Merry Christmas

I hope all of you had a very merry Christmas, I know I sure did. Its nice once the rush of Christmas shopping and such is done, and you finally get a chance to relax and enjoy the break. I spent Christmas eve laughing and swapping gifts with my girls. One of them is practically a master chef and made delicious appetizers and desserts for us. After staying up all night and chatting I finally made it to bed around 4am. only to be awoken at 8am by every member of my family taking turns calling/texting me to come over and open gifts. It was well worth it though I had a really fun day with my family and the dinner was delicious! I had a really awesome turn out for gifts too! My parents actually figured out a way to get me the one thing I wanted most, a Nook color. I'm actually using it right now to post this blog entry. You see Barnes and noble have yet to ship to Canada so it really took a lot of effort to get it. But let me tell you I'm in love, i cant wait to build my library of books!

Countdown!

Alright so the countdown to Christmas is on! We have 6 days until Christmas and 5 days of shopping left, if you're anything like me and have barely started. Good thing I have the next two days off. It's funny how much your perspective changes when you grow up. I remember being a kid and just about bursting in anticipation waiting to open gifts. And now it's more about having some time off work to spend with your family, and lets admit it, get drunk.

So with that I leave you with an extremely short post. I must sleep so I can make the most out of my day off tomorrow, and hopefully start/finish my shopping. Good luck to all those that are tackling the stores this week.

New Sketches!

So yesterday I spent the day drawing with pencil crayons, not really my medium of choice, but I had nothing else and figured it would be a great learning experience. Seeing as though I wasn't able to erase any of the lines I really had to try my best. I'm really happy with the results of the lips. I'm not very good yet with portaits but I had fun trying.

















I used these photos as a reference.

http://weheartit.com/entry/19320713


http://weheartit.com/entry/19333347/via/slinkee

Fast Car

I certainly had quite the busy weekend with no time to blog, so here I am. I finished my last class on Saturday, and now have my certificate! Very exciting! Almost exciting as not having to do 6 hours of accounting on Saturday mornings any longer. We also had our staff party on Saturday, so my day consisted of waking up at 7am getting ready and driving to school, getting out of class at 4pm, driving home, getting ready for the Christmas party, and trying to stay awake throughout it. I must say I did have fun, and it was nice to see everyone outside of work, all dressed up. Unfortunately I had to leave early because I worked at 7 am the next morning and needed as much sleep as possible.


So now that I'm finished school, I have to start job hunting for something in my field of "expertise." Although I think right now I'm going to have to wait until January, everything is just so busy right now with Christmas, and starting a new job during this time would just be insanity. I'll take this time to focus on singing.

I've been listening to covers of Tracy Chapmans "Fast Car" and have been looping the "Boyce Avenue feat Kina Grannis" cover. Their voices blend so well together. It's not an easy one to sing, but one day I'd like to try it. Hopefully sooner than later.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0noFKXE_ao&feature=related

Shading

Alright so I've really wanted to improve on my shading and lighting when it comes to drawing. It's my weakness, and shading/lighting really does bring the image to life. So tonight I decided to sit down and practice. I found this great website filled with awesome desktop backgrounds http://wallbase.cc/toplist/0/21/eqeq/1024x600/1.77/100/32/0 I found this black and white photo of a girls lips and hair and thought it was a great place to start.

Here's the original












And mine. :) Not quite finished, but I was really excited and had to share!


(You can click to enlarge)

Turtle Cheesecake Bites

8oz Cream Cheese

1 1/2 Cups Crushed Graham cracker crumbs
6 pieces bitter sweet chocolate
Crushed Pecans
Caramel



Mix together the Cream Cheese then roll into little balls, put on tray and freeze (about 15min) melt bittersweet chocolate in a double boiler (I used all 6 pieces in the box) take a fork and dip balls in chocolate put back on tray and sprinkle crushed pecans then drizzle caramel on top, put back in freezer to let it all harden and tada all done. Super fast and easy, you can make them any size.

