Farewell 2012

Wow this is the second to last day of 2012 and it has been quite the year, one that has gone by all too quickly. It comes to an end via a great festive season, made even better by sharing it with family and working my way almost completely through my to do list as mentioned here. 2013 is already destined to be an interesting and amazing year as I say goodbye to my twenties at the beginning of February. Smack bang in the middle of the year I will be hitting up the Big Apple for the sixth time, my most visited city, with my big sister and I cannot wait to be her unofficial tour guide. Lastly, before I get to the end of 2013 I will have had to decide if Canada, well more so Vancouver, and I are done with our cohabitation. This means I might be writing to you from Australia or who knows where this time next year. Life is exciting that way I reckon, although uncertainty and decision making can be tough. However, I am totally getting ahead of myself because I haven't even kissed 2012 goodbye yet and welcomed 2013 with open arms. 2012 saw me change jobs and homes, both of which have made me happy and content. Funnily enough these were the two things I told myself that I needed to change in 2012, as I reflect upon what I wrote on the first day of this year. I got to explore new cities and see some important people in my life get married. Scattered in between all of this has been some fantastic adventures with wonderful friends in the city I have grown to adore so much over these three and a bit years. I am a lucky gal and I may not be good at keeping resolutions, but I am already thinking of what I can do in my life to make it even better. Thank you 2012 it has been a blast - full of tears, laughter and an array of emotions as the months and all they encompassed flew by. I hope you all usher in 2013 in your own special way and I look forward to continuing this creative journey.

Musical musings for December

It seems I have come full circle with my musical musings, which is really great to see as I enjoy talking about the new music that has leapt into my head and into my iTunes library each month. Surprisingly this month there are no Christmas tunes featured. However, on further thought I don't feel like my ears were ambushed by too many Christmas tunes this festive season, which is kind of nice. Music choices in December featured both new and old artists with a few purchases coming as a result of the songs covered on the TV shows Glee and Nashville. I also took quite a liking to one of the songs in the last Twilight movie. So in no particular order I was dancing on the inside to the following:

1. Just a Fool (with Blake Shelton) - Christina Aguilera
2. Little Things - One Direction
3. A Thousand Years, Pt. 2 (feat. Steve Kazee) - Christina Perri
4. I Will Wait - Mumford & Sons
5. Anything Could Happen - Ellie Goulding
6. Ready or Not - Bridgit Mendler
7. Everybody Talks - Neon Trees
8. Locked Out of Heaven - Bruno Mars
9. When the Right One Comes Along - Striking Matches

I guess when you look at my music choices I am quite a mainstream music listener, but I still like to think there is some diversity to my purchases. The bottom line is that I like music and think life would be duller without it.

December's music can be found on these albums (images courtesy of iTunes)

Cookie exchange

This weekend was pretty great; actually it was really great! Before I talk about the greatness of my weekend, I did want to recognise how thankful I am for my life and the people in it because recent events in the world have reminded me of this. Friday night I went to the ice hockey for the Vancouver Giants' annual teddy bear toss. We didn't have to wait too long before we were tossing our teddy bears onto the ice and to top it all off they won the game. Yesterday was spent tidying up the apartment in preparation for the arrival of some important guests this coming week. Last night was reserved for a lovely housemate dinner at Al Porto in Gastown before heading off to watch an amazing performance of the Nutcracker at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. I have never been to the ballet before and I was in awe of the performers and the beauty of it all.

As for today, I spent most of it baking cookies for our Christmas cookie exchange at work tomorrow. I was a little bit ambitious because I knew I had Kambie to help me, therefore I decided on three types of cookies. The first one I whipped up was a batch of peppermint white chocolate chip cookies. I found it easy enough to use the end of the rolling pin wrapped in wax paper to crush the candy cane.

For recipe number two, I choose to make a cookie, which was one of my favourites growing up in Australia and incorporates the deliciousness of the cherry ripe bar, that of choc cherry rounds.

The recipe is so old that I had to get my mum to scan a copy of it and email it to me, as I couldn't find it online anywhere. It is actually from a 1992 issue of the Australian Woman's Day magazine.

I had to improvise with the choc melts and copha, using milk chocolate chips and vegetable shortening instead. I also used all-purpose flour, which I believe is the equivalent of plain flour. As you can see from the photo below, I didn't have a fluted cookie cutter so had to settle for round cookies.

Last, but not least, were gingerbread cookies because you really can't have a Christmas cookie exchange without them. I was quite excited to make these little men, as I had never done so before. I trolled through many recipes before deciding on this recipe. I have to say I found it easier to roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface rather than using wax paper. If the dough got too soft then I just put it back in the refrigerator to harden up a bit. I used the Wilton royal icing recipe for decorating and went for simplicity in this area copying what I had seen a friend do previously.

I can't wait to see what everyone else baked tomorrow and hopefully they will love what I made. If my sampling is an indication then I think it will be a success. Such a fantastic weekend with so much awesomeness still to come!

