Welcome to the other side of the New Year, homies. I know this isn't our first post of the year but since you all were spending the better part of last week sleeping off your hangover, we're pretending this is day one. So, welcome '09. Holla. We here at DC headquarters aren't so big on New Year's resolutions but we are big on lists. We've made quite a catalog of goals for the upcoming 12 months and, while we may be flying too close to the Hayon Chandelier on wings of wax, we're going to do our best to stick to them, gosh darn it.

Here's a preview of what we have in store:

Sanders has already given you the lowdown on the best blacks, whites and grays of the Benjamin Moore Palette as well as introduced you to the color trends of 2009 but to prove his genius goes beyond broad strokes and that he truly is the King Of Paint, Sanders will become a regular consultant at Design Crisis. Do you have a room in need of a color makeover but don't know where to start? Or perhaps you know the color you want but have been banging your head against a wall filled with all the wrong color samples. No worries, you can send us your images and info on the room, we'll program it into the Sanders-bot 3000 and boop, beep, boop, voila a perfect selection of swatches custom made for you. pssst, don't send these to us yet, we'll have a fancy new email adress for your submissions.

OK, admittedly, this featured artist thing won't happen every Friday, or maybe not even on Friday at all, but we're all geared up to bring you a bevy of fresh new designers both local and abroad. We've already got 3 in the cooker that I am oh-so-excited about so put on your soft-sculpture helmet, buckle your upholstery-grade seat belt and get ready for a 100 mph ride through featured designville.

The goal closest to my heart this new year is to bring in the Benjamin's. See that little column to the right of this post? Now, imagine your name in big bright lights RIGHT THERE. Yep, we're dressing up our advertising section with new sponsorship packages and opportunities to show off your design business. We've already been lucky enough to grab a few fantastic sponsors - unveiling to come later this week - but hey, we're not ashamed to want more.

And just to show that we're not a bunch of bitter cast offs tearing up everyone else's handy work, we'll be unveiling our own small range of Design Goods over at everyone's favorite online flea market, Etsy. Look, if we get this one crossed off on December 31st then we will still have met our deadline.

Speaking of selling stuff on Etsy, we will also be shifting (a very small portion) of our focus from the excessively unattainable to the design-conscious small business ventures that make our hearts go pitter pat. Our focus will not only be on the awesome products that these dudes produce but also on how they run their business complete with tips for success and how not to run your company into the ground in the first week.

If you're going to run a business then you just may need to know how to make something. Enter: Our D.I.Y. guides. I swear to god I will finally break down and type up some of those how-tos I've been promising you for the last 6 months. It can be a little daunting trying to throw sparkle and pizzazz into step by step instructions that involve a lot of math and ironing, ok?

With all this crap we have lined up for ourselves we're probably going to need to have a few guest blogging editions. This half-baked idea has not spent nearly enough time with me, erin and a bottle of vodka* so I can't promise any amazing up-and-coming segments but I'm sure that once we get around to it, your scene-loving heads will be blown right off

*vodka for me only, Erin can't have it for 7 more months. ha ha

But don't let all this talk of brew-ha-ha get you down, there will still be plenty of this: