Runs on Coffee and Cream

Happy New Year's Eve! I have to admit that I don't have any big plans for the evening. Adam works late so I'm spending the night on the couch watching Supernatural and maybe a chick flick until he gets home. It works out since not only have I been working non-stop for the last couple of weeks, but I've also caught a cold. My chest is on fire and my throat feels like it's been cut up so it's best for me not to speak much.

I spent some time over the weekend looking back at the last year and coming up with a list of goals for 2013 - both personal and professional things I'd like to work on and work towards.

2012 Recap:

It was a crazy year both personally and professionally. Adam graduated college and we made the big move back to Hamilton while he looks for a paramedic job. We were in Welland for only 2 years but it felt really strange coming back to Hamilton. I love being near my family and friends here but I do miss Welland, especially the canal and the walks we went on.

I had my most successful comic convention year yet which is why I started to keep better and precise track of the financial side of Sparklegirl. This is helping me to make better decisions on what shows I should and shouldn't do for the future. Etsy was also a big success this past year. The main reason why, I think, is from the advertising I've been getting from some amazing supporters through Facebook, twitter and other blogs.

2013 Goals:

Personal

* Fitness and Health - Since moving in September, I haven't kept up with my workouts. They've become sporadic and I'm not going for as many walks. I have noticed a big change in my energy level so between a workout schedule and getting my thyroid checked regularly, hopefully I can start feeling more energized this year. 

* Sleep - I have never been one to get get a lot of sleep. I stay up way too late and then feel like a zombie in the morning when my alarm goes off. Over the last couple of weeks I have made a point of going to bed earlier than normal and I need to continue this. I can't function properly off of 5-6 hours sleep anymore.

* Decorate apartment - We are officially unpacked since moving. But there's still pictures to be hung and we need curtains in the spare room. I want to work on making this apartment our home and not just a layover place until Adam finds a paramedic position.

Professional

* Blog - I'm incredibly happy with my blog and I want to continue working on it throughout 2013. I want to change the layout slightly, add more blog links, and finally create a blog button for it. But I want to continue with the direction it has taken over the past 6 months or so. It's one of my favourite creative outlets.

* Crafts - Make more skirts! haha. Seriously though, I'm going to fill my Spring and Summer wardrobe with cotton skirts and I'm going to make sure I have some awesome ones for the conventions this upcoming year.

* Etsy - Update my shop monthly (it's so hard to do sometimes).

* Podcasts - I have been invited on a few podcasts and I kept putting it off because of my lack of microphone (and maybe my nerves). But I really need to get a mic that works and just get over my stage fright. I look forward to having conversations with these awesome people.

* Store Consignment - It's been a goal for the last couple of years, but I need this to be the year that I contact some stores about carrying my items.

* Conventions/Shows - I will be cutting out a few shows in 2013 that just weren't profitable enough for me in 2012. I am also applying to a couple of new shows that I've never done before and we'll see how that goes. And it looks like at Toronto ComiCon I'll be sharing a table with the guys from An Elegant Weapon. I have a feeling it'll be a really fun weekend with them.

This is just a snippet of some of the things I have in mind for 2013. I don't want to make this a huge post so I'm trying to keep it to the basic goals, plus I have a few things in mind I'd like to keep to myself until things get under way.



Thank you for your support this past year! I'm excited for 2013 to start!

xo Jen

Every year I try to think of handmade gifts I can make for family and friends. This year I was able to use my skills for my niece's gift. Jaelin has an obsession with Yo Gabba Gabba and I was really excited to find some fabric online. So along with a couple of other toys for her, I also made her a tiny tote bag with a velcro closure, an elastic skirt and a pillow.

Yo Gabba Gabba Tote
 

Yo Gabba Gabba Skirt
 

Yo Gabba Gabba Pillow
 

I also had a request for a Harry Potter across-body hobo bag for one of my cousins.

Harry Potter Hobo Bag
 

Did you make any Christmas gifts this year? I received some amazing Pumpkin Maple butter and a Chocolate Chip Cookie dough mix for Christmas.

xo Jen

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! It was over so quickly as usual but it was a fun day. Well, actually two days. I had boxing day off and we spent all morning doing some boxing day shopping and then the rest of the day was spent at Adam's family for another Christmas dinner.

Between both me and Adam we received a lot of TV boxsets, DVDs and blurays. We also picked up a few more on boxing day. I received a couple of books and comics which I'm so excited to read too.


(This is only about half of what we received/bought.)

We rarely buy boxsets and movies throughout the year unless it's one of our birthdays or we find them cheap at a used store so we always stock up on boxing day. I love our haul this year! And we may still place an order on Amazon.

We were greeted with a bit of snow on Christmas morning and then late afternoon yesturday it started snowing and it didn't stop for quite some time. I had to work early this morning and it was like I woke up in a Winter Wonderland! There were piles of snow everywhere and a quarter of our parking lot was a giant snow hill. 



