Goals for 2018

I've been MIA for the longest I've ever been from blogging. It's nothing personal, you guys. I haven't even read any blogs in months. My life shifted focus for a bit, that's all.

Let me go back for a minute and recap, for my own sanity. Where I last left off, we were about to get all the floors in our house redone [link]. It's a long story that I may someday decide to tell, but it ended up taking two weeks longer than expected (it was only to be a week long project) and the installers broke, damaged, or ruined many other things in our house. While the floors are beautiful, the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth that I chose not to dwell on by documenting it for the blog. Although it's almost four months later, we are still working to get our house back in order.

In addition to all the house stuff, I've taken up a new hobby. I won't go into any real details here, but I've taken up some design work for myself. I'll hopefully have an etsy shop up and running soon, but most of my creative energy shifted away from blogging and into this new outlet.

Because of these two things, this blog became dusty. I felt some guilt about it at first, but that faded pretty quickly. I no longer have the delusion that this blog will be anything other than a way for me to remember my own life. I won't become some sort of overnight internet celebrity and this space will generate income. I miss that boat. Oh well.

So, to get back on track, I am back. No promises as to how often or in what capacity, but I did want to come back to continue my tradition of analyzing my resolutions from last year and create some new ones for 2018. Resolutions didn't go according to plan, either, but that doesn't necessarily mean it was a fail. I mean, I may give some 'F's, but that doesn't mean *I* am a failure.

Finally, successfully, learn how to drive stick shift. This 100% didn't happen. My new way of handling this is, when my husband starts talking about getting a new car (which he does ALL THE TIME), I ask, "Does that model come with Automatic?" Like, maybe I'll let him buy that fancy new Jeep if he gets it in Automatic. Eventually, I'll just phase out all his stick vehicles and I won't have this problem anymore, right? F

Write four blog posts a month. I did real good through August and then...zip. Nothing. So, like, that's not a complete failure, right? The flaw I found in forcing my self to write a certain number of posted is that I hoped it would motivate me to do more exciting things and then write about them. Instead, it just ends up being me writing about boring things in my life that I, nor anyone else, care to read about. D

Hang out with Dan more. This one really boils down to 'being more mindful of spending quality time together'. Rather than just sitting on our laptops next to each other, engaging in activities together. Having some spontaneous outings. Focusing on the 'friendship' portion of our relationship. And it was pretty good. I wasn't necessarily intentionally trying to achieve this goal, but it did end up happening throughout 2017 more than 2016. B

Read more. I definitely read a lot last year. A lot of great stuff. A lot of terrible stuff. One of the biggest revelations that came from this resolution is that you don't have to finish books. If you aren't enjoying a book and you already gave it 100 pages of effort, cut your losses and move on. This freed me up to try and read a bunch of stuff I wouldn't have before. I got weirdly into comic books. I have a whole other post planned about this that I'll post hopefully soon. but it was a weirdly successfully resolution. A

Find more ways to give back. This one was a cop out for me. I did give more this year, but it was mostly financially-based. I gave to charities and I gave big tips and bonuses to those around me at the holidays, but I failed to give back with my time or my energy. The opportunities didn't present themselves like they have in the past and I didn't go and seek them out. D

And now on to the new stuff!

Try a new recipe a month. This was one of my goals back in 2016 and it was great. It was quite a bit of pressure, so it fell off in 2017. I'm bringing it back and hopefully it will be easier this time because Dan is trying to be healthier. He can be a very picky eater, but it's been easier to deal with lately because if he is hesitant to try something new, I can play the 'it's healthy, just try it' card and it usually works.

Hide less from people. This is probably a 'me' specific problem, but I hate talking to people when I am out and about. Unless you are my best friend or my mom, I don't want to make small talk in Target. If you are a person I barely know, I will do the polite wave or head tilt across the grocery store, but I will go out of my way to avoid someone I knew in high school. It's starting to become a real problem for me and I need to train myself to bear the five minutes of awkward catch-up and move on.

Take a stab at bullet-journaling. In an effort to wrangle my scatter-braining, I've gotten myself a bullet-journal. It arrived on New Year's Eve and I've already started scribbling in it. I know I will never be as good at it as so many people on Pinterest and Youtube, but I just want all my notes in one place. No pressure, just doodles. Hopefully I'll eventually develop a system, but if I don't, no skin off my back.

