So I finally completed my December Daily album! I was finally able to convince my sister to send me the picture I needed to complete the final page. So, over two months later, here is the final page of my December Daily 2011 album:

( Day 25 part 2: Christmas morning )

I'm doing a half-hearted cleaning of the office (there are piles of crap in the closet. Not all of it is mine, thankfully), listening to some really poppy, funny music. And I came across a little notebook I used to doodle in during my last semester of high school. Holy shit, was I ever an angry teenager!

I remember being really unhappy all through high school, and just counting down the days until I graduated and I could escape, begin university, and really begin my life. But flipping through that book, it's full of quotes from really angry songs that I used to think were the songs that described my life or the people around me. There's a few songs in there that I can't identify now, and I'd like to find them again, because now I'm a fan of (some kinds of) angry music for different reasons.

It also made me realize that I haven't just doodled, or scribbled random things, or written out really touching song lyrics in a really long time. I have all these blank notebooks that I'm not using (but I totally needed them for some really great creative purpose, I'm sure!) and I should start using them. And then maybe something will actually come of it.

Feel like I didn't do a whole lot yesterday, but I did - just not much that I wanted to record in my December Daily album (I started Aziz's present, and I was right, my sewing machine is messed up. I didn't get any further than cut out all the pieces. Hopefully Scott's mother can lend me her sewing machine).

( Christmas Cheer )

So I put day 5 in the title of my last post, but didn't actually include it. Whoops!
( Let's see if I can remember both this time )

Continuing on with December Daily: Day 4: childhood memory.

( I should have been doing this all along! )

Dec 3, 2011 - One of a Kind Craft Show and Sale!



There were so many awesome things that I wanted to buy for myself! I did buy a few things for myself (a beautiful letterpress calendar! A fancy winter hat!), but I mainly stuck to my Christmas shopping list - knocked off some stuff for Scott, Stacey, Laura & Zaid, Mum & Dad, and got ideas for stuff to make for Stacey and Sue. We were at the show for ages, but it was pretty great.

I've got off to a good start with my December Daily 2011 project - I actually remembered to do Dec. 1 while it was still Dec. 1! I'm just trying to decide what will go in today. I've got Saturday and Sunday planned out in my head.

For the curious, here are crappy photos of the album cover and the Dec. 1 pages:


December Daily 2011 cover.

And...Day 1: Holiday Cards!




ETA:

And Day 2: a holiday haircut.

Well, hello there, poor, neglected LJ. How have you been doing? Good, I hope.

I popped on Saturday morning, briefly, out of the blue. And I'm glad I did! I read back as far as I could on my friends page, and of the many interesting posts, one in particular caught my eye - it was keyframe's one where she detailed how she was going to do a December Daily album.

So I spent most of the day yesterday braving the insane parking lot of the local craft store, and putting together my foundation pages for my very own December Daily 2011. I like the idea of doing something to mark every day leading up to Christmas, for a time of year that I particularly enjoy. I think it will help me do some interesting things, too, so that I have something good to put in my album!

Plus, since I spent all that time on it already, so much so that my back was killing me by last night, that I'm pretty certain I'll actually complete it! After all, it's only 25 days long. I should be able to do it.

So thanks for that inspiration, keyframe!

While I didn't get anywhere near updating every day this month, I do believe I've hit the once a week mark. We'll see if I can continue this into 2011!

I've had a very lovely holiday. I've been off work since Dec. 23 (as in, that was my last day at work), and I don't have to return to work until Jan 4! I've done lots of baking, lots of knitting, lots of reading, and lots of movie watching. So relaxing and lovely!

Christmas and Boxing Day with my family was also nice. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning was with Scott's family, and Christmas afternoon and Boxing Day was with my family. I got to play with my nephew lots, toboggan (hadn't done that in a long time!) and received some lovely gifts (like the Queen Bee Edith tote bag that was at the top of my list! So exciting!), and gifts I gave were also well received. Yay!

Tonight will be hanging with some local friends, eating yummy food, possibly playing various versions of Rock Band or Guitar Hero.

Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2011 is fantastic for you all.

I have been baking up a storm! Tonight I finished round two of Fresh Ginger Cookies. Saturday I made Earl Gray Tea cookies. I'm also making glazed lemon cookies tonight (about to go make the glaze). I will also be making Strawberry Jam Pinwheels (it was supposed to be raspberry, but I don't have enough jam), Cinnamon pinwheels, and lemon shortbread.

We're having a baking swap tomorrow at work, so I will take in one dozen ginger cookies, and one dozen earl gray tea cookies, and come back with two dozen random cookies.

I will be packaging these all up in tins for friends and family members.

Y'all wish you lived near me.

It's so strange how I can feel like I'm so busy, but really I'm not doing all that much. Just work and some exercise, and some cleaning, and some Christmas organizing. Oh well.