Christmas is in the air

Helllllo everybody! Let's start with the fact that I've officially completed my Bookkeeping and Accounting course! Woo! I finish my other course on Saturday and then I can stop stressing about homework and studying. Just in time for Christmas!

Now I have a love/hate with Christmas (more love than hate) I just have such a trouble when it comes to shopping. I never know what to get or what to spend. I suppose it would be a lot more fun if I had just won the lottery or something that way I could just shower my family and friends with gifts. But unfortunately that has yet to happen and I'm stuck. You see when I buy presents it has to be really thoughtful, and meaningful. Those are the best gifts, because it really shows that you know the person, and that they will appreciate it that much more. Well at least now that school is done, I'll have some free time to tackle the malls. Let's just hope the Christmas rush isn't too bad yet.

Vienna

So I've decided that anytime I'm stressing out over something, I need to just throw on a song. It's amazing the effect music has over me. I'm not sure if it's the same for everyone out there but it certainly puts me in a place where I can just close my eyes and forget the day.

Tonight it was"Vienna by Billy Joel" that really helped me. I got lost in the song, I really think it's a lot to do with the piano. The chords are so well put together, and really make the song what it is. The lyrics and piano are competing in the best way possible for the spotlight of this one. It blends beautifully and really allows you to hear the meaning behind the track.

I miss the quality of music that used to come out. These days it's about endorsing a product subliminally or altering your voice to the point where a robot could sing it better. I miss the music where the artist put their heart and soul into a song, and really tried to be unique. It's hard to come by these days, but when you do find it I suppose that it becomes that much better.




What do you listen to on a bad day?


Enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgXC6CcojHs

Frozen Chocolate Mint Dessert

Alright, my step mom often sends me a recipe she will find, to see if I'm interested in coming over and making it. It works out well for me, because they get all the ingredients for me, and all I need to do is follow the recipe and enjoy the product. I also love baking and taking photos of the process and finished product so that's a great bonus.

So tonight I made 'Frozen Chocolate Mint Desserts' it was really quick and easy.

Prep: 7 mins | Serves 6

30g (about 8 individual) Chocolate wafers
1/4 tsp mint extract
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa
one whole can of fat-free aerosol whip cream
1/4 cup fat-free milk
2 pieces (per dessert) frozen 'After Eight' chocolate
2 Tbsp chocolate syrup (enough to drizzle)
6 Tbsp whip cream (to top dessert)

Line 6 muffin holes with foil muffin liners. ( I just used regular cupcake ones)

In a bowl combine wafers, extract, cocoa, whip cream, and milk. (Now it says to do this in a blender, which didn't work for me at all, so I would recommend crushing up the wafers, and using a hand beater). Blend until completely combined. Divide mixture among prepared muffin liners; freeze for at least 2 hours.

Just before serving, top each with chopped mint patties (After Eights), 1 tsp chocolate syrup, and 1 Tbsp whip cream.

Notes: This easy chocolate dessert can be made in several flavours. For a pure chocolate treat, replace mint extract with chocolate or vanilla extract and swap the mint patties for mini chocolate chips.

(I got this recipe from Weight Watchers Weekly)

Saturday

Saturday mornings.. Everyone loves Saturdays, the day to unwind and recover. As a child you remember Saturdays as no school, and early morning cartoons. (Unfortunately Saturday morning cartoons these days are in no comparison to the 80's/90's).

So this Saturday morning I woke up at an ungodly hour (7:30 am) to get up for school. Now let me please note here that my alarm was set for 8:00am, giving me 20 mins to throw on some clothes and rush out the door, but unfortunately my cat decided that waking up a half and hour before my alarm was due to go off was a much better idea. A half hour isn't that big of a time gap unless you are like me, and enjoy as much sleep as you can possibly get. So I woke up to my odd cat, standing on my chest, licking my hand and waiting for any movement to indicate his master plan of waking me up has succeeded.

The thing is, as soon as I wake up to this odd routine, he goes into full cuddle mode, let's see just how close we can get and if you don't pet me I'm going to do everything possible to find your hands and rub my face all over them. So usually after this happens, I just fall back asleep curled up with kitty. Today, I had to instead force myself to zombie walk my way to my closet, throw on some clothes and get my books together.

