January...

...here you are again.

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

photo by Anna Spiro

I couldn't help but feel a little bit (okay, a lot) jealous of Australian Anna Spiro from Absolutely Beautiful Things when I read her blog this morning. Her latest post shares the same title as this one, yet the meaning of the month for her is starkly different:

"For me January is all about being on holidays at the beach with my family. We spend long days playing in the sand and swimming in the ocean. We read, we cook, we talk, we laugh and I'll admit we fight too. We sleep the afternoons away and prepare ourselves for the year which is forthcoming. January is my favourite month."

For me, here in North Carolina, January is tough. It's cold, the excitement of Christmas is over, and warm days at the beach seem very far away. January is most definitely my least favorite month.

On a brighter, optimistic "new year" note, January does inspire me to get my house in order. This weekend was spent organizing, purging, deep cleaning and rearranging (see bookcase image below...it's amazing what an hour and a "take to Goodwill" pile can do). Although I'm weary of New Years resolutions, I have been inspired to make some goals: do something about my boring mantle (time to scour the old magazines for ideas), read more books, be more adventurous in the kitchen, use my fine china more (which shouldn't be hard to do since I've only used it once in 4+ years...and that once was 3 days ago), and, of course, blog more- a never-ending goal of mine.

Whatever your goals or resolutions are for this year, I wish you the best and a happy 2011!