It seems that I’ve once again neglected a blog. No matter, here’s a summary of what happened in 2011 (and bits and pieces of all the content I never got around to writing). Picture heavy post ahead!

In February, D’Ann got her first doll. She’d been wanting one for some time so I hit up Volks to see if they still had any in stock. Fortunately, they still had a Miu available after the DP event so I picked her up. Even though it was still a few months before D’Ann’s birthday, I let it slip that I already had the present. Here’s what happened…

Of course, Miu wasn’t the only doll to join our family this year. I had also acquired the newly released Saber Lily as well as Reimu! On the custom front, we brought in an MDD and another DDS (Umi and Kitsune). With the new dolls, we had to rethink our strategy for displaying them all…

With all these new dolls, the logical thing to do would be to take pictures of them. What better way to do that by traveling with them? They went everywhere with us this year, including to Raleigh for Animazement and our road trip to Saratoga Springs, NY, Ithaca, NY, Niagara Falls, and Louisville, KY.

Of course, we had a good time too…

Maid of the Mist in Niagara Falls

Niagara at night

Lobby of the Seelbach Hilton in Louisville, KY

Horse racing at Saratoga Race Course

Dolls weren’t the only thing we took into our home this year! We also adopted a a Flame Point Siamese cat from a local animal rescue. His name is Dakota and he is a total sweetheart! His mellow temper really lets him get along with Sophie.

On the photography front, I started dabbling in the world of film again. Since we have a few classic film SLRs laying around, I started shooting a few rolls of film here and there instead of using the D7000. I’m pleased with the results and I’ll keep doing it! Taking away the crutch of digital really forces me to be a better (and more frugal) photographer. XD

My two “new” cameras, Canon AE-1 (left) and Nikon FE (right)

So far I only have samples from the Canon, but I’m looking forward to shooting with the Nikon in 2012! It’s significantly more advanced than the Canon in terms of features and it’ll also take the majority of my lenses!

Finally, the big news of the year is that D’Ann and I got engaged. We found the perfect ring in Louisville while browsing the estate jewelry section and knew it was the one for us! It has some beautiful details and features leaf patterns around the diamond.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture I know of that shows her wearing it… XD

That’s it for 2011… I hope 2012 brings us just as much excitement!

Happy New Year!