Back to the work grind

Painfully adorable. From this spot on wehearit

Ahh, the holidays were too short, as always. However, they were also a wonderful time where I could go home, take a breather from the school work, and eat lots (mostly cookies, which I do not regret at all). But now here I am! Back for my final final semester of university. !!! My future is looming! Thankfully (and this would be the only reason to be thankful), I've got school work to keep my occupied for the next few months. After that, let the job hunting commence. Right now school work consists of mostly reading to do, which I don't mind at this point. Currently on the assigned reading list? Robinson Crusoe and Tom Jones, both very good 18th century novels in you like a good adventure read.

Have never been here before, but looking at this image reminds me of summer. From here.

In other recent news, I saw Black Swan!! It's terrifyingly beautiful movie. After a search through weheartit I came across some very lovely pics.

From weheartit

Same with this.

And this.

And this one, because I couldn't resist.

From here.

Today was definitely the kind of day for hot chocolate; a snow storm blew into the Maritimes! I Classes were canceled this afternoon, but I didn't have any to go to. I was happy to stay at home. Will there be class tomorrow morning? Hard to say at this point.

This is the snowfall we had previously on Sunday.

Oh, and experimented with another cookie recipe, which I will share soon. Getting tired of cookie recipes here, yet? Fear not, I hope to expand outside the cookie field and into teabiscuitry (though not exactly a word). Or better yet--cake balls, om nom nomz.

Have you heard about Vivian Maier? She was a street photographer in the 1950s and 60s. She passed away last year, but recently hundreds of her pictures have been recovered from storage, and they can be considered nothing short of fantastic.

These are just a few, but you can see more at at John Beloof's blog Vivian Maier--her Discovered Work. Check it out! Her photography is amazing.

And to conclude, I leave you with an image of a dough baby; last Friday my housemates and I made pizza, but the dough didn't turn out so great, so we used the left overs to make this lovely, although perhaps creepy creation.

Have a good rest of week!

Turning over a new leaf

Puppy! From weheartit

Happy New Year, all! Was 2010 good to you? I hope so. If not, ready to start afresh?? 2010 was fairly good to me which came with many firsts, but of course it had its lows at times. Needless to say, I am ready to kick off 2011 with a list of goals I could certainly work on, and try to keep to.

-Take a picture of something every day. Even if it's nothing important.

-Get to bed early. As in, 12.00 early! Or earlier, if possible.

-Speak out more often in class.

-Bake bread at some point.

-Work towards getting my G-1.

-Maintain a good sense of humour when things get low.

-Remember reasons why I'm awesome. Not to sound boastful or anything, but a little self-encouragement is always nice.

-Practice the guitar more.

-Go to the ballet.

-Find a permanent job for next year.

-Wear more dresses/skirts.

Just some of the many goals I have for this year. But I was doing some blog-surfing and I came across Erin who had non-goals, meaning habits she was doing during the year that she loved and wanted to continue with--take for instance, drinking water frequently. Here are mine:

From here

-To continue my ballet dancing. I've been dancing for so long, I can't imagine just stopping for good!

-Lying in bed at night, and thinking about what I'm grateful for. I've been doing it for about a year now, and it certainly makes me more content with myself and where I'm currently at.

-To continue to push for what I really want to do with my life! Right now, I'm certain I want to go into studying theatre (which I am currently enjoying), and possibly teaching it later on.

-My curly hair! Although I love it when straight, I love it even more in its curly glory. Even on those humid and rainy days.

-Learning from my flaws, and working on them!

-Speaking in foreign accents. Not in public of course, but to myself and friends, because it's fun and I love how it sounds. And it's part of my zany personality, along with my impressions of various characters.

If you have any non-goals, think about them and keep them up! You'll discover your best through them, as I have found out (and yet already knew--ha!).

*Zoom* Weeee! From here.

Mid-Christmas Thoughts

-Animals singing "Jingle Bells", and "Deck the Halls". Corny? Maybe, but ever so enjoyable to watch.

-It's going to be a quiet Christmas this year. I'm looking forward to this.

-Hope everyone liked my gifts.

-Red velvet cheese cake. Yum.

-Turkey!

-Still remembering my best present ever from Santa. Also seen in last year's post.

-Some tea would be nice right now.

-I need more moisturizer for my hands; the weather is making them pitifully dry.

-I was gearing up for the Doctor Who Christmas special tonight, only to find out it is on Sunday night. Alas. I envy those of you in the UK.

