2013

2012 kind of sucked.  There were some good parts, the whole first part of the year was pretty good.  But then in September when Keith had his accident things just kind of sucked, ha.  SO, 2013 is going to be great.  Not for any specific reason, but just because I'm hoping it will, haha.

Keith & I are heading to Chicago on Thursday and we're going to create a list of things that we want to do this summer.  It was actually Keith's idea to make this list (and I'm definitely going to be borrowing some things from my list, haha.).  For the past two summers, we didn't go camping until September.  & we didn't take his boat out ONCE.  This summer we want to do something every weekend.  Go to Jays games, go camping, take his boat out, go on weekend trips, go see my sheep, maybe rent a cottage for a long weekend.  The first thing on our list will be GO TO CHICAGO.  & the second?  Eat deep dish pizza in Chicago.  Haha.

Are there any things you want to do in the new year?  Not necessarily resolutions, just fun things that you're hoping to do.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Made from Books

A Peek at My Week... 46!

Keith & I went to the Burger Barn.  The Blazin' burger with a side of guacamole is so goooooood.

Went to my Nana's with Squirt for a visit.  They love each other.

Still loving this salad... so good.

& still loving my DavidsTea advent calendar!

Craft show!  I still need to do a post about this.

My Secret Santa Mel came to visit me at the craft show!

My sweet girl.

AH. I'm almost completely caught up with these posts!  Haha.  I probably should have posted this yesterday so I could have posted the post from last week today, but whatever.  So these photos are from December 3rd-9th.  I was still feeling a bit sick (and I STILL have a cough and the past couple days my sore throat came back.  It's been over 4 weeks!  When is this cold going to go away... bah.) and spent most of this week doing last minute things for my craft show.  

The other day I went to upload some photos from my point & shoot camera, and all of the photos from the past couple of weeks were GONE.  So I downloaded a program to re-store photos, and they're still on the memory card... just hidden.  So I went through all of the steps & just as I was about to re-store them, it asked for 30-something dollars.  AH.  Haha.  So I'm going to take it to Black's and hopefully they'll be able to help me out.  But I'm missing some photos from Alex's Christmas party on the Friday night (which was a ton of fun!), photos from my birthday dinner and that, and all of the photos from me & Jesse's birthday party! So, that's a bummer... hopefully I'll be able to get those photos back. 

This weekend Keith & I have a couple of parties to go to, and I've got some presents to wrap (unless my sister will help me out and wrap them for me... I hate wrapping presents, haha.).  Then it's CHRISTMAS.  I'm really hoping we get some snow, because it doesn't really feel like Christmas!  What are your plans for this weekend?

Birthday Blanket!

Last year I kind of started a tradition of making myself a blanket with yarn that Keith got me for my birthday.  I'm always buying yarn, but I never really make anything for myself.  So when Keith surprised me with a ton of yarn last year, I decided to make myself a blanket.  This year, he took me out & told me to get what I wanted.  I picked out 7 different colours and decided to make another blanket.  But it took me a while to figure out what kind of blanket to make.  I've made a few different crocheted blankets in the past, and kind of wanted to do something different.  I decided on the granny stripe blanket, which is pretty similar to a few blankets I've already made, but a bit different. 

ANYWAY, here is the blanket!  It's grown quite a bit since I took these photos the other day:

And this is the blanket from last year. I've added more of a border since these photos:

For those of you who knit or crochet (or really make anything!), do you ever make something for yourself?  Or are you always giving things away &/or selling them?   The only things I ever really make for myself are blankets, and I love my growing collection!

Secret Santa!

Hey, remember back in May when I went to that blogging conference & met up with a bunch of awesome people?  Well we have this group on facebook that we're all part of so we can stay in touch.  Kait came up with the idea to do a secret Santa gift exchange, and when I was in Toronto the other weekend for my craft show, my "secret Santa" came to give me my gift!  I had a biiiiiiit of an idea of who she was... haha!  I was super pumped to see Mel again!  And she totally spoiled me.  Totally.  It was really nice to hang out with her for a bit & I hope that we get a chance to hang out again soon!

AND, I also received this lovely package in the mail, that was a total surprise!  Thank you so much, Courtney!   I'm so excited to try a Tim Tam Slam!  Haha.  Awesome!  (That box of tea had a bit of a rough adventure on the way over from Australia, haha!)

