Productivity

Wow I got things done today. There's still a ton of things that need doing but I found my momentum and it feels great.
I worked on the elsewhere project some more. It really helps to have a clear idea of what a cultures architecture looks like to really solidify how a city is laid out.
Food got preped for the weekend without turning the kitchen into a disaster. Dinner got made before my husband got home and I even got in a bit of exercise.
I've been meaning to start doing yoga for a while, but I've never been flexible enough to do a lot of the poses correctly. Thankfully I've finally found a set of poses that are perfect for an absolute beginner like me. Once I get my flexibility up to par I'll be ready to move on to normal yoga.
I even managed to play portal2 for a while without making my self nauseous.

Cardigans and cable knit sweaters oh my!

I am a sucker for cardigans. Comfy and warm they're like a knitted hug and thankfully at the moment they are fashionable. The reason though may have more in common with the great depression rather than haute couture. The last time knitwear was so hugely popular was the 30's because it was more cost effective to make your own clothes. Guess that explains the 'do it yourself' attitude that’s becoming more and more popular.

Sadly I have neither the skill or patience to knit a full sized garment. I’ll stick with cooking mostly from scratch in a comfy cardigan.

In with the old out with the new....Wait what?

The holidays are over, massive amounts of baking have been accomplished, gifts have been given and the new year has begun. There's a lot to look forward too and a great deal I have to accomplish.
I'm going with my mom to the Writers conference in Surrey where I can hopefully get more feedback on a big project I'm working on.
Also hopefully in the not too distant future I'll acquire more stable employment. It'd be nice to be able to afford to take some life drawing classes again, I've gotten painfully rusty. Plus my husband and I both want to get back into larping. It'd be nice to be able to hang out with friends more often again especially now that I have plans for a slightly more combat intensive character. I'm really itching to learn how to spar with folks.

Oh tiny tree ... I shall name you... Tim

There are certain advantages to growing up in the country as opposed to the city. We always had a real tree in the living room for christmas. My dad would split wood for fires in the fireplace. My mom who, as I've mentioned before, is amazing and would do massive amounts of baking. Enough pfeffernusse cookies to feed an army, rumballs that would probably get you into trouble if you were driving later, and amazing gingerbread houses with stained glass candy windows and broken after eight chocolates for shingles with the filling oozing out to look like icecicles. And this is before she'd make Christmas dinner pretty much single handed.

 I really want to carry on as many of my families holiday traditions as I can but I'm also coming to terms with the limitations of our one bedroom apartment. So sadly our tree is fake and about three feet tall but it is chock-a-block with my and my husbands ornaments. I also  intend to fully test the capacity of our tiny little galley kitchen and bake a truly epic number of cookies to give out as presents this year. So now that it's finally snowed I can really start getting into the holiday spirit.

Getting older is mandatory. Growing up is optional

Growing up I was often told that I was very mature for my age, to the point that I was once mistaken for being a freshman in collage when I was eleven. Now that I’m in my thirties, popular culture says that I should regret not embracing the magic of childhood and start denying my age. As far as telling people my age goes I’ve always preferred to defy rather than deny the number of years under my belt.  As for the loss of the magic of child hood… Who says I lost it? Being an adult means getting to do all the things kids aren’t allowed to do as well as what they can.  So with that in mind I’d love to go with my husband to Disneyland before I’m thirty five.

Because if Darth Vader can have a blast than so can we.

Travel Teabox

In spite of the fact that tea is gaining in popularity it's still very rare to find a restaurant with a descent selection of anything but generic tea bags that I could easily find at the grocery store. My husband,obviously sick of my sighs of disappointment after seeing lacklustre options when it came to an after dinner cuppa told me I should just start bringing my own tea to restaurants and just ordering pots of hot water instead.

Thus the travel tea box. I decorated an old jewellery box with layers of cut out and painted card-stock and ended up with a very serviceable container for several samples of my favorite loose-leaf teas.

Brew Me!

Brewed beverages are finicky things. Water temperature can drastically change the flavor of teas, tisanes and coffee. My kettle is a standard, push button for boiled water, type that I’ve had since my college days and I do try to take proper brewing temperatures into account but to be honest I mostly rely on rough guesstimation.

I’ve finally found a kettle that takes water temperature into account.  The Breville Variable Temperature Kettle. Sweet monkey lords, Want!