my doggeh throws up gang signs with her ears

It is warm. Like 40 degrees warm. And sunny. And the weekend. Yah.

Fondue Do

I found these gorgeous photos of a New Years fondue party while browsing Oh Happy Day.

I have been known to get overexcited about fondue. I had a cheese fondue birthday party in high school (so cool, I know) and chocolate fondue party in my first apartment. And, I've (ahem) made up a batch or two for myself on nights when I just feel like noshing. Love the idea of this on New Years, or maybe Christmas. And the Shirley Temples? I die.

Happy Snow Day, Mid-America

Cozy, lazy day.

Beverage of Hogsmeade

between meetings,
and post-Christmas dinners with friends to catch up,
and lesson planning,
and new apartment hunting,
and some extra school projects I've taken on,

January is full and flying.

The highlight so far: my boss (not just my immediate principal. but the head honcho here) somehow knows I am a Harry Potter lover. Unbeknownst to me she was at a conference in Orlando and visited the Harry Potter theme park, bringing back a bottle of pumpkin juice for none other than little old me. I think I'll be working here while :-) I'm popping it open tonight and toasting to a *hopeful* snow day tomorrow.

*she said she wanted to bring back butterbeer, but they don't bottle that. guess I'll just have to go myself.

remembering

The school I work at doesn't take Martin Luther King, Jr. day off. Instead, students hear an (age-appropriate) talk about him and go about with productive days as usual. I think this is much better than a 3 day weekend where kids wouldn't think of it at all. When I was in college we didn't have school but I always participated in community service geared towards helping others. Take the day on, not off!

A few months ago I saw this on Cup of Jo....came in quite handy tonight, especially when I was terrified that I dropped it in the snow. How do they come up with things like this....

The King's Speech

If Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush don't both win Oscars for this, I'm never going to the movies again. This was unbelievable. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to live in London in the 30s and 40s.

whelmed.

School has started once again. I'm up to my eyeballs in lesson planning and organizing. I ran to Target at 8 o'clock in my pajamas (suburban nightmare; yikes) the other night because I realized I didn't have a 2011 planner and couldn't get any more done without one. To top it off, my dog has suddenly morphed into a newborn baby and wakes up several times a night whining for 15-20 minutes stretches. She sleeps in a crate outside my room and letting her sleep on my bed would solve the problem, but I draw the line there. Oy.

Story of my life. via, via

Happy New Year!

maybe for next year. here

2010 was an interesting year for me. It was full of personal/spiritual growth and trials, and a lot of hard work and discipline. But there were many fun moments as well:

taking a spontaneous weekend trip and staying in a great hotel (which I've always wanted to do),

working for my favorite jewelry designer during the summer and adding to my personal collection,

taking a photo class and learning more about photography,

and of course enjoying all the wonderful artsy, design, photography, travel, and lifestyle blogs that I've discovered the past couple of years.

This week I also took a step towards something I've been thinking about for awhile - deactivating my facebook account. While I may go back on to collect contact information for my true (not just "facebook" friends), I'm looking forward to cutting it out of my life for good. What initially started out as a great way to find old friends and a convenient way to message/talk to people has disintegrated into a privacy-violating mess of advertising, hiding newsfeeds of people I don't really even care to keep in contact with, and a big time-waster. While I will miss seeing pictures at times or the easy mass-messaging ability to organize groups, I think my time online can be spent doing better things.

I don't really love resolutions - everyday I try to live a certain way and work to be the best version of myself...but I do like to set goals. Maybe that's just another way of saying resolutions? Anyway, in 2011 I hope to-

continue taking photos,

move to a bigger apartment,

travel somewhere in this beautiful country to visit friends.

An excursion out of the country would be great too :-)

I also need to better organize the blogs/websites I follow, and of course I'll keep this piece of the web as my little journal/inspiration board/catchall. Thanks for reading, or lurking! xo

Wonder Week

The week between Christmas and New Years is such an odd yet wonderful time. Sometimes it feels like being in limbo - the post Christmas sigh, "hype" for New Years...(which I think is always overhyped anyway)....sort of putting old things to bed and looking ahead. The in-between week is also dangerous for miles of delicious leftovers and shopping sales, fabulous for the friends that roll in and out of town. Lovely to spend time catching up and pondering months gone by and those to come.