Hello, friends! I am back in North Carolina after my many travels (including an unexpected car rental and late-night drive home after our second flight was canceled yesterday!!) and happy to be back with you! I’ve enjoyed the quiet for the past few days, but there’s no way I could let the new year pass without some talk of looking forward and back. After all, I adore a good goal and love discussing such things with y’all. Before I get into what I have planned for 2013, however, I wanted to take a quick look back at where we’ve been in 2012. It’s been a marvelous year! In February we hosted our first adult dinner party. It had a Julie & Julia theme and was a rousing success! Itching for round two. I also celebrated my 25th birthday. In March we planted seedlings to start our balcony veggie garden. The weather warms up significantly in NC around this time, and we spent lots of time enjoying the beautiful outdoors! In April we celebrated Easter with some of my family in Williamsburg, Virginia. John and I also took an amazing weekend getaway to Beaufort, SC, and the Inn at Palmetto Bluff! (Covered in four parts: here, here, here, and here.) Still one of our favorite short getaways ever. John’s parents came to visit and we took them strawberry picking. We also squeezed in time for an engagement session with Gina Zeidler! In May, I helped plan a Kate Spade-themed bridal shower for my sister-in-law Marget complete with colorful nail polish favors. Such a fun project! In June we got outside often, watching outdoor movies, going for our first 2012 swim in the Eno, and hiking at Hanging Rock State Park. (I record some of our hiking adventures here, but you can