Happy new year!

This holiday, I've been busy going out every day because my cousin is visiting from Nebraska. Well, he's from Thailand and is going to school in Nebraska, if that makes any differences. We've never met him before, but I have to say that he's my favorite of my cousins! He's so much like myself and my brother as opposed to all our other cousins to whom I cannot relate. I am sad that he's leaving us already this coming Monday! He and his friend arrived Christmas day and I've been busy doing all sorts of things since then. This past Christmas was great, just another quiet day for the most part.

On top of other things,  my parents completely surprised me with a new laptop, which I am using to type up this blog entry :) His name is Tyreke Tyrone Toblerone - or Ty for short. I have to admit, I'm still not exactly used to this laptop yet with its different keyboard, touchpad, and most of all, Windows 8. I do have a Surface tablet, so I had some experience with it, but I really did not think it would be the same on a pc! For now, my old laptop is still functional - it was just dying in so many physical ways (though it has a new 1 TB harddrive just installed earlier this spring!). So I have two working computers :) 

I am not the type to stick to New Years' resolutions, so I never really bother with them. But this year, I want to do a little 365 project once again. I felt so accomplished when I did the pic-a-day challenge back in 2012. This year, it'll be a bit different, though. With all the negativity I've found in my life, I decided I would do a happiness project. Every night before bed, I'm going to write down a little blessing or happy thought from that day. On the bad days, I can go back to my pile of notes and pull things out to see that 1. there is always something to be thankful for, and 2. both big and small things are capable of making me feel happy. And although joy is completely different from happiness, I think this little thing will help me change my outlook.

My first entry involved this photo I took while hiking in Muir Woods:

There is so much beauty in nature. And I never realized it, but each individual petal of a clover looks like a heart! And in the field of green, all clovers with just one leaf were yellow and stood out like crazy! I just felt so giddy when I saw these all over the woods!

And today, I got my Minifee Luka after months of waiting :) I was scared that his skintone would be a bit too dark (after looking at others' pictures of tan minifees), but I think it is such a gorgeous color! I am so glad I was able to get a tan order in at the last second :) I am still waiting on his eyes to arrive. I also have NO boys clothes at all, haha. Poor thing! Now I really have to put aside money to get his faceup done! :X I also got his sleeping head, so that's a lot of $$$! Sorry for the super horrid after-dark iphone photo!

I hope I can share more moments here as the year progresses! For now, I wish you all a very happy new year!

2013 Holiday Operation!

Fill out the form below, please! I do still have all your answers and addresses from last year, but I like to do this every year in case favorites/likes/dislikes change (I know mine do all the time)! You can email me at alawrendra@gmail.com ^^ I will at least send cards and some small things to everyone this holiday season :) I'd love to get a card back from you! I keep ALL my cards and letters from everyone! Take your time answering the questionnaire! And don't worry about long responses to questions - those are the best because of range of options! And, yes, I do realize I have a very specific Disney question thrown in there. If you haven't heard yet, I work at The Disney Store now, haha! Looking forward to hearing from you ♡ 

The questionnaire:
1. Full name and address 
2. Favorite colors (and any dislikes)
3. Favorite animals and "characters" (such as Hello Kitty, Stitch, Twilight Sparkle, etc.) (and any dislikes)
4. Any favorite Disney movies or characters?
5. Other things you like (mention other movies or series you watch, other things you like receiving, etc.)
6. Things you definitely do not want/like/will not have a use for
7. Do you have an online wishlist anywhere? (Amazon, Wishpot, etc.)
8. General hobby-related wishes ("LTF clothes," for example)

My answers are below to serve as examples! I tried to be as thorough as possible. The more answers you give me for each question, the better! :) Thanks, everyone!

________________________________________________________________

Favorite colors
Pink! Also mint, teal, red, light blue, and any pastels! (Not huge on purple or orange, but I do like all colors!)

