Year 2011: Reflections

Well, I was originally going to write about what I´ve been doing these past few days, but I only have time to actually write one big post today. I realized that I want my last post of the year on my very young blog (6 months old.....wow) to be about looking back at what this year has brought me--both good and bad. It´s a good exercise to put things in perspective, I think.

The year started off, as always, with my birthday a few days in. My 24th birthday marked my first (and only) birthday so far in which I have worn lolita. I dolled myself up, plopped on a wig, and bravely marched out into the world dressed in lolita. Not for a convention, not for a costume party, but as a treat to myself--wearing the clothes I wanted to on a day I wanted to wear them. I feel that I took a big step that day--I´m always aware of stares that I might (but probably aren´t) be getting, but I stepped forward and just dealt with it. I even got a few compliments (from old ladies, as always).

2011 is also the year in which I finally completed my university education. Officially, it´s over and done with. In June 2011, I graduated from my third and final degree in a branch of Psychology that deals with Education and Learning dysfunctions. Anything that I study after this, I will have to pay for myself and arrange according to my own schedule. 2011 is the year in which the "university chapter" of my life turned its last page and ended. I was sorry to see it go, and even afraid--it´s hard for me to accept changes that are so huge. Somehow, moving countries seems like it´d be less of an impact on me. But I gracefully stepped down from my student podium.

This is the year in which my poor grandfather has died. 2011, I will remember you forever for this fact. He lived to see me graduate with honors, though, something for which I am very grateful. Grandpa had always been proud of the grandchild of his that has gotten such good marks at university, has studied so many things and languages, and who still listens to all of his stories. I´m very different from my brother and other cousins, especially study-wise, but he always saw that as something positive (and loved to try out his knowledge of languages with me). I couldn´t be by his bedside when he died, because it was so sudden, but I´m glad that I had at least talked to him a few days prior. Rest in Peace, Yayo.

2011 has also been the year in which I created this blog. Originally planned as an expansion to the personal  blog I´d been writing on MAF, it´s become something more. I now have another blog which is dedicated solely to my cosplay interest and exploits. I´m writing again. It makes me so happy--I thought that I´d never get started again, when I stopped  a two years into university. Perhaps one day I´ll improve enough to make my dream transform into a real goal: to publish a book. Whether a children´s book or a novel, I have no idea.....but this year, I´ve started writing again--and I plan to continue, and work harder and harder.

I´ve also learned to love my camera. My photography skills are still quite lacking, but as I improve, I hope to take better and better photos to share.

This year, I´ve also learned that showing an interest in fashion isn´t "bad" or something to be ashamed of. Sure, my tastes will always be as ecclectic as I am, but that´s just a reflection of my personality. People will just have to learn to deal with the fact that I´m 24 going on 25 and still in love with cute things--and ready to incorporate that into my wardrobe. I might not dress lolita much, but I certainly enjoy adding "loliable" or "casual lolita" things into my outfits.

2011 has taught me that money isn´t as important as I thought it was. Sure, there´s no denying that it´s what moves the world, but I´ve discovered that you can still be happy even if you don´t have everything you´d like to buy. Since September this year, I´m working half the hours that I used to, which means I´m earning half the money I used to (which wasn´t that much to begin with, but hey--it was enough, since I´m still living in my family home). I´ve had to learn to deny myself a lot of impulse buys, and I think that I´ve ended up happier in the end, and less cluttered. I´ve also discovered how much fun it can be (and also how frustrating) to pick out gifts for friends and family while on a limited budget--and I´m proud to admit that I´ve spent more money on others than myself this Christmas. It might sound selfish to say, but a lot of years I´ve bought myself a present for the holidays. This year, I got myself a purse and that´s that. No more. Well, I have ended up buying an Usakumya pochette with the money my Granny gave me instead of a present. Her money, though, not mine. XD Technically, it´s a Christmas-birthday present too. That´s the sort of thing that happens when your birthday is so near Christmas/January 6th. Stuff tends to flow together. I had a lot of fun deciding on presents for my parents and my brother too. I hope they like them when they open them next year! January 6th 2012!

