It seems like the whole time I have lived in my current apartment, my spare room has been the place where everything I don't have a set spot for goes to live. A few years ago I added my beautiful floating bookshelves; I went out and bought wood planks, sawed, sanded and stained them and then hung them to fill with my prized collection. Those shelves have long become overfilled. So, I recently rearranged to make that fit better. I have had this tall corner desk since college and never use it because the table top fits a laptop and that's just about it. I love to have my work laid out around me so this desk became a dumping ground because it was never practical for me to use. I spent some time on Pinterest narrowing down design ideas and went on a mission recently to find a new desk. I knew exactly what I wanted and what I wanted to spend, and was so extremely pleased to find it in Hobby Lobby for even less than I planned for. Yesterday I spent quite some time sorting through a bunch of junk and doing some rearrange in the spare room. Today I went and got my new desk and some items to decorate it and I couldn't be more pleased with how it turned out. I have such a lovely workspace that I cane now dream away and let my mind roll forward at.

The rest of the room is a work in progress. I need to figure out some storage solutions and rearrange what I still have in there and then I will share that with you once it's complete. For now, I will have to enjoy my little workspace that is perfect for dreaming up new ideas and letting the words flow from my fingertips.

I've decided I need to work on continuing this blog and making it legitimate. So, here I am in the start of a new year, writing away and hoping that someone finds me interesting. With it being a holiday, I of course had to bake up something sweet to bring to a new year's party on the 31st. As usual, I went to Pinterest and searched for what I had in mind and found exactly what I needed - champagne cupcakes! These were very moist and not overly champagne-tasting, but still delicious. The gold glitter sprinkles I went out and got to add to them made them perfect for the new year celebration.

Last year my resolution was to learn Polish. I downloaded this great, free app (DuoLingo) and started off pretty strong before falling off. So, I've picked that up again and am trying to be more consistent with learning the language. When I was in NY for Christmas break, I was surrounded by great Polish food. I had to bring some back to Ohio with me to enjoy longer. For New Year's Day I decided to have a nice, delicious Polish meal to celebrate a little on my own. My grandma sent me back with some charnina and I had a freezer stocked with meat, included some of my dad's homemade kielbasa - the best sausage in the world. Seriously, I've never had anything that has come close!

My main New Year's resolution is to read a biography from every US president from Washington to Reagan in chronological order. I made a list on Amazon of the highest-rated books and figured out that this would mean I would have to read 3.25 books per month this year - a tall order as I am finishing up two Master's degrees and working like crazy. This feat became even more daunting as I opened up the box of the first three books on New Year's Eve and saw how thick they were! I am starting off with a 800+ page biography of Washington by Ron Chernow (yes, the guy that wrote the book on Alexander Hamilton that the huge Broadway show is based off of). I'm trying to read as much as I can in these next few weeks before spring sports and grad school pick up pace later on in the semester. Yesterday I got a great start with 200 pages read. Today, hopefully I'll add on a bunch more. Plus, I have a week-long roadtrip that will have some time to kill. Here's to lofty resolutions!