Snail mail is awesome. 3.1

Mail post! I've been doing a fair bit of letter writing these days. Finding new people to write, hearing from people that I lost contact with for a while. It's all good! I had quite a few Christmas cards come in, which was awesome. I didn't take any pictures of the letters that came in... But here's pictures of my outgoing mail!

For Steffi in Germany. We had lost contact for over a year, I messaged her on the Postcrossing forum where we met, and I got her details again. Sweet.

For fellow Canadian Kelly. This was a first letter and we'll see if I hear back from her.

Going to my darling Julia.

For one of my newer pen pals, Kotona.

For one of my very first pen pals, Callie!

Going to dear Jasmine

Letters going out to my sister-in-law, 100 Days of Snail Mail, and Steffi

New book obsession.

Last fall, my family went on a trip to the States for a weekend. My mom, sister and I stopped at a Wal-Mart to look for something - I can't remember what now. I wandered into the book aisle, and I noticed this book called "The Hunger Games". I had heard that it was really good and that I should read it. Because I am the kind of person who buys a book based on its reputation before I personally read it, I bought it that day.

This past Saturday (not a couple days ago but the one before) I had finished reading Jane Eyre, and I knew that the Hunger Games movie was coming out in March, and figured I may as well now read the book now.

I read the whole book in 2.5 days. I couldn't put it down. I was obsessed with this world of Panem and I needed more. Last Tuesday I went to buy the next two books, Catching Fire and Mockingjay. I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning to finish reading Catching Fire. The next day pretty much all I did was read Mockingjay. I just couldn't stop until I knew what was going to happen with these characters that I had grown to love - Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Prim, Cinna, Haymitch...

It's been almost a week since I finished the books and I'm still thinking about them. Chris is probably getting tired of hearing about "Hunger Games this" and "You should sit down and read this book!"

Me, every other day: "The Hunger Games movie comes out March 23!! *squeeeaaaal*"
Chris: *silence*

I am going to see this movie with my sister and a friend of ours, because they've also been reading these books the same time as me. (I beat them because my job sucks and I get no hours, so I have time to read all day) We are all very excited.

Would I be a super geek if I bought the China Glaze "Colors from the Capitol" collection and wore a different color on each nail when I see the movie?

Me: "Chris, is it okay if I pre-order this Hunger Games nail polish collection for $50?"
Chris: *silence*

It's safe to say that I am obsessed.

Pretty dresses for the plus-sized that walk among us.

Hi everyone! Lately I've been thinking about my wardrobe and how sparse it is. Especially when it comes to summer wear. I would like to start wearing dresses more - I love to wear dresses and skirts, but it seems that most of the dresses I find lately are buttons up the front. I really hate to wear things that button up the front because I'm so... *ahem* well-endowed that they just gape across my chest, and if I get the next size up then it's too big everywhere else. So I prefer to wear things that don't have buttons. Plus I have this problem of being plus-sized, so for some reason Google thinks that when I type in "plus sized dresses" they think I weight 400 pounds and am interested in muumuus (what a funny looking word!). Wrong, Google. I want to wear pretty dresses that still show off my figure. I'm only a 1X, for Pete's sake! I would hardly consider myself obese. Just super curvy :P

Since I have zero luck in stores, I decided to see what kind of dresses I could find online. I was actually surprised at some of the things I found. You'll see the thing that surprised me most at the end.


>>I have no idea what website I found these dresses on. But I think they're super pretty!

Milan dress - $130

Ruffle dress - $68

Martina - $105

>>The following are from Poetrie (which I checked out because of another blog post I had seen [Lindsay, I thought it was you but I couldn't find the post!!], but none of these dresses are close to my size. I still like them though.)

Meet & Greet - $66

Eyelet Love - $64

The Social Network dress - $51

Oreo dress - $90

Queen of the Jungle dress - $60

The Creme Brulee dress - $31

>>The following are from Modcloth:

Raspberry Iced Tea dress - $48

Midnight Bird Song dress - $95

Coach Tour dress (violet) - $48

Today's the Day dress - $75

Modern Fairytale dress - $155

I'll be honest with you, I had never been on the Modcloth website before writing up this post. I just assumed that because it was popular, they wouldn't have plus-sized dresses. But they actually do! I typed in "XL sundresses" and Modcloth was one of the top suggestions! I couldn't believe it! These are definitely the favorites of the dresses I posted about, so I may be making a purchase from them one of these days...

