New Year's Launch

I think it's fitting that a post about goals for the New Year is a bit of anniversary in and of itself.  This post marks my 200th post!

I am a believer in a good New Year's resolution.  I love having things to work toward. I love a good goal!  I love to set goals for myself, for my marriage, and for my family.  It's fun to look back and see all we've accomplished and it's fun to look forward to all that could happen in just a year.

I've been reflecting a lot on what I want for 2012.  And, it's a year of big dreams.  Don't worry, I'll only share a few!

You may have noticed a little update to the look of Life as a Cherry.  That's because it has been a longtime goal of mine to become a better designer.  So, this is my year and Life as a Cherry will be my guinea pig.  Get excited!

It  has been a goal of mine to start another blog that addresses some of my other interests.  A big interest of mine is building community.  Working on a college campus, that was a HUGE part of my job.  Now, I'm taking it to the street (literally), as I'll be writing about my experiences working to build a stronger connection with my neighbors on my new blog the Front Yard Frontier.   It's definitely still in the very beginning stages, and I'll being working on design, lay out, and content in the coming months.  If you have any tips or ideas or if you want to be a guest blogger on the site, let me know.

Another long time dream has been to launch my photography site.  Thanks to my favorite designers ever, Post Box Press  for designing a site that is so, so me.  I'm excited to start doing more of something I love: photography.

In another area of interest,  I also have plans to learn more about cooking Asian cuisine.  If you know me at all, you know I LOVE to cook but the flavor combinations and culinary techniques in Asian cuisine are unfamiliar to me.  I'll be doing my best to learn and I'll probably be posting some about those experiences here.  If they're fun, if they're personal, if they're moments I want to share then I'll be writing about it!  And, that's kind of the point of this post.  I'm branching out and we'll see how it goes!