Hello, friends, and Happy New Year! Did you have some time off? I hope so – and I hope it was good to you.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the new year inspires us to reflect on our lives and resolve to do things better, to be better people. I wish it were easy to recapture throughout the year the hope, enthusiasm, and energy I feel (I think most of us feel) right now.

I’ve been giving a lot of thought to time – how I manage my time, how I’d like to manage it better, what I choose to spend my time doing. I’ve learned that I have to protect the time to do the things I really like doing. Sometimes I am successful with this, and sometimes I am not. It is and always will be a constant effort and struggle.

IKEA cookbook / photos styled by Evelina Bratell (via CRAFT)

Some things I’d like to spend more time doing this year including cooking and baking. I often settle for eating food that tastes ok, but not great. Why do I do this? Why not make every meal an opportunity to eat something that tastes fantastic? Because I don’t spend any time thinking about what I would actually like to eat and I don’t protect the time to plan meals. I’m lucky to have a husband who cooks great dinners. I need to take better care of what I eat for breakfast and lunch.

I also want to read more books. I was such a bookworm when I was a kid. As an adult, I read hundreds of blogs, I read the news online, and I read the New Yorker regularly. But books? Hardly ever anymore.

Maira Kalman is one of my heroes. I bought “And the Pursuit of Happiness” the other day (you can see much of it on the New York Times blog she wrote), and I am savoring every page: her beautiful paintings, her quirky writing, her impeccable taste. When I’m finished with it, I am going to read “The Happiness Project” by Gretchen Rubin. Have you read it? For the past couple of months, I’ve been feeling a little overwhelmed by work, blogging, housework, holidays and the girls’ birthdays. I’m hoping the Happiness Project will give me some insight to keeping a smile on my face and a positive attitude on the days when I’d rather feel sorry for myself.

I called this post “Charlotte’s Fancy in 2011” because as I’ve been thinking about how I manage my time and what I’d like to accomplish in 2011, I have to admit that writing blog posts every day—even if I write some in advance—takes up almost all of my free time. There are days when I like what I post, but don’t love what I post, and I want to always love what I post. There are days when I go to bed too late because I am trying to finish a post, or I don’t get something else done (housework, reading, planning meals, etc) because I am writing a blog post instead. So for 2011, I’m allowing myself to just play things by ear and not require myself to write every day, which I hope you understand.

I still want to share my favorite paper goods and design, my favorite handmade shops and whatever else strikes my fancy. And I will still be writing over at Pushing Papers too – in fact, I’ve got many favorites to share already, and I’ve got a whole new stash of great paper goodies for my shop from Linda & Harriet, Marimekko, Sanna Annukka, and others. I will be adding new items to my shop this month, but you should know that the pretty flowered cloth drawstring bags are limited edition – when they are sold out, they are gone for good, so don’t miss your chance to have one. At $17 each (and one smaller one for $12), I think they are a great deal.

If you have some new year’s resolutions, or thoughts on what you’d like to see on Charlotte’s Fancy this year, I’d love to hear them.