Happy Birthday!

Today is Don't Get Your Dress DIrty's one year birthday!  I have succeeded my 2011's new year resolution!  To blog for one year.  Yay me!  I guess I didn't do a New Year's resolution post on the 1st because I was waiting for today.

Starting this blog was to give me a hobby was a way to jump start myself in exploring different ways and techniques of cooking and also to explore new recipes and spices.  For those of you that have followed along, last year was I was a busy girl in the kitchen.  Looking back on my first post, I'm really happy with how the year (and my resolution) came together!  I accomplished what I set out to do.

I would never have really thought of myself as a new year's resolution kind of gal, but I seem to mildly set them at the beginning of the years, and the last 2 years I been really great.  Two years ago, I had just finished college and wanted to get a design job really explore and bring together my design skills.  I did a few side project that helped, but in June I had my design job and by the end of the year I was really starting to find my confidence as a professional designer (that sounds kinda stupid, but I'm not sure how else to put it).

So 2 years in a row I have met my personal goals!  Now, maybe your wondering what my resolution for 2012 is?  To learn to sew!  The best part? I have already started!  So far I am about half way done on my first skirt, but I'm really frustrated enjoying myself!  As of now, I just plan on making skirts.  Once I have about 10 new skirts and I am starting to understand the process more, I may move onto a dress.  But thats months down the road (just between you and me, I and scared shitless of a zipper).  Or maybe I will just make skirts for everyone I know and call it good.  I can tell you one thing though, I have a whole NEW respect for my mom, who, as far as I'm concerned could make a ball gown out of a paper sack.  Right now I am making just about the simplest skirt you can, and I have screwed that thing up more times in the past 2 days, ripped out more seams that I could even count, and I'm still not done.  But, I'm no where near giving up!  Practice makes perfect.

So what will happen to DGYDD?  I plan to continue cooking and sharing my adventures in the kitchen (I have something new to share at the end of this post that will help with that).  I would like to share and offer more of my design work with everyone.  That's where the desktop calendar project comes in.  I am also planning on venturing into the world of outfit posts.  Quite a few blogs that I follow mix design with craft with food with outfits and clothes.  I never really planned on doing outfit type posts with this blog, so I will limit it to only sharing when I have completed a new sewing project.  So they won't be too often, but I am excited about it.

So are you curious about the stats of DGYDD for last year?  I don't know what impressive blog stats are for someone in their first year, nor does it really matter to me how many views or  comments someone else gets.  Pages views and comments aren't why I started this blog.  To be truthful, I didn't even know you could monitor your views and what not for about a month after I started blogging.  So here goes....

Most Viewed Post: Cake Pops without the Sticks!  254 views
2nd most viewed: Cake Pops without Sticks Revisited! 170 views (Surprise Surprise. Created 7 months apart too)
Busiest month: November with 1301 views.
Total comments: 100 (I really don't get very many comments, but I don't mind!  Thanks to Jo and Lizzie for all your kind words)
Total pageviews for 2011: 9,141

I was thinking about going though past posts and talking about my favorites, but this post is getting long enough.  So now onto my new toy, which could be considered DGYDD's birthday present....

Isn't it pretty??  Oh the places we'll go!  I'm going to give her some sort of name like Betty or Lucy or Eleanor, so stay tuned for that announcement.  I will have a story that will tie along with the name I choose.  

So Happy Birthday DGYDD!  You have been a fun and challenging experience for me.  Thanks to everyone who has read along or even possibly been inspired to cook or create along with me.  I hope you are looking forward to another year and continue to check in from time to time.  As always...Enjoy!