New year & a surprise!

I haven't posted in almost 2 weeks! It's unacceptable, I know. I've been CRAZY busy lately, so I really haven't had time or energy to blog. Plus, our internet was being silly for awhile after Christmas, so we had to get the cable guy out and replace the modem and it was a whole big thing, but it's better now!


Anyhow, NYE was sort of a bust. To begin with, I thought I was going to have to spend it alone, since Shane was scheduled at work, but he found out he had the weekend off a couple days beforehand, so we had a relaxing night. We tried to watch a marathon of The Office (Shane had never watched it before, so I am making him start it from the beginning, and we're on the 3rd season. Seasons 3-5 are my favorite!!) but it didn't work because we had to watch it on Netflix, and alas, the internet was crap. With that plan failing, we tried picking from the DVDs for something to watch, and wound up deciding on Dead Like Me. I started falling asleep after one episode, so we just ended up going to bed around 9:30, didn't even stay up til midnight. I know, we're pretty wild and crazy, right? 


As for New Years resolutions? I never really make any. The way I see it, I'm changing constantly, no matter what day, month or year it is. If I have a bad habit I need to break, or a change I need to make, I will do it when I'm ready, I'm not going to do it just because it's the first day of the year. I know it works for some people, more motivation to say "I've gone the whole year without ______!!!", but that doesn't really cut it for me. On the other hand, I did make a mental list of things I need to work on this year. Here are a few of the things on my list:
1) Consuming healthier foods/beverages on a daily basis. This one explains itself.
2) Less TV, more books. I love reading, but whenever I have free time to relax, Netflix is usually my go-to for entertainment. I have so many books on my shelf I haven't read yet, and I really need to get on it!
3) Set aside certain days or times each week aimed specifically at creating. The problem I run into sometimes is that I don't FEEL like it when I actually have time. This needs to change. I figure that if I have the same day or time set aside each week, I WILL be motivated, if only to keep up the routine. 
4) Start and maintain a successful Etsy store. I won't be opening one until I have a big enough selection of things to sell (so, within the next few months).




Since New Years Eve, I've been working on birthday presents for both my sister Carolyn and my best friend Emily. Here's a few of the things I made for them....




For the cloud wall decoration, I painted the canvas a dark grey, painted a silver cloud with eyes and a mouth, and outlined it in black, then i shaved various blue and purple crayons and arranged them underneath the cloud, covered it with wax paper (wax side down) and used a hair dryer to melt them onto the canvas to look like rain. CUUUUTE. :) 

For this wall decoration, I hot glued crayons (after taking the wrappers off of them) in various shades of green, yellow and brown to the bottom of a canvas, and blow dried them so they would drip down the canvas. I left a bit of room at the top for the "flower heads". For the flower heads, I chopped up various red, orange and pink crayons into 4 pieces (per crayon) and glued them onto the tips of some of the "stems" and blow dried them a bit as well. I wish I would have used crayon shavings instead, because I intended for this one to look much different, but I think it still looks pretty cool. 

For this one, I used my 5'' x 7'' canvases, painted them gold, then hand painted some black lettering. I need to get better at doing letters! Or use a stencil. 
Either way, it still leaves that personal touch that says "Hey, I actually spent time painting this and thinking about ya".

So, the presents were finished, and Emily's birthday was on Saturday the 7th. I hadn't planned on coming into town for a little while since we had just been there over Christmas, but it was my best friend's birthday! So, Shane and I worked with Justin (Emily's boyfriend) to arrange a surprise visit. We left our place on Friday night and got there around 1am on Saturday. After sleeping in and having a tasty lunch with two of my good friends, Cassie & Jen, it was finally time to surprise Em! We met up with them at her house as she was getting ready to go out and she was SO surprised, and kept yelling "AHHH MEAGAN'S HERE!!!". She had absolutely NO clue we were coming, even though all of our friends did. (THANKS FOR KEEPING IT A SECRET, EVERYONE!)

emily & i

emily, carli & andy.

(check out carli's & andy's blogs.)

there's me in the back!
in front of me, left to right: sharelle, cathy, emily, nikki & carli.

cathy & sharelle gettin' their groove on

(you can also check out cathy's & sharelle's blogs.)

We all had a great night. Unfortunately, I don't have more pictures to share of the evening, I tried to take many more, but I was much too inebriated, and each time I tried to, the pictures kept coming out blurry. So that's all you get! :) 

I hope everyone has had a fantastic beginning to 2012! I know I did!