Favorite animals and "characters"
Animals: GIRAFFES, penguins, puppies (corgis, German shepherds, labs, huskies, shiba inu), pandas, llamas/alpacas, octopus, tigers, unicorns (are those animals? yes, I guess so), jellyfish & squid, deer, dragons, foxes, pigs. Squirrels and tiny dogs scare me in real life haha!
Characters: Korilakkuma, Iiwaken Shiba Inu, Chopper, Zoro and Nami (One Piece), minions, Eevee, Charmander/Charizard, Vaporeon, Gengar, Scraggy, Stellina and Donutella (Tokidoki), Ryo and Rowen (Ronin Warriors), Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie (MLP), Midna (LoZ: Twilight Princess), Zuko (A:TLA), Yamamoto Takeshi and Hibari Kyouya (KHR)

Any favorite Disney movies or characters?
Movies: Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Nightmare Before Christmas, Beauty and The Beast, The Lion King, Tangled, Lilo and Stitch, Cars & Cars 2, Pocahontas, Hercu
Characters: Ariel, Olaf, Donald Duck, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, Rapunzel & Pascal, Perry the Platypus, Belle, Meeko, Tigger, Hamish cubs, Stitch and Angel, Peter Pan, Merida

Other things you like
Socks, anything Disney, One Piece, earrings, lip balm, stickers, tea, stamps & ink pads, small figures (blind bags! :3), notepads, deco tape, princesses, bows, tokidoki, pirates, mermaids, glitter, stars, hearts, fairytales, Pokemon, carnivals, weddings, anything handmade (cards, knits, fanart of my characters, etc.), scarves, floral prints, hair clips/pins, gift cards!

Things you definitely do not want/like/will not have a use for
Soaps and scented lotions because I'm allergic to them! :x

Do you have an online wishlist anywhere?
I have one on Amazon and disneystore.com, HT, etc.

General hobby-related wishes
Minifee basic clothing items (plain tanks, tshirts), gift cards to Denver Doll, shoes that fit the tiny moe-line feetsies!

This year ...

A quick recap of the big things that happened this year!

CLICK ON THE IMAGES TO MAKE THEM BIGGER!

January: In which I decided to start the photo-a-day challenge! I'm really glad I did, since I was able to chronicle everything that happened this year! In January, I got to meet Justin loads and we celebrated our second anniversary (:

February: omgah Pullip pictures! I was trying to show them off since many of you didn't know that I even had them! Haha! That didn't last longer than this month, unfortunately. A new community market opened up by my house and now I always have a place to buy macarons!

March: I went to Honolulu for my spring break along with my family! Best vacation in a long time! I also started to make tiny star bracelets for the dolls! I also received my second Blythe at the end of this month! I had one before (CCC) but we didn't bond. I thought it was time to try again, and I'm so glad I did! 

April: More Blythe goodness! Spent more days hanging out in the backyard and on the elliptical! Went to my brother's second gamelan concert & got in touch with my native side :P

May: My birthmonth! Mom and Dad bought me the most beautiful diamond cross necklace for my birthday - something I've wanted for a while now! Also caught photos of crescent-shaped shadows from the solar eclipse! Our friend also left her dog with us because she had to move!

June: I started my internship at Merck this month, woo!! It was a wonderful experience - I would love to go back next year! Summer pretty much consisted of that. But in the meantime, my mom got Justin a job in the same building in which she works, so he got to spend A LOT of time with us! 

July: Fireworks were watched with my uncle's family. We did lots of family things this year, which is nice! Got my first big package from Lati as well - I had a lot of trouble carrying the box upstairs :P For EVC, we also started our summer sessions at houses with pools! Also indulged in tooooo many cupcakes!

August: Best part of this month = Disneyland trip!! We got to spend 3 magical days there, and it was amazing! The park really just gets better as I grow older (; Also attended a wedding - Stanley and Lia had their ceremony at GKI and then we had lunch at Maggiano's. 

September: An old friend of mine came back to the states to visit! I also went to the Philippines with Justin - our first trip together! It was a really short trip, but it was really fun! Those of you who know me in real life know I LOVE learning about different cultures! 

October: More awesome Blythe occurrences including the awesome bento hat made by Maggi! Spent a lot of my free time playing Pokemon Black and White 2! Oops!

November: We suddenly have a fourth dog .. Loki's original owner moved away and could not take him with her. We only went up to SF to meet him, but her roommate ended up dumping him on us! ): Poor guy! I also finally got my kigurumi after wanting one for more than 2.5 years! Along with that, I started to shop like CRAZY this month LOL.

