Merry Christmas! And resolutions recap.

At the beginning of 2011, I made a list of resolutions. Really, they were more like goals, rather than lifestyle changes, but "New Year's Goals" doesn't sound right. These were my goals (and the level to which I met...or didn't meet...them):

1. Get married. That's right. I chose that as my #1.
*Done.

2. Read a book per month. Although reading is my absolute favorite, and I majored in reading (for all practical purposes), I usually have very little time for it.
*Fail...I've read 7 books, which puts me 5 behind. Maybe I'll roll those over to 2012's goals?

3. Write a post a month on my stories-from-my-time-in-Ukraine blog. There are so many stories swirling around in my head, and I HAVE to write them down before I forget them all.
*Fail. I wrote one. Shame on me. My memory is starting to get fuzzy already. Somebody make me do this one, please.

4. Use my sewing machine more. I really enjoy sewing and need to make time for it.
*DONE. Gee whiz, I've used it so much recently, It almost sounded as though it asked me not to make it do work again last night.

5. Sort through all of my saved memorabilia from college and keep only that which is most important. I really love to scrapbook (little known Erin fact), but I need to buckle down and do it before all of my scraps pile up and suffocate me!
*Eh. I tried. Does that count?

6. Write more cards and letters. I used to write cards all the time in college, but I haven't gotten back into the habit as thoroughly since returning from Ukraine.
*This may be cheating, but I wrote about 300 wedding thank yous, so yeah, I think I did this one.

7. Rent and watch the movies that are on my I-wanted-to-see-that-but-never-did list.
*I think I did this once (?). For this next year, I should maybe make an actual list.

8. Order something other than my usual when at my favorite Mexican restaurants in Jackson (maybe not every time...maybe every other time. Y'all don't be too legalistic about this one with me!).
*Done: Fajita quesadilla, tacos carne asada, COMBINATION fajitas.

9. Finish a big puzzle.
*Brad and I have done two 1000 puzzles with his mom and sister. I think we were only around for the completion of one of them, though.

10. Make a new friend. I know that sounds lame. I just need a goal to make sure I don't just become too comfortable with my status quo/become too Erin-focused.
*I made two.

11. Finish my time-intensive I'm-getting-married gift for my parents. :) This one actually has a deadline, I guess.
*Done. I think they liked it.

I've been working on my list for next year. I hope I haven't been too ambitious...The point is to push myself, right? Right. That's what we'll call it.

Challenge 2012

In a vein similar to Kat's and my unofficial Pinterest challenge, my sister, Amiee, and I have started another challenge (apparently, I love a good challenge...preferably something I know I can win). Amiee gives a lot of the backstory on how this started here. It did, in fact, start back in July when I was becoming weary of unpacking, folding, and loading ALL of Amiee's clothes into drawers in her dorm room. So much clothing! Then recently I saw all the awesome, Disney-inspired outfits (read: NOT costumes...we're not going to be dressing up like actual woodland creatures or pirates or Disney princesses) on Pinterest and knew I had to share them with Amiee.

For the past year, I've been following Marisa's journey over here, inspired by the movie Julie and Julia. Taking our cue from those ladies, Amiee and I created our Challenge.

If you didn't have time to follow the link to Amiee's blog above, here's a run-down of our 2012 Challenge:

1. For 2012, we are not going to buy any clothing or accessories that are not essentials (some exceptions apply, but they are few and far between). The goal is to use and newly appreciate what we already have.

2. Each week (not daily), we are going to pattern one outfit after something created by Disneybound (again, see here), using what we have in our closets. If we get bitten by the creative bug, maybe we'll scheme up our own ideas, too.

3. We're going to chronicle our challenge here on my blog, as well as on hers.

4. We are most definitely allowed to re-use pieces, but the goal is to create a new character-inspired outfit each week. We're still hammering out the details on whether or not we're "allowed" to do more than one version of the same character. Anyone want to chime in with thoughts?