Summarizing, though, I will say that 2011 for me was a year of definite personal growth. I had to make important decisions at work, and learn to prioritize. I´m in the middle of my official teaching exams and studying hard to face one of my greatest fears: a public presentation in front of a jury of peers. I know I´ll try my best, even if I´m quaking in fear; it´s a decision I took in November and which will take effect in February. I made yet another adult decision: I prioritized studying for my exam on the November 26th over finishing 2 cosplays for a convention the following weekend. It was a very hard and painful decision--no one in my family understands what cosplay and sewing really mean to me, it´s more than a creative escape--but I determined that studying was more important. Afterwards, I did manage to put together one cosplay in an amazing feat of temporal organization skills I doubt I´ll ever show again. I was satisfied, and it was worth it: I did my best in the exam, and I sewed an outfit. But I made that first decision expecting that I wouldn´t be able to cosplay at that con.

It probably sounds very strange coming from someone who´s on the brink of turning 25 (just two weeks left!), but I think I´ve actually just taken my first steps in the adult world this year. I hope that I don´t fall (too much) or trip over my feet, but I guess that´s inevitable. My vision is already focusing on 2012 and beyond; I want to continue progressing. Change is scary, but I want to be able to face it head on. I want to improve myself, become a better person.

Happy 2012 everyone! Let´s all look forward to a glorious new year!

I´ve made a small timeline with a few photos of important moments in 2011 for me:

New Year 2010-2011. First New Years celebration I was in charge of cooking; Bro and I were alone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

January 2011. First public lolita coord, at my birthday party.

February 2011. First Gijinka (Minun) and first traditional-based Chinese outfit. (also apparently the only thing I did in February)

March-April 2011. The rest of my family finds out my interest in lolita. Various reactions, some derisive. I dealt.

May 2011. First time I ever acted on stage in a cosplay contest. First large group cosplay.

June 2011. My Third and final graduation. End of my student life!

July 2011. Fireworks in town!! I took lots of pictures.

August 2011. First vacation in years with my grandma, so she doesn´t feel alone.

October 2011. I discovered new sewing skills.

October 2011. Wore one of my dream cosplays: Princess Zelda.

November 2011. One of my childhood friends had a baby in summer. She baptized him in early November. Hard to believe, she´s only a few weeks older than I am...

December 2011. Dream come true: Photoshoot with a photographer.

December 2011. First Christmas celebration without my grandpa. :(

So many things have happened this year! Good, bad, in-between....things I wanted to do and did, things I wanted to do but couldn´t, unexpected things, things that I knew would happen, and everything in between...but I´m glad to be alive!

I´d like to finish with a quote, which I find appropriate for a post centered around remembering. As they say:
 
" Hours pass into days, and time slips away, but the words we speak and the things we do touch the lives of others and live on forever."

Back for awhile!

Hello everyone, I´m back!!! Well, not back in Madrid, but back in Tarragona, visiting my family (the other part of it, anyway). Sometimes I think that these Christmas rounds that make us (my parents brother and I) jump around during Christmas and stay three days in one place and four in another are too much work. They should try to come visit us for once, not have us wander around for them....but oh well, sometimes I don´t understand my family.

So, I had a very nice Christmas celebration with my family on the 25th. I got two presents (one from each of my uncles and their wives--my aunts), since I won´t be seeing them again for a few months at least. I´ll post pictures later when I do my "Christmas and Three Wise Kings" haul post on the 6th of January, I think--mainly because they´re currently packed away in the car and unavailable for photographing. I´ll just say that one aunt got me clothes (and totally got it right, as always) and the other got me some sort of wierd technogadget that´s to make short video messages and leave around the house (that is totally a gift I´ve never been interested in, and they got completely wrong.....as always. But since my Dad seems to like it and will probably use it, at least there´s some happiness out of that gift.).

Not to sound spoiled or ungrateful or anything, but they always seem to get us what looks like leftover gifts that they must give my uncle--because they´re nothing that I´d ever like (and in this case, the battery was inside the device and nearly dead....which means someone used it. *rolls eyes* . (At least change the batteries, uncle....) They even gave my brother a modeling kit for building a house with adobe.....and he´s never indicated interest for anything house or model-building or adobe-making related (but their daughter has..... =.=).

