Don't Give Up Until You're Dead

  *Disclaimer for generalisations and stereotypes in this post. I think I'm a fairly techno-savvy person. I can work an iPhone and a laptop and my Sky+ and most electrical devices that I have in my household. (If you have pervy comments at this point - keep them to yourself please!!) For a woman, I think I am quite a typical "bloke" with this kind of stuff though, I have to admit. In that I'll get something out of its box and plough on in there without reading instructions first, usually because I'm excited about my new appliance and I just want to get it working! There, however, is where the similarity ends. If said appliance is not working how it is supposed to, I will put it down and read the instructions at this point, rather than keep pressing buttons /touching screens until it appears to be working. Because, you know, a guy can make it work. Whereas I don't want to fuck it up. (Although I am  one of those people who keeps frantically clicking the mous...

So I did my 2011 round-up post. Now to look forward into 2012. Just a quick side FYI - I will be saying "two thousand and twelve." Maybe at a push, I might  drop the "and" but I will NOT be saying "twenty twelve" even if we have been saying "nineteen..." whatever for the last thousand years. Just... no. Anyway, on with the post... things I've got to look forward to. Holidays. I've got a couple lined up this year: The first is yet another trip to the States, but this time, there is no Twilight involved, unless by complete accident. The point is, I'm not going for a convention or anything. Just going over there for a week to stay with some great friends and have fun in Chicago and New York. I cannot wait. (There is another thing included in this that I am very much looking forward to, but that will come under a second heading.) Second holiday is a family cruise around the Baltic with S, P and H, my parents and my aunt. Will be ...

 Way back in March of 2011, at the NashCon, as a thank you to our lovely friend Betsy, all the people in our little group pitched in a few dollars and bought her a present (as she had done a lot of arranging.) As she is a shoe... connoisseuse, Cathy thought she might like a pair of Louboutins. (Wouldn't we all?) In fact, she got SO much money from everyone she was able to buy her NINE pairs!! Don't get excited though. As you can probably tell from the title of this post, they were only fit for a Barbie doll. Nevertheless, they are a genuine Louboutin/Mattel collaboration, and Betsy was absolutely thrilled! Louboutins. Want.   The reason I bring it up is that I was talking with my sister-in-law this morning about Barbie shoes, and they came to mind. I went to a site, found the link and happened to have a browse around and the amount of amazing outfits I found for her that I would KILL to wear. Here is one such site. Have a look. See anything you fancy? Barbie Collecto...

 I never usually make these. I can never stick to them. However, I now realise why. I'm never realistic about them. And, I usually don't give them a great deal of thought either and make them somewhere in a drink-filled haze on New Year's Eve, which is completely insane. Therefore, this year, I have waited. I have actually given them some thought. I have planned  them properly. And they will begin from Monday, so I can say I have prepared and won't feel like I have failed at the first hurdle (unlike so many people - myself included - who usually make their resolutions on New Year's Eve and then break them on 1st/2nd January!) And an important difference this year is that these are not resolutions, but S.M.A.R.T.  goals.  The key letter being R. Realistic. 1) Manage my time better.  This is a huge one (that's what  she  said!) I'm nearly always on my computer, but never really doing anything productive. I'm a Twitter-addict. I'm a blog-browser....

This post looks wordy, but it's mostly a lot of pictures! 2011 was a pretty great year all in all. Bearing in mind how absolutely rubbish my memory is, I'm going to do my level best to remember all the fantastic things I've done! January and February were the usual post-Christmas blur, made all the more blurry with planning, shoe and dress shopping and saving money for the things that were coming. March was NashCon time. After planning this on TwilightMOMs for almost an entire year, I FINALLY got to meet up with not all, but a fairly huge chunk of the people I'd been dying to meet for the longest time from across the Pond. There was a small group of us who were pretty tight, encapsulated within a group of about 15, within a larger lot of about 30 who had all arranged to meet at the Con. As well as meeting EXTRA people who we have remained friends with (Cory/Mel - I'm talking about you!) It. Was. Amazing.  NashCon I gave up smoking in April. I was very proud of mys...