Texas Blue Lime Productions

1) I’m doing a photo-a-day-for-a-year Project365. Any comments you have on any of my images would be much appreciated.
http://365.asyouwishbcs.com/

2) As You Wish is having a sale. That’s right! 20% off everything until the end of February. So, now is the perfect time to book a photo session. If you know anyone that needs business headsots, family portraits, or other photography, please send them my way!
http://www.asyouwishbcs.com/2009/01/21/sale/

No, not the liquor store. I got new glasses today. It will take a couple of days to get use to them since they are progressive lenses. Believe it or not, I look even MORE smarter than I did with my old glasses. : )

Now let me start this by saying it is not foolproof. After all, it’s not exactly how Emil and I found one another. However, in our observations, it has a pretty successful rate of return.

There are two “suggestions” for finding your soulmate. Again, since they aren’t foolproof, “rules” would be too strong of a word.

1. You have to give up looking. Fall in love with yourself and the idea of being alone. It’s not until you are comfortable with not being in a relationship, that fate will send one along. Let the butterfly come to you. (This did happen to my side of our relationship. In fact, most of you know I didn’t go out with Emil when he initially asked.)
2. Buy a house. Yeppers. We can name several cases of friends who, within months of buying a house on their own, met the love of their life.

Bonus tip: When in doubt, catch the bouquet. One friend of ours (ahem!) refuses to participate in this wedding tradition. I’ve tried to convince her that it’s not as much about catching the bride’s used flowers, but it’s about confirming to the single men in the room that you are, in fact, single. I have one more anecdote that goes with this part, but it will have to wait a short while before I can tell the rest. I don’t want to jinx anything.

In this article, Dumb Little Man gives some great advice for those seeking to Relax and Recharge.

Here are my favorites:

Play with a pet

Listen to your iPod

Watch a funny movie

Gaze into the landscape

Gaze into candlelight

Hibernate with a cup of herbal tea and a good book

Take a relaxing bath

Go for a weekend getaway

Sit in the garden with a cold beer

And then I would add:

• quiet, alone time

• a quick/short visit to a tanning salon

So, what others do you like or can you think of?

I’ve been too overwhelmed in the last few years to make New Years’ Resolutions. Plus, with all the news articles about not making them so you won’t feel like a failure, it’s not been in vogue to do so.

This year, though, I really wanted to do some good goal setting for me and for As You Wish.

So, I made three major goals. After a week (ish) into the new year, I can say that I’m a solid 2-for-3.

1. I have been doing my daily Project 365 photo-of-the-day for As You Wish.
   I set some flexible rules for myself for this. I must take a photo for every day of the year. However, I can post/blog 2-3 at a time. I keep my little camera with me, but I make an effort to use my good camera as must as is reasonable. When I have time, I also post these images to Blogger, Flickr, and Deviant Art. The point of this project has a primary goal of making me find something, every day that is worthy of a photo. I’m forced to look at the world with more detail.  A secondary benefit is that by posting the images so widespread, I draw more traffic to my site.
2. Weekdays, I have a task that I hope will help me communicate better and more often with my family, friends, and clients.
   It’s just a little thing, but I’m putting a lot of meaning behind it.
3. Three times a week, I’m supposed to carve out some time that is designed for me for relaxing.
   I have seclude myself, have some green tea, rest, and listen to something soothing. It’s my own little siesta. My evening is so much better when I make the time to do this. So far, this is the one that has suffered. I hope to get a better grip on this one over the weekend so I can set a better pace for next week.

So, we’ll see how far I make it. I know that most of us lose steam for our resolutions pretty quickly. And, I’ve read that it takes 30 days to make a habit. (I’ve also read it takes 100 times of doing it…don’t know which is true.)

Now, where did I set down my green tea?

With all that we’ve had going on in December, Emil and I needed a weekend away. The weather has been so nice for camping that we took a little trip over to Smithville, Texas and stayed at Buecher State Park. As always, Emil planned the perfect little getaway for us.

Friday, we left immediately after work. This meant we had to set up in the dark, but we are so familiar with our tent, that that wasn’t much of a challenge for us. The wonderful weather and a night under the stars was so refreshing.

Saturday, we explored the quaint little town of Smithville. They have two main claims to fame: Hope Floats was filmed there and they were the first town to receive the “filming friendly” designation in Texas. They also hold the Guinness record for the largest Gingerbread man. It’s a friendly town. We did some exploring—for those who like old stuff, there were several antique stores in the downtown area—and visited their train museum. For the afternoon, I read a book and took some photos (see As You Wish’s Project 365) while Emil napped. (Did I mention the point was to rest and relax?)

Saturday evening, we drove to La Grange—we didn’t find the Chicken Ranch or Miss Mona—and then back to another nearby town for dinner. Winchester has a population of less than 50, but the capacity of this restaurant was easily 100 or more. We had fabulous steaks, yummy sides, amazing salads (really!), and their secret-recipe beans. We waddled back to the car full and quite happy. That night, we slept through a cold front moving in. The wind and freezing rain kept us in our sleeping bags, so we must have resembled our Umpa Lumpa.

We took our time coming home and exploring a bit. It was a great little weekend getaway. Should any of you need such an excursion, I strongly recommend you hire Emil to be your travel planner!

Purrrrrl has taken to sleeping under the comforter on our bed.

Our Little Umpa Lumpa