Be more tidy. I am the type of person who takes her pants off and leaves them where they lie. Or who puts dishes in the sink even though the dishwasher is empty. In a pinch, I could make my house presentable in under 15 minutes. However, I'd like to not live in fear that the person ringing the doorbell will want to come inside. It doesn't save me any work in the long run by being sloppy so why not try to get it right the first time?

Reduce waste. I started this in 2017, but I want to go full 'hippie' this year. I've switched to canvas grocery bags. My sister got me a tumbler composter for Christmas. I've got reusable make-up wipes coming in the mail. I'm starting the year on the right foot, but I'd like to investigate more ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

So, that's my list. I've got more, but they are either too small to share here, too risky to believe I will actually complete them, or too personal. I'm trying not to overhype myself this year. Honestly, nothing changed between Sunday and Monday, other than the calendars, so why put all this sudden pressure on myself?

I believe this can be a good year and hope I am correct.

The Big Three Oh

In my new strategy of posting nothing in a relevant time period, let's talk about my birthday. My 30th birthday. The big 3-0.

As crazy as this sounds, I had kind of been planning my 30th birthday party for over a year. Before my 29th birthday last year, Dan knew I wanted a Roarin' 20's party and he wanted to throw it together for me at the last minute. As a perfectionist and planner, that clearly wasn't acceptable in my eyes. So I decided to not have a 29th birthday party and got to thinking about the big one the following year.

While I tried too not go too crazy, I've always wanted to throw a real party. A theme that didn't seem thrown together with random things from around the house. I bought a set of 50 disposable champagne glasses to build a pyramid, a big metal tub for cans and bottles, and balloons. I love balloons so much and there really aren't enough excuses to have them. I finally painted my strings of lights that I bought from Target summer clearance years ago. They got a good coat of gold spray paint and hung in the dining room and kitchen. I found printable signs and a banner and made a drinks menu. I made a playlist of 1920's music.

The main reason I wanted to have an "End of the 20's" party was to have an excuse to buy a flapper dress. I love the Art Deco aesthetic so much. I spent weeks going through almost every dress on Unique Vintage until I finally settled on this one. I wanted something not backless, something sparkly and flashy, and something not so costume-y that I could wear it again. While the dress is reusable, the rhinestone headband probably isn't. Originally, I ordered a more subtle, timeless headband, it was on back-order so I got this one at the last minute from Amazon instead.

While most of Dan's outfit he already owned, like a button-down, trousers, and shoes, some new suspenders really made it look vintage. At least three of our friends also wore suspenders and there was a whole side conversation of just how functional they are. I was actually really amazed at how many of my friends dressed up. When you have a group of nerds who never get to dress fancy an opportunity, they go all out.

My friends gave me some great gifts, most of them dinosaur related. Two of my friends made me a dinosaur terrarium. They used an insanely strong epoxy so it's still sitting outside letting the fumes dissipate, but I'm excited to find a place for it inside soon. Also, two different friends found a new home, with me, for three lawn dinosaurs that used to belong to his parents.

My dad gave me some really cool presents. For the most part, my dad is a fairly stoic guy. He's a fairly traditional dad and usually pretty predictable, but every once and a while, he gets ridiculously sentimental. For my 30th birthday, he gave me presents that corresponded with his 30th birthday. He went quail hunting that morning and had his biggest haul ever so he gave me a little ceramic quail. It was little dark for his vegetarian daughter, but it's the thought that counts, right?  He watched his favorite team, the Denver Broncos, take a last minute victory over Oakland, so I got a Denver jersey. Unfortunately not a 1984 style jersey, but a 1997 Elway is still pretty good. Lastly, he and my mom went and saw 'The Terminator' so I now have it on DVD (don't tell him I already had the 'Terminator' box set).

It was a really cute idea. He was amazed that I already knew the 'Terminator' story. He likes to talk about it more than he realizes since he uses seeing it as validation for picking good movies.

It was a very cute idea, one that I will probably mimic someday with my own children. So, for my future children, some day long from now, here's what your presents will be based on:

1) Going to brunch with my mom and my sister.
2) Exchanging the jacket my mom had given me as a gift because it was too small.
3) Watching the terrible Vin Diesel movie 'XXX: Return of Xander Cage' at the Roadhouse theater, stuffing my face with cheddar popcorn.
4) And ending the evening by watching Mostly Walking.

