So it’s a new year, but is it really a new me? Not really. I guess I’m not one to make resolutions at the new year. I think if you’re going to change, you can do it at any time, and should do it at any time. It may not be a sudden change. It may just be small to-dos that make you change in slight ways. A work in progress, if you will. I have several to-dos that make me a work in progress.

I did have one to-do that I have failed at horribly (other than frequently updating my blog). I mean like UBER FAIL. The failiest of fails. I signed up for an account on 750words.com. Basically, it’s a site that you sign up and you can write 750 words per day on whatever your heart desires. You get a daily email reminder to help you remember to go and type. Well, those reminders just went right into my trash bin. I know, I know. I consciously made the decision to move them there. I had to click that little trash icon. Now, I’ve always been one to keep a journal, but only sporadically. I’ll have periods where I will journal often and then go YEARS with not one entry. It seems like I have to have some life altering things happen or just be motivated in some way. 750words motivates you with a points system. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good idea. And your writings are private, and can be about whatever you choose. So you can just pour your heart out, but I don’t know why I didn’t continue with it. I think I made it through 3 or 4 days and then it just lost it’s glitter for me. I think my stoppage may be rooted in my unattained goal to write something of significance. A story or book, or something that people will want  to read over and over. Something that touches hearts and souls and provokes the mind to think. I used to write good stories, but over time, the ideas just aren’t there. I guess the passion is, but you may say it’s not because if it were, why wouldn’t I just sit down and write, write, write and write. (Were there enough commas in that sentence?) Maybe it’s a desire instead of a passion. LOL.

One of my other to-dos is to accumulate a list of dinner ideas that I can make when Hubster is out of town on his training in a few weeks. Yes, that’s right, I’m going to attempt to cook. My seester has already asked when we’re going out to dinner. But I will cook something, and it will be edible. That is my goal! So any suggestions for kid-friendly recipes is welcome, as it will just be me and Munchkin. No seafood or mushrooms as she won’t eat those.

Another to-do is to make my first tweet on Twitter this year. Yes, I said this year. This task takes a lot of thought for me. I don’t want to be one of those people that tweets stupid things that are irrelevant. “I threw away my trash today.” or “I didn’t wear socks and now my feet stink.” I know that my tweets won’t be mind-blowing, but I don’t want them to be mundane or cause a rash of Unfollowing. My first tweet should be a good one, right? But what if it’s not? What if I can’t ever think of the right thing? What if I reach the end of the year and still haven’t taken that leap? Ugh, why am I putting so much thought into this! It’s not like it will be immortalized on the web 4-Ev-R!

Another check box on my to-do is to work on developing marketing for my photography and other stuff. For those who don’t know, I’ve started making soap, sugar scrubs, fascinators and other crocheted items. I started making the soap in a fit of boredom and it’s led to a pretty fulfilling hobby. The sugar scrubs smell great and it’s fun trying new fragrances and recipes at the request of others. My top hat fascinators are the first crochet pattern that I have used that is my own! I am very proud of this as this has been something on my to-do list for quite some time. Growing up, I drew a lot, but had the issue of not being able to draw anything without looking at something else. I couldn’t close my eyes and draw my own creation and be happy with the result. Then when I began knitting and crocheting, it was the same story. I always had to use patterns to make things. Granted, I did look at several patterns for the mini top hats, but I did work out my own pattern. I was happy with it, but recently tweaked it even more and now am more pleased with the results. I am looking into creating fascinators other than top hats, too, so keep an eye out for that. I’ve got to think of ideas to get the word out there about my hobby/talents/creativity. Any suggestions on this, too?

I’m sure I have more to-dos and will make more to-dos, so the list will become very lengthy. I think the ones I have listed are enough to keep me busy for a while. Do you have your own to-do lists or goals for making you a new you? Have you checked any off? Has this post prompted you to want to create some?

So I’ve tossed this around and around and around. Every year I do my Fresh Faces contest. This year I’m not going to do it. I apologize to those of you who look forward to it every year, but this year I thought about something that has a little more Umph to it instead of people just looking at someone’s picture and voting for who they believe has “the look”.

This year I want to do something to emphasize growth, change, improvement, admiration and inspiration. I want to be able to share the accomplishments of others.

Image above by Mushir

I want to take a moment to allow for people to focus on themselves or those who are an inspiration to them or others. Around the time of the new year we’re all making changes. We have resolutions. We get a new hairstyle. We get new clothes. We lose weight. We volunteer more. We become a mentor to someone else. We decide to take the leap and follow our dreams. We overcome hardships. We persevere through the ups and downs. It is a time of reflection.

