Yes and Yes

One of my favorite blogs is Yes and Yes. It’s filled with positivity (just look at the title) and great To Do lists and little quips of joy and inspiration that make you want to go out and take on the world – in a positive way.

The writer of the blog puts out a Year in Yes calendar. I ordered one this year and it is so much fun. It has random holidays you didn’t know existed, days ear marked with cool things to do or try (Cultivate a new laugh on January 25^th or Learn the names of clouds on May 14^th, for example). Each month also has a specific list about yourself to write out. And a place at the bottom to keep note of the things that happened that month that you loved.

The list for this month is: New Things I’ll Try This Year.

Here’s my list (so far):

- Retry Indian food. Every time I’ve had it in the past, I’ve hated it. But as a vegetarian, it is always suggested to me. My taste palette has changed a lot, so maybe I’d like it now. I used to hate sushi and can’t get enough of it now, so who knows? But I’m willing to give it a shot. Just, nothing spicy.

- Touring. Okay, so this one completely relies on if finances and vacations are plentiful and if I think my album is doing well enough in certain areas to actually venture out. I’ll figure this out once I get my final report back from the radio promotion company I’m using.

- Learning The Banjo – WELL. I have a banjo. I got it for my birthday last year. It is a much more difficult instrument to play than I thought it would be. I thought since I play guitar and the ukulele that picking up the banjo would be a cinch. Not so. So I really want to concentrate on learning how to play it.

- Learning To Play Piano – WELL. I can play the piano. I know the chords, I can hit the chords. I just do it more slowly than I would like to and I still have trouble with one hand doing one thing and the other doing something completely different. So I want to work on this.

- Sending Out Holiday Cards. I want to send out holiday cards. And I don’t mean wishy washy Christmas cards or a picture of Matt and me or a yearly update letter, but I want to make something and send it out at the end of the year to friends and family. I really want to focus on being as creative as possible this year.

- Become An Expert At Cooking At Least One Dish. Right now the only dish I know how to make is Broccoli and Cheese Casserole. It serves me well at holiday get togethers, but I need to learn how to make something a little lighter and versatile. Something I can whip up at home for dinner or bring to dinner parties.

- Learn To Sew. I don’t want to make scarves or blankets, but I do want to learn how to sew a button back onto a sweater if I need to.

The one thing that just came to me this morning and I thought would be super fun to try to do is start a “Mix Tape Trade Off”, but with CDs, of course. I love getting CD mixes. I love making CD mixes. Wouldn’t it be fun if once every couple of months you got several mix CDs full of new songs from your friends in the mail? 1. Getting presents in the mail is awesome. 2. Getting new music is awesome. How could this not be fun? But I’m really bad at organizing things like these, so we’ll see if that happens.

One new thing you should try this year is reading Yes and Yes. It really is a great blog with cool features. And the Year in Yes calendar is currently on sale.