Monday, December 31

2012: Year In Review

It's finally here. The end of 2012, when the world was supposed to end about half a dozen times. We're battered and weary but still here!

Here is what I had to say and share at the ends of 2010 and 2011.

I wanted to focus on, well, focusing and just doing. Big ole flop due to unforeseen bouts of absolute rage. I have been very blessed by karma and good fortune out of many a rough spot this year too. However, resolutions and whatnot will come tomorrow. Time for the nostalgia!


Here is Pantone's page about the Color of the Year: Emerald and here's the press release page about it.


DJ Earworm has cranked out this mash-up of the top songs of 2012- "Shine Brighter":


JibJab's Look Back on 2012:


 YouTube's Top Videos of 2012:


Also, two articles: New species of animals discovered in 2012 and Weird News from my home state of Florida. Cannot say that I'm terribly proud of the hot mess-ery.
I commend you for carrying on after this point as it's time for my monthly reviews! These are in no particular order and obviously vary in importance and meaning. Looking back on a lot of this there were time that I didn't document exactly what was going on in my life, but it reminded me of what was happening. It made me much more determined to document the realities with my scrapbooking while I cut back on putting up a sugar-coated front.
January: 
I took down my cherry tomatoes, perfected my cake pop- Oreo truffles techniques, and tried to make some resolutions about limited myself to strict time periods (what a laugh). I worried about how to streamline every aspect of my life, was still working for Stampin' Up! for a few more months, and started delving into my family's vacation scrapbook in earnest.

I discovered my blog's issues with Picasa's photo storage that took weeks to sort through and fix, harvested my herbs that were going wild while starting off some new seeds, planned my own Lunar New Year of the Dragon dinner, and did cultural presentations in each of the classrooms.

I also started working on classroom websites and now am the school's webmaster, began a mild obsession with beauty products and YouTube beauty gurus, and I created a system of organizing and keeping receipts this year.

During a brunch with a dear friend, I pulled three Angel Cards to reflect upon for the year: "Exploration" - "Balance" - "Forgiveness". While I kept that in mind for a few weeks, I totally lost track of that later on in the year, and looking back now- It was incredibly relevant and poignant. 

February: 
I was immersed in the BoardMaker program at school making communication schedule booklets for several students, worked my butt off helping out with the annual spaghetti fundraiser, learned about Project Life, vaguely watched the Superbowl while playing Mario Party (as per tradition), and started crocheting food-themed treats and made candy-treats for the staff for the snowy Valentine's Day we had. That was also Arizona's 100th birthday.

While working in the garden, I discovered two types of bug eggs popping up underneath the leaves of my plants, and started planting beans and peas. My best friend, baby brother, and I started getting back into an old favorite game of ours- Maple Story. My brother turned twenty and I flipped out just a little and I became mildly obsessed with RuPaul's Drag Race. Our cat's grass obsession reached an all-time high and there was a leap year.

My family's dog was lost but found and rescued after a week-long of turmoil. She is with a great new family now that loves here very much.

March
I made Simply Adorned inserts for a friend and was super grateful for random acts of kindness at work. There was the anniversary of two years of blogging around which I reorganized the tabs and features, spring had sprung in the garden while the lettuce was ravaged by some critter, and we added strawberries to the mix.

The SO's bike was made road-ready again, we worked on various plumbing and other household repairs, there were tornadoes across the middle of the country, and the NCAA tournament was lackluster when our home team was knocked out of the running very early on. We also splurged on updating some computer parts and I got a graphics tablet.

Seed catalogs rekindled my hope in the garden followed by flowers appearing, we took care of a pesky wisdom toothache, I went to zoo on a field trip with the kids, and I crocheted armies of cupcakes with my best friend when we started the battle of the care packages.

April
We were obsessed with Sims3 and some expansions, our kitty's sister got into a fight with a feral cat, the peppers were being eaten from my garden, the herbs flourished, the lettuce was thinned out, started garden vlogging, and celebrated Easter with my sister-in-law with some deviled eggs shaped like baby chicks. I was itching to reorganize my room (amongst other things) and celebrated four years of dating with the SO at a fifties diner

I started working and volunteering more at school, becoming the guard of the laminator, made a Flat Stanley display about plants and cultivated a front display all about the beloved book character at school, it reached 100 degrees, there was a volunteer breakfast, and we treated ourselves to luxurious haircuts.

There was a mini garden haul, an attempt to reseed a few old favorites, and while planning out my trip to Florida and FMIL's birthday celebrations, I was reprioritizing my life yet again.

May: 
I tried to make my first crochet project from scratch- a hooded kitty scarf, finished up some classes, vlogged a little bit with our kitty, and took FMIL to Kartchner Caverns.

Then, I headed to Florida for the majority of the month during which I took off to Cape Canaveral the next day, then to Tallahassee where I attended the wedding of two friends from childhood, the drama of someone else's family showed up on our doorstep, my brother and I took field trips around our neighborhood, had a reunion ten years in the making with middle school friends, went on a road trip with my brother to visit friends around the central part of the state, and then headed back to Tucson.