I´ve come to expect it for myself (uncle and aunt are that stingy), but he´s my brother´s Godfather, and the only birthday present he´s ever gotten my brother was a keychain (for his birthday. *sigh*). Just that one present, no other in 23 years.  He gives his son bottles of wine, a netbook, a cured ham and one of those special cabinets to store wine in. He gives his daughter an ebook reader and videogames. And he gives his godson a mini-lantern keychain. In front of the whole family. He should be ashamed.

Anyhow, I had fun with the rest of the family, pretty much, since I get along well with my cousins despite everything (and one really being a spoiled brat, but it´s hard to avoid it if you´re raised to be one....and when she´s not being spoiled she´s a decent little girl). I gorged on Christmas food--this year we celebrated at one of my uncle´s houses (the stingy one) so instead of setting up the whole meal, he told his brothers to bring food as well (the fish and meat courses) so he only had to prepare the canapés. Oh well. I´m glad that my grandmother enjoyed it; we celebrated it at "home" because it´s the first Christmas she celebrated without my late grandpa and she was worried about breaking down in the middle of the restaurant.

We usually have paella for Christmas, because my grandfather loved paella, but I think that this year my father and uncles thought it´d be too much, too soon. We were in charge of the "fish course", so my Dad made this really delicious salmon with sourcream and dill sauce inside a puff pastry. I don´t usually like sour cream, but this was delicious. My uncle Javier was in charge of the meat course and he made a scrumptious (and drool-worthy) meat stew following a turkish recipe that he got...somewhere. I´ve never understood the whole "put dried plums with your meat" idea, but it tasted really good (even though I didn´t eat the plums.). They were smart not to make it with couscous in the end, though, because by then we were nearly bursting.

I feel a bit frustrated--I didn´t think to make any coord pictures of what I wore on Christmas day. I decided to go with something black-and-white (because it´s the first Christmas without grandpa and I wanted to go with those colors). I ended up sneaking "loliable" (ETC and BTSSB! : D) into my coord, without my Mom noticing (or realizing it, as she approved). I will make an outfit snap when I´m back at home for the New Year--I´m proud of the fun I had with polkadots and my Hello Kitty bisuterie. Here´s are two of the few snaps I have of the party (taken by one of my cousins); you can´t really see the outfit (or rather you can only see parts of it) but oh well. Also, both were taken after my grandma stole my pretty headband (it had a sparkly black star on it....XD).

My lovely BTSSB watch is shiny! It also needs repairing--it´s clasp broke. Boo. : (

.....you can see the three (or two) presents that I got, though. But not as well as they should be showed off, hahaha, so expect more pictures (even of the technogadget! I expect I´ll find some use for it...maybe daily blogs? The sound isn´t good...).

I´d also like to send out a question: Where do you buy your Gothic Lolita Bibles? I´m currently looking for the one that came out for autumn and any that have been printed since then (not sure if one has, but just in case). I was going to buy it through J-Box like my last one, but they´ve sold out, the same as Tokyo Rebel!

An Ornament a Day: Day 13

OK, girlies, this is the last day, the very last ornament I´ll be showing you!!

I´m posting this from Valencia, at my grandma´s house!!!

My very last rocking horse!! Flat, light and cute! It´s Fleetfoot!

An ornament a Day: Day 12

Countdown, countdown, there are only 3 days until Christmas!!

Today´s ornament is the following:

A small angel riding a horse. Why would an angel need to ride a horse, I wonder?

An Ornament a Day: Day 11

Today, the ornament is a plain bit of silliness. We got it as a gift a few years ago from some friends of ours who were living in Texas.

Behold: Cattle-wrangling Santa Claus!! Cowboy hat and Reindeer belt buckle included!!

I just love his lasso, shaped like a Christmas tree. Hahaha.

MAF Luckypack!

I actually got my MAF Lucky pack yesterday in the mail!! It was quite exciting, to tell you the truth, since I´d never gotten one before. It´s my first lucky pack...ever.

I got four items: two sticker sheets (one of them vanilla-scented), one envelope pack (Mushimaro), one mini-letter set (Teatime themed).

All in all, I actually like it quite a bit. Well, except for the Mushimaro envelopes. I always thought he was a bit too on the fat side, and so wierd-looking that I´ve never been sure if he was a dog or not.  But the envelopes are in a cute shade of green that I like, so.....whatever. I have new Hello Kitty stickers, yay!!