December: In which I went even more retail crazy and scooped up lots of Disney stuff + work my kigurumi a lot more. Also got a sewing machine for Christmas, which is a great explanation for the mess on my desk right now! Great news - I finished my 366 photos project!! :D 

All in all, a really hard year filled with lots of trials .. But I have loads more to be thankful for. I feel like I get closer to my family as time goes by, which is unique in our modern culture! I absolutely love my dogs & doll hobby and can't imagine life without them. I'm so thankful that I also met so many wonderful people this year through church events, this doll hobby, and through classes! I hope anyone reading this will have a wonderful new year as well! 

Global Winter Wonderland!

Went to Global Winter Wonderland with my parents last night. It was freezing, but with groupon, we got tickets for $9 each :D Sadly, my brother's in St. Louis right now so he couldn't make it T__T;; Maybe next weekend. It was pretty cool to see all the pretty lanterns!

The weird thing about the event was that it had so much Chinese themes to it O_O Some of the lanterns hung on trees were the traditional red Chinese lanterns (these were over dinosaurs, mind you!) and gourds ... GOURDS?!?! And the main headliner was the Peking Opera featuring the story of the Monkey King. Hehe. 

But look at these cute panda lanterns :DD Of course I took pics with them being named Amanda and all .. Sadly I didn't like any of the pictures that had ME in them LOOOOOL.

The one thing I told myself I had to get was a funnel cake *pictured above. It was yummy for the first 3-4 bites, then it got really gross really quickly x__x;; lol. They also had lots of food from around the world in the food court, including Greek food and Indian, mmmm ((: I got chicken masala garlic fries. YUMMM! Anyways! It was a pretty cool Christmas-y park (: I'd love to go again next year if they change up their lanterns again!

Holiday Busy-ness!

As always, I'm busy during the holidays with offline stuff ^__^; It's funny because lots of the time I'm just sitting in the family room being bored .. And yet I just don't feel like going up to my laptop hah. So I'm always completely out of the loop of everyone's lives around this time! Oops!

This time of year has been hard for me for the past 4 years, starting with problems with old church friends and all this not knowing the meaning of my life anymore. You see, I'm a very passionate person. When something makes sense to me, I will stick with it/to it with all my heart. But at the same time, my passions can be fleeting! I have gone through so many different musical instruments because I just *stopped liking piano* or *suddenly had the urge to learn guitar* lol.

I always look back at my past during this time of the year, and for the past few years, I have felt like I really don't deserve to be happy, even at Christmas. There is one big incident and many smaller ones linked to it that I really regret. And I never talk about it anymore because my brother blames me and makes me feel worse when I talk to him about it, my parents don't know enough about it, and my boyfriend is not the best because he was friends with this person that I had a problem with. I almost broke up with him over it because when we were fighting, he stuck with his friend and completely ignored my calls and texts. Worst thing he ever did lol =_= Anyways. Holiday season is always a struggle for me, which is why I suddenly become a bit absent |:

I'm glad to be home and not have anything to do, but when I'm not in school, I just feel like the days are so wasted - I'm not learning anything, not really doing anything, just eating and sleeping, etc :P I can't wait til January rolls around!

That time of the year when ..

I start getting busy in life off the computer and I have no idea what all my online friends are up to x_x! I find that when my parents are off work for long vacations (anything over 2 days constitutes as long for them lol), they end up doing crazy projects around the house. For example, over the summer, we re-did almost our whole backyard/garden area. And that was a LOT of hard work x_x I should post a picture of my backyard sometime, it's crazyyy. This week, we repainted the kitchen, did some touch ups here and there, cleaned our fume hood x_x Oh, did I mention I adopted another dog last weekend? :P It's been crazy!

Around this time, I also start feeling like I can't do anything. Yay for SAD! I'm feeling overwhelmed already with having to meet up with old friends, making Christmas presents, cleaning the house/my room, etc.! The most productive thing I did all weekend was make iced sugar cookies. I mean, they don't look amazing, but at least I've got a recipe down for both cookie and icing. If only I could find my Christmas cookie cutters .. I have ALL the other 60+ cutters - just not my Christmas ones! They must be in their own box somewhere else!