I wasn’t sure if Day 3 of our advent calendar was going to work, luckily with A.’s creativity it did.

Day 3 – Play a board game.

Unfortunately, we both have plans tonight. I have my mitten knitting class tonight and A. is visiting his parents. So playing a board game wouldn’t work out too well. Fortunately, A. whipped out a piece of paper and we played tic-tac-toe.

In addition to playing a quick game tic-tac-toe, we stopped into Starbucks this morning for a coffee and sat at the bar and watch people scramble into work this morning. Oh no! Watch out for that….. puddle..   It was fun.

Hooray for creativity!

In my last post, I mentioned that A. and I are not going to do the Advent Calendar this year. I had taken a look at our schedule this month and saw that it might not be realistic to do one this year. However, yesterday, I decided that we should try to do it anyway, but that we should be flexible on when we have to do the task. This week is really busy, so to open a note today that says “make an ornament,” it might be a little difficult to do that today.

So here we go on this year’s Flexible Advent Calendar:

December 1 – Make an ornament – For the ornament, I took the little perler bead Super Mario mushroom off the fridge and turned it into an ornament. When I have a bit more time, I’ll make an actually perler bead ornament.

December 2 – Wild! – We haven’t decided what to do with this wild card yet. Any suggestions?

{edit: For the Wild Card, I just remembered that we both brought Christmas cookies to work. That should be good enough!}

Hello. I’m still here. Barely. Last weekend was full of  busy fun. It was full of knitting, book club, cookie swapping, Christmas wrapping and novel-writing.

On Thursday, I took another class at Wabi Sabi to learn how to knit mittens. I have to say, mittens are probably my favorite thing to knit so far. They are much easier knit than socks and I find that I can see results quickly. Carole was mentioned that socks was her thing that she always has in her purse. I think mittens will be mine. I’m so happy with the way that mine are turning out. I can’t wait to make my next pair. (will post pictures soon)

This weekend was my first cookie swap. Have you ever done one before. It’s really fun. Everyone makes a plate of Christmas baking, brings it over to someone’s house, put the plates out to nibble on and then towards the end of the evening, you go around and take samples from each tin for yourself. I think I took too much of Amy’s. Thanks Amy. I promise, we’ll eat them all.

In other news, I’ve managed to kill all of my indoor plants. Not because I didn’t water them, I did water them. I think it’s that we don’t have much day light in our place right now. They didn’t survive very well without this light. I look at this as a learning experience, leave the plants outside.

At the A&J household, we’ve also decided to not do our advent calendar this year. I’m a little disappointed about this, but I’m afraid that our schedule’s this month would be accommodating to any extra activities. I think we’re still going to do as much Christmassy stuff as possible, but it won’t be a day-by-day thing.

I’m jealous of all you mommy bloggers doing the advent calendar. Have fun doing it this year.

Things around A and J’s house have been pretty status quo lately. I’ve been really busy trying to finish reading Eat. Pray. Love and writing my novel. I feel so behind. I really need to give it another push tonight.

While reading and writing, my knitting has been pushed to the side lately. I really should get back into it. There is a pattern that I would really like to do for my mom for Christmas, I just need some time to start it.

This morning the internet was down and my computer wasn’t working. I was in a bit of panic this morning. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to pick up where I left off in my book. Luckily, when A. woke up, he took a look at it and restarted the computer. Thank goodness it worked!

While the computer was not working, I start reading my next book. I am now reading a biography of Guy Liliberté. He is the creator of Cirque Du Soleil. I’ve only read a few pages of this book and think that (a) his ex-wife is nuts and (b) I love the saying within the first couple pages of the book. It says:

Pure entertainment is not an egotistical lady singing boring songs onstage for two hours and people in tuxes clapping whether they like it or not. It’s the real performers on the street who can hold people’s attention and keep them from walking away. — Andy Kaufman.

Christmas shopping needs to be done this weekend. Christmas crafting has not even made my radar yet. Although, I am looking forward to A and I’s advent calendar this year. Hopefully we’ll come up with some good ideas.

The holidays. Got to love them!

Here is a little sneak peek at my Halloween costume. Like my glasses?

A. tried on his full costume last night and he looks amazing! He’s going to be a great date.

What are you going to be for Halloween?