How was your holidays? If you're off until the new year, I'm extremely jealous of you! It's hard going right back to work after 2 full days of busy family visiting.

xo Jen

It's Christmas Eve and I wanted to wish everyone Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!



xo Jen

My Top Five Favourite Festive Films

Hello there! How are you?

I’m Katie and I write Hook, Line & Sink Her from the comfort of my wonderfully squishy sofa- often with a cup of tea in hand. I started writing this blog last October, and immediately stopped using my tumblr blog, because I discovered the wonderful community of crafty and creative bloggers using blogger and wordpress. Tumblr just didn’t seem to offer the same sense of interaction, and thankfully Pinterest has now filled the hole in my life for re-posting pictures of awesome moustaches and beautiful teacups. I use my blog to connect with similar and completely different people, and share my latest craft projects. I prefer to write whenever inspiration hits, so I don't blog as regularly as some people do, but I really enjoy sharing my thoughts- and my photos from spontaneous little adventures to castles and whatnot (living in England, we have a lot of castles just lying around). Please do pop by to say hello and have a good snoop around!

I’m feeling particularly excited about Christmas this year, and nothing gets me in a festive mood faster than a good ol’ Christmas movie! The majority of these films have been my firm favourites since I was knee-high to a reindeer, and the nostalgic memories they conjure up is a large part of the enjoyment for me. That, and the excellent soundtracks.

Number one has to be Home Alone. I’m sure you’ve all seen it before- it’s an absolute Christmas classic, and I think it's particularly magical for children thanks to the combination of the freedom of no boring, grown-up rules (“A lovely cheese pizza, just for me”) and a lot of slapstick comedy. There aren’t many Christmas films where people get hit in the face with an iron, but Home Alone pulls it off with flair. And it just doesn’t feel like Christmas to me until I’ve heard this tune at least once...

Second film is The Snowman; a British national treasure that may not be well know outside of the UK, but it’s a beautifully animated short film that’s sweet and sad in equal measure and has an introduction by DAVID BOWIE wearing a Christmas jumper(!) I’m not sure you can get a more rock’n’roll film intro than that! I remember watching this with my baby brother one year when I was little, and then looking outside to find it was snowing!! A truly magical Christmas morning :)


A magical, flying snowman; and a boy in very fetching stripy pyjamas - what’s not to love?

Elf is the most recently made film on my list, and one I never expected to like because I think whoever told Will Ferrell that YELLING STUFF LOUDLY IS THE BEST WAY TO BE FUNNY got it oh. so. wrong. However, I loved every twinkley-toed minute of Elf; probably because it also stars one of my top lady loves - Ms Zooey Deschanel.


Look at that beautiful face!!!

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
I know, I know; Home Alone has already been on the list. But this is a whole different kind of Christmassy wonder, people! It’s got a crazy pigeon lady and this mountain of ice-cream. And I can’t be the only one who immediately added “slide down a builder’s yellow shoot thingummy” to their Bucket List. Oh, oh; I almost forgot the lovely old man and his incredible toy store! This is the reason I’m currently trying to find a pair of turtle dove ornaments for our Christmas tree.

Die Hard
What do you mean, Die Hard isn’t a Christmas film?! It’s totally a Christmas film, because:
1. The hostages are in the middle of their Christmas party- hello!
2. This happens, and
3. Christmas is about indulging in a little of what you fancy, and Bruce Willis is what I fancy.


Merry Christmas to me

Thank you for letting me gate-crash Jen; it's been a blast! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas :)

Katie xxx

P.S. If you’re flying anywhere this festive season to visit family or friends I double-dare you to sit up mid-flight and scream “KEVIN!”

Christmas Traditions In The Carr Family And Further Afield!


I am Ariellalphabet of My Heart Lies In Film And Comic Books. I’ve been regularly blogging for roughly eight months now. I blog because it is the best way for me to talk about the things I’m passionate about and share my views with like-minded people! I blog mostly about comic books and films, but I cover pretty much everything that falls under the geekosphere, and I try to combine it with what I get up to on a day to day basis!  
 

This Christmas season has been very different for me than usual. Where I'm working right now gets extremely busy during the holidays. So I have had to condense and cut back on some of my holiday traditions.

The one thing that got cut back was my Christmas baking. Normally I spend an entire day baking for a solid 8 hours. Typically 5 or 6 recipes are made. But this year I just made a couple of things that both me and Adam really enjoy. He requested basic shortbread cookies and sugar cookies. And for me I made my Mom's chocolate macaroons.



Last weekend, we also put together our gingerbread house. We stocked up on extra candy at The Bulk Barn and they had a big section with Christmas-themed candy that was perfect for gingerbread houses. I think it turned out great and we ended up with lots of leftover candy.




I spent part of my afternoon today watching Elf. Shortly I'll be off to go drink candy cane hot chocolate and read before I head to bed.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!
xo Jen

Yesturday was 2 weeks until Christmas! I have officially finished wrapping all my Christmas gifts and I'm done all my shopping. It feels nice. Tomorrow I go into work and will be working every day until Christmas. I'm going to start spending my evenings watching Christmas movies (in between Supernatural episodes). There are so many movies that I like to fit in during the holiday season, even if the movie just takes place during the holiday season and doesn't focus on Christmas/New Year's Eve at all. Movies like Batman Returns, Ghostbusters 2, and Die Hard.