I don't how those will translate to gifts yet, but I'm sure it will be clever and annoying, as is family tradition.

I can't say that I feel 30 yet. It still hasn't hit me. I'm trying to embrace it but there's part of my brain that's fighting back. 30 year-olds don't have dinosaurs in their backyard. Thirty somethings have five or ten year plans. They are adults and make good decisions. I definitely feel like I have my life together now more than I did at 20 or 24, but over the last few years, I really started to figure myself out and I'm probably 95% there. I'm comfortable in who I am, even if that person isn't really an adult yet.

Goals for 2017

Well guys, we somehow survived 2016. Traditionally, 2016 should have been a good year for me. I love these odd fourth years with their summer Olympics and the leap years and all the intelligent political discussion. To quote myself, "It's gonna be a good one guys. Leap years always are."

Yeah...no...

But we came out the other side! Before going on to my feelings about the weird trip that 2017 will be, let's reflect a bit back on 2016: how did I do on my resolutions?

• Find two doctors: general and ob/gyn. Technically, complete success! I've found two doctors, but I haven't booked appointments yet, so I don't fail on a technicality! Any progress is something when this resolution has lived on my lists for years now. C
• Take a vacation. Utter success! Kauai was beautiful and we needed that trip. And one of these days, I'll finish writing about it (Parts 1 & 2 here)! A+
• Be more proactive on home projects. Well, given that the demolition of the blue bathroom was my doing, I stepped up my game. I ripped out the old carpet and started the ball rolling on the renovation. My hands more dirty this year than any before, but it could have been more. I could have completed more, so points off for that. B
• Blog a new recipe once a month. I was hoping that this goal would get me baking and cooking more and make me more adventurous. It did, slightly, but the problem arose that the only things new I wanted to make were terrible for me. So, while this was a complete success, I may need to find a different way to keep this up if I want to keep wearing my pants. (You can visit my recipe blog here). A+
• Get a promotion. Well, there are posts upon posts that I could write about this, but short answer: it didn't happen. However, the lack of promotion is not due to any failure on my part. This year made me better at what I do and we'll see in the upcoming months how that shakes out. This will be an interesting year for me career-wise...C
• Disconnect from technology more. I failed. If anything, I'm more connected now than I was a year ago. I've fallen victim to too many good computer games. It's still a valid goal, but I don't know the proactive way to create lastly change. F
• Make grocery shopping a priority/routine. This one was an accident that's work out well. I've started taking an early Saturday morning Zumba class and I hit the grocery store afterwards on my way home. The store is quiet, the house is stocked up for all the weekend cooking, and it is no longer an after-work stress point. A

And now, for the future! 2017!

• Finally, successfully, learn how to drive stick shift. I've got two failed attempts under my belt from my father, so maybe it's time I find another teacher.
• Write four blog posts a month. I've let my writing slide over the last 12 months and I neeeeeeed to get back into it. I've gotten caught up in whether something is worthy of a write-up and I just need to write anything and everything.
• Hang out with Dan more. We've gotten into a bad habit of not dating each other and we need to break it. He's a good egg, my husband, and it would be nice to spend some more quality time together. 
• Read more. In 2016, I stopped caring about what my reading choices said about me. I read good books, trash books, old books, new books, complete series, teen books, anything. I'd like to try to read more books that challenge me, but I don't want reading to become work. This goal will stay ambiguous intentionally. 
• Find more ways to give back. My life is great. I really have nothing to complain about, but here I am, finding ways to pick at it. I can give back, so I should. I started being conscious of it over the last year, but I want to more. I have the power to give back so it's really my obligation.

A good combination of concrete and fluid goals. 

This will be a weird year. The year I turn 30. Either it will be the year I finally start to get my shit together or the year I throw it all at the fan. 

Halloween 2016

On my crusade to catch up on blogging everything, let's jump back to Halloween.

This year, I decided fairly early that I didn't want to be something 'sexy'. And by 'sexy', I really mean 'slutty and uncomfortable'. I didn't want to have to wear Spanx and worry about pantylines and have numb feet from teetering in heels all night.

And when I bought a giant, brimmed hat for our Hawaii trip, my fate was sealed: Dr. Alan Grant from the cult classic Jurassic Park.

