2012 – Through the eyes of my iPhone

Once again I find myself reminiscing on the year gone by, still finding it hard to believe that another year is over… This year, just like all those gone by has been busy, filled with all things that tell me I am alive, highs, lows, fun, laughter, tears and sadness.  I find this time of year really both happy and sad, I love looking back on what I have achieved, as well as planning some adventures for next year.  Yet I also feel sad about the things I couldn’t or didn’t do, or perhaps the time that I wasted on things that I shouldn’t have, but I know that really this is what makes up a year, it’s all just part of it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed using my project365 photos to help me capture all that happened in 2012… both the good and bad… so here is 2012 through the eyes of my iPhone, with a highlight for each month some big, some small but all highlights… oh and maybe some special mentions…

JANUARY

Jan

Highlight: January was a list frenzy, everything from cleaning, baking, getting fit and eating… and all of it was heaps of fun, especially because it most of them were crossed off with friends and family.  Time well spent.

FEBRUARY

Feb

Highlight: Weekend’s away at the beach.

MARCH

Mar

Highlight: Taylor Swift with some very excited young girls… oh and great food…. Steak Sandwiches… yum yum.

APRIL…

Apr

Highlight: My Birthday and everything that went with it… including my kindle… man I love that thing.  Special Mention goes to the Inverloch house which we said goodbye to in April, I have lots of fond memories and while it may not have been a highlight of this month, that house certainly has played a big part in summer and holiday highlights of years gone by.

MAY…

May

Highlight: Our trip to New Zealand, and being able to celebrate Brian and Jean’s 60th Wedding anniversary… oh and our first one.  Oh and a special mention to my first classroom teaching placement.

JUNE…

June

Highlight: A few bonus trips to Bendigo and all the fun that that brings… it’s a fun place to be especially when you have friends like mine.

JULY…

July

Highlight: Getting my Donna Hay on, not once, but thrice.  July also has a few important birthday’s in it which always deserve a special mention.

AUGUST…

Aug

Highlight: Dave’s Secondary Performance Dinner (SPD) with Jake.

SEPTEMBER…

Sep

Highlight: Getting stuck into my exercise and loving it… no sarcasm, actually loving it.  Oh and finishing placement is worth a special mention.

OCTOBER…

Oct

Highlight: Completing my 10km run at the Melbourne Marathon Series.

NOVEMBER…

Nov

Highlight: Dust and Jess got married… doesn’t get much more exciting than that… although the colour run does get a special mention.

DECEMBER…

Dec

Highlight: Christmas… the food, the gifts, the carols and the fun… always a winner especially the town hall lights… that was very cool.

So there you go… my year… it seems simple when you put it all together like that, but it wasn’t, it was good though and I am hoping that 2013 is just as good… maybe even better.

The 2012 List Wrap Up

Here we are at the end of the year… every year I am pretty sure it gets quicker, but 2012 is almost done and dusted… So it’s time to have a look at the list… to see what is done and what is not… and maybe even offer up some kind of reason for those that remain… so here it is the 2012 list wrap up…The list border