June
Switched around my wardrobe, we became obsessed with Diablo 3, reorganized my beauty storage, had a few wolf spider visits, replenished my card stash with newly released color products while planning out this year's Christmas cards in earnest, and we prayed for those affected by the wildfires in New Mexico and the flooding in Florida. 

We played a lot of Mario Party, got up to 110 degrees, cat-sat for our sister-in-law while she was away, and nearly blew a gasket over our internet issues. I thought out my collection of earring storage, learned about my one of five love languages, the garden was picked on by quails, realized that pain was a big part of adulthood, started making clothing accessories out of yarn, and helped a friend reorganize her office.

I also kept plugging away at that family scrapbook, FMIL went to visit family, and we Skyped with them. All of us kept the victims of the Colorado wildfires in our thoughts.

July
I began a obsession with crochet oceanic creatures, started playing with my Nintendo DS again, and freaked out when my brother had car issues while my folks away on their first cruise. Our Independence Day was the coldest we've had in a while, we found a snake or two in the yards, I made a file of my friends' favorites, we discovered Twitch TV for online game streaming, and had a fun discussion with my sister-in-law about rock-climbing.

We also found a bunch of bugs inside and ended up taking care of that, harvested peppers as they ripened, became obsessed with Terraria, and the monsoons started. I embarked upon organizing the family recipes here, there was tarantula that kept coming back, and a new classroom fish and kitten were introduced.

Our hearts dropped when we heard about the movie theater shooting in Aurora, Colorado.

August:
The pets were introduced to each other, the garden began to recover with the monsoon rains, our internet issues continued as we said goodbye to one of our new friends, I was obsessed with learning about the Vlogbrothers, and we watched the Mars Science Laboratory rover, Curiosity, land on the red planet.

I started subbing again at school, we got ringworm, the garden began wilting in the heat, was sick during my birthday, digi-scrapped a whole bunch, moderated stream chats, and I was hired on regularly has a consensus aide. That initially led to lots more communication booklets and making a bug observation book for the kids.

The tropical storm Isaac neared Florida and I started to fret a little with the media hype but my friends there reassured me that everything was going to be fine.   

September
I crocheted owls, finalized plans about our Christmas cards, our kitty caught an upper respiratory infection, realized I was working for free for the time being, the tomatoes and peppers continued to ripening, and I continued stockpiling yarn gifts again. 

Skyped more with my closet of friends, reaffirmed my thoughts on marriage, finished up the Florida scrapbook album, reflected upon an end of era with my WoW playing as the new expansion came out, and went on fall break.

I found out that one of my high school mentors, who inspired my degree, had passed away after battling cancer.

October:
We had to get a new fridge, the weather began getting chilly, I finally made the Christmas cards, had my hours doubled at work, reorganized my beauty and nail polish storage, wrote up a story for my Flat Stanley adventures in Florida, and reorganized around the house some more.

I began extensive note-taking inspired by my new obsession of Project Life, updated the garden monthly summaries tab here, and watched tons of shows on Hulu with the SO. There was a field trip to the Sabino Canyon, I gave my teenage self some beauty advice, assembled the Florida album, created a master plan about growing up, carved pumpkins at the last minute, and created a bunch of cards.

The hurricane- super storm Sandy devastated the New England area.

November:
I started finding something different I could be grateful about for each day of this month, started walking home as part of my bigger plan to grow as a person, harvested the last of the major bits of peppers and fruits from the garden, went to a fun baby shower, became determined to document more of life, largely failed at my walk home, and majorly bonded with our kitty.

I found some of the joys of using Evernote, began to receive and send packages, worked earnestly to control my temper, lined up a ton of creative consulting jobs that nearly all fell apart, reviewed a bunch of beauty products from throughout the year, wrote the Christmas cards, and went to two Thanksgiving dinners- one of which was vegetarian. 

The garden was prepped for winter weather, started up some new seeds indoors, and obsessed over dancing musical Christmas light videos online. Walking home got easier with a simplified route that came with long phone conversations with my brother and mother, and thought extensively about what I wanted to do in the new year when I got my new planner.

December:
I got sick more often (it happened to coincide with when the students would get ill, imagine that), began to winterize the evaporative cooler on my own, finalized the cards and wrapped up the gifts as they arrive, and commenced cooking new recipes again.

I went to the bi-annual street fair, began getting gifts early on, the SO and I began planning out home renovations in the next coming months, made cake pops for the staff, went to the staff holiday party, and learned about a family illness and the appointments, fretting, and treatments that go along with that.

There was a terrible shooting in Newtown, Connecticut at Sandy Hook Elementary that rocked the nation and the world. 

There was much baking of holiday treats, was sick for much of my vacation, watched many YouTubers participate it in Vlogmas, played many hours of Dokapon Kingdom and Super Mario Galaxy with the SO, spent Christmas with the in-laws, the SO and I went on a road trip to meet up with a friend, and wrapped up the year by reflecting upon the past twelve months.
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