5. Our outfits are not strictly limited to Disney characters; almost any "character" is up for grabs, as long as the outfit contains essential elements of the character. We're not too picky.

6. We're not connected to or affiliated with Disneybound or Pinterest. We just thought it would be a fun way to spend our wardrobe time in 2012. Here's hoping we didn't just bite off more than we can chew!

We realize the nerdy element of this challenge, but if it has us saving money, being grateful for what we have, and stretching our creativity, we think it's a winner. Amiee already has a bunch of characters ready to roll. I have...one. Mr. Smee from Peter Pan. Annnnnd, I can't use that one until the summer. I better get to work!

Hopefully, we'll be up and running the first week of January. If you have any ideas, send them on! Or if you have particular requests, we'll give it a shot. Wish us luck!

Pinterest.

As vehemently opposed to trends as I am, I did breakdown and get a Pinterest account a few months ago. For those who aren't Pinterest-y, it's a website that allows users (also known as Pinners) to link favorite internet finds (be it clothing, design, decoration, food) to "pinboards." It's a way to save internet ideas that you like or that inspire you and then share them with others. There's a "DIY/Crafts" board that's a personal favorite (note: DIY = Do It Yourself). It got me to thinking: This trend towards doing things ourselves and finding ways to save money seems like our generation's reaction to our slumping economy (a la food stamps and rationing in the 30's and 40's).

My bff, Kat, got me into it, and I need to send a big "thank you" her way. It's provided a source of productive joy in my life. I started pinning fun things immediately, and then I realized that I should probably DO some of the activities I'd pinned. My favorite bloggers over on Young House Love started a little activity they call The Pinterest Challenge (they've done two: here and here), which was also inspiring. Kat and I started sort of doing our own version (we do a Pinterest project, take a picture on our phones, and text it), and I've been loving it! According to Jamie the Very Worst Missionary, though, you must be careful to "pin for good and not for evil." It can grow a little out of control, if you're not careful.

All that to say, I thought I'd show you a few of my completed projects. I'm all about accountability (at least, I like to think that I'm striving to seek accountability). I figure if it's out there for you to see, I'll stay sort of motivated:

Technically, this one wasn't Pinterest-inspired (although I did see this on Pinterest). My mom has been hanging glass, Egyptian ornaments from the chandelier in our dining room for years. It's really beautiful. Thanks to my Aunt, I have my own collection!

I saw these newspaper gift bows and decided I needed to try it. I wrapped all of Brad's gifts in newspaper (we didn't have a lot of manly wrapping paper on hand, and he's down with newspaper) and tried my hand at bows. The first few weren't as awesome, but I think I've got my technique down now.

I like to think this actually looks cooler than person than it's showing up on here...Some friends of ours threw us a Christmas shower last year, and we ended up with lots of fun snowflake ornaments. I found some sparkly ribbon 50% off at Hobby Lobby and used them to dress up the windows. Amiee, feel free to chime in about how much more awesome they look in real life.

Try to ignore the wonky candles. I need to fix it, but I've been too busy working on projects...like our stockings! They nearly killed me, but I finally got them finished. Mine is the green one and Brad's is the red one.

I found a recipe for Brown Sugar-Vanilla sugar scrub and made a few batches to give as gifts. It works really well and tastes pretty good, too (you know...if you accidentally spill some on the counter and need to clean it up.).

I had a lot of fun with this project (since this one, I've actually made 3). I have three little cousins who are all girls, and I saw this tutu on Pinterest. I bought tulle (50% off at Hobby Lobby!) and went to town. I hope they are met with joyous receptions.

I've done a couple other projects that I forgot to take pictures of, like this, this (from here), and a new way to store my plastic grocery bags. I have one or two other projects in the works, but I can't post about them just yet, as a few of you will be receiving them for Christmas.

Apparently, I'm crafty now. Hide the glue guns and seam rippers. Who knows what I'll do with them...