Yesterday I felt like crap, so I skipped out on a friend's cookie swap. Which I feel bad about, but I figured feeling gross and being around people and the food that they'll take back to their people would be a really bad idea. There's a work cookie swap coming up, so I won't be entirely cookie swap-less.

Plugging away on my nephew's Christmas present - I'm knitting a blanket. Nothing fancy, just garter stitch squares of different shades of blue that I'll sew together and then trim with a border of another shade of blue. I just have three and a quarter more squares to go, then I can start on the trim and sewing. Must remember to check my needles, I don't think I have a yarn one. If not, then a stop at Len's Mill will be in order. I love that ridiculous store. It's like a craft store, fabric store and dollar store all smashed together in one place. And I'm sure at Christmas it will be even more insane than usual! A couple years ago my friends and I joked that we should all meet up there one day, and give ourselves 20 mins and whoever can find the best Christmas present (the tackier the better!) for $10 or less would win (what they'd win, I dunno. All the presents?) - we never did it, though. I should see if anyone would want to do that this year or next.

Earlier this morning I came up with my own Christmas list for Scott's family's gift exchange. I kind of hate coming up with lists, because I feel like a greedy jerk and like people will think I want everything on the list. I'm just giving options! And then the present will be a surprise. I should really get over that feeling. I know that anyone would know that I do not expect everything on the list (especially because you can't buy everything within our price limit) and I really should stop feeling bad about the things that I do, especially when someone else asks me to do them! Ah, self esteem issues. Awesome.

Okay, how much more random can I get? Perhaps that's a sign to stop here, and come back another day. Hopefully before a full week goes by.

I'm lusting after Fluevogs right now. I'm saving up for this pair. I'm not into heels normally, but this has started me lusting on a billion other pairs of their heels...I'm going to be saving up for the rest of my life to fuel this!

I'm trying to narrow it down to which ones I should save up for once I get those...I currently have 14 tabs open of shoes I think are cute. Some are very similar to the ones above, though, so I'll save those for later. Perhaps it will be these ones. Or maybe I should aim for these ones while they're on sale. And these boots are also super cute. And I should probably attempt to get something other than black ones all the time (but it's so hard! If I'm gonna pay that much, I should be able to wear them all time!) like these cute ones.

Why can't I win the lottery, and spend it all on shoes?

And now that I'm thinking about it, maybe I DO want the first pair in turquoise.

So, I'm going to be much later getting to my sister's place then I thought. Scott got stuck at work for an extra 40 mins, and he still has to go to the pharmacy before he gets home.

Times like these are when I wish I still had my own car.

I wonder how many entries I will start with "So,"...

So, I've already missed a day in December. Oops.

Tonight I am heading to my sister's place, where I will hopefully get there in time to see my nephew before he goes to bed. We are heading to my parents' place tomorrow for the Santa Claus parade, and lunch. I'm excited to see my nephew! It's been about a month and a half since I've seen him.

I really enjoy working only half a day on Fridays. It's so nice to be able to get stuff done in the afternoon, like getting my hair cut, and doing dishes, and some laundry, and I still have the whole evening free.

I also really enjoy going to this stylist. My former stylist stopped working at the last salon I went to, and I called a bunch of places in town but she was not working at any of them. I stopped in the current salon I go to, to ask if she worked there, and my now-stylist was really helpful in trying to help me find her. At the time, I said if I couldn't find my former stylist, I'd come back to her, and I'm glad I did! She makes me laugh a lot, and this visit we found out that we like a lot of the same silly movies! And we had an awesome talk about ridiculous beauty standards. (And my ipod just started playing "Don't Make Me Over", heh.)

As I sometimes do in December, I have once again been moved by the whim to attempt to post every day this month. That may even mean that I will continue on with the 30 day meme thing that has been wallowing away in obscurity (I don't know why I write that ridiculousness, it just wanted to come out). But I'm afraid that it will probably mean that I'm writing a bunch of little short entries about absolutely nothing, because that seems to be how I roll.

This evening has been pretty nice - snow outside, a fake fire in the fake fireplace, good music, a super soft extra comfy sweater, and a purring cat sitting nearby. I've even exercised a little bit, and emailed my sister to try to sort out a Christmas gift for our parents. It's been fairly productive (for me, anyway), even though it doesn't really feel like it.

So, we'll see how I do this year in attempting to post every day this month. See ya back here soon.

Apparently I've had this sitting in an empty entry for almost half a month. It really doesn't seem like that long ago.

Anyway. I'm Emily. I often have to think really hard about how old I am. For instance, I currently always want to say that I'm 33, but I'm 32. It usually goes the other way around, though. I currently work as a medical receptionist, but I really want to get back into Communications. I do not really enjoy searching for jobs, but I dislike my current job even more, so job search it is.

