Twenty-Six

This morning I went searching through my photos to find one of birthday cake or candles or balloons but I didn't have one. So instead I put a party hat on a squirrel and I'm calling it a birthday win. And if anyone presents me with an actual squirrel wearing a party hat at any point today you will win some big bonus points. Last year I posted 25 things about me at 25 and I've decided to continue with the tradition.

1. Squirrels are my favourite animals, they have been for a long time and in the past few months it seems like they're becoming more "main stream". The woodland animal trend that's happening right now is great, my second favourite animal is the magically raccoon.
2. Speaking of raccoons, I got to 'meet' Meeko when I was at Disney and I could hardly contain my excitement. We danced, I got his autograph and J. took multiple photos. 
3. My maternal grandmother is my very favourite person. H. & R. are a close second and J. is also pretty great.
4. I don't like violence but I love Criminal Minds and Law & Order: SVU. I've determined it's because I like figuring out the mystery.
5. The older I get the more importance I place on wearing comfortable pants. 
6. I enjoy being somewhere new and exploring a different place, but I hate the act of travelling. If teleporting was a thing that would be great.
7. 75% of my bad habits are acquired during the summer while I'm at camp. 
8. I love photography and scrapbooking and anything that involves paper, scissors and adhesive.
9. Broccoli is my most favourite vegetable. 
10. I got new flannel sheets for Christmas and they are my favourite thing ever. I had forgotten how much I love flannel sheets. 
11. Cooking is my favourite. I think I would enjoy a career as a chef, except that I would be so stressed and anxious about feeding other people that it would over shadow the enjoyment.
12. I generally don't pay any attention to celebrity gossip but every now and then I can't help but read things about reality tv stars, mostly the teen moms and the Duggars.
13. I prefer my drinks to be ice cold, except for water. I like to drink water at room temperature.
14. My phone is always on silent. I don't even know what sounds it makes for alerts.
15. Supper is my favourite meal of the day. 
16. I think gummy bears are the best frozen yogurt mix in because they are the perfect texture when they are a little cold.
17. I thrive on organization and routine. Lists and detailed schedules are my favourites.
18. I would enjoy winter more if it didn't involve winter driving. 
19. Instagram is my preferred social media platform.
20. I prefer to eat multiple snacks between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. opposed to one big lunch meal.
21. I still bite my nails. 
22. I make my bed every morning and it really bugs me when beds aren't made.
23. This past year I've realized that 9 hours of sleep is the magic number for me and anything less than 7 leaves me feeling tired.
24. Lime green is my favourite colour.
25. I sort of wish I could play an instrument but I'm also very happy with the hobbies I currently have.
26. It's only halfway through the first month of the year but so far I am super happy with how well I've been keeping up with all the things I want to do in 2016!

Friday Thoughts

{one}

I came across these prints on Etsy a few weeks ago and just had to ordered them.  They're from Water in My Paint and I am totally in love with them. I can't even pick a favourite. What I love about them is for now they fit in just fine on the gallery wall I have happening in my bedroom. And in the future I think they be totally acceptable to hang in a kitchen or pantry area. Because what's cuter than squirrels eating donuts & sipping coffee while wearing their hair bows and think rimmed glasses? I might be borderline obsessed with them. The artist has tons of quirky water colours for sale, the squirrels were my first choice but there are so many others that I love. Plus, the price was super reasonable ($10 for each 5x7) and she is a Canadian artist so shipping was also fairly cheap. 

*This woman has no idea I exist and I was in no way, shape or form compensated for my fangirl-ing. I love the product I received and love supporting Canadian and small buisness.

{two}
Maybe it's the fact I'm done with winter and longing for summer with every cell of my being. Or maybe it's just me being weird. Either way I am compelled to eat anything BBQ flavoured. Mostly chips but I won't discriminate. I would also love to eat some BBQ steak and baked potato. Or simple burgers & hot dogs with a side of potato chips. BBQ chicken and some potatoes in tin foil...that being said I'm not willing to bundle in 50 billion layers to stand outside long enough to cook meat or ruin my mittens by getting BBQ sauce all over them.

{three}
Some of you may have already read this Buzzfeed article; 25 Truly Terrifying Pictures Of The Snow in Eastern Canada Right Now. That's my neck of the woods friends, our massive quantities of snow have made Buzzfeed. And we're forecasted to get about 20-30 cm on Sunday. C'mon spring...hurry up!

{four}
I working 8 hours of overtime tomorrow. I have mixed feelings on the one hand I'm thankful that I have a good job and I'm thankful for the opportunity to earn a little extra money. Especially when I know that working at this job will allow me financially to work at camp again this summer. On the other hand I'm definitely someone who needs down time so working 6 days a week isn't exactly conductive to down time. I will figure it out though. And if we get those 30 cm of snow on Sunday I will certainly be spending the day at home in my comfy clothes watching Netflix.

