24 in 24 revisited.

yesterday our dear family friend michaela turned 18. and michaelas birthday means its halfway to my birthday and holy crap, im officially almost 25. but instead of spending this entire post all about how im SO old and it freaks me out because i TOTALLY REMEMBER MAKING MY STEPDAD A BIRTHDAY CARD FOR HIS 25TH BIRTHDAY, im going to take a look at the birthday goals i made six months ago and see how thats been going. the goals were:

1. find a better place to live. right after i made this goal our financial situation got EXTRA poopy, so honestly, it hasn't been a priority. 

2. find a new hobby just for me.  ok, so i went a little overboard here, and my new hobby is going to college. 

3. hit 25,000 blog page views.  maybe i set the bar a little too low here, because im already at over 34,000. so, yay for me!

4. do a craft fair. this ones in progress, ive got a couple events in mind that id like to apply for, i just need to save up for a few purchases (and application fees) and build up my inventory a bit more. 

5. quit my job at joanns. done and DONE. i am SO stoked about my new adventure with jamberry. 

6. write a business plan. also in progress, but right now in one of my classes im working on my professional portfolio so maybe thats a little bit more important (you know, so i can start trying to do boutique consignment)

7. take a family trip. we did stay a night in san diego at christmas, but i dont think that really counts. again, because of the poopy finances this hasn't been a priority. but maybe we can do something this summer? maybe?

8. find a new family hobby. im not so sure about this one. maybe our hobby is just disneyland? or possibly collecting shells at the beach. 

9. try a new restaurant. even though we still usually go out to our normal sushi place (or in n out) we did get sandwiches at heywood in silverlake, and i think were trying a new place this weekend. 

10. clean out my closet.  done. but also, i think maybe i could go back and do one more edit. i probably should...

11. make something just for me. not yet, BUT now that i dont have a job that makes me hate knitting, i think im going to start scouring ravelry for some cute sock patterns. 

12. make $100 from blogging.  this one was a HUGE surprise, but, i totally did! across ALL channels (adsense, passionfruit, and skimlinks) ive made about $141! i mean, thats hardly anything over the course of a whole year, but i feel a little less dumb calling myself a blogger. 

13. color my hair an actual color. so, i totally meant this to mean "an actual color of blonde" and then i decided that i REALLY want to do my hair pink and maybe also blue and thats a HUGE time and money investment so maybe once school gets out ill have some time for this one. 

14. take alice to the zoo.  mission accomplished!

15. sponsor some new blogs.  this has probably been my favorite goal to work on, branching out of my normal blogging circle has been SO much fun!

16. get better at sewing. (in progress) honestly, i havent had a ton of time to work on my sewing skills, BUT i did make bow ties and pocket squares for my friends wedding, and those projects definitely did stretch my sewing skills (but next semester im taking a real sewing class!)

17. publish my original knitting and crochet patterns. yep! well, a couple of them. the only ones that were really any good. 

18. host a dinner party. yeah..... we havent gotten around to this one yet...

19. take real family pictures. or this one...

20. purge useless files and backup our computer. or this one. actually, im probably never going to purge and back up the computer unless somebody stands over my shoulder and FORCES me to do it. any volunteers?

21. get a new tattoo. i actually know EXACTLY what i want to do next, i just need to save up the money (and find a free afternoon). maybe this summer. 

22. get at least 12 etsy orders. (in progress) um. ive gotten two. three if you count the wedding bow ties. but in my defense, i havent had a whole lot of time to devote to the shop, and my focus has been on building inventory rather than marketing, so, that was kind of expected. 

23. start doing yoga again. eh, not really. ive started walking more frequently (since, you know, my school is two blocks away), but not yoga. though alice has expressed an interest so maybe ill look up some kid-appropriate yoga workouts for us to do together. 

24. learn to relax. ok, well we all knew that this one was going to be a serious challenge. and honestly, im not doing so well. mainly, i keep taking on WAY too much responsibility/activity for my weak and sickly body to handle. but now that im only working from home, maybe i can start figuring out some better ways to use my free time for relaxing. 

alright, so the final count is 9 completed, and 5 in progress. out of 24. so, i guess im not doing that bad. 

happy half birthday alice!

today was a very special day. today alice turned two and a half. also, i quit my job at joanns, but thats a topic for a different day. todays post is all about little miss alice:

after alices last half birthday, when i made her favorite dinner and half a cake, i decided that in the meyers house, half birthdays are a thing. maybe not a big thing, but definitely a favorite dinner and special dessert thing. honestly, since alices half birthday fell on a saturday this year, i really would have liked to go out and do something fun, but i had to go to work. 

so instead, we decided that it could be a lazy stay at home and not get dressed and watch tv kind of day, and after i got home from work (which was only three hours or so), we could have her favorite dinner and a special dessert. 

and everything went according to plan. well.... except for at one point while i was cooking dinner we found that alice had apparently helped herself to some crafts. in the form of real scissors and an index card:

good news though! alice totally knows how to use real scissors! (just, dont ask me why shes wearing her cinderella dress tied around her waist like an apron, because i do NOT know). 

then it was time for dinner, now, alices palate has matured slightly since last year, and her favorite dinner is now grilled salmon with roasted broccoli and accordion potatoes:

 

though i accidentally bought the wrong size of potatoes this week so i invented a new way of making crispy potatoes instead. stay tuned for the recipe post as soon as i perfect the cooking time because these were the BEST potatoes ive EVER made. 

after that, because alice was a very good girl and ate almost all of her dinner (im not being sarcastic), it was time for cupcakes:

 

 funny story: as i was getting the stuff ready to make the cake batter, i asked alice "which do you want, little cupcakes or a big cake with slices?" to which she responded, "i want frosting on it", which i suppose was a relevant request, but not what i was asking. so i asked again, and she said "i want four", so naturally i say "four of what? four is not an answer as to whether or not you want cupcakes or a big cake!". "four cupcakes". so, cupcakes it was. 

(even though alice isnt gluten free, i had this mix from cherry brook kitchen lingering in the pantry so i used that, and, they werent terrible. not as good as actual cake, but not bad). 

so that was our day, happy half birthday alice, and heres to many, many more!