Thanksgiving 2011

We spent Thanksgiving with Brad's family in east Tennessee this year. Although we live in the same state, it still takes about 6 hours to get there from Jackson. The drive was long, but the countryside definitely grows quite beautiful along the way. To break up the monotony of the road, we listened to my audiobook of The Silver Chair.

Brad, Tim, and Rachael started Thanksgiving morning off with a peppy little Turkey Trot (5k). I abstained. Our meal was delicious, and we definitely ate on it for days. I was very proud of my moderate eating at lunch. I wasn't so proud of my fairly frequent snacking afterwards.

Friday was spent putting up Christmas decorations and watching more than a few James Bond movies. It was not spent shopping, by any stretch. However, Brad did a few warm-up laps around the internet, in preparation for Cyber Monday. He's a whiz at shopping online.

Saturday was a fun little outing to the Biltmore! The Boswells only live a little over an hour from Asheville, so we went and spent the day exploring the Biltmore and it's grounds. It was so interesting, and I particularly enjoyed the 55 Christmas trees scattered throughout the house. Some were extremely pretty and some were extremely...not as pretty.

Too bad the tour buses shatter the lovely panoramic view.

It was a bit windy.

Poinsettia tree in the greenhouse.

Aslan...isn't he looking spiffy?

We headed back to Jackson on Sunday, and it took forever because of all the RAIN. The traffic itself wasn't nearly as frustrating as all of the precipitation clouding the windshield. We were a little cranky about that.

However, the later-than-planned arrival at home and the cranky attitudes did not stop us (mostly me) from dragging out all of our Christmas decorations and starting to deck the halls! About 1/3 of the way into decorating, though, I lost steam and left it all in the center of the living room while I went to bed.

Never fear! The house is very bedecked right now. We love it. Perhaps I'll eventually get pictures up...

Final sights from Budapest!

A few final shots from our trip:

Eating at "For Sale" pub! Just like I did in 2009.

Paprika Chicken. Oh my. It was beyond delicious.

Visitors are invited to leave business cards, notes, and messages all over the wall. This was the ceiling above our heads. It can make a person ever so slightly nervous about ending up with "extras" in her food...

Eating lunch in the Grand Market (also seen here in 2009). We split goulash and langos. Mmmm.

Lovely.

The green cow. Also seen here in 2009.

That's the end of our trip! Hope you've enjoyed it (you know...a month later...). Hopefully, I'll be a little quicker with the blogs from here on out.

We'll see how that goes...

Tour of Parliament

On our FULL DAY OF SIGHTSEEING in Budapest, we chose to spend part of it touring the Parliament building. If it's possible to have a crush on a building, this would be our building crush. We paid an expensive fee and got an English tour of the parts of Parliament that were a) open to the public and b) weren't being used by Parliament (which was actually in session that day).

This is the first thing you see when you exit the metro station. It's actually a little breathtaking.

We bought our tickets and then had to wait for about 45 minutes until our tour time. Because it was FREEZING, we hung out at a nearby cafe and had the best hot chocolate I think I've ever had. It was sort of like hot chocolate pudding.

This was the ceiling in one of the large entryways of the Parliament building. All of the paintings tell a little bit about Hungary's history and the glory days of the Hungarian empire. Unfortunately, I'm not very skilled with a camera, so most of my pictures can't capture how truly magnificent it was.

Fancy windows were everywhere. I took several fancy window shots, but I'll only post one. You're welcome.

One of the entryways/hallways. So grand.

Domed ceiling the room-whose-official-name-I-can't-remember. I do remember that I wasn't allowed to use my flash.

Display case housing the scepter, orb, and crown of the Magyar kingdom.

Guarded by these guys. They had real swords.

In addition to those guys, the whole place was guarded by Aslan and his twin who were hanging with the lamp posts. Of course.

I had quite a few more shots from the inside of Parliament, but very few of them turned out well. what a pity... A few more pictures and stories coming up!

Pictures from Budapest!

