Exciting Plans for 2013

Ehh, no new recipes yet. I think I am getting to the point where I am over the cooking focus of this blog and ready to move onto other things. You’ll notice there’s been more home DIY and crafting and travel and whatnot the last several months, and I think we’re going to stick with some of that this year. Especially in the winter, I am just not excited about planning new and different meals and trying to make them look appealing in pictures without natural light. Sometimes, if I want to get everything else done in a day, especially getting to the gym after work, I just want to cook something I am familiar with and can throw together without a recipe.

What I am excited about is PLANNING. For the year ahead – house projects, vacations, getting my life in general organized. I always start out the year making allthelists. And then I want to ACT on alltheitems on allthelists allatonce. That usually doesn’t work out too well, obviously. I end up with all these things just hanging over me that I feel like I need to get done right now so that I stop thinking about them. And then I end up tired, burnt out, and out of money.

BUT ALSO happy and accomplished feeling. And excited, especially when I book something for a trip. Here is what’s on the docket for this year.

House

Guest room

This is currently in the works. I have two Ryan-less weeks coming up where I’ll need to keep myself entertained, and this project will be not-too-expensive and something I can easily do myself. It mostly involves painting the walls, making some curtains and throw pillows, buying bedding and accessories, and getting something up on the walls. I am going with a coral and grey with aqua accents color scheme. I hope to have this done and photographed by the end of the month.

Breakfast nook

Also currently in the works. We previously bought the pendant lamp and rug, and I have material for the curtains and replacement artwork for the wall. I was mainly waiting on a table. I mentioned before that I could NOT find what I wanted anywhere. I finally hit up an unfinished wood store this week and they had the write size/shape/height. So I’ll be working on finishing that myself these next couple of weeks. Can’t wait to check this space off my list!

Upstairs bathrooms

The big house project this year is mid-level upgrades to the master and guest baths. We aren’t quite tearing everything out like we did with the downstairs, so less work and money but still should make a HUGE difference. The hope was to get them done before we have a bunch of guests in town for my 30th at the end of April, but I think we’ll be taking this in steps so as to not stress out poor Ryan who is already having flashbacks to last summer.

First order of business is getting rid of the last two giant fluorescent light boxes. We’ll give the vanities and walls a fresh coat of paint, but get new countertops and faucets. The guest bath will also get new flooring. If we can swing it, we would LOVE to replace the gross, never-looks-clean, dated shower surround in the master bath.

Travel

Asheville, NC

We’re heading back to Asheville again, and soon – just a month away! We are staying in the same cabin with a sweet view as last time. I already have the list of breweries we want to return to, as well as a couple new ones, and have a list of restaurant possibilities. I am pretty sure there will be some food truck tracking down going on. And hopefully, the weather will cooperate for some hiking this time around – I found some options that don’t require taking the often-closed-in-winter Blue Ridge Parkway.

Shenandoah National Park and Charlottesville, VA

(photo by Alan Williams courtesy of the National Park Service)

After skipping an annual camping trip last year because we were busy demo’ing everything for the house renovation, it’s back on this year! I just booked a campsite at Shenandoah National Park, where we plan to do tons of hiking. We’ll also spend a day hitting up area wineries, and spend a last day/night checking out Monticello and the music/food/art of Charlottesville (I’ve already been parsing through the recommendations at KERF and adding to my list).

GERMANY!

(photo via http://www.bavaria.by)

I was originally hoping to do this last year, but the renovations ended up costing, um, almost double what we planned. Barring some financial emergency or something like that, it is going to happen this September! Because I crazily plan out future hypothetical trips when I get bored, I already have our various destinations picked out and a loose itinerary. A couple more months and I’ll start getting lodging booked. This trip will hopefully be as epic as our honeymoon in Italy (erm, I realize I never did finish those recaps … maybe for our anniversary this year!).

2013, let’s do this!

I’ll also be turning 30 with an accompanying big bash at the house, and will be a bridesmaid in both my dad’s and brother’s weddings.

So, so many things to look forward to this year! Do you have any fun plans in the works?