2011-A Rehashing

2011. 

Things started off strong this past year, in terms of home improvement tweakings.  A Christmas gift from the boyfriend prompted our master bedroom to receive the paint it had been waiting 3 months for.  You see, in October 2010 for my birthday, all i wanted was the bedroom to be painted.  I even bought the paint.  You read that right...for my birthday...I bought the paint. My gift was going to be not actually doing the painting myself, and we'd finally quit treating the whole upstairs as an afterthought.



Turned out to be one of my most popular posts.  Warning, if you click through, you will be singing Boy George the rest of the day.

Then i got the strong urge, and better decorating ideas since i'd been doing this whole blog thang, to de-brownify the living room.  Let's enhance the light blue, and finally, embrace the chevron craze.  I also saw napkins in a whole new way.





I felt it was time to grow the blog, as we were now celebrating our one year blogiversary.  Shout out to my bloggy friend Jill for twisting my arm.  The summer would bring additional guest posts and a facebook page (which i still find pointless).

But the biggest blow in 2011, and that which defined my entire year, was my father's diagnosis of the bastard known as pancreatic cancer.  I could barely post, and when i did, it was random crap.  I just couldn't spend energy composing some witty or amusing commentary when i was in hell.  Nor was I in the mood to do anything terribly creative.  There are literally less than half the posts than in the previous year, and this was after proclaiming i was going to "grow the blog."

We pretended everything was going to work out, and went to Spain for a much needed 2 week reprieve from thinking.  It worked, but made it all the more depressing to come home and know what we were having to face.





I posted this in August when things were getting bad and i didn't want to think, but didn't want to not blog either.  We had actually gone on the trip back in April, so for time line purposes it falls here.

Taking to the outside of our home, we got rid of the mudpit!  I think S did a fabulous job here, considering we spent so much of the summer at my dad's house. 



On August 25th, 2011, barely over 4 months ago, my father passed away.  Devastated.  Still devastated.



That's me as a happy little girl celebrating Chanukah.  Much different than how i viewed this holiday season, the first holidays and birthdays without him all occurring in these recent months.

Because of that, i hardly decorated for my favorite time of year, Halloween and Autumn. 



Just a used car lot for Autumn and winter whites and snowflakes now.



That brings us to the end of the year, and the beginning of a new one in only a few days.  As much as i want this year to be over and done with (as my family also lost my step pop-pop), it is truly unimaginable that now, year after year after year, will be years spent without my father. And for that, honestly, i don't want this December to come to an end. 

But.  There's nothing i can do about that.  I just hope that 2012 brings us, and you, my friends and readers, a drastically different and positive year.  Thanks for sticking with me.