The Icing on the Roof

I've been trained to think that icicles are a sign of bad insulation as well as hazardous to passersby. But what my dad didn't see (or didn't mention) is that these sinister little tapered spikes are quite beautiful and effervescent. The way the morning sun shines through the icy pillars is just amazing. Thousands of waterdrops working together to make a delightful sight for my eyes.

A few days ago I noticed there was a quite spectacular row of icicles trickling over the edge of the roof over the back window where I work. When I first noticed them, they were all quite the same size and length, like cold little soldiers lined up for battle. But as the days went by, some grew longer and thicker and some grew very little at all. It's so cool to see how things grow and change- usually it takes longer to see the differences but icicles are special like that.

All that Glitters!

Have you ever tried Martha Stewart Glitter? It is literally a miracle worker! I discovered its true talents while working in "Santa's Workshop" this fall. We had to transform old ornaments into something new, fresh and different- enter Martha glitter! We would use clear spray paint and then sprinkle glitter on top to transform Christmas balls, snowflakes, branches- practically anything you can think of! The thing that makes Martha glitter so special is that it is very fine. The small specs make the final product much shinier and more polished looking than regular glitter. Although Martha does offer some more coarse glitters, the fine is by far the best.

Today my mom came home from Michaels with a surprise for me! Three 3-packs of Martha Stewart glitter- in fine, coarse and confetti styles! I was so excited! I asked for Martha glitter for Christmas (mostly because I didn't know what else to ask for) so when she saw it today she got me some! Now all I have to do is figure out what around here needs glitterizing!!

New Year

I am going to go ahead and be a little cliche by making my first post of the new year about the new year. I have been searching for things that delight me in my everyday life but lately they have been lacking. But one thing that I have found encouraging is that I am starting a fresh year with new goals (achievable ones of course.) When I was a kid, we would find it endlessly entertaining at the start of a new year to say things like " I haven't showered ALL year!" or "I haven't seen you since LAST year!" And even though as an adult those things aren't quite as funny, it can be a nice way to help myself along with motivation. "Well, I haven't done this bad habit since last year, so if I keep up with it, it will soon seem like quite an accomplishment to say that!" Hopefully that makes sense.

But anyway, a few of my goals for the year are: start exercising more, (another cliche of the new year), find out what I want to be when I grow up, be more positive in my everyday life, and to gossip less. (See, now if I said STOP gossiping, that would be an UNachievable goal, I have to work myself up to it!:)

So for today I am going to delight in the hope that I will meet my goals in 2009 and hopefully tomorrow I can find some other more interesting little things to delight me.