Resolutions for the New Year!

1. Get to the gym much more often - With my second semester schedule, I'll be able to maintain a much more consistent work-out schedule.  I may not have rugby this year (lame lame LAME), but I have put on a bit of weight that I'd like to take off again.
2. Work my tail off up until graduation - I really have been slack these past few months, and it's throwing me off.  My grades may not have been affected, but it makes me feel a bit guilty.
3. Stop worrying about things that are beyond my control - Yeah, right! With the number of situations I find myself in where I have quite a bit of power, it's hard to level myself and say: "No, this can't be fixed".  Because I always just end up countering with: "Yes, it can.  I can totally make this work."  Most of the time, I actually can, but when things don't work out, I need to stop beating myself up about it.
4. Get caught up in a good book more often - It's been ages since I've completely devoured any sort of book.  I miss that sense of accomplishment after finishing a book in a few hours.

That's about all I can think of.  But four seems sufficient, and I think they're good.  Hopefully I can keep them all up! Can't wait to start the new year, though, so many things to look forward to.

Happy New Year to everybody, and have a great night!

My friends are undeniably the BEST people on the planet.

Fer realsies.

I had the most fantastic day ever, I really did.

I slept in this morning and decided not to go to school at all, then put on some Florence + the Machine and Christina Perri, and cleaned the house for a few hours; my room is SPOTLESS and I'm incredibly chuffed with myself.  Erica invaded my house for a bit after that, because we were waiting for Taylor to get back from her doctor's appointment.  Sarah and her showed up a bit later, and Erica and I piled into the car, and off we went to Taylor's for a lazy afternoon.  Ordered pizza, opened prezzies, and put Sherlock Holmes on to while away the day.  Not my choice, actually, since I wasn't really terribly impressed with it, but it was fun yelling at the screen with Sarah whenever anything displeased us.

So, my day in lists.  From the darlings, I got:

• 1 box of Twining's Lady Grey tea - Sarah
• A Study in Scarlet, BBC Sherlock Tie-in (Moffat's preface is fantastic!) - Sarah
• A photo frame - Taylor
  
• A bracelet from Hawaii - Erica
  
• A bottle of handcream from Bath & Body Works - Erica
• A honeypot - Sarah
• A Starbucks giftcard - Kevin (le boyfrand de Taylor)

And I don't think we've ever had a better gift exchange.  It was nice to get little presents from them, that actually meant they'd been doing some thinking, and not just gotten giftcards to wherever (I hate that!).  By the end, we'd all ended up in a pile on top of one another (well, not Taylor and Kevin, but us three loners did), and it was just a wonderful way to pass the day.  Gifts and cuddles and ridiculously fatty foods.

We've got Mum's family coming over tomorrow for dinner (I need to think about what I'm going to wear, yikes!), and Father's... well, his parents, since everyone else in across The Pond, on Christmas Day, so I'm thinking we're going to be doing an awful lot of housework tomorrow.  Hooray.  On the plus side, that does involve cooking, which always puts me in a good enough mood.

Cheers and love to you and yours for the season, hope everyone gets everything they asked for!

The Seasonal List + some dull, bland updates

A big Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas/Festivus/whatever non-denominational holiday you happen to celebrate (ooooh, look at that political correctness).  I know I've been feeling the seasonal spirit lately (particularly since the Arts Night performance.  I was called an elf several times (and not of the Tolkein variety!).  Not entirely impressed with that, but I suppose I did ask for it, a bit).  But I'm hoping all this happy will last up until the end of the month.  Then I'm crashing for days.

Finished wrapping all the presents last night, and I'm feeling pretty chuffed with myself.  Managed to get Taylor's present all finished in less than an hour, and I'm just so excited to hand out gifts.  That's my favourite part.  Well, also examining my prezzies, and trying to guess what I've gotten this year.  That's a lot of fun too.

I had a pretty small list this year, all things considered, and it consisted of a lot of books and useful things (but most of them don't appear on here).  And a few seriously materialistic things, but hey, fault me for it.

So, here it is:

1. As Twilight Falls Coat from Modcloth

I think this one is pretty self-explanatory.  Just.  Look at it.  I don't normally believe in love at first sight, but this coat made me rethink that.

 2. Samsung Galaxy S Infuse 4G

Again, fairly self-explanatory.  In need of a new phone - the old one's not bad, just running a little slowly these days, and the battery lasts about a day, now - and this one seems to suit me very well.  Really feature-rich, so I've heard, and I get a Smart Phone while remaining with Samsung (they've served me well over the years).

3. A Study in Scarlet, Arthur Conan Doyle (BBC Sherlock Tie-in)

Does this one even need explaining either?  First of all, it's their faces on the cover (I will not frame this book I will not frame this book...) and it's got an introduction by the man himself, Steven Moffat.  Also, I don't actually own ASiS, and while it wasn't the first Holmes story I read, it's a pretty pivotal one.

 4. An ENORMOUS package of Post-it Notes (multi-coloured!)

My borderline obsessive-compulsive tendencies get all happy inside when I think of putting them up on the wall in front of my desk.

5. The Collected Poems of Dylan Thomas & Keats: Poems

 Been a fan of Thomas' for ages, and recently got into Keats because of a dramatic reading of Ode to a Nightingale by a certain English actor with a voice like a jaguar playing a cello.  If that makes it all the more unfortunate, that is perfectly fine with me.

 

6. Emma Bridgewater Recipe Book

One can never have too many recipes, but she can run out of space to store them.  Hence, this beautiful thing makes its appearance on my list.

7. Ladies Classic Timex 

Because "I need a new watch".  It's surprisingly less expensive than I thought it would be, and it's got that vintage feel that I'm oh-so-in-love with.  I have a thing for leather strapped watches. 

8. Giftcards for: Indigo, iTunes, H&M, ModCloth, Best Buy, Think Geek, etc.

Simple to give, and provide me with hours of poring over online inventories.  My favourite pasttime!

*BONUS* Acceptance to Concordia, U of T, York.

Because reasons.  Duh. 

And, that's about it for my list, minus a few films and littler things.  Going out to Fabric Land soon, to pick up some microfleece for a project I just decided to start last night (because I'm an idiot, started something different, then decided I'd left things a little late, and would just sew the thing instead).  Sarah and Erica are also coming over this evening, and we're watching The Great Game with Erica, because Herself's being a bit ridiculous, and not letting Erica watch it alone.  Should be fun, I'm excited.