It was a remarkably simple costume. I already had a denim shirt, aviators, boots, and my newly acquired hat. I added in a pair of khakis that Dan hadn't worn for more than a decade and some handkerchiefs that I bought off Amazon and the look was complete. My own bit of flare was a dramatic smoky eye, but it was hidden by the sunglasses most of the night anyway.

The other half of this amazing costume was talking Dan into being my T-rex. Since my dinosaur onesie is so warm and it is his go-to costume, he was Waldo inside a T-rex. He had great fun being both through-out the night. Here are some of my favorite pictures from that night.

Dr. Grant running from the T-rex:

Dr. Grant shooting the raptors as they came through the window of the control room:

All of the Jurassic franchise characters, including Owen and Claire from 'Jurassic World':

Me swimming in Dan's giant, old pants:

And trying to make them and the glasses look sexy:

And one of my favorite pictures ever, of a beautiful Waldo butterfly emerging from his chrysalis:

It was a great year for costumes. I told Dan afterward that I didn't want to do a slutty costume ever again and he was hurt, but it made the night so much better. Maybe next year I'll be a sack of potatoes or something. Oh! Or on theme, a pile of triceratops poop.

BUY ALL THE THINGS!

I'm not usually a Black Friday shopper. We have our annual tradition of going to Target on Thanksgiving night, a couple of hours after it has opened. I get a sweater at a discount and the latest season of 'Supernatural', but that's the extent of it.

Not this year.

This year quickly started to spiral and we chose to lean in to it.

Our tradition diverged when we decided to meet up with one of my sister's friends who was getting to Target right when it opened in hopes of grabbing a great deal on a 50" Samsung doorbuster TV. Through poor timing by the rest of the group, I was the only one available to be her 'buddy' right when the doors open and we braved the initial chaos together.

However, by the time we made it to TVs, the one she wanted was long gone. My sister had caught up with us by then and told us the secret that would change how I view Black Friday forever: a lot of people end up putting the doorbusters back. Turns out, in the overwhelming energy of the stampede, people grab what they don't need. Later, they slink it back or just leave it in some random aisle.

Sure enough, less than five minutes later, I saw a man putting one back and I talked him into handing it over to me before anyone knew what was happening.

At this time, Dan finally caught up and decided that the doorbusters were such a great deal, he should pull the trigger on a cheap, giant TV for his shop. Feeling generous, I caved.

From there, we leaned in and started seriously shopping. I can't remember the last time I bought so many things. I am a cheap person by nature, so to go on a bit of a spree is not in my character. Most of it was things I've wanted for quite a while and just finally pulled the trigger. Even now, I still feel some guilt about it all. I'm sure I'll feel more when I pay off my credit card.

Just for fun, here's the full list of all the pointless things I bought {Sidenote: I'm not trying to brag or show-off. This is just a list of the random things we, Dan and I, bought over the long weekend. The big stuff were things we'd wanted to get for a while and the sales online made it a good time to finally do it.}

• Target:
• Thursday - 
• 55 inch cheap TV
• Holiday sweater
• Tank top
• Nyx lip kit
• Hickory Farms cheese
• Season 11 of 'Supernatural'
• Sunday -
• Christmas Gifts for a one-year-old in foster care (clothes, pjs, toys, etc.)
• Ipod Nano (the volume down button stopped working on my old one on my Thanksgiving morning run)
• World Market
• Saturday - 
• Quality Street Chocolate Tin
• 2 chocolate Advent calendars
• Cookie jar, car with a tree on top
• Malteses
• Ulta
• Saturday - 
• Ulta 12 days Advent calendar
• Ulta eye shadow pallette
• Too Faced blush
• Lip Stick Queen lipstick in 'Medieval'
• Online
• Refurbished Canon camera
• Second light for blue bathroom renovation
• Blouse for my sister (Christmas gift), and one for myself
• Oil for my car

And I'm sure there's more on this list that Dan hasn't told me about yet...

Turning 29

My birthday was a few days ago. It was a good day. I was determined to make it a good day and my husband was determined to make it a good day and so it was. Sometimes my birthdays have a twinge of sadness so my whole goal was to fight it as much as possible.

My wonderful weekend started off with some beautiful peach roses. Which I promptly killed. Poor flowers don't stand a chance with me. I try, though.