There are a lot of people around me who have decided to make life changes for themselves. I think it would be an inspiration for others to see stories of these people who have made changes and made a difference.

If you are one of those people who has made a change somehow, or know someone who has, NOW is the time to be recognized. No accomplishment is too big or too small.

Submit your nominations by using the form found here. You may enter as many people as are deserving.

Selected entries will receive a free photo session valued at $125! They will also have the opportunity to share their story with others. This will not only be a session, but a journey of discovery.

The number of selected entries will be based on the number of entries received. So get those entries in and help me discover all the incredible people out there!

So we got back from the ranch yesterday. I did have a splitting headache, but I am a mom, so I pushed on through the day. I took down the tree and stockings and put away the ornaments. I stashed them out in the garage, but haven’t made it to putting them in the attic yet. I didn’t even get that accomplished last year either.

I spent today cleaning out my RSS feed. Any blogs that didn’t have anything posted in the last year were definitely booted. All of the others I reviewed and kept if I read them or they held my interest.

I know this is a time of resolutions. Hubster is resolving to stop his yucky tobacco habit that he’s had since he was around 15. So if any of you come in contact with him and he seems a little testy, let this be your word of warning. What have I resolved? Well I’m not that into resolutions because I never really adhere to them. I know I should set goals. So, if I was the goal setting type, what would I do? Hmmmm…I think I’d like to do more with my photography business. Eventually, I would like to clean up a space in the garage for a little makeshift studio. But I’ve been telling myself I wanted to do that since we moved in, and my garage is still a tangled mess of tools, books, old toys, and boxes full of the unknown. I’d also like to get some more programs up and off the ground. I’d like to see my senior business grow because I love to shoot seniors. I’d also like to look into working with some hair and makeup artists for some sessions for men and women who are going through changes or need self esteem boosts. So, if you know of any hair or makeup artists who would trade work for building their portfolio, have them contact me.

I’d also like to work on getting more crafty with soaps or fascinators or something. Find my niche you know. Out at the ranch, I saw the in-laws working on their passions, and now have an inkling to find mine. I can’t sew, but I can knit and crochet. I can also learn to do stuff, so I can teach myself whatever I want to learn.

I also like tossing ideas around with other people, either about their businesses, their websites, their marketing, or just their dreams. It’s always good to get perspective from someone else. Maybe I should look into consulting? Does anybody need a consultant? If you just want to toss around ideas, let me know and we’ll meet for coffee or something.

I thought about doing what Ali Edwards does each year. One Word. She chooses one word and that becomes her focus on everything. I think my word would be Discovery. My year would be discovering about myself both at my job and my personal life. Obviously what I’ve already mentioned about my business and my hobbies. At work, I would like to finally define my path. Find a career goal and begin heading in that direction. I want to work on discovering new connections and networking. If you want to be one of those connections, let me know!

What would your word be?

Oh…and as I do every year, I would like to blog more. Guess you’ll just have to stay tuned to see if that happens.

With it being a new year, I thought I would revisit some pictures and try some different edits. Softer than what I’ve done in the past. Just experimenting. As always, comments are welcome.

So today is the last day of 2011, and also our last full day of vacation out at the ranch. Yes, sadly, we’ll be heading home tomorrow. But not so sadly we’ll get to see our pups and be in our home!

We spent our last day relaxing. The boys finished up some wood projects. Then we hunted for some rocks. While Munchkin and Gi-Gi puttered with rocks in the garden, I whipped up another fascinator. Didn’t take me very long, as I’m getting much faster at them. I managed to scrawl out the pattern as I went today, but I need to review it because I know I threw in some stitches that were not in my original write up.

After I was finished with it, Gi-Gi directed Munchkin and I on where to hunt for a bobby pin to hold it in place. Well, in our quest we found something even better than a silly old bobby pin. We found a loooooong alligator clip! We clipped it to Munchkin’s hair and it was like Frosty’s magic hat. She turned D-I-V-A. She actually wanted me to take her picture. Yes, you read that right. WANTED me to. So we headed outside, and I let her pick the spots.

Her first spot was an old rocker in the front yard.

For this one she told me that she liked looking off somewhere else instead of straight to the camera. Whatever lets me get a picture, right?

Here she was thinking about what spot she wanted next. With so many choices, what’s a girl to choose?

She decided to head over to the hammock. So up she got and went that way. We did snap some pics in the hammock, but due to this Mommy being vertically challenged and not having anything to stand on, they just didn’t turn out the way we hoped. Well, that’s what you get when you do an impromptu shoot.