Here are some random things that have been running through my mind lately:

• Every morning, A. and I get our coffee at Tim Hortons. Most of the time, we are served by the same woman. She never smiles. Some days, I wish I could just give her some flowers to brighten her day.
• In my 26th year, I want to Eat, Pray, Love.
• I catch myself yelling VEGAS randomly throughout the day. Can you tell I’m excited?
• I bought a food processor, yea! I’m pretty happy about that. Now I can make wicked awesome banana bread.. and pesto too.
• What do you call a personality trait that needs to be worked on? I found out recently that I have two. Sometimes I tend to exaggerate and sometimes I can be overly organized.  I need to work on these.
• I love knitting. I just haven’t had a chance to do much of it lately. I’m getting a little stressed out that I won’t have some of my handmade Christmas gifts done in time.
• I love Christmas. I can’t wait to put up my tree. Is it weird if I put it up in November?
• Weddings. A wedding.
• I wish I had more time. We are always so busy. I would like to go visit my dad in November, but every weekend is booked up.
• I started taking this stuff called Udo’s Oil. To help me during my workouts… I keep forgetting to take it.
• Lately, I’ve found that food has no taste. I’ve been eating out allot and everything tastes gross. Why is this happening?
• I love having someone to sleep next to every night.
• I happy that I do not have a dog right now. However, I do enjoy babysitting our tenant’s dog once in a while. She’s great.
• I’m trying to think of good Christmas gifts for my friends. It’s hard when they don’t have a blog to write about the things they like. Get a BLOG.
• I love my mom. She’s been so great lately. I’ve never seen anyone give as much love as she does on a daily basis.
• It’s Tuesday.

My birthday is coming up (5 days). I can’t believe I’ll be turning 26! I remember last year, I as so nervous to turn 25. I heard so many stories about the quarter life crisis that I freaked myself right out. Well, now I know it affects everyone differently, if anything, I feel more sure of myself than before. I learned so much over the past year, than I learned in any other year. It really was a fantastic year.

A couple of days ago, A. was having some trouble thinking of something that he could get me for my birthday. So, I send him a few suggestions of things that I would like off Etsy for my birthday. Here are some of the things I suggested:

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I hope you all had a weekend with friends and family. This weekend was pretty family packed, we looked at an income property, my mom helped me with my Halloween costume and continue knitting a few Christmas projects. It was great.

The big highlight this weekend was that A. and I’s parents had Thanksgiving dinner together. At first, I was a little nervous about the idea, but everything went really smooth and I had nothing to worry about. We are so lucky that our families get along.

In other news, our little Giant Tiger in Hintonburg caught on fire this weekend. I’ve heard that it was the old electrical wiring that started the fire. I’m really sad about this, because I was able to walk there easily and do my groceries and now I can’t. I hope it doesn’t take six months to fix. I need my GT boutique sooner than that.

Hope you had a nice weekend.

Shop, shop, shop is what I did this weekend. 

2 girls and I went across the boarder to get a bit of July 4th shopping done. I’ve never been to the United States just for shopping, I knew the deals were better, but I didn’t now how much better they are. $10 for fall Volcom jackets, $10 for board shots, dresses all about $10. I couldn’t believe the deals. Everything was 40% off the last ticketed price. It was like a Zellers or Sears sale in all of my favorite stores! 

I’m not thinking about going during Black Friday. I heard it’s the craziest shopping day of the year. Am I crazy enough to go? I think so. I just don’t want to get trampled for a good deal. Ouch.

Before I finish this post, I should probably mention that the birthday boys Friday night party went very well. A. and my brother had a blast. We had rented a party room downtown, and it was just perfect for the number of people we were. Then we went to Pier 21, drank our G&T’s ,with a few Polar Bears in between and danced the night away. I’m so happy that they had fun. Happy Birthday Boys.

Happy Birthday Guys! 

The first time that A. and I ever hung out, we did the whole 20 questions thing. We asked each other about where we were from, what we planned on doing after school, where do we work, when is our birthday…. When A. told me his birthday and year, I had to ask him to whip out his ID. I couldn’t believe it. A. and my brother share the same birthday, same day, same year, they are only about 2 hours apart! 

Ever since that day, they have always celebrating their birthday’s together. This picture was taken in 2001 when they were turning 21. They look just like brother’s. I’m so lucky to have a great brother, who is turning out to be a great man and a great boyfriend that is turning out to be the love of my life.

Happy Birthday Boys! I hope you have a great day today.