Update of pictures.

My new moccasins! I love them - totally worth every penny!

My new Little Miss glasses. Things taste better from them.

 

Important notice: My owl obsession is getting worse.

I didn't actually purchase this but I really wanted to.

My new owl ring. I named him Ferdinand.

Catscats hanging out. So cool.

My desk was clean! I intend to attack organizing my whole office better this week.

One of my favoritest books. I always read it around Christmas-time.

Glittery nails are the best!

Have a wonderful day, my friends!

(All these pictures were taken with Instagram. You can follow me - feedotbee)

New year goals.

Me and Chris enjoying our first Christmas as a married couple!

Happy new year! I'm so excited for 2012 - it's going to be a good year because I've decided that it's going to be! Yes, in 2011 I graduated and got married, and that's hard to top; but I hope that just as good things happen this year. I've been seeing a lot of lists of goals out there, and I would like to share my goals for 2012 with you.

In no particular order:

Go on a road trip to Vancouver/Victoria/Seattle. Vancouver and Seattle are 2 cities that I've wanted to visit for years. Chris and I are hoping to go this June, partly because it will be our one-year anniversary and that's just a nice excuse to get away.

Buy an acoustic guitar. I used to have a guitar, but it was such a junky, cheap one that I didn't like to play it. This year I want to get a nice one that I'll enjoy playing so that I can start to teach myself to play again.

Read 40 books. I joined the 2012 Reading Challenge on Goodreads (feel free to add me as a friend!) and I thought that 40 was a good number. That's roughly one book every 9 days. Totally doable!

Get a pair of moccasins. This goal is very recent. My sister got a pair of mukluks for Christmas, and my sister-in-law has a really nice pair too, which she wore everywhere when we were visiting them. Mukluks aren't my thing, but I really want a pair of moccasins to wear around the house because my feet are cold all the time.

Blog more. I don't post as often as I'd like to, so I want to make more of a conscious effort this year. Specifically, I want to do more mail posts. Which means I have to get better at taking pictures of my mail. Which brings me to...

Take more pictures. I really like taking pictures, but I feel like in the past couple years, I just get so busy I forget to document life. That's pretty much it.

Hang out with friends more. I feel like since I've gotten married that I don't have as much time for my friends anymore (this may also be because I'm not in school with them every day anymore). I'd like to have friends over at least every other week for supper, and go out for coffee and just hang out with them more.

Study the Bible and journal every day. This is an important goal for me. I have become slack in my daily devotions, and I want to get back into that habit. Also, I used to journal every day, and I found that it truly helped my mental health - getting my thoughts, plans, and feelings onto paper every day made me feel more clear-minded. I felt more driven because I had an outlet to process everything, and then if I realized I wanted to do something, then I would do it!

Get an actual career. For a year now, I have wanted to get into the book editing business, but I didn't know how to go about it. My goal is to research it, make some connections, and somehow become an editor. This one may be a stretch, but I would like to at least be on my way in 2013.

Finish all the painting projects in our house. When we bought our house we had to paint literally every surface in the place, and we just got tired of painting before we were done. I would like to complete those projects that we didn't get around to.


This seems like a long list, but some of these things are habits I want to develop for life, so they don't count haha. I just feel like the new year is such a good time to start new habits, because it feels like a fresh start, and you have a clear beginning point.

What are some goals you have for 2012?

filling in the blanks. 3.1

1.   One of my favorite things to do when I have free time is  snuggle up on the couch with Chris and read a book.

2.   When I have free time I tend to  be lazy and spend hours on Pinterest or other such sites. Sometimes I clean my house but not that often haha.

3.   If I had an entire day completely to myself I would  eat some breakfast, then pack up journals, books, and letters; drive into the city and park myself in a comfy chair at the Starbucks in the Chapters for the afternoon. Lunch might be at George's Burgers or whatever I have a craving for. After I had my fill of writing, I would wander the mall a bit, then come home. I'd have some supper and watch a cheesy chick flick to end my day.

4.  I would prefer to spend my free time (alone or with others...)  I usually spend it alone, but I love my friends too. They just don't have as much free time as me.

5.  Most of my free time happens  during the week, after work or on my days off.

6.  The best thing about free time is  not having to fulfill any goals, and that I can just do whatever I want.

7.  The next time I have free time I should probably  run some bank errands and make some phone calls but instead, I'll probably   take a nap.