’s Writing Ideas | A Year in the Life of an Art Journal

Remember this project? My daughter and I made about 300. Time to string these up.

I wonder how many people out there are like me – great ideas, just a little slow on the follow-through because 1) I keep thinking up more ideas, 2) I try to stay active with this kids and hubby, and 3) I actually need to sleep.

As for some of my summer projects that didn’t get done, I’m determined to finish them (like a chair I pulled from someone’s curbside trash, and bookcases for my daughter, the t-shirt quilt, reorganizing my office…yikes). What are your summer projects that didn’t get done? I’d love to hear from the internet universe. Maybe we can cheer each other on to the “finish line”.

Hello there! Our guest blogger today is Graham, the dog, owned by my husband’s sister and her husband. Graham is a Bichon mix (I think). He was our houseguest for four days. By the time this posts, he will be on his merrily way to (or newly arrived at) a new home with my sister-and-brother-in-law. My kids and I will miss him a lot.

Our buddy, Graham

Hi. I’m Graham. I love car rides. It’s especially fun when I end up visiting people I like. But, I should’ve known better when my owners brought along my food, dishes, bed and toys. P.S. I moved my food bowl by myself.

Pelt. Graham loves it.

So, I waited and waited for my owners to come back. Figured I should get comfortable, except Julie kept taking my picture. After she went to sleep I ran under the dining table to find some good eats, then ran upstairs to sleep with the kids. (Forget my regular bed – I slept by the little guy. Right on his bed, even!) They’re so fun, but I think I make them nervous. They tried to show me how to use the computer in the morning so I could talk with my owners.

Who's spying on me?

Learning how to Skype

I had fun staying with everyone – even Uncle Pork* – but I didn’t get any table scraps from him this time. I got to walk around, meet some other dogs, take a few car rides… the best part was tagging along for a soccer game. All the girls wanted to pet and play with me. So. Much. Attention.

After Dinner

Those kids wore me out

Fun as it was, I was so tired from all the activity in this house. They’re always on the move. How’s a dog supposed to get any sleep? But I did, and I loved sleeping over. I hope the family liked having me too. Thanks, guys!

*Uncle Pork a.k.a. my husband. Some time ago, he gave Graham some table food – mostly bacon and bbq pork.

This weekend recovering from birthday week, I’ve concluded that this might have been the easiest birthday party ever planned for my daughter. Just a few friends, dinner in a restaurant, scavenger hunt at a local department store and a sleepover. No theme, no games per se, I just made sure they had food and clean sheets. They entertained themselves for the most part playing video games and laughing at each others jokes and stories. Did I miss the elaborate planning? Sort of. Did I miss the trip to the party store with her, looking through all the licensed party wares and goodie bag trinkets? Sort of. This could mark the end of an era with my daughter.

This is just the beginning of another phase, of driving girls to the mall, taking goofy “runway model” pictures by storefront windows, girls running into my house, barely saying hello and running up the stairs into my daughter’s bedroom and shutting the door. The beginning of lots of hush-hush and shush-ing when I knock on the door to check on them, and lots of giggling too. Dare I say, the beginning of the tween years? In the end, my husband and I really loved seeing her have so much fun with her friends.

Happy birthday, my little roundhead.

I spent lots of time preparing for last week and weekend… not only was it Halloween, but our little man turned 4.

And, as usual, the Halloween crafts didn’t get done, but I did get goody bags finished the night before the school party.

I always intended on posting a tutorial for a last-minute batcave made from store-bought wall decorations, dollar store garbage bags and duct tape… but unfortunately it was far too last-minute. I was busy writing a food article for Halloween.

On Halloween, Abby played her last soccer game (the team’s record 6-1-1)…

… then we headed out for some trick-or-treating with friends.

Like I said, a really good weekend. I hope all of you out there had one too.