  1. Lose 10kgs
    Well I have lost weight, but not quite this much… but at least it’s going in the right direction
  2. Make my own ice cream – completed: 9/1/12
  3. Read 6 books – completed: 25/4/12
  4. Exercise at least once a week – completed: 31/12/12
    Well it depends which way you look at it, it averaged at least once a week, but there were a few weeks which had none.  Either way it was more exercise than I have done in a long time.
  5. Do my devotions at least 3 times per week
    Once again I have failed on this… I thought I was getting better but turns out no… it might have to go back on the list for next year
  6. Take at least one photo everyday – project 365 – completed: 31/12/12
    Check it out here ‘2012 – Through the eyes of my iPhone’
  7. Finish scrap booking old stuff – completed: 4/11/12
  8. Make photo book with wedding pictures – completed: 20/6/12
  9. Stop pushing the snooze button
    Another bad habit I couldn’t shake… maybe in 2013
  10. Leave my phone out side my bedroom at night – completed:31/12/12
    Well it may not have been out of the bedroom… but it hasn’t been on my side of the bed
  11. Plan my week each week
    Nup, no excuses just didn’t do it
  12. Eat with Dave at least once a week – completed: 31/12/12
  13. Make breakfast muffins – completed: 16/1/12
  14. Stop eating chocolate at breakfast – completed: 31/12/12
  15. Blog once a week – completed: 31/12/12
  16. Bake meringues – completed: 3/2/12
  17. Drink a bottle of water everyday – completed: 31/12/12
    If it wasn’t everyday, it was pretty close to
  18. Keep my car free of rubbish – completed:31/12/12
    Better than any other year anyway…
  19. See some fireworks – completed: 12/3/12
  20. Get a Massage – completed: 25/12/12
  21. Have 2 ‘Diet coke free’ days per week
    Nup… I have certainly had less, but probably not two whole free days a week if I am honest.
  22. Watch a sunset with Dave – completed: 4/2/12
  23. Buy a new dress – completed: 1/11/12
  24. Finish watching Mcleod’s Daughters – completed: 14/4/12
  25. Fix up my super stuff – completed: 24/1/12
  26. Ride a push bike at least once – completed: 15/7/12
  27. Go on a picnic – completed: 4/11/12
  28. Go and hear live music – completed: 12/3/12
  29. Dance with Dave – completed: 10/12/12
  30. Go camping – completed: 7-9/5/12
  31. Go to the museum – completed: 11/2/12
  32. Stay at the Langham – completed: 19/5/12
  33. Get our wedding pictures framed – completed: 21/7/12
  34. Have a bath – completed: 15/4/12
  35. Make a mocktail – completed: 27/1/12
  36. Do a fun run/walk – completed: 26/8/12 (Walk), 14/10/12 (Run)
  37. Go on a road trip – completed: 29/6/12
  38. Stop biting my nails – completed:31/12/12
    Well most of the time… except when I am really stressed… either way I now have nails… and most of the time the stay on, untouched by my teeth.
  39. See a musical – completed: 29/2/12
  40. Have a rainbow paddle pop – completed: 27/1/12
  41. Try 1 recipe from each of my Donna Hay subscription Mags – completed: 25/12/12
  42. Finish unpacking my stuff in the study – completed: 3/3/12
  43. Make up our wedding guest note book
    Almost… all the pictures are stuck in, but it doesn’t have a cover and it isn’t bound… yet
  44. Go without TV for a week – completed: 28/10/12
  45. Go to a Trivia Night
  46. Respond to text Messages asap – completed: 31/12/12
    It’s getting much quicker, certainly better than a year ago
  47. Tidy my study and keep it clean all year
    Well it has been tidy for periods of time, but not the whole year
  48. Paint my toenails at least once a month – completed:31/12/12
    Again… if we go by averages… it’s done
  49. Eat red meat at least twice a week
  50. Deal with my mail asap – completed: 31/12/12
    I’m even learning to through things I don’t want out straight away.
  51. Eat 1 piece of fruit everyday
  52. Be true to my date days
    Well, we didn’t really have any… so I guess not
  53. Cook dinner for Dave at least once a week – completed: 31/12/12
    I’m not so sure about this one, but Dave thinks so, so who am I to argue
  54. Use every appliance in my kitchen at least once – completed: 9/12/12
  55. Clean the gunk off the baby havaiana in my car – completed: 27/1/12
  56. Eat at 10 different breakfast places – completed: 12/3/12
  57. Bust a move in a random location – completed: 27/1/12
  58. Visit a country town I haven’t been to before – completed: 7-9/5/12
  59. Go to a wedding – completed: 22/9/12
  60. See the fire balls at crown – completed: 18/5/12
  61. Do my chores – completed: 31/12/12
    When Dave didn’t get there first I did 🙂
  62. Learn a new joke – completed: 26/5/12
  63. Visit Castlemaine – completed: 26/1/12
  64. Visit Bendigo – completed: 24/6/12
  65. Do my own washing once – completed: 2/4/12
  66. Spend an afternoon playing with Dex – completed: 7/12/12
  67. Play my flute – completed: 20/11/12
  68. Wash my own car – completed: 7/2/12
  69. Stop picking
    I wish I had crossed this off the list… I really do
  70. Send 5 cards by post just because – completed: 2/7/12
  71. Play with play-dough – completed: 27/1/12
  72. Have a hot jam doughnut – completed: 10/3/12
  73. Got to a football game – completed: 10/3/12
  74. Floss once a week
    I also wish I had crossed this off, I have certainly done it more frequently, but perhaps not every week… and certainly a far cry from every night like I am supposed to.
  75. Try listerine mouth wash – completed: 20/11/12
  76. Go a term without macca’s – completed: 30/3/12
  77. Sing in the shower – completed: 7/2/12
  78. Swing on some swings – completed: 20/11/12
  79. Go to the beach at least three times – completed: 4/2/12
  80. Go up to a look out and look over the city – completed: 7/7/12
  81. Have a pot of tea – completed: 1/1/12
  82. Moisturize regularly – completed: 31/12/12
  83. Bake something for work – completed: 27/2/12
  84. Do 3 exercise classes – completed: 6/3/12
  85. Have one BBQ Wednesday – completed: 19/12/12
  86. Get an exercise piggy bank – completed: 23/1/12
  87. Go on a boat
  88. Go to the zoo – completed: 22/12/12
  89. Go to a concert of Dave’s – completed: 3/8/12
  90. Buy that whistle song off iTunes – completed: 6/11/12
  91. Master the cracking of eggs
  92. Fly a kite
  93. Make a gingerbread house – completed: 15/12/12
  94. Pump up my own tires – completed: 13/10/12
  95. Check my car’s oil – completed: 12/6/12
  96. Swim laps at the pool – completed: 27/8/12
  97. Do a water aerobics class – completed: 25/6/12
  98. Play with sparklers – completed: 18/7/12
  99. Try an espresso – completed: 14/1/12
  100. Have a dinner party – completed: 25/12/12