These are a few of my favourite Christmas movies:

Elf 



Will Ferrell and Zooey Deschanel star in this movie and it's just so incredibly sweet! There's nothing I don't love about this movie. Will Ferrell's innocence just wins me over.

Christmas with the Kranks



I've been made fun of for liking this movie because a lot of people poke fun at Tim Allen. But I love Jamie Lee Curtis too much to let Tim Allen ruin this movie. It's another really heart-warming movie with silly humor throughout. It's become tradition for me to watch this movie every year.

Christmas Vacation


I don't think I need to explain why this is one of my favourite Christmas movies. It's hilarious and I love Chevy Chase in it. It's just a classic that still makes me laugh every year.

Next week I will be posting blog posts from 3 different guest bloggers. They'll be Christmas-themed and I'm really excited to share these posts with you!

xo Jen

Considering the time of year, Christmas music has been playing non-stop around me. I listen to tunein radio or AccuRadio while I'm on the computer. And most radio stations are now playing a Christmas song at least a few times every hour so even at work I'm listening to Christmas music.

Last week, me and Mary went to see Meaghan Smith again at The Pearl Company here in Hamilton. It was the 'It Snowed' tour so it was extremely Christmasy. The venue had twinkle lights up and there were decorations hanging from the ceiling. And Meaghan played a bunch of her Christmas songs. It was such a great show. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy haha.


Work has been getting very busy and my free time has been spent preparing for Christmas or working on Sparklegirl-business things. I've been making a point of getting into bed a bit earlier everyday though. Even if it's just to read and shut my mind off before going to sleep. I just finished the first Sailor Moon manga. It was so good and cute. I'm excited to continue reading the series. It was a very fast read.



I do own the second Sailor Moon but I thought I'd break up the books with Ultimate Spider-man. I bought the first 2 volumes of this Spider-man series at Big B Comics a couple of months ago. I've been told by a lot of people that I'll enjoy it so I'm excited to start it tonight.



I recently started Season 4 of Supernatural. Oh man, is it good! If you don't watch this show, you should and when you get to Season 4 you'll be even more hooked than you previously were. It doesn't seem possible but the story gets so good. In between Christmas movies, I'll be watching as much Supernatural as possible over the next couple of weeks.



What are you obsessed with at the moment?
xo Jen

The last couple of weeks have flown by! Christmas is going to be here before I know it. I've been keeping busy with preparing for Christmas... shopping, baking, and decorating our apartment. I've also been shipping off packages constantly which means lots of trips to the post office for me. This year has been my busiest Christmas season yet on Etsy and I've also been doing giveaways and swaps with some online friends. This is my last weekend off until after Christmas. Work is going to kick my butt! I need to have my Christmas gifts and baking finished up by this Thursday because then I work right until Christmas. I have a stack of Christmas movies to watch but that'll be my plans for my evenings after work.

Treats from my U.S. shopping trip!

Chocolate-covered pear balls ^_^


We finally hung up some pictures around the apartment.

Etsy orders!!! I'm sad that I finally finished that roll of elephant tape. Boo!
 

A few pictures of my babies of course...

You can see the scab on Seymore's cheek here. I have no idea what he did but he's all better now.

It's so hard to get a good picture of Logan with his eyes open but this one turned out good.


Me and Mary finished up a few more headbands for my last craft show. I'm so in love with the Futurama one!
 

How are your Christmas preparations coming? Do you have a busy month ahead of you?

xo Jen

First, do you like eggnog? I know it's something people usually love or hate. There's no middle ground. I'm a big fan of it myself. It's sweet and creamy. And it tastes really good with rum or amaretto. It's definitely a treat I enjoy throughout December.



Recently while Christmas shopping I stopped in Sephora and came across the Philosophy Holiday line. Their Old Fashioned Eggnog Shampoo/Shower Gel/Bubble Bath smells amazing! Exactly like eggnog! I wanted to drink the bottle right there in the store.



It's a pricey bottle of shampoo so I didn't buy it. But I will definitely be checking to see if it drops in price after Christmas. Though Adam doesn't like eggnog, I like the idea of smelling like it for me!

I've also been trying the Davids Tea holiday flavours. Cookie Dough was surprisingly satisfying. The after taste really does taste like cookies. I'm eager to try their Cocomint Cream next.



My Mom picked me up a bag of Andes baking bits when she went shopping in the U.S. recently. I knew I had to try out these cookies that I came across on Pinterest using them.



Oh my, were they good! I took pictures but I didn't realize just how blurry they were until I uploaded them on the computer. My cookies had more chocolate pieces throughout them and they didn't turn out as green, even though I put in the right amount of food colouring as the recipe states. Either way, I highly recommend these cookies!

And on a completely different topic, I recently did an interview with Kristy at Indie Girl Blogs. It was posted today and there's also a giveaway! Go check it out!

xo Jen