An Ornament a Day: Day 11

The ornament of the day today is a bit more "classical". It´s a violin ornament, made out of wood. Pardon the strange pictures, but the varnish on it has a horrible tendency to reflect any and all light sources, and these are the best that came out.

It has a matching violin  in the set; one with blue ribbons and roses instead of the red-wine ones this violin has. My father bought them two or three years ago when he visited Vienna near Christmas. He knows my mother loves violins. These have traveled quite a distance to reach my home.

Banana blueberry muffins

It´s been awhile since I last posted anything about cooking! Actually, last Thursday I made some muffins again.

I had some bananas that were riper than I liked (I like my fruit on the green side). In fact, they were riper than any of my family liked, but it seemed a shame to throw them out when they were still edible.

That´s when my cookbook came in--I remmembered that I had seen a recipe for banana muffins. I was right! Not only were they banana muffins, but banana blueberry muffins. I love blueberries, they drive me wild. We always have some canned ones at home, because frozen and fresh ones are insanely hard to find in Spain (and they´re insanely expensive too).

I decided to make them:

 

Though I actually had to make them in 2 batches; I had enough dough (?) to make 18. The original recipe said you could make 12, but since I was wary of "overflow", I made mine smaller.

This was the first batch of muffins; they cooled while the others baked.

I loved how they looked, with the blueberries in them.

They were actually on the small side. Next time I´ll make them bigger.

 

They turned out really yummy. Even I liked them, and I´m usually a chocolate-only sort of girl with muffins and pastries. 

This is actually a good muffin recipe for anybody who´s lactose intolerant; there isn´t a drop of milk in these muffins; the "liquid element" is provided by the eggs and the bananas (which you pureé). If anybody would like the recipe, I can post it.

An Ornament a Day: Day 10

Well, here goes. This ornament is a part of the "Precious Moments" collection that my Mom started a while back. It has a lot of cute little figures in it.
 

This one is pretty cute; all of the figures have a lovely sort of expression; Apparently their teardrop-shaped eyes are a characteristic of the whole "Precious Moments" line. I really like the cute horse this boy is riding.

An Ornament a Day: Days 8 and 9

Here are both of my daily ornaments for today, Sunday:

This first one is another ornament inherited from my family. As you can see, it´s really old-looking. It´s older than me by a long shot; it´s as old as my father!! It, like a few other ornaments currently on our tree, used to hang on my grandmother´s Christmas tree. It´s done in an old style, out of some sort of clay, and doesn´t stand on its own (hence why I´m holding it). Personally, I´ve always thought it quite wierd: it´s supposed to be an angel, playing a trumpet.....but what sort of angel has green wings with polkadots on them? They look more like butterfly wings you might find on a fairy.

Secondly, one of the last installments of my rockinghorse collection: My rocking teddy. 

It´s made out of wood (with a yarn scarf on the bear). It really looks similar to my angel-devil rocking horses as far as the color scheme goes. I´ve always wanted to have a rockinghorse like this one (I suffer from bear envy, hahaha).

Sweet lolita theme

This song just totally sums up "Sweet lolita" for me. Cuteness and cupcakes.....giggling and silly voices.....can a voice sound "pink"? Because that pony´s voice sure does....

I really must start watching the My Little Pony series. I´ve heard it´s cute and fun.

An Ornament a Day: Day 7

Yesterday,  I accompanied my Mom to her chemo sessioan at the hospital. We came back late, but the internet person was  finally fixing our intenet!! It hasn´t been working properly for months, and finally blipped late the night before last. But it´s fixed now (hopefully). I had to go to a birthday party, though, so I didn´t have time to post the ornament before I rushed out to catch the bus.

So, today I´m posting the ornament that was supposed to be yesterday´s, and tomorrow I will post days 8 and 9 together.

Meet the previous ornament´s twin. In a fanciful bit of silliness, I think of them as the See and Saw horses.

Yes, that´s the way!! Smile, baby!!

Wait, where are you goi--?!

Hey! Look at the camera!!

*sigh* What a diva.

He´s got a red bridle instead of a golden one; I love the white and red color combination, though he´s essentially less colorful than his "brother". His head is also more turned. Something I didn´t really notice until I started taking the pictures....