You know how you can tell that your husband is trying really? When he makes cinnamon rolls from scratch. I don't know what came over him, but he brought his A game this year. He's setting the bar too high for next year.

Our original activity plan for the day was one of those drink wine and paint cheesy paintings class, but they cancelled the class I wanted, so we shifted the plan to mini-golf instead.

My hole-in-one on Hole 15. Oh yeah!

While I'm not a huge fan of arcade games, I do have my favorites. I hoped it would be the new Jurassic Park game they had installed, but it was a token eater. I survived a few minutes longer than Dan, but it was too difficult and short for the amount of tokens we paid.

You know what was a great value? This insane Pac-Man air hockey. I barely won, but it was so much fun. The machine randomly adds more pucks as you go until there are dozens of them on the board. I don't think a game has ever gotten my heart pumping that much before.

I didn't tell Dan, but I was looking forward to laser tag more than the mini-golf. It was just the two of us, running around screaming and shooting at each other in an inflatable arena. At one point, my strategy was to just sprint as fast as I could so he couldn't catch me. That must have been his strategy, too, and we collided very painfully. I was convinced my whole right side would be bruised the next day. Dan won since I'm terrible at laser tag, but I loved it.

Because Tucson is random and I love, right next door to the mini-golf place is a fake Western town. We popped next door for some lunch and were disappointed that their hours had changed so that everything was only open for dinner. This is my sad cowboy face.

Dan was happy to settle for Fuddruckers instead. We play a game where we mix random combinations of soda and have the other one guess. We're both terrible at it, but you can come up with some fun mixes.

After all the excitement of the morning, I was exhausted. We swung by Target on the way home and was seriously debating curling up in the cart while Dan pushed me around. Once home, I took a nap. I guess I should say 'tried' to nap since cats are, well, cats and made that difficult. Good thing they're cute.

I awoke to presents. Dan was so proud of himself for find this giant Lego brick. It's not a gift box, it's just a giant hollow Lego brick. He wrapped a set of beautiful necklaces and hid them inside. The other box housed a vintage-styled leather jacket. I'm Indiana Jones now. I love it.

The cherry on top of the day was a fondue dinner. If you aren't bursting at the seams afterward, you aren't doing it right. Cheese fondue, salad, bouillon fondue, and chocolate fondue. K had eaten so much food that I thought popping was a legitimate risk, and Dan decides to ask for more dessert. He can be unpredictable in the weirdest ways.

Like I said, it was a good day. A good day to start a new year.

Halloween 2015: Nancy Drew

I know I'm behind, as usual. But, time for a post on Halloween!

I've had this costume in the works for almost a year. I don't remember how the idea got planted in my brain, but it stuck pretty good. And it was a straight-forward costume. For me, being a Nancy Drew nut, I went with the original 1930's version, not the revamped 1950's one.

The only items I didn't have for the Prohibition-era look were the hat (available here) and a magnifying glass. The make-up was simple: LOTS of eyeliner and sharp, lined red lips.

The hair became very complicated, though. After two attempts at hot rollers and another failed attempt Hollywood waves, I ended up using a small curling iron to make ringlets and then immediately pinning them to set. It ended up looking like pin curls, which was fairly time period appropriate.

This year was pretty low-key. My friend Bekah had another party. She's so good at them. And every year, she has a photo set-up. Here are some of my favorites.

Dan and I in character

Dan with matching hair

Nancy Drew saving Agent Coulson's hand from the Terrigen crystal

And when Nancy became a bit more like Bonnie from 'Bonnie and Clyde'

It was definitely a fun costume. I highly recommend it.

Goals for 2015

New Year's Eve, at almost midnight, it began snowing in Tucson, Arizona. The year ended and a new one began and as Dan and I drove home from a party at our new friend's house, the world was covered in white. It was a literal blank slate. Clean, crisp, and gorgeous.

On the long drive home, we had a lengthy discussion about the past year. While it wasn't necessarily a bad year, we decided it felt like a place holder. Nothing major happened or was accomplished. Great things did happen and bad, sad things happened, too, but the year, as a whole, was a wash.

We summarized the year by three things: 1) Our amazing vacation to Hawaii, 2) Dan getting a promotion (which I am so proud of him for that I forgot about it completely. I am under the assumption, because he is such a good, hard worker, that he is constantly getting promotions.), and 3) Making a lot of new friends.