O Christmas Tree

One of the great things about living in Canada or probably any country that has Christmas during the middle of winter is the below:

That delightful specimen is our real Christmas tree, which was painstakingly picked out on Saturday off the lot, decorated the same day, but finished with lights this evening. Buying an apartment size Christmas tree and decorating it is definitely affordable on a budget with the proof being right in front of you. The decorations and lighting are courtesy of Michaels and Dollarama with the total bill being just shy of $60.00. Our finished Christmas tree is a petite cutie, which brings a smile to my face every time I look at it. 

Magazine subscriptions

A little while ago an email dropped into my inbox that compelled me to sign up for a few magazine subscriptions. I think I was won over by the pricing, the savings per issue and the Scene points, which equated to enough for a free movie. Although, I didn't need much arm twisting because I do love having magazines delivered to me on a monthly basis. Who doesn't love getting mail that isn't a bill at least once a month. I already bought LouLou every month as mentioned here so how could I resist saving money each issue through a subscription. The two other magazines that I added to the mix were that of Flare and Chatelaine. Flare is good at focusing on Canadian fashion and Chatelaine is more about cooking, health, living and style. I have now tried my hand at a few of the recipes in this magazine. Well seeing as the festive season for me is definitely in full swing, magazine subscriptions are a great gift idea for loved ones.

Festive lust-haves

A big part of the festive season for me is gift giving, which I no doubt would have mentioned last December. This is one of my favourite things of the season, but it also causes me a little bit of grief as I agonise over buying the perfect present for those near and dear to me. So far this time around I have managed to sort out some gifts before December 1st, which is great if you are using online shopping because shipping can take a bit of time. A few websites that I recommend are Chapters, Amazon and Book Depository, especially the book website as they offer free shipping worldwide. The notion of gift giving also makes me think of what things I would love to buy for myself if money was no object. It's not a big list, but I think there is definitely quality over quantity in it:

• Marc by Marc Jacobs Classic Q Huge Hillier Hobo bag (image courtesy of Bloomingdales)

• Apple iPad (image courtesy of Apple)

• Canucks Jersey (image courtesy of Sportchek)

This might seem a little bit greedy, but they are really just lust-haves if I should be so lucky. The most important thing about the festive season is spending time with loved ones and really just soaking up the atmosphere. In saying this I do also like to contribute to the less fortunate in some way usually via a donation to a toy or food drive. The festive season is a reminder of how grateful I am to have a job, a roof over my head and the means to do things I really enjoy with the people I love.

Mac make-up

Before I make the whole of December about all things festive I wanted to mention a fun experience I had when I was back home last month. This experience was a part of the pre-wedding week festivities. Toward the beginning of that week, I had the pleasure of a make-up lesson at the MAC Cosmetics counter in Melbourne's Myer department store. It was definitely an eye opener (pardon the pun) for someone like myself, who is still to master the art of make-up application especially when it comes to the eye area. The make-up artist did a wonderful job applying the products and transferring my blank canvas of a face into what I thought was a great work of art. She also took the time to explain what she was doing and at the end of the lesson wrote down all the products she had used. I must admit that because of the great job she had done I spent more in the store than what I was planning too. I tried to recreate the look for my bestie's wedding, but fell quite a bit short. However, you know what they say 'practice makes perfect'. I think I will pick up a few more products that were used and hopefully one day master replicating what was done on my face. I don't usually like to showcase myself on here, but I wanted to show you what I was talking about and maybe it will inspire you to get more adventurous with your own make-up application.

2012 Festive Season

It is finally December and now I can start to embrace the fun of the festive season, which is one of my favourite times of the year. This festive season could possibly be the best one yet in Vancouver not only because I have family coming to visit for a week over Christmas, but also because of the stuff already booked in (not all of which are festive-related):

1. Watching the final installment of the Twilight films
2. Work Christmas parties involving bowling, ugly sweaters and karaoke
3. An advance screening of The Hobbit
4. Attending the ballet to see The Nutcracker with my lovely housemate
5. Baking for a work cookie exchange
6. Being dazzled by the wonders of Cirque du Soleil's Amaluna

Upon reflection, the above is a pretty awesome list and yet it is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the festive season. Looking at last year's list as mentioned here, I didn't actually tick off everything, but hopefully I can make up for that this year. In 2012 I am inspired to do the following:

1. Attend the Vancouver Christmas Market outside of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre
2. Go for an ice skate at the outdoor ice rink below Robson Square
3. Walk through the Bright Nights in Stanley Park
4. Check out Illuminations at Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum (a place I have wanted to go to for ages)
5. Trek up to Grouse Mountain especially for a sleigh ride and maybe even a day of skiing
6. Spend a day on one of the local mountains skiing or snowboarding

A collage featuring some of my 2011 festive season happy snaps, from both near and far

Having family here, my brother and his girlfriend, hopefully means I will cross off everything on my list and have fun along the way doing so.