26 Things Since Last Time.

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, Happy Groundhog Day - boy it's been a while.
I've been busy, life is good, and so far 2013 might be my lucky number.
Here are 26 new things since I wrote last.

 1.  I 'graduated' from my C25K running app.  I finished within my goal of before New Year's and ran 5K.  Whoo! Now if only I had kept running in January - but the snow and ice on the sidewalks, combined with the lack of treadmills in my life have prevented me from keeping it up.  I may have to start the program over again when it's safe to run without breaking an ankle on ice.

 2.  I am very much over winter.  Does anyone have an excuse/method for me to move to a place with sand and sunshine?  Why does Canada not have something like Hawaii as a province?

 3.  At work in January I played a silly spin & win game and won a new Galaxy S3 phone.  I'm quite excited to switch to it and enjoy all the fancy features, but I'm still waiting for it to ship to me.

 4.  About 5 days later I found out that I won an Air Canada contest and won a flight to Tokyo! I'm over the moon about winning this, and am planning to go to Japan in April to hopefully catch the cherry blossoms in bloom.

 5.  My oldest friend had a baby in January, and she's the first female baby that's been born in my circle of peeps.  I finally got to buy someone all the amazing frilly baby clothes!  I really hope I have a daughter someday, it's just too cute!

 6.  My cousin in my hometown also had a baby - on Christmas Day.  The sweetest thing is the ladies at the hospital made these mini Santa hats for all the Christmas babies.  I got to photograph him before he was even a week old.  So precious.

 7.  I have hit 30, and my lady organs have started the clock.  Officially.

 8.  On another note... I started the Happiness Project Journal.  Every night I write down the things that made me happy that day.  You can fit 5 years of happiness in the book.  It's a nice way to relax before I go to sleep.

 9.  I have been playing the new Zumba Fitness Core for the Wii.  It is really fun while I play and then later my abs hurt a lot.  It's a great workout.

10.  Have you ever eaten an aebleskiver?  When I was in the Netherlands they called them profitjes, but either way, they're a puffy, spherical pancake that you can fill.  They are delicious and surprisingly easy to make.

11.  Yesterday we had some friends over to watch the Super Bowl.  Go Beyonce!  I have to admit the commercials were lacking as much as the 49ers defense.

12.  For the party I made pork carnitas with this recipe and we had a taco bar.  Throw a party and do it.

13.  I got a lil part time job working the occasional shift at a local scrapbooking shop Bizzy B's.  It's the only one left in the GTA, so if you ever need supplies, come visit me!

14. I took the plunge (with some Christmas gift money) and bought a Silhouette Cameo .  Watching it work is hypnotizing, haha, but so much better than my hand with an x-acto knife!

15.  I'm continuing Project Life again this year as a way to scrapbook.  I'm behind already, but it's easy to catch up when I finally get time to sit down with it, the photos are printed at least.

16.  I did not have any free time in January.

17.  I saw this print on Pinterest and am adopting it as my mantra for 2013.  Slowly but surely I am weeding through my 'stuff' and getting rid of what I don't need/love/use.  It'll make cleaning the apartment easier.  Print by mangomini.wordpress.com.

 
18.  Steve turned 27 in January.  We celebrated with friends by going out to an Indian food buffet and then hanging out at our apartment and playing a few games later.  Mmmm saag paneer is my fave.

19.  Do you know about Creative Live?  They host live webstreamed workshops with photographers, graphic artists, business pros, etc.   They're brilliant if you're around to catch them, but if not you can buy the videos later as well.  Such a great resource.

20.  My new favourite teas at David's Tea are blueberry jam, cranberry pear and mango madness.

21.  On Saturday night we'll be going to a retro 50-60's dance.  I'm really excited to dance to oldies and play carnival games but I have to idea what to wear.  I love all the fashions from those decades and truly cannot choose.  Cinched waist?  Mod mini dress?  Joan Holloway?  Jackie O? I can't even narrow it down to a hat choice.

22.  Valentine's day is on the horizon and I miss exchanging valentines like in elementary school.  Crafting the little mailbox on the edge of your desk, cutting out heart shapes out of pretty pink and red paper, hand writing messages to your friends and daring to tell your crush that you actually like them.  And the fun premade ones like Garfield with a word search on the back!

23.  Last week while working at the camera shop, a familiar face approached me and asked me for help printing photos.  It was Claire Danes!  She was incredibly nice and printed photos of her new baby.  She came to Toronto to hang out with her hubby while he was filming.  The store was too busy, I didn't get to ask her to take a picture, or to give her my card to book her baby a photoshoot, haha.

24.  Not quite the same level of celeb, but at work this week my boss and I photographed Shark Tank & Dragon's Den's Robert Herjavec.  He was great to work with, a very personable and charming man.  I think I can say, it was the best photoshoot I have ever had the opportunity to work on.  The publisher loved the photos as well and the book should be out later this spring.

I wish I had an idea to pitch!

25.  Have you seen this new short animated film from Disney? It's really sweet and well lit ;)

26.  Today I had a day off!  They've been rare lately.  I ran some errands, bought a cute spring top, a new lipstick, had a glorious nap, called my mom, caught up on a couple blogs and got to write this post.

Have a lovely day!