These two have to be my absolute favorite rocking horses. They´re the ones in the best condition too. Wood ornaments usually last longer and are more resistant than plastic ones, don´t you think?

An Ornament a Day: Day 6

 Today, the ornament is also a horse: one of my lovely rocking horses. He has a twin, who I´ll be showing tomorrow.

He also rocks perfectly, and his mane is so fuzzy! I love the details painted onto his rocker, and his golden bridle.

Isn´t he cute?

Tartan love: Drosselmer´s by AatP

I am totally in love with this JSK, by AatP. It´s from the "Drossel meyer´s Wonder Box" line. The OP said nothing to me, but the Clara JSK.....it is love. Is it the tartan? The redness of it? The vaguely military look? the oh-so-lovely collar? A commbination of all four? I don´t know, I only know that I want it. >.<  Soooooo badly.

Maybe I´ll get lucky and be able to buy it over the next year for next Christmas--it really is quite Christmasssy, so we might get a lot of resales as soon as the season is over...

Ornament a Day: Day 5

Today I´m going to break the mold! Instead of one of the Christmas ornaments that I´ve been setting up in the tree every year, I´m going to show you an utterly new one that we just got today!!

The only thing special about it is:

1) It´s a jingle bell ornament! (that really jingles!!)
2) It´s one of the Three Wise Kings (Balthasar!)
3) It´s surprisingly cute (and heavy).
4) We got it for free!!

We got it free when we bought our mini-coin purses and another present (gloves for my brother) at a store in Madrid today. I really really llike his feather, hahaha. I want to go back to the store and ask if I can buy the other two wise kings, Mechior and Gaspar.

An Ornament a Day: Day 4

This blog series doesn´t seem to be very popular--but I´ll continue it anyhow, since I´m enjoying it myself. It´s an exercise in remembering the history behind every Christmas decoration on our tree. They all have something special; none were bought randomly.

 

This ornament is made of wood and wool. It´s a figure of a boy and a girl, wrapped up in winter clothes and in the middle of sledding. The girl is sitting in the front, while the boy pushes. I really like the way the figures are poised, right at the moment when the boy is pushing the sled forward with his own leg power.  This cute ornament was a gift from my other grandmother. She bought it for me (and my brother too, I guess, but he was really little) to hanf in the tree.

An Ornament a Day: Day 3

For Day 3, another horse ornament: this one is handmade, made out of the corks (?) left after a wine or champagne bottle is drunk. Oh, and some cute letover gingham cloth, yarn and thread. My Dad made it; I swear he must be one of the origins of my cosplay creative genes.

Dose of Cute

I found this really cute video of kittens frolicking in the snow! It´s got two great things:  kittens and snow, how can it not be good?

An ornament a day: Day 2

Here is another one of my much-loved Christmas ornaments.

This one is a bit more "traditional", at least as far as Spanish traditions go. It has the Three Wise kings on it. It doesn´t just look like stained glass, it actually is stained glass. So it´s quite delicate and I´m always careful when placing it on the tree, near the top.

Inspirational music

As a change from the Christmas-themed music and carols I seem to be listening to constantly at this time, I had a flashback to medieval-type music, and juat had to share this one: "Scarborough Fair Canticle". I prefer it sung by male voices, having heard it for the first time as sung by Simon and Garfunkel. Though there are some wonderful female singers with versions of it, I´ll admit.

I find this song so incredibly calming (and touching), even more than "Greensleeves".

An Ornament a Day: Day 1

For the first day of "an ornament a day", I´ll show off one of my rocking horses.

I love rocking horses, so our Christmas tree has several different ones. This is one of the most special ones, though, because my grandmother gave it to me. It´s pretty old; she used to hang it on her own tree when my Dad was a child. Now it hangs in ours. I expect tat it was probably originally a toy, since it has no way to hang it up except for the gold wire that, as you can see is tied onto its saddle and around the horse´s middle.  I used to play with it as a child too (to my mom´s frustration, as I was supposed to help with tree decorating).

It´s really cute and rocks perfectly, as it should. I hope that, when the time comes, I can take it with me when I leave home and settle down in my own house. It has a lot of memories tied to it.