So there you go the list for 2012… 84 out of 100 is pretty good… even if I say so myself.

Bring on the the 2013 list.

Not How I Imagined…

Ok so before I get stuck into this post let’s be clear on one thing… my list, my rules… got it? Good… Now with this in mind I do need some help… I can’t decide whether or not this is cheating… There have been a few things on the list that haven’t happened they way I imagined they would in my mind… What I mean by that is when I put them on the list I imagined them to play out a certain way… But they haven’t… I have still ‘completed’ them and so they come off the list, but just not the way I had originally intended… Maybe I am making a mistake, I don’t know… What do you think?

20. Get a massage…
What I imagined: I nice relaxing half hour… maybe even an hour… relaxing while listening to meditation music and experiencing a sense of ahhh…
What actually happened: A quick 2 min massage in the kitchen from my brother, while I kept preparing Christmas dinner

29. Dance with Dave…
What I imagined: Well I had two weddings on the cards this year and at most weddings there is an opportunity to slow dance… So I went ahead and imagined myself slow dancing with Dave in the lovely atmosphere of a wedding…
What actually happened:
Well neither wedding was dancing kind of wedding… So we did not dance… Instead we danced in the kitchen… Dave under sufferance while I attempted to have a beautiful moment… technically we danced… but not for long and perhaps only coz I said we had to…

And… 88. Go to the Zoo…
What I imagined: Dave and I would actually go into the zoo, spend a morning, an arvo or a whole day wondering, looking at the animals, generally enjoying each other’s company… I would whinge about the smell, and refuse to go in the butterfly room, but it would be fun.
What actually happened:
Dave and I took a small detour on our way home from Bendigo and I went to the zoo… that is I stood outside and Dave took my picture… we were there, went out of the way to go there… but didn’t actually go inside…

So there your go three more off the list… but perhaps not exactly the way I thought it would.

The Girl Can Cook

December has escaped me… well and truly.  It has disappeared in a whirlwind of work and festive goodness.  But it has been good, and fun and worth it, even now as I sit here and type with heavy eyes, a full stomach and with one Christmas dinner to go.  I have also learnt some things this December and impressed myself a little in the process.