For the most part, those things weren't on my list of goals for the past year, but I am very happy they happened. Let's go through what I hoped to accomplish one by one.

• Take better care of myself
• Get a new dentist - Done! A
• Get a new doctor - Nope! F
• Go for more walks and hikes - Didn't happen as often as it should have, but it was a definite increase from 2013. B
• Wear more lotion and wash my face more often before bed - I can say I thought about doing this more, but the follow through left something to be desired. D
• Take up bellydancing again - I don't think I did a single dance class or dance workout in 2014, but it wasn't because of a lack of trying. I just never found a class I wanted to try. But since I did manage to complete the 30 Day Shred, I'll cut myself some slack. C
• Take another crack at the Cinco De Mayo 10K again - Nope. I thought about it. I trained for it and when the time came to sign up, I knew I wasn't ready. Rather than put myself through that pain again, I said no. Because of that, I knew I needed a better strategy for 2015. I've been training for an upcoming race for months now. While I don't think I'm where I need to be yet, I'm getting closer and I'm actually sticking to it. I've only had one run fall apart on me. Just one! So, while technically, I failed at this one, I learned from it and hopefully won't have the same failure in 2015. F
• Go to the Nutcracker Ballet - I gave up on trying to trick Dan in to taking me, so I took him instead. A
• Stop making excuses
• Finally buckle down and lose the newlywed weight - Nope. Maybe this year will be different? F
• Be more of a force at work - My job is in a better place than it was in 2013, but that was more from the added time and experience than anything I actually did. D
• Take a vacation! Yes! A
• Contribute more to the house remodeling. This one didn't go exactly as I had planned, but it wasn't a failure either. Over the past year, I've come to the realization that how I contribute to the house is different than Dan. I'm more of a planner and a motivator than a carpenter or tiler or builder. I can help with the execution, but I am much better with everything around it. My job is planning out the project and then all the finishing touches at the end when Dan has already moved onto a different project. C

See? Overall, kind of a waste of a year. But with the symbolism of a crisp, clean New Year's Day, I think 2015 will be a big year and here's why...

Goals for 2015:

• Say 'Yes' more. Sometimes, it's nice to stay in on a weekend with leftovers and a movie, but the long term effects of saying yes and doing something you don't want to do and getting off the couch should outweigh the laziness.
• Be ready for my ten year high school reunion. Whether this means dropping 20 pounds or getting into the head space where realizing that it isn't a competition and I should be happy just to see people I haven't seen in years has yet to be seen.
• Find a way to advance my career. While in 2014, I felt like I was finally a member of my team and a legitimate engineer, it's time to kick it up a notch. Who knows what that means right now, but I'll get there.
• Find a doctor. Really this time. 
• Eat more fresh food. Go grocery shopping more often. Cook more. Experiment with cooking vegetables and ingredients that scare me. Snack on more fruit.
• Attempt a long race. I'm not going to limit myself to which race I try, but try to complete a race in the 5+ mile length.
• Make some more youtube videos. Filming youtube videos scares the bejesus out of me, but I find the process so fun at the same time. The true goal would be to film one a month, but that seems like a lot. If I can make more than the two I made in 2014, that'd be cool. 
• Embrace being a nerd. This year, I became friends with a great pair of girls who LOVE everything fandom and nerdy. They're so open and vocal about their nerdy passions. I love nerdy things, but I'm not very forthcoming with it for the fear that someone will tear me down for not knowing enough. For getting something wrong. I'd love to go to some sort of Comic-com or convention with them this year. Just lean into the nerdiness.
• Take another vacation. The Hawaii trip was so good for us. While we probably can't afford to take a trip like that two years in a row, taking some sort of time off and getting out of town will be well deserved. 
• Be me more often. Over the last couple of years, I really started to find myself. To really figure out who I am and embrace it. Yet, I still am so timid about just being me. About stepping on toes or being seen as unprofessional or worrying (like an idiot) about the ramifications of just being outwardly happy. It's time to filter myself less, in both positive and negative connotations, and living with the results.

I usually do better at the more concrete goals, but at the same time, those tend to stress me out more. After reading the book "The Happiness Project", I've learned one of the easiest ways to accomplish goals and resolutions is to review them often. I don't know if I could have told you what my resolutions for the past year were until evaluating them today. To combat this, I've even put a monthly reminder in my calender to evaluate my progress. It doesn't take much to stick to goals if you can remember to stick to them and make little bits of advancement along the way.

