Winner

And the winner to the giveaway is...{drumroll please}

is..........


Pri!!!

Until next time ladies.  (And yes, there will be a next time.  Stay tuned.)

* I put everyone's names on pieces of paper and had my roomie draw a name.

Five Good Things

1.  Warm wool socks.  Handmade ones.
2.  Spumoni.
3.  Enoki Hotate Bacon.
Enoki mushrooms and scallops wrapped in bacon from Guu.
Party in your mouth times three.
4.  Fresh laundry.
Even though I really hate doing laundry.  I don't know why.
It's pretty effortless.
5.  Roommate bonding.

10 (Gonna Try) To Do's For February

1.  Start meal planning.
McDonald's loves me because I eat like crap, and their burgers are my default food of choice.
Them and those street dogs that are everywhere in Toronto.

2.  Eat fruits weekly.
I know how sad this is, but truly if I don't make myself, I probably won't remember the last time I had fruit.  Very sad times indeed.

3.  Exercise weekly.
Running up or down the stairs to catch the subway because I'm running late in the morning, yet again, does not count.

4.  Start sleeping at 10:30pm again.
One month of travelling has turned my entire sleeping routine topsy turvy, and I was too lazy in January to reclaim it.

5.  Start eating breakfast, the meal of champions again.

6.  Post one sketch weekly.
I've been drawing quite a lot, and I've been meaning to share the fun, but laziness has struck yet again.  For some reason the idea of scanning and uploading seems like such a mountain to move in my head.

7.  Start editing sets.
I've one wedding, one engagement, one shower, one maternity, and one baby shoot to edit that I know of.
I want to start...somewhere.
I also think I've forgot some shoots.

8.  Dance once a week.
Must...not...let....laziness...take away dance.

9.  Drink 8 glasses of water a day.
I've truly been neglecting the health of my body.  This shall be remedied.

10.  Clean apartment  everyday.

Under the Sea

This is one current piece that I'm working on.
Stay tuned for the finished work next week!

Giveaway!

Conundrum:  I like making jewelry, but I can't wear everything I make.

What to do?

Answer?

Giveaway!!!

A one of a kind, handmade pendant.
I will never make it again.
The process is organic.
Comes with a sterling silver 11'' chain.

Here's what you do:
Leave a comment, and I will make a draw.
Then I will mail the pendant to da winner!

Five Good Things

1.  Fuchsia Roses
You know you're a nerd/hopeless romantic sap when you buy yourself flowers.
That and you really miss Spring.
2.  Carrot Cake
This is the only "vegetable dessert" that I will go near.
Vegetables and dessert shouldn't really mix, but this is the exception.
3.  Naps
4.  The Genius Bar at the Apple Store
They were kind enough to tell me that the reason my iPhone headphone jack isn't working is because I have failed to completely shove my earbuds into the sucker.
I FAIL.  Again.
5.  Bath and Body Works Sale
This week I bought like a years' worth of hand soap.  My friend, C.G. said to me,

"You know you look OCD, right?"

Ah well, no point in hiding it.  I is crazy already.

Five Good Things

1.  New role(s) within Campus for Christ
2.  New job title: Creative Director of MyCravings Online Strategies
3.  The library
4.  Hope
5.  Umbra

This morning I woke up.  I went to my bathroom, and at the sight of newly organized lipsticks and eyeliners I thought to myself with a jolt, "I'm an adult now."  Those aren't my mom's lipsticks that I'm dying to try out and play with.

Those are mine.
Bought with my own money.
That I chose.
That I wear.

Technically I've been an "adult" for seven years now going on eight, but inside I've always viewed myself as a teen inside.  It probably didn't help that in the past four years that I've been earning my own bread and water that I've lived much like a college student so there was no lifestyle change at home to force the full mental transition from youngster college student to young adult.

But at the stroke of twenty-five something inside inexplicably clicked.
"Ok, NOW I'm growing up.  It's time to get my act together."

There's been a mental shift, or maybe plural, "shiftS".

8 Years of Hiatus Over

Ever since I can remember I've been drawing constantly. One of my first memories was my mom teaching me how to draw. I wonder if she would laugh at that now because at the time she was teaching to draw stick figures. Now I've surpassed her in skill, but I'll always owe my first drawing lessons to my mama.

Art was something I always took semi- seriously until university. I almost gave it all up because my biological father and Asian upbringing had ingrained into me the sense that since art couldn't feed you it was, and is superfluous. So after I started university I all but dropped it completely.

It grieves me that I gave up a gift from God for 8 years because of utilitarian reasons.
Here is one way that I've been created to be like Him.
I have the gift to create.
It brings me pleasure and Him pleasure.
Many people have commented that they wish they had my skills,
and here all along I've been trying to shove it under.

Throughout the years of burnout and depression He has used this gift to help revive me, and slowly I've been stripping away the lies that I've believed about art.

This new year I've started taking drawing seriously again.
Sketchbooks are filling up fast and pencils are dwindling into stubs.
And I love it.

Five Good Things

1.  The cold.  I much prefer cold over heat.
2.  Jill the roommate.
3.  Selina the roommate.
4.  Leftovers.
5.  Good Teen Lit.

Five Good Things

1.  Dinner with BFF
2.  New, sharpened  WOOD pencils (I know.  Who uses wood pencils nowadays?)
3.  Dusting off the ol' drawing skills
4.  A remnant of tasty congee that was saved for a morning such as today's
5.  Art supply stores

Five Good Things

1.  Making a new friend at church.  I mean beyond small talk.
2.  New Year cleaning and reorganizing.
3.  Surviving 9 toddlers on little sleep and no breakfast.
4.  Engagement shoot.
5.  Old music that becomes "new music" because you haven't heard it in so long.

Of Risks and Dreams

My high school motto was carpe diem- "seize the day" in latin.  

I like to think of myself as the fearless type of person who never misses an opportunity, but it just hit me this Christmas that I'm not.

I'm actually quite rick-averse.  I like to hedge my bets.  I like to have back up plans, and back up plans for my back up plans.  

I want to succeed and I am terrified of failure, but that has shaped me into the type of person who will only try something if success is guaranteed.  In other words, cowardly.

When it comes to dreaming, success is rarely guaranteed, and in the past I've always shrunk back and opted for safety and security rather than taking that risk and going forth into the unknown.   There always had to be some shred of security. 

But this year I'm going to head into the unknown and chase some dreams.

2010 Recap

2010 was a hard year.  Not as hard as the two previous, but hard nonetheless.  Yet it was not all blegh.  Hard can be good.

Top 5 Fave Happenings This Past Year

1.  Hawaii
Enough said.

2.  25th Birthday Party.
It was the sweetest and most encouraging party in my 25 years of life.

3.  BFF getting engaged.
It's like my sister getting engaged except I don't have one, which makes it all the more special.

4.  Vision Trip to South Asia
How could travelling to South Asia NOT be on here?

5.  The Small Things