This December has been a month of cooking so I thought I would take a moment to brag a little because I really am quite proud of myself.  I think one of the reasons I am so proud is while I am not a bad cook, I am not a confident cook.   Cooking and baking take me a long time, I am meticulous with recipes and even then things don’t always turn out all that well… in fact you can read about some of my past kitchen adventures here… anyway, this year as part of my list I added a couple of cooking challenges and throughout the year I have been able to cross a few off the list

2.  Make my own Ice Cream
Ice Cream
13. Make Breakfast Muffins
Breakfast Muffins
16. Make meringues
meringues
35. Make a mocktail
Mocktail
83. Bake something for work
Cookies

But at the beginning of December there were still a few left… some of them on purpose, but not all… And while all the cooking things on the list were things I had wanted to do for a while, or things I felt might stretch me and my skills… and hopefully increase my confidence in the kitchen, in December I got my chance to shine… This month I have been able to knock another 4 cooking things off the list…

41. Try 1 recipe from each of my Donna Hay Subscription Magazines
This one has taken all year, mostly because it was a yearlong subscription… but it has been fun.  I still lean towards baking biscuits and sweets rather than dishes and meals, but I have tried to vary it up a little and this was the result:Donna Hay

54. Use every appliance in my kitchen at least once
I don’t have pictures of every appliance so you will just have to trust me that I did… and it was fun…

93. Make a gingerbread house
This is probably the one I am most proud of, if I am honest.  Previously even just the gingerbread alone has been a disaster… missing ingredients and not tasting all that good.  But not only was the gingerbread delicious, but the house went together and stayed together… and looked pretty good too, even if I say so myself…Gingerbread

100. Have a dinner Party
I am also very happy about this one… this year I hosted Christmas dinner at my house, with my Dad, my brothers and my sister-in-law, and it went well… nothing was a disaster, all had a good time, and it all came together perfectly… dinner party complete.

So after it has all been crossed of the list, how do I feel about my cooking skills? Well… pretty good.  I can cook… I can cook good food and amazing dessert.  Of course, I am not chef quality and it still takes me a while, but I feel like I have proved to myself that if I just give it a go I can do it, even the more challenging ones… the skills are definitely there and it can only get better from here.

1 Month to go

Wow… it’s December and it’s almost time to close this years list, but there are still a few things to go…. since my last update I have crossed a few more off:

7. Finish scrap booking my old stuff – completed 4/11/12
It’s all done, from 2000-2012… well what’s happened to date… all packaged neatly in a little box.
20121206-093154.jpg

23. Buy a new dress – completed 1/11/12
My new dress was for my brother’s wedding on the 17th, which was a super lovely day which you can read all about here… but here is a picture of Davo and I all done up… 20121206-103250.jpg

27. Go on a picnic – completed 4/11/12
A nice little fish and chips on the beach… not a full on picnic, but a picnic all the same.
20121206-163219.jpg

36. Do a fun run… well I have actually done two runs and a walk now… I think I am addicted… I walked the Parkinson’s Australia Walk, ran the 10km in the Melbourne Marathon festival and ran the 5km Color Run…  – completed 14/10/1220121206-103236.jpg

44. Go without TV for a week – completed 21-28/10/12
It was a necessary break in which I finished two assignments both worth 50% each… it was quiet and I felt a little behind in terms of world events as I didn’t really know what was going on, but I actually really enjoyed it.

67. Play my Flute – completed 20/11/12
Turns out my skills aren’t as awesome as they used to be, but it was nice to play again… maybe I might not wait so long before I do it again.20121206-093148.jpg

75. Try Listerine mouth wash – completed 20/11/12
Well I tried it, but I think the pictures tell you how much I liked it… 20121206-103258.jpg

76. Swing on some swings – completed 20/11/1220121206-093142.jpg

90. Buy that whistle song off iTunes – completed 6/11/1220121206-093132.jpg

94. Pump up my own tires – completed 13/10/12

20121206-103244.jpg

Which means I now have a month to finish the rest… some can’t be crossed off until the very end of the year but others can which means I still have 40 to go and a month to do it… here we go… could be a big month.