These two awesome packages made me really excited to start putting some surprise packages together for friends!  Starting every Sunday in the new year... you guys have to hold me accountable!  Haha.

A Peek at My Week... 45!

I was just getting over my laryngitis, so I drank a lot of tea. ...okay, I drink a lot of tea anyway.  Ha.  But I really enjoyed the tea that Jules gave me!  So good.

I babysat sweet little Sophie!  She loves cell phones, ha.

I had been wanting to try this out for quite a while.  It was pretty good!  The chunks at the bottom kind of freaked me out a little bit, but it was good.

...I love pepper.  & ketchup.  On eggs.  Mmm.

Keith wasn't angry, I swear!  Hahahaha.

Started the Davidstea tea a day!  I wish there was one of these for every month, ha.  Seriously.

Lots of tea drinking, as usual.  I had so much fun hanging out with Sophie!  She really is the sweetest little kid.  And she's so freaking smart!   Keith and I went over to see Jesse on his birthday on Tuesday and over the period of two weeks she had learned a bunch of new words!  This Saturday is Jesse & my annual birthday bash (haha) at their house, so Keith and I are heading over earlier before Sophie goes to stay with her grandparents for the night to hang out with her.  She's so adorable.  As soon as she's potty trained, Keith & I are going to keep her forever.  (Haha!  Just kidding Jesse & Lauren...)

I've been having a lot of fun with DAVIDsTEA 24 Days of Tea!  It's the best advent calendar ever.  I've got a chance to try out a few new teas that I haven't even thought of trying, and I think some of them are going to become new favourites.  I pitched the idea of them having one every month, so hopefully it will happen... ha!  It's the ultimate tea lover's gift. 

Also, can I just say how weird it would feel to celebrate my birthday & not have a Christmas tree in the room?  I would sometimes get bummed out that I could never have a pool party or do fun summer-y things for my birthday when I was a kid, but it would be so strange to not have a Christmas tree around or not have an advent calendar to check in the morning when I woke up... having a birthday in December is pretty good, I think.  No snow this year, but that's okay... Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday!

What do you have planned for this weekend?  Like I mentioned, it's the big birthday party tomorrow & that is always a blast.  Sunday will probably be a very lazy day with some reading & crocheting involved. 

12/12/12!! BIRTHDAY!!

Today is 12/12/12!!  Which means... it's my birthday!  Wooooooooo!  I'm off for a (pretty late) breakfast with Keith, then we're heading to one of my favourite yarn stores & Starbucks for my free birthday drink!  Then dinner later on.  Woooooooooo!  Hope you guys all have a great day!

A Peek at My Week... 43! & 44!

Went out for lunch with my sister.  That salad was a lot better than it looks... haha.  It was delicious. (& so was the creamy tomato soup I had with it.  Yum.)

We went out to eat and have some drinks for Skylar's birthday.  This was the only photo that somewhat turned out, ha.

I got a beautiful package in the mail from Megan! 

Tried out the new froyo place, and mochi.  Mochi is weird?  Chewy?

It snowed!  A little bit, anyway.  Squirt loved it.  She runs around and licks the snow.

Got my order from DavidsTea!

Ate more of my new favourite salad.  (spinach and/or mixed greens, feta, avocado, cherry tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil & some herbs and spices.  DELICIOUS.)

I got suuuuuuuper sick around week 44... haha so there aren't a whole lot of photos.  I started off with a sore throat, and then I started feeling a bit better but I completely lost my voice.  For days.  And the sore throat came back.  Now I just have a dry cough that comes up in the middle of the night... but my voice is back.  Er, mostly.  Yesterday I woke up and it was kind of going away again, ha.  Laryngitis sucks.  It takes so much energy out of you to try & talk.  It's funny for the first 20 minutes or so, but then it just starts to drive ya crazy, ha. 

Anyway, it was a nice mail week!  Got an awesome new hoop for my art wall (I need to take some new photos of the wall!  I've added some new things.) and some delicious tea, haha. 

This week I'm hoping on catching up on all of my letter writing!  I've got a few packages I need to put together and send and way too many letters.  I also want to do lots of reading, I'm so close to my goal of 52 books for this year... and on Wednesday it's my birthday!  What are your plans for this week?