After much failure and laughing at the hammock, she decided on the cabin. Up the stairs she went. She wanted some shots of her on the second floor, but me on the ground. The sun was terrible, so those were also not the best, but we did get some.

From the cabin we snapped our way to the barn and the hay. Boy are hay bales fun.

She then wanted a picture of her kissing the horses. Miss Dolly in particular. She loves Stormy, but she also loves giving Miss Dolly kisses. (I think it’s because Stormy has a snotty nose right now. Really, he’s blowing snot rockets up to 2 feet away. So it’s best to steer clear of the kisses for him and stick to petting and loving him.) Well, Coco wasn’t really wanting Dolly to get all the pictures, so she was staying in a spot that was completely detrimental to my angles for shooting Munchkin and Miss Dolly. You an see here that Miss Dolly seemed to just want to kiss the tank. Also, it is very apparent how Coco feels about getting the least amount of kisses. LOL.

Well I wasn’t too disappointed because I had snapped some good pictures of Munchkin smoochin on the horses earlier in the week. So we headed back to the hay bales, this time without the fascinator.

I can’t believe how big my baby has grown. She’s no longer a baby and won’t be a little girl much longer either. Sometimes I wish she would stop growing up, but I know she’s going to grow into the best young woman she can be. I love her no matter what. Thank you, Snickles, for letting me spend time with you and capture you at this moment. Mommy loves you!

This is going to be educational Thursday today. We were outside and I told Munchkin that cows did not have upper teeth. She didn’t believe me. So we went out to the pasture and up came our longhorn buddy. I told him that I wanted to show her that he didn’t have any upper teeth. Well he obliged with a smile. Cross my heart he did! I promise you! Yes huh! OK, ok. I probably wouldn’t believe that he did either without photographic evidence. So here you go people.

CHEESE!

See! No top teeth. If you didn’t know, I’m glad I could be of service. If you knew, just smile along with him.

We can’t go out to the ranch and NOT have a ranch post.

So we arrived yesterday, but it was too cold to go outside and enjoy doing anything. After opening presents, I spent most of the night setting up Munchkin’s new iPod from her Pa-Pa and Gi-Gi. I got most of what she wanted on it. Now she just needs to learn how it functions. And, yes, I did disable iTunes, and adding and deleting apps so she has to come to a parent to change anything.

This morning we awoke to the sun and stayed indoors to avoid the cold until the sun warmed up the ground and air all around. We browsed the Internet, munched on some snacks, read some interesting materials, and checked out our Apple products. Then I decided it was time to go out and grab some pictures as we do every time we visit.

Munchkin wanted to come out with me, so we just walked around snapping pictures and visiting with the animals. They love her, and she loves them. She bundled up, but I think it was more for avoiding Mom’s camera than trying to keep warm because it wasn’t uber cold.

We started with the cows and goats. Two of the goats are very much pregnant. Hopefully, there will be little goaty hooves trotting around soon. The goats and cows licked us a few times, but when they discovered we had not come to feed them, they lost interest in us.

We decided to head on over and give a hello to the horses. Of course, our main man Romeo was the first to see if we had anything for him. (yes, that’s the way Romeo’s ear rolls. It’s part of his swagger tat he uses to attract Senorita Pippi.

Munchkin loves the horses. She gave her horse, Stormy, his kisses for today.

And she couldn’t forget Miss Dolly (who loves kisses, but still isn’t broke).

Coco was busy being a Little Miss Meany who wanted all the attention, so she didn’t get any kisses. After kisses and attention, we walked around some more and got some more pictures.

Then Pa-Pa said it was time to feed the animules, so he and Munchkin headed off to the barn. Someone is a little vertically challenged, and had issues with getting the feed, but she made the best of it.

She actually did the work, too. Didn’t let Pa-Pa do it all himself.

She even drove like a pro and hopped out when she was needed.

She’s getting to be a real ranch hand. I told Pa-Pa that soon he won’t have to help. He’ll just have to tell her when it’s time to feed them.

I first had a session with this little man and his momma a year ago.

Back then he was a bundle of energy. And this year was no different. Due to the wonderful Texas weather changing very 30 seconds, we had to stay indoors, which is not my favorite place, but we made it work. I arrived after only getting slightly lost (stupid toll road). Lil’ Man started out just wanting to see all my gear. He was enjoying moving my tripod up and down, and seeing the umbrella that I used. I made a deal with him right off the bat that if he let me take his picture, afterward, I would let him take some pictures. That seemed to be a good deal which worked for all of 5 seconds. LOL. Then momma stepped in with Smarties. (Note to self: keep a roll or two of Smarties in the camera bag from now on. It’s always good to have material to use for bribery on hand.)