So I've been in class since 9 am this morning, (I have to drive into another city to my class) studying accounting, and let me tell you, accounting at 9am, on a Saturday morning is one of the hardest things I've willed myself to do. I sit here, from my accounting class writing to you between my professor explains in full detail how exactly to use this program. /sigh 2 and a half hours left.

New Girl

So I love Zooey Deschanel, she's got it all, a great singing voice, an awesome actress, and you have to admit you've admired her style. I must say that I do look up to her, and her career. So when I heard she had a new TV show coming out I was pretty happy. I just didn't realise it would be so awesome! All of the characters fit together nicely, each with their own quirks. Nick, the "grumpy old man" who almost seems to have it together, until he runs into an ex. Schmidt the "nice guy/douchebag" who doesn't really get women. Winston the one whos good at everything, yet has nothing. And Jess, the peppy girl who sees the positive in every situation, and will sing about it if she has the chance to. So I highly recommend investing a half hour of your time to watch it.

Youtube

Alright so I've been taking singing lessons since the beginning of this year, and trying to practice as much as possible. (I took a few lessons back in high school but didn't have the time to keep on top of practicing). I've always wanted to sing, it makes me feel good being able to express myself using my voice.

I love hearing other people sing, average everyday people, its just such a personal thing someone can share. Well when you take lessons a big thing you have to overcome is being confident. Confidence really shows when you're singing, if you don't have it then the audience can really hear that you are unsure, and your voice goes unsupported. So in my journey to becoming a better singer I've decided to go the YouTube route and try and start coming out of my shell.

YouTube is great, let me just say I spend a lot of time on there admiring other singers. You can learn a lot by watching someone who knows what they're doing. So here it is ladies and gentlemen, my very first YouTube cover.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GshjgToc4gA

VSFS

Who watched the Victoria Secret Fashion Show tonight? I raced home after class (my class gets out at 9:30 pm) to get home just in time to watch it. I always feel like it's suppose to be 2 hours long so I was surprised when it was over. I guess it already costs them so much time and money to put together those incredible outfits and wings, that another hour of fashion would just be overwhelming.

I really enjoy when they go into details of their own lives during the breaks. I thought that their childhood pictures was a cute touch, showing kids we all go through and awkward phase, and anyone can be an angel. I was really excited that Maroon 5 was playing because I recently saw them live. Unfortunately they played "Moves like Jagger" possibly the most over played song on the radio right now. But it was so darling when Adam Levine held his girlfriend, Anne Vyalitsina's hand and serenaded her down the runway.

Well I was left with wanting more, and I can't wait to see what they do next year.

Show me your Shame

So now that you've read the back story on what a "Dirty Shame" is, I want to see your dirty shame. No I don't want naked photos, I'm looking for drawings, photoshops, outrageous photos you believe fit under the category of "Dirty Shame."

Send me a photo of your best dirty shame in the comment section below.

Letters

Does anyone write letters anymore? I've been meaning to write to my grandma, as she always sends me long handwritten letters ( sometimes its like decoding a language, with her handwriting :P ). Anyways, I was thinking about it last night, wondering what I would say etc. and I realized the reason I have yet to start it, is because hand writing a letter take so much more time and thought then typing one up.

Now on one hand typing up a letter is fast and efficient, you can't make any spelling mistakes, you can simply delete a sentence without any trace of it being there, and you can quickly add something in at any point. Yet with a typed up letter, its so impersonal. I feel like a typed up letter could be for anyone and the thought is lost in the perfect font.

When I grab a pencil and put it to a sheet of blank white paper, I get lost, my thoughts are taken from me and I don't know where to begin. Maybe it's from all the years in school where you sit there knowing your words will be marked and judged.

So I suppose I'll be sending a nice typed up letter, maybe I could do some artwork on the sides to make it more personal.

Princess Mononoke - in works

Alright heres what I have so far on my Princess mononoke piece