Our flight to Budapest was broken up by a connection in Vienna. Our plane from Vienna to Budapest was on a- are you ready for this?- prop plane. That's right: a prop plane. It was tiny! It was fun for a short little 45-minute flight but would be miserable for a longer flight.

I was sitting right next to it, so we were quite entertained by the whole process. We're cool- we know.

Budapest from above (or rather, part of Budapest)

The Danube.

Table at ICSB. Brad's a pro at setting tables up.

Our buddy, Willem, from Redeemer University College in Canada. Willem had mailed all of his fair supplies at the beginning of September, and by the time we were doing fairs in November, exactly one of his boxes had arrived. Poor Willem.

One of the parents at ICSB set up a table for Kansas State. It made me think of the Z's.

See these outfits? We saw them several times during our trip... The joys of traveling light.

On the tram, on our way into Budapest! Our friends' house is technically in Budafok, which is a kind of suburb. On Tuesday, we were tourists for part of the day and took a little break to do a quick lunchtime fair at the American School of Budapest. Swank-y. Doesn't Brad look professor-y in his bowtie?

Posing with my tram ticket.

View of Budapest from Castle Hill.

Just hanging out outside of the Castle area. It was beautiful and freezing.

We LOVED all views of the Parliament building (you can see it to the right of my head). I took a large number of photos of Parliament... Here are a few of them:

How impressive! It was completed around the turn of the 20th century. It's still very much in use.

A few more castle shots to leave you feeling royal for the rest of the day:

Üdvözöljük a Magyar!

Hungarian is one of the world's most difficult languages to learn. I mean, check out the title today; all that says is "Welcome to Hungary." It would take a long time to master Hungarian, I do believe.

I was so excited that the last stop on our European trip was Hungary. I love Hungary. I was able to visit for a while when I went on a visa run in 2009 (for posts about that trip, read here, here, here, here, here, and here). It was such a fun and interesting break from "normal" life (and, consequently, was comforting to me when I got cheated- by volcanic ash- out of my much-anticipated vacation with Breanne in April 2010).

In an awesome turn of events, Brad and I were able to stay with Cile and Glenn, who I've had connections with for years (through my friend, Kari, their daughter). They offered to let us stay with them, and we had a fantastic time! We arrived on Sunday afternoon and essentially just hung out and rested. It was marvelous. We had a delicious lunch (the leftovers of which we ate for dinner), watched Diary of a Mad Black Woman (can you believe Brad had never seen it??), and capped off the evening with several episodes of The Mentalist.

The next day was our shortest fair of the trip (International Christian School of Budapest) and more hanging. Tuesday and Wednesday were spent frolicking around Budapest. I'll be posting pictures and some good stories soon!

Украина

I'm SO grateful that we had the opportunity to visit my beloved Ukraine on this trip. We did not have time or opportunity to make it to Poltava, but my friend, Nastia, was able to travel to Kiev for a visit. We were also able to visit with my friends the Rays for a few hours (I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture with them...can I chalk that up to having too much to talk about and not enough time for a picture?).

Our fair was at Kiev Christian Academy, which I was excited about. I have a lot of connections with KCA, so it was fun to see it in person. It was also fun to meet new folks that I'd never met before. We were traveling with Willem (the only other college rep that made the trip) yet again, which was a lot of fun. Incidentally, he and Brad wore yellow and blue for the fair (those are the colors of the Ukrainian flag, fyi). So cute, those two.

Saturday, we spent the whole day trekking around with Nastia. It was wonderful. I miss my life there.

Brad and I positively gorged ourselves. Nastia was probably embarrassed. Can't say that I blame her. We had vareneki, borsch, goluptsi, bleni, and carrot salad. Oh. My. Gosh. So good.

And...it snowed off and on all day. It was really wet and cold. Oi.

We left on Sunday morning, and had to be at the airport at 5:00 am, meaning we were up at 3:45. So, as we were very very hungry, we ate at the FRIDAY'S (WHAT??) in the airport for breakfast. And I'm not talking about breakfast food, y'all. It's a little shameful...