Here's to a great new year, guys!

Blogmas 2014: Kick Off!

It's that time of year again! Blogmas!

My attempt to get in the Christmas spirit by blogging every weekday until Christmas! There will be posts about decorating, crafting, baking, and gift wishlists. I will be taking note of everything I do Christmasy in the next few weeks.

So, if you have suggestions for this Grinch to get in the festive spirit, let me know below! And feel free to follow along with this year's post on the "Blogmas" tag under "Recurring Themes" on the right-hand sidebar or catch up on what I did last year.

Dare to DIY: Thankful for Art Deco

It's Dare to DIY time again! I'm not very crafty, but every year I get inspired by Michelle at 'Decor and the Dog'.

For several days, I tried to get hit by creative lightning, but nothing was happening. Pinterest is pretty unhelpful when you live in Arizona. There are no ways to craft with colorful leaves when there is no seasonal foliage.

While I wasn't finding anything autumnal, I was becoming insanely fascinated by everything Art Deco. Golds and silvers and jewel tones and geometric patterns and swirling vines. I don't know how I've gotten obsessed, but I am.

Anyway, becoming frustrating, I searched for 'art deco thankful' and found this lovely print at an etsy shop. While it's a very nice print, my immediate reaction was, "I can make something like that."

There is always something to be thankful for. Always.

In a great twist of fate, I found a frame at Target for 70% off at Target that's both art deco with its gold detailing and fall with the burlap matting.

I know these sorts of things are usually more about arts and crafts, using modpodge to stick something to something else and VOILA! Centerpiece! But, for me, making a print design is so much more challenging. It took me almost four hours to make that image. Hunting for art deco borders, downloading different fonts, learning how to use the free online photo editing software better. It took a bit of time, but I think the results are totally worth it.  

If you'd like to print it out for yourself, that's totally cool. It's formatted for 8" by 10".

I know it's not for everyone and it's so incredibly niche, but this thing makes me so happy. When I couldn't find a Thanksgiving decoration that I liked, I'm proud of myself for bringing one into existence. 

All Souls Procession 2014

One thing Tucson is known for is it's Dias des los Muertos celebrations. For anyone unfamiliar with the Mexican tradition, it's a day just after Halloween where you honor the dead. Since I'm not hispanic, all I know of the tradition is how my city celebrates.

Every year, several days after Halloween, tens of thousands of people paint up their face and parade through downtown, the All Souls Procession. At the end of the route, it turns into all out craziness; the closest comparison is that it's like a mini Burning Man festival.

This year was my first year participating. It was both more and less crazy than I imagined.

First of all, the most important part: the makeup. It was a lot of cheap face paint, eye liner doodles, and a fabulous red lipstick.

Two tips for anyone else doing Day of the Dead makeup. First, it is possible for eye liner to stain your eyebrows. Second, face paint is worth the money you pay. It was like having a face covered in lip gloss. Just like a breezy day, my hair kept sticking to it. It almost drove me insane.

My friends and I went out to dinner beforehand, half of us already in our makeup and half not. Thankfully, I brought along my makeup for touch ups after eating and the eye liner was passed around so no face was blank.

After a bit of a walk over to the parade route, we spent close to an hour just watching the parade march past us. There aren't a lot of 'floats' in the parade, but many groups have themes and some people make elaborate mini-floats, sort of single shrines carried by just one person. There were mariachi bands and bagpipe bands and high school bands and acrobatics.

After watching for a while, we got antsy jumped in! You don't fully grasp how many people are there until you're in the middle of it. With everyone made up, you could be standing next to your sister and not even know. You're just surrounded by a sea of strangers. It actually became kind of overwhelming.

We never made it to the end of the parade. By the time we had walked out of downtown and under the highway, we had been on our feet for hours and knew we had a ridiculously long walk back to the car. So, we missed the burning of the urn filled with prayers and the music and displays. We heard mixed reviews of it later, so I don't feel that bad about leaving early.

But we didn't go straight home. Nope. We stopped at a late night diner and had us some pie. In full skeleton face makeup. I wish I had gotten a picture of us, but we were already getting enough looks as it was.

One boy skeleton eating supreme lemon meringue and one girl skeleton eating coconut cream.