-Easy A is a funny movie.

-What am I going to do with my life?

-Blah blah blah.

-Thought I'd get through painting my nails perfectly. But no.

-Hello curly hair. It's been a while.

-Haven't seen A Christmas Story yet this year on tv. What is this??? "A center for ants??!"

-Mr. Bean.

-If I could be a part of The Nutcracker ballet, I think I would be a snowflake. Even if I can't really choose myself

-After today, no more Christmas songs on the radio. Sadness.

-How truly lucky I am to be where I am today! Really, though, I feel pretty thankful for all I have and the peeps that surround me.

-Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often, it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know, none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaking suspicion... love actually is all around. Love Actually

Have a wonderful Christmas!

The weeks leading up to Christmas

Ahh, I've been home for about a week now. Taking it easy at long last. But after finishing a busy term of school, do any of you get that feeling that you should be doing something?? That's how I've been feeling, but that is finally starting to wear off. Now, here are some pics I've taken over the past month or so, having finally taken out my camera!

My housemates were very festive, starting in mid-November. We made ourselves a little Disney gingerbread house--thus the purple icing, which coloured our fingers and tongues red, and was probably toxic. And amazingly, we ate it all within a week.

Looking even worse from the back.

We even set up our own little Christmas tree!

But now, back at home I am... Yay!

Just fooling around with focus...

We had a family Christmas party on Saturday, and this cake (amongst other goodies) was what we had for dessert.

So much dessert!

On one random note, I finally saw Inception! Great movie, and currently I'm obsessing over the soundtrack, particularly this. 2 minutes and 24 seconds of epicness right there.

Now all that's left for me at the end of this week is to wrap some presents. Not the greatest perhaps, but I'm getting better at it, haha.

And to conclude...

Squirrel, trying to take on the bird feeder in the front of our house. Suitable enough for Daily Squirrel?

How to be Alone

Image from here, via we heart it.

I love this vid! One of my new favourites, and it just may become one of yours too.

The Ultimate Ginger Cookeh

I rarely have ginger cookies. But I love them. And it's even more of a rarity when I have them home made. Well, seeing as it is December, and seeing as I was swamped with school stuff, and seeing as I was craving ginger cookies, I took the opportunity to try out a recipe. And you know what? They were fantastic, and pretty much how I always have remembered them to be--sweet, spicy/gingery goodness, and definitely not those generic bland things you get in the grocery store. Nuh-uh. This recipe is one I would definitely go back to in the future, although with a few minor changes I'd like to see if they would make a difference: one would be adding both orange and lemon zest, and adding lemon juice instead of orange.

Ginger Cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon water
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients into the molasses mixture. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
3. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Ps: I'm home, finally! After three solid months of work+ study, I can breathe easy, and read nothing school related. Ahhh. Will be back (soon!) with more updates!

Prodigal Blogger returns

Image from here, via we heart it

Hello all. It's been awhile. All of two weeks, actually. Apologies for going all cold turkey, it's been a crazy month (as some of you can probably relate to), with lots of stress, sweat and tears... No, really. (At least there wasn't any blood.)

Anyway, for a while I've also been having my doubts about this blog, thinking maybe it's not the best time for me to be keeping this up. That or, I don't really know where I'm going with it. I've always been a wishy-washy person, so my mind swings back and forth as to what I want to do, frequently. This blog sums up the way my mind works. I'll probably keep this baby going for a while longer, see where it takes me--or rather, I take it. And then maybe in the next while, start afresh with another something--possibly on something new, and from an entirely different angle! (Whooaa) But who knows. Have said all this, shall I tally up the previous month for me in a list? ok!

-Essays

-3000+word essay (finished today!)

-Seminar presentations

-Christmas extravaganzas with the housemates

-baking (lots)

-cookies (lots)

-HP & the Deathly Hallows (pretty good!)

-onion soup

-Anything carbs

-Rain (constantly)

-Lack of sleep

-Liberte yogurt--my first buy was cherry and I practically passed out from its amazing-ness

-ice cream sandwiches.

-Frequent Jezebel visits.

-Sporcle (especially on lunchbreaks)

-And possibly the odd Starbucks holiday drink. Image from here

As you can see, most of it is food related, but that's exactly how we have to get by in this stressful work overload period. My housemates and I like our food. This week: three exams to go, and home again in a week. Whooo.