“Can I touch it, or should I be wearing gloves?”

Those were the first words out of my travelling companion’s mouth when we got off the train in Blue River last week. Tom was asking about the snow – something he had never before witnessed, having grown up in Australia.

When Tom boarded the train with me in Vancouver on the evening of Dec. 30, he had only been in Canada for a few days. And, of course, having only been on the wet west coast, he hadn’t yet laid eyes on the white fluffy stuff that we welcome to our country every winter.

Laughing at his excitement and ignorance, I told him he could pick it up, but warned him it would be cold.

“It feels just like ice,” he said, as he grabbed a chunk of hardened snow off the ground.

Seeing Tom experience snow for the first time was one of my favourite moments during my Christmas holidays. 

I love those moments of awe, whether they belong to me or someone else; they remind me that there is always something new to learn or see or do, no matter how old you are. And what a perfect time to be reminded of such a thing, just before a new year began.

So here I am at the outset of 2012, thinking of all the things I’d like to learn, do and see this year. 

Now, I’m not normally the type to make new year’s resolutions, as, in most cases, they just set you up for failure, but this year, I figure, what the heck. In an earlier column, I already committed to composting, so I might as well set a few more goals for 2012 to ensure I experience some of my own awe-inspiring moments.

Like, for example, looking in the mirror while wearing a dress I made from scratch to fit my exact shape. Now, this is a big goal. It’s one that I feel will truly take a year to complete, since I don’t yet know how to sew and the last time I attempted to use my sewing machine, I ended up with a tangled mess of thread that is still sitting there today.

I figure, if by December I  make one dress I can proudly wear out of the house, I will have outdone myself. It’s not like I’m trying to become the next clothing designer to win Project Runway. It’s more about creating more clothing options for myself, while also learning a new skill. 

It will also be a good way to save money, because once I know how to sew, I can re-invent clothes I find at the church thrift store.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that I want 2012 to be a year of environmentally friendly crafting and creating. I want to learn how things are made and then make them, and if possible, I’d like to make them out of recycled materials.

I actually just bought a book, called The Bust DIY Guide to Life, that can help me achieve my goal.

Basically, it’s a do-it-yourself encyclopedia, with 250 DIY projects ranging from sewing clothes to making cheese.

I don’t know that I’ll ever make my own cheese – as I fear what my house would smell like – but there are a ton of other projects that I’m dying to try, like making my own chap stick, soap and eco-friendly deodorant. 

Part of me thinks it’s silly to make my own, when I can just go to the store and purchase beauty products with little to no effort, but at the same time, how cool would it be to know exactly what goes into the products you use everyday?

Also, by making products myself, I can reuse old chap stick containers and deodorant containers, rather than just throwing them out, which totally fits in with my goal of undertaking environmentally friendly projects.

For a girl that doesn’t like new year’s resolutions, I think I’ve outdone myself. 

Now the pressure’s on to stay true to my goals, so I can have a whole year of awe-inspiring DIY moments.

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.