The Tiny Corners Journal

Welp, we’re half-way in to the first month of the new year, and I have a few projects brewing.

(These are in addition to my standard New Year’s resolutions - keep the house tidier, spend less money, exercise, be more present.  Hrm…).

Anyway, here are the fun things I hope to do this year:

• Cook more.  I already “cook” a fair amount, but I would like to cook more from scratch and less from a box.  My inspiration?  Alton Brown.  Over the past few months, I have been able to acquire his three Good Eats cookbooks (and yes, I know, I could find the recipes for free on the web - but I love the tactile feel to the books) mostly by using my Amazon rewards points.  The first book I bought at the Tennessee Aquarium - and it was signed! (!!!)  Anyway, I’m developing a spreadsheet of recipes I would like to try this year - mostly from Alton, but with others thrown in from additional cookbooks already on hand.  Maybe I’ll even blog these attempts…kind of like Julie & Julia, except…not.  I hope to include the kids in this venture as much as possible, as I’ve learned each of them like cooking with me, and that’s kinda awesome.
• Continue to build an arsenal of kitchen implements for my cooking endeavors.  Friends in the past have gifted me some awesome equipment, but I want more.  That probably sounds awful, but I can’t help it.  I want to learn!  I want to try new things!  Alton Brown and/or my own previous cooking attempts might or might not influence me on this, but again, I will be hoarding my Amazon points for fun things such as meat grinders, ricers, pizza peels and electric griddles.  Eeee!  Exciting!  (Really!)!
• Have a real bedroom. (Finally - no Alton references!).  Right now, my bedroom still has the glow-in-the-dark stars and hanging planets left behind by the previous residents (my bedroom is one of the “kid” bedrooms).  I actually don’t mind the stars…they’re nice to look up to at night, but I would really like to have an adult bedroom complete with color schemes and pictures on the walls and all that.  So, I’m planning to plop down some non-Amazon cash for a bucket of paint, and come spring break, will tear the room apart.  I wish I could do it right now, but it makes me happy and excited to have something for which I can look forward.
• Take, and post, more pictures. This part doesn’t feel fun to me right now, but I’m hopeful if I go through the motions I’ll eventually feel “it” again.  Perhaps the above projects will help me with that.  At the least, I would like to be more faithful to my one-a-day picture posting regimen.
• Dress like an adult. Of all my projects, I honestly care the least about this, which is good as it would be the largest financial hog.  I would, however, like to be able to attend a work meeting in something other than old corduroys or the skirt I wore three times last week.  I am very much fashionably inept (and financially limited), so I think this project will be a slow, ongoing endeavor.  But it’s still something I will work on this year.
• Hope. Hee…I hope to hope more in 2012, because even silly little unrealized hopes can change our paths.  You never know what hope - or providence - will bring.  You can look back and connect the dots in your life which have come to pass, but you just can’t know what the dots in front of you might mean (Thanks, Craig) — even if they’re silly little hopes.  So, I choose to hope.  Really, I couldn’t live without it.

So that’s my look at the upcoming year.  A nice mix, I think.

Tomorrow?  Meatloaf and brined fingerling potatoes (except I couldn’t find fingerlings, so baby golds will have to do).