HIGHLIGHTS OF 2012 (PART 1)

Maybe this will be the year that I post more often.  Can you put up with my ramblings?  In the quiet days since Christmas, I have been visiting blogs and reading a lot about 2012 projects in review and some blogger's highlights of this past year.  So...I decided to do a Blondie Year In Review.  Wow, what an undertaking.  So many memories, so many pictures!  Of course I wanted to download everything, there were some occasions even I had forgotten.  Projects?  Not so many.  A project to me is going to the dry cleaners!  But I did have a few home improvement moments and in my true style, just a whole lot of randomness.  So...here we go!

January brings out the Cleaning Fairy in all of us and I did a number on our master bedroom.  I added a soft and cozy new quilt, a few toss pillows and a beautiful throw I received as a gift from son Kevin.  Simple. Easy. Done.

The Midwest had very much a mild winter, but I kept the comfort food coming and pretended to hunker down.  Here I made chicken soup from scratch following a recipe by Susan Branch.  It was delish!

The only good thing about February is that it is my birthday month!  The Husband and I headed downtown where I picked out my much dreamed about Kate Spade purse.  We then had dinner at Tavern On Rush and a few cocktails at the legendary Jilly's, which sadly has closed after decades of good times.

I was also really pleased to get my family room redone after almost a year of hemming and hawing over paint colors and furniture.  Sofa's with washable slipcovers and distressed furniture gave this room a bit of farmhouse feel.

March came in like a lamb and we spent a day at Navy Pier on Lake Michigan.

With Easter right around the corner I splurged on some linens at Pottery Barn.

And I did a little Easter tablescape.

Daughter Emily got a head start on creating some things for her 2013 wedding...here are some of the reception dinner table numbers covered in moss.  Fun project!

April brought Abby's 21st birthday.  Here she is on the right.

A Cinco de Mayo tablescape.

And another.  I think this was the year of tablescapes for me after Kathleen started her fun party.

Finally, a spring tablescape.

We made another trip to Asheville, N.C in April and I met up again with these lovely bloggers; Mary, Penny and Penny.  We had a wonderful lunch together.  I wonder if this year holds another trip.  The Husband sure loves his fly fishing there!

June found us back at the lakehouse where we spend a good part of the summer.  It's just the perfect little getaway for us and our days there are carefree!

Lots of time sitting at this table with family and friends, or just alone dreaming.

This is our beloved daisy garden that we thought would never bloom.  It did.  And did and did!  And, my first try at climbing roses.

The Husband has become an avid gardener over the years and though we had a few disagreements over our techniques, he helped me a lot and I learned to believe in some of his homemade concoctions after seeing our flowers and plants grow before my very eyes!

And of course we took some time to enjoy the outdoors here in Chicago. 

A little trip to the historic and great shopping town of Galena, Illinois came in June and we met up with fellow blogger Cindy and her husband Dan.

This is my dear friend Cindy, and this trip marked our 4th year in a row getting together.  Don't you just love meeting the people behind the words in Blogland?

And we can't forget the new love in The Husband's life, The Monster, or his newly acquired old fishing boat.  It was definitely an angling summer for him!

I took on a little project of myself while we were up there for 2 straight weeks and decided to change the paint color in the downstairs powder room from this...

...to this.  I don't know why I waited so long.  Oh, yes I do...I hate painting!  But I love how it came out.

So now you can see why I had to divide this post into two parts.  My walks down memory lane involve stopping to sniff each and every flower.  I really had fun going through my old posts, seeing how the seasons change, how we change.  And then how some things stay true and constant.  I'll be back in a few days to complete this.  In the meantime, have a ball celebrating the beginning of a new year!  We will be very low key here at home as usual.  I can't remember the last time we went out anywhere.  I just hope all those fireworks at midnite don't wake me up! lol!

See ya!