2012 NEW YEAR, NEW DO'S

It's that time again! Making that list of resolutions, choking down black eyed peas (canned if you cheat like MOI), and adding cabbage for good luck and good measure (coleslaw from the grocery deli works for SL!).

Looking back, did you achieve those goals? Did you do what you promised? Did you do any of those things you jotted down Jan. 1, 2011?

SL looks back, and sure 'nuf, having fun was No.1 on the list, and she did it in spades! Traveled solo (not so much fun), joined a gym and took pilates, and thanks to the holidays GAINED 8 lbs., not lost any (not so good).

What's more "fun" than standing in the TSA line at the airport getting frisked by Brunehilda? Getting to your destination.

This year it was Spexy's year to fly! Beaver Creek in January to eat mounds of chocolate. April to Florida for martinis on the sugar beaches of Long Boat Key. May to the deserts of Tucson. June to party with the Sis-tahs in the Colorado Rockies and bid mom 'good-bye' down the South Platte River. July beach bumming in Laguna. August to Boulder to channel those college move-in days. October to Halloween in Tubac, AZ.

And finally! The dash to the last of 2011-- a 3-city trip. Boston, Charleston and Breckenridge, Colo, all in one week! Now that's my kind of year!

Too bad Spexy didn't have all those flights on AA to run up the miles.

So what can top 2011?

2012 is the year of the knee -- is that a Chinese symbol? Thanks to a back-hand return gone bad, and years of skiing on that repaired knee with the Frankenstein scar, it's time for the latest and greatest new knee! A Triathalon Knee that should be ready for the slopes by next Christmas. Through the miracle of technology, a very, very cool and pretty cute knee surgeon, and lots of pain meds, Spexy should be back in 5-inch Manolos, and the newest Rossignol skis this time next year.

This is the big resolution this year: get back on the slopes, and conquer the greens! With visions of perfectly groomed runs, diamond-sparkling snow-covered pines, and chic new ski garb, Spexy Lady is pumped (no Manolo pun intended!) for 2012.

Like the song, "Seasons of Love" from "Rent" notes, there are 525,600 minutes in a year. How do you measure a year?

Yours truly is going to measure every minute closer to Beaver Creek's Haymeadow Bunny Slope!

How will you measure your year?

Happy Spex-tacular 2012!

WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR DASH?

If there's one thing this high-heeled fashionista loves, it's luncheons where the Manolos can come out of the closet and see the light of day. Some luncheons are just too "lunchy,"-- filled with nice, benign conversations over rubber chicken covered in some kind of goop, and bread hard enough to cause a concussion if it hit someone.

Today's luncheon of the week was anything but that. SL had plenty to ponder after the speaker talked about that dash we'll have decorating our tombstone someday. The dash between our birth date and our date of death is truly life's most important punctuation mark. She challenged the audience of women entrepreneurs to ask, "What are you doing with your dash?" Now that's really some food for thought!

Steve Jobs' dash, one would expect, would be long and thick, reflecting someone who had filled that dash to the brim with life-altering technology that made lives better in endless ways. Evelyn Lauder's 75 years would be a beautiful, colorful, long dash drawn for not only her contributions to the beauty industry, but also to breast cancer research with her endless support for finding a cure.

I'd like to think my dash would be long on making a difference in at least one life along the way, and that it would probably have a few cracks here and there for the stumbles, failures, mended fences, and a broken heart or two. Interestingly, if you look really, really closely at the dash on a headstone, it's not a razor sharp line. It waves slightly, microscopically, in the marble, granite or cement tombstone it sits in. Rather like our lives, that aren't so perfect, but meaningful nevertheless.

Every day I plan to challenge myself and ask, "What am I doing with my dash today?" How can I fill it up, make it strong, make it matter.

Something to think about before that dash is carved in stone.

WHEN PATIENCE PAYS

Spexy Lady would hardly be called a patient person. Somehow, SL was doing something else-- perhaps shoe shopping-- and didn’t get the memo on “Patience is a virtue.” But being the hard-headed redhead that she is, she's had to suck it up and BE PATIENT, lest she lose her entire Manolo Money Fund to the high-roller math mavericks on Wall Street.

And Math Mavericks they are! Get this...98 percent of the stock market is controlled not by your garden variety stockbroker, but by computers. Tech-wizards with genius IQs work up endless algorithms that would make your head spin like that scary scene from “The Exorcist.”

What’s a Manolo Maven like moi to do when there seems no end in sight to the latest dizzying stock market gyrations? She does what any smart shopper would do. She checks out the sales!

But these sales are not for the faint of heart, and there's more to be lost than some undersized pair of jeans that hang in your closet with the tags still on. These are the kind of sales you shop with a real money pro. When SL goes it alone, she might be inclined to buy something that doesn’t “fit” or costs too much, or simply just isn’t a good buy.

Spexy's go-to shopping buddy is her shrewd, savvy financial advisor, worth her weight in gold (whether it's up or down). It’s hard enough for the experts to navigate the shark-infested Wall Street waters these days, let alone trying to do it on your own!

So listen up dear readers, day-trader wanna be's, or new students of The Street.

If you want to dip your toe into the market and score some good buys out there, arm yourself with good advice – whether you visit those smart people at places like Fidelity, call Chuck at Schwab, or sign on with a financial advisory firm that charges fair fees. Check ‘em out as closely as you would a nanny for your precious babies through sites like www.adviserinfo.sec.gov.

For tips on good buys, pop in on CNBC’s "Mad Money" host, Jim Cramer (photo above), airing daily at 5p CST Central, 6pm ET. His mantra is "Buy America." What a thought! Consider purchasing stock in strong, healthy U.S.-based companies that pay dividends in the 3% and up range. While your picks are riding the Wall Street Roller Coaster, they’ll be paying you to wait out the storm with a nice dividend check. And that’s the kind of waiting Spexy Lady likes—getting paid to wait.

The smart money says, "Be patient, don’t put all your eggs in one stock-basket,' and ease in knowing it could well be a couple of years or more before the skies clear.

Parting thoughts: Keep some powder (not face powder) dry to pad that Manolo Fund with cash for six-months to a year’s worth of income, 'cause you never want to run out of Manolos.

And that's your Spexy-nomics lesson for the day!