{five}
I'm still so sad about Target closing. And honestly even sadder that the clearance isn't all that phenomenal. Everything did get marked down another 10% on Thursday so maybe I'll try to check it out again early next week. There are a few things I have my eye on but aren't discounted enough yet for me to justify buying. I did score a sweater for $8 when I was there this week along with packages of tea for 98 cents and a couple of treats that were discounted. I'm hoping to get some new bedding for camp and there's a bedside table that I happen to think is super cute and will totally be snatching up if/when it ever goes 50% off.

Linking up with Oh Hey, Friday & Bright on a Budget

High Five For Favourites!

It's been a week riddled with anxiety thanks to more grant setbacks, an impending quater-life crisis and nights of tossing & turning instead of sleeping. Luckily last night I did sleep for a solid eight hours and when I woke up this morning I felt rested and had a productive morning put on a cute outfit and went out into the world to get groceries and pay a bill. In an attempt to put all that behind me and start the weekend off on a happy note I'm going to take a few minutes to write about five of my most favourite things.

Ice Cold Pop

Via

We all have our little guilty pleasures/vices. Mine is dark pop. Sure it's bad for you but so are a lot of other things. It's not as though I have a full out addiction drinking litres of the stuff each day. 90% of my pop drinking takes place in the evening while watching a favourite show and on weekends. I don't usually drink it during weekdays and even if I go out to eat somewhere other than fast food I usually opt for water. I have given it up before, I think I went about a month without having even a sip. Then I realized that life is short and if I want to indulge in some delicious caramel syrup, caffeinated, carbonated beverage I will. 

Squirrels

Forgive me for the terrible picture, figuring out camera settings for the snow is tough!

Maybe a little unconventional compared to most peoples favourite animals. Then you remember I am a life long camp person and suddenly it makes sense. When you factor in my own small stature (I'm barely 5 ft), my hoarding tendencies  enjoyment of saving things for later and hiding treats around the house so my brother won't eat them, there's really no question that squirrels are my spirit animal.

Books

Novels, coffee table books, children's books, Bibles, notebooks. I love all books. I've been doing a lot of reading this year and it's making me super happy! I do have an ereader and an app on my phone to read books which is great for borrowing books from the library, but nothing beats a real book. And books just look so pretty.


Sharpies

Pinterest

Who doesn't love colourful, multi-purprose writing utensils!? I will confess that I think my favourite colour Sharpie is the classic black. There's just something so lovely about using a black Sharpie fresh out of the package.

Pinterest Humour

No matter how bad your day is it's hard not to laugh within seconds after scrolling though the 'Humour' pin on Pinterest. I have an especially soft spot for puns, inappropriate jokes and anything to do with cats. 

Linking up with Lauren and Five on Friday!

'Twas The Weekend Before Christmas

I spent most of Friday & Saturday finishing up Christmas shopping, wrapping and checking things off my to do list.  When I came home Friday night I realized I ran out of the brown paper I had been using to wrap gifts so I had to switch to more generic wrapping paper. I was disappointed for all of three minutes then gave myself a reality check and accepted it was not the end of the world.

I made gift tags with my Cricut for the ones I used generic paper for so there was still a little touch of homemade. 

Saturday morning I got outside and played with my camera. I had a lot of fun experimenting with the settings and trying to capture the perfect snowy image. I didn't realize until after I got home that I'd taken over 500 photos in just a few hours. I also didn't realize I no longer have iPhoto on my computer...based on what Google tells me I'm just going to have to suck it up and pay $15 to download it from the App Store. Which is really freaking annoying and if anyone has any alternative suggestions I would love to hear them! I also need to invest in an external hard drive to store these giant photo files. So much to learn!

I've still got a long way to come before any of my photos are "Pinterest Worthy" or I get specifically get asked to take pictures for friends but I'm happy with quite a few of them and I was able to pick out a few favourites.

I really like trees in general and I recently discovered I love trying to capture details. I just like the way you can see all of the needles on the tree and you can kind of tell how weighed down it is by snow.

Squirrels are my absolute favourite animal! I could hear this little guy long before I finally spotted him hanging out in the tree. I wish I could have gotten closer to him but every time I moved my feet would crunch in the snow and he'd run away. 

Yesterday my cousin was supposed to get baptized but we had an ice storm (our fourth storm in seven days) so church and the baptism was cancelled. Instead I spent the day at home doing a whole lot of nothing, which after a busy few days before and what is sure to be a busy Christmas week wasn't such a bad thing!

I've got a few posts planned between Christmas and New Years including a my Year in Review, Blogging goals for 2014 and I will be guest posting over at A Beautiful Exchange  to share some advice on how to set goals for the new year! 

I'm linking up my weekend recap with Showered With Design and Dateless in Dallas.