I live with my partner of almost 8 years. (I call him a partner because "boyfriend" seems a little weird after being together that long and living together for four years. And "common-law husband" sounds even weirder.) Lots of people ask us when we're going to get married. My standard answer is "We have a mortgage, we don't need a marriage." Perhaps if we were married, though, the fucking bank that took over our mortgage would finally fucking acknowledge me as a co-owner of our damn house. But really, it doesn't bother me one bit.

I am often sarcastic.

I'm not a big fan of writing bios/introductions of myself. Really, what do people want to know? I was painfully shy as a child; I'm still a little shy but tons better than I used to be. My favourite colour is blue. I really dislike feet in general, my own in particular, however I've been wearing sandals a lot this summer. I am a huge fan of argyle socks, with striped socks running a close second.

I am an avid consumer of pop culture. I love love love music, but I am a little bit picky about what I listen to. I have not willingly listened to the radio in years (but I did used to have to listen to it for work. Augh. There are no good radio stations in this area.) but I'll listen to the CBC if I think of it. I love to read (my ideal job would be a reader for a publishing house) and I will read almost anything. I will usually still try to finish a book, even if I hate it, if only because maybe somewhere there is something good in it. I love movies and tv, and often the badder the better! But I do like good things, too. I am especially fond of zombie movies. I will only watch horror movies with my friend Cameron (we have a tradition of getting together to watch a couple of movies, and eat delicious food at the same time. Sadly, now that we live in different cities, this doesn't happen nearly as much as I'd like it to). I realize that a lot of zombie movies are also horror movies, but to me, they're in a league of their own, and I will watch zombie movies anytime, anywhere. (But they are especially fun to watch with Cameron.) For my other favourite movies, the "so bad they're good" ones, it is especially fun to watch them with my friends Nat and Amy, but again, I will watch these anytime, too. I keep lists of the books I have read, and the movies/tv on dvd I have watched. Sometimes the yearly totals are scary. (Moreso for the movies than the books. I don't think there's such a thing as reading too many books. To many movies, however...)

I got a new laptop on Friday (happy early birthday to me!) and I'm still getting used to the keyboard and whatever that thing is that you use to move the cursor around that's not a mouse. Touch pad? Whatever. I keep making it do strange things. It's a little annoying, but I guess I'll get used to it soon enough. The number of typos this bilingual keyboard makes me make is ridiculous, though.

I'm not sure what else to put in this. I guess if you want to know something, you can ask in the comments (if anyone is still reading this! I have been very neglectful as of late) and I will answer.

( the meme )

Just spent some time at the Way Back Machine reading message boards I used to hang out on about 8-10 years ago. My fave threads were the ones where people talked about what they did in their day, and the ones where people wrote short letters/postcards to anything they wanted.

It's been a long time since I did some postcards here.

Dear patients in the office where I work,

Yeah, that sign? The one that says "Please wait here until called"? It means WAIT THERE! If you come up to my window before I call you, I will finish what I'm doing, ask you to wait at the sign until we're ready for you, and pretend I am still working on something, just to piss you off. And I will take EVEN longer if you tap your fucking health card at me.

Just do what the sign says!
emiline

*

Dear co-workers,

Seriously. WE ARE NOT FUCKING TWELVE YEARS OLD! Get over your fucking whining and petty fighting. I am not going to solve that shit for you, because I don't give a crap. Go eat a bowl of fuck and stay outta my way.

I like you better when you leave me alone,
emiline

P.S. If I end up covering for you while you're on break and you leave everything in a shambles one more time, I am going to LOSE MY SHIT! Not cool.

*

Dear Camcam,

I should be cleaning right now, but I'm doing this instead. You won't mind when you're visiting tomorrow if the house is a little cluttered? I hope not!

xo em

*

Dear stomach and head,

Yeah, yeah, I should be serving you dinner, but there's not a whole lot to eat in here. I've got potatoes...and cheese. Happy dining?

I'll try to do better next time,
emiline

*

Dear Friday Night Lights,

You're awesome, even though I really don't "get" football. But I am very sad that my favourite character has been downgraded to a guest star. You'd better have some good plotlines to make up for that.

Don't make me regret the love,
emiline

*

Dear people who still read this lj,

Y'all are fantastic. I am going to try harder to be around more often, and to post better stuff.

xo emiline

I've decided March will be my New Year.

One of my resolutions is to write here at least once a month. It's been a really long time since I've regularly updated anything, and I'd like to get back into that. Maybe I'll even end up writing something that won't make me cringe. But I won't hold my breath about that.

Another resolution is to start regularly updating a book review blog I started ages ago and only updated once.

There are other things I'd like to do this year, too. Like take a trip with my family, which means I'd actually have to get a passport. Start exercising regularly (isn't that why Scott bought me a Wii Fit for my birthday? Why, yes it is). Finish the sweater I started a couple years ago. Make a lightweight sweater or shawl to go with the dress I will likely wear to a couple weddings this summer. Lots of stuff like that.

I hope you're all well. See you back here within a month!