Winter Restlessness

This time of year always makes me restless and yearning for something new.  I guess its because its a new year and time for changes, or perhaps its the knowledge that there are still several months of winter left.    While I absolutely love snow - we haven't had any this year thus far - I always look forward to spring and can't wait for its arrival.

This photo was taken in our front yard in 2009.

This year my feelings are no different.  I need something creative to do.  I find myself itching to go shopping, or drag out the crafting supplies, or pack up and go on a trip, or redecorate my home, or change my hair, or, or, or.  I just NEED something to do to help me through these long dreary days.

A few weeks ago I set some goals for the new year and I've set aside time to accomplish some of  them.  Since I have this growing need to be creative or change something in my life, now was the perfect time.  One of those goals was to learn how to take better pictures.  I have a very nice Canon Rebel camera that we hardly ever use and when we do, it is most always on automatic settings.  So, I have set about to learn more about my camera and how to use it properly.  Expect to see some posts on that in the coming months to see how I am progressing with my photography skills.

Another goal was to read more.  I have recently started reading The Complete Sherlock Holmes.  If you have a Kindle, it is a free download on Amazon.  It is the complete collection of both long and short stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes series and there is a wonderful introduction from Robert Ryan, a writer whose own book, Dead Man's Land, has been fully endorsed by the Conan Doyle Estate.  It sounds very promising and I have it on my "to read" list.  I have also been thinking of possibly doing a series of posts on book reviews, but I haven't decided yet.

Speaking of future posts, I've been pondering the direction I want this blog to go.  What is my purpose for writing it, what do I want to share with you all, what do you want me to share?  All of these things rattle through my brain at all times of the day, making it difficult, at best, to concentrate on my full time paying job.  Maybe I should retire.  Dream on, Denise, dream on.

One more little tidbit of information that I wanted to pass on to you lovelies is that there is a great giveaway going on over at Haute Rockabilly Fashionista in which she is giving away a wonderful snood from Arthelia's Attic.  These are beautiful, high quality, handcrafted snoods made from a 1942 pattern.  So, hurry, go enter the contest.  The deadline is just a few days away!