It was a tough decision to make as I’m quite fond of this name, but it’s proven to be difficult to explain, understand and repeat (how many people say kapone – two?)

I hope you’ll continue to read me at the new URL and it will still be the same great site you’ve come to love.  Everything has been moved over and kaponetwo.com will be phased out over the next month.

Please update your links to: http://www.carlyanne.com and RSS feed/reader to: http://feeds.feedburner.com/carlyannecom

A big thank you to everyone who has read, commented and supported my blog   You make my day!

I can’t wait to see what the next year will bring.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given to deal with conflict?

Tomorrow I am making an announcement at my agency.  It’s the first new challenge I am undertaking in 2010 and I am excited about it.  I was thinking a lot today about where I was this time last year and I realized that I had made my most important goal of 2009 come true.  To work for myself and not need another job to pay the bills.  Now I am certainly not living a life of luxury.  Being a commission-based business definitely has me pinching my pennies and cutting out a lot of the luxuries I enjoyed from a salaried position.  But I am no longer miserable for 8 hours a day.  I am the happiest that I have ever been in my adult life and I have a positive outlook (and plans) to help me grow my business and bring in more income.  I love what I do and where I am headed and I’m lucky to have the support of my family and friends.

I’m not really a resolution type of person, more of a “set goals and try to achieve them” type, so here are the goals I’ve made for myself so far this year.

• Sew more clothing for myself
• Create more quality content for my blog.
• Design a blog identity – layout, logo and header.
• Get my office set up so it is a more productive space.
• Organize my business to run more efficiently and set goals.
• Use a hard copy day planner again – I have been trying to get my hands on a 2010 Moleskin Color A Month – anyone know where I can get one in Toronto?  I can’t get one from the US for 2-3 months now.
• Take more “Me” time – try to take at least an hour a day where I am unplugged and unavailable.
• Find a good, local Yoga class or instructor at practice at least once a week
• Live a greener lifestyle and try to influence those around me to adopt greener practices
• Get involved with a charity – I just have to pick one, or ones.  Suggestions are more than welcome,
• Cook more and eat a more balanced vegetarian diet.  I’m a sucker for pasta every night.
• Go on my first all-inclusive, exotic vacation (I’ve only been to England and all over North America).  I don’t really care where, just somewhere there is sun, sand and water that I can see the bottom of.
• UPDATE: Another goal was to get my blog a PageRank and I just went to check it out and I went from 0 to 2 in the last month!  Thank you
  

I feel like this is a good start.  I’ve enjoyed my staycation the past week and cannot wait to get back to work on Monday.

Have you set any goals for the year?

After having it up for a week I really wanted to change up the decorations.  So we went to Mom & Dad’s for dinner (where I found my paintings) and I took my box of ornaments.  Mom has been giving us kids an ornament every year on Christmas Eve since we were born and I have always wanted to put them on my own tree.

This was my first one.  I was supposed to be born on Dec 25, 1980 but I was exactly a week late, so they put a sticker over the 0.  haha.

Kathryn and I did the switch and it was really fun to remember all the years past when the three of us kids would decorate.  We would each get to put the angel on top every three years to be equal and Mom would play the Sesame Street Christmas record.  Do you remember that?  I remember listening to “The Count” sing all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth when I was about 7 and was missing my two front teeth.  haha.

Here is my tree version 2.

I’ll have to get a better photo tonight when it’s dark.

I am so excited for Christmas!

Toronto Dentist

Instead of bringing out the albums of baby pictures, Mom went one better and brought out some of our old artwork.  Here are my paintings from 1987.

Carly, Bird & My Little Pony

Teddy Bear Picnic

Carly & Sunny #1

Carly & Snowman

Carly, Kristin & Bunny

As you can tell, I was a very talented child.  I mean, just look at the sunglasses in the Bunny painting.  Pure talent.

I did not pursue art after this and my talent level is still on par with these masterpieces.  I would sell these, or maybe even donate to a gallery, but my mother will not let them out of her possession.

I’m ridiculous.

Happy Rainy Wednesday.

This is a photo of me and my horse Summer Breeze aka Breeze, at the Sunderland Fair in ‘96. She was a Pony of the Americas and I bought her with my own money made from acting.  I had her on our family farm until it was sold, and then she and my sister’s pony Bear went to live on a horse farm that a friend of ours owned.  Breeze was the most amazing horse I ever knew and we were a great team.  She passed away about a year ago of old age, approx 30, and she had a great life.

I found this photo a while ago in a memory box and had it on a shelf for a bit.  It’s a good memory to leave on here

I’m changing my look completely it seems, and with pink hair I needed a really good haircut. I decided to make the trek up to Oshawa to Aquilibrium Salon to see my cousin Jeri, who is an amazing hairdresser.  It is definitely worth the drive to Oshawa to see her.   She always has the best hair and I knew she would be the perfect person to reinvent mine.

I had a feeling we would go shorter and this is the shortest my hair has ever been.  I haven’t dyed it since the first time and it was fading, so she used a conditioner for red hair and it brightened my colour up.  I hadn’t thought of doing that before, but it’s a pretty good idea.  It looks like I have pink and blonde highlights.

It’s weird not to have any hair touching the back of your neck.  Jeri shaved above my right ear down to the back of my neck.  It’s almost like an undercut, which I secretly wanted when I was in high school.  I was never brave enough to do it.

I am so happy with new hair!  Thanks so much Jeri!  I love it!