Just look at how big he’s gotten in a year’s time. (Look out ladies. He’s working on that killer smile.)

He is a sweet, loving boy who loves his momma, his grandparents, and dinosaurs. During our session, he had to show me the sound that a Tyrannosaurus makes. Loud, scary, big roar!

He also showed me that he had an umbrella like I did. Even thought his umbrella was more interesting since mine was only white. He told me about all the animals on it. Not only was this a fun shoot, but very educational.

And, yes, I kept my promise and he got to take a few pictures himself. Mostly of the carpet and of blurry feet, but it was fun. I’m not done editing, but I thought I would give Momma a sneak peek. How can you go through these and not want to share?!?!? I can hardly wait to get the gallery up. Definitely can’t wait until the next time we get to have a session and maybe then the weather will cooperate!

So this year was the first year we adopted our Elf on the Shelf to help maintain our best behavior this Christmas. Munchkin named him Elliott. Boy, is Elliott a handful, and this is only his second day in the house.

When Munchkin got home from school, she found a box from the North Pole on the front step.

But, wait! The box was opened! Had our dear new friend been abducted? Were we not going to see our elf? Would Santa never know of Munchkin’s behavior? NOOOOOOOOO.

We searched high and low, and high and low, and high…

Oh, Hi, Elliott. (Notice that he has a picture so that he knows which child is in his new family. We do have several kids from the neighborhood who visit regularly, so he’s got to make sure he gets them right.Some of the other children have elves of their own, so maybe Elliott can find a friend in the neighborhood, too.)

So last night Elliott traveled back to the North Pole to update Santa and came back. He didn’t hesitate to begin elfish antics. Munchkin woke up to this -

Not wanting to damage anything before her friends could see what Elliott was up to, this is how she exited her room.

Are we sure it was the work of our sweet, new family member, Elliott? Well, you view the evidence and make your own judgement. In the bathroom, we found this -

And looking up, we saw this -

BUSTED!!!!!! Throughout the day, I guess Elliott didn’t want to hang there, so he took up the toilet paper, and made himself comfy until when he has to jaunt back off to the North Pole to update Santa later tonight.

I wonder what other hi-jinx Elliott will perform during his stay with us this holiday season. Have you adopted your own elf this year? If so, I’d love to hear about your adventures. If you have a blog, please post a link in the comments, or just simply share your story.

So while we were out at the ranch during our July vacation, I saw some handmade soap that my mother-in-law had in the bathroom. The curiosity bug hit me, and I began to research. I checked out websites and blogs. I watched videos. I was determined to pick up a new hobby. I started cold processing soap. So I’ve soaped a bit, but I think I’m ready to blog about it.

A castille soap is a soap made purely of olive oil, lye and liquid such as water. This is a simple recipe, but I have never attempted one, that is, until now. And I must say, I LOVE the way it feels just sitting on the curing rack. Of course I photographed the process as I went.

First, I mixed my lye and water so that it would have a chance to cool down while I got my oil ready. When I took the temperature, the mixture was about 125 degrees F. And, no, I didn’t stick my head over the pitcher. I avoided the fumes and only held the camera over it.

Here is my olive oil just waiting for the lye water to cool down to be ready to mix. There wasn’t much prepping to do for the oils since there was only 1.

Since the temperature of the lye water was so high, I helped speed up the cooling process by an ice bath.

When the lye water was around 100 degrees F, I slowly added it to the olive oil.

Now I use my trusty stick blender to mix the oil and water. We want emulsification, people!

After enough stirring, it’s all emulsified and looks like butter. I did not mix it to thick trace as in the past my batters have thickened too much.

Now into the mold we go. Since this was a small test batch, I decided to put it into the silicone medium cupcake pan. Hand-sized that way. Could be used as guest bars.

Now to just put Saran Wrap over the top and wrap in a towel to set.

A little after 24 hours – no peeking! – I unmolded them and set them on the rack to cure. They feel as smooth and silky as they look. Now jut to wait 4-6 weeks longer to reach perfection.

Here’s a peppermint loaf I unmolded on the same day.

And here’s the peppermint cut and curing on the rack. Unfortunately, the peppermint scent is not as strong now as when I unmolded it a few days ago.

I also soaped my lovely milk and oatmeal soap this day, too. This time using buttermilk instead of goat’s milk. Maybe pictures of that tomorrow. Stay tuned to find out. And as always, comments are welcome!