New year, new family, new life. You guys, my post-wedding vacation has been good, and if I vow to do anything this year, it’s less. I feel all bubbly and rejuvenated, my creativity re-birthed after a brief hiatus from all things project-intensive, and like with most disciplines, with a mental reprieve, things just get better. I’m back.

I’m using the term hiatus lightly. We might have been staycation-honeymoonin’ this last week, but we couldn’t help but get started on a few new projects while we basked in wedded bliss (and ate a helluva lot of leftover wedding meatballs and Christmas cookies). These projects were mostly spurred by the exchange of Christmas gifts including, but not limited to welding, cooking, etching, drywalling, and a new found love for burning wood (I always have known that pyrography is awesome, but being able to do it artfully without destroying candles or creating a fire in the backyard large enough to concern my watchful neighbors is seriously fantastic).

The beautiful events that took place over the last few weeks are more than I can explain in any short post (and I’m not really a gusher), but I’m sure you’ll begin to piece it all together as I share all kinds of details of my holiday season in the coming weeks. I think what I’m most excited about in all of it is that none of it is holiday-centric, and very little of it is wedding-centric, meaning that the projects we took on for the event were actually very universally likable, so the onslaught of posts of projects-past isn’t going to feel like an episode of Four Weddings nor like your feed on Pinterest during the holiday-intensive month of December, pinkie swear. I’ll be back tomorrow with a fresh DIY Network post for the New Year, and then will pop back in on Friday with the first of many DIY posts ranging from:

• How I almost killed a pastry chef but instead channeled my energies into making a wedding cake topper;

• How I sourced myself a lot of prickly pine and then crafted gorgeous garlands;

• How I learned that succulents, while an indoor plant, are still considered seasonal at the common home improvement garden centers, and moreover, how I created utterly adorable favors in mass inspired by Rachel at Transient Expression;

• And how I made lush bouquets that, in all honesty, should outlive me.

And so much more. There is so, so much more. I can’t wait to catch up with you as well, so if I missed anything big in the blogging world while I was silent, send me some clues!