On a happy note, I passed 3 out of 4 exams last semester, which is pretty amazing, since it was the hardest semester so far. But although I suspected the pile of work could never be that high again, I was proven wrong. We have even more work now, with assigments, papers, tests, and lots of other stuff going on. I need to find a job for during the holidays (hopefully at some fancy law firm) and I am taking driver’s classes. I’m a busy bee, yes.

Since I’ve sort of abandoned this blog since forever-and-a-day, I could come up with all sorts of fancy things I have in mind for the future. The truth is; I don’t. I’m not thinking about the future right now, and I’ll blog whenever I feel like it. If that makes me the worst blogger ever, then I happily accept that award.

Day #1

I added the window and door trims, which made the house look a lot more like an actual house. I love all the little details this house has, and I haven’t even added them all!

Day #2

Adding the bay window was quite difficult. For some reason – my boyfriend is convinced we just added too much paint, I’m not entirely sure of that – the pieces didn’t fit properly, so we had to cut some, and add extra wood to others. It took us approximately two hours only to get the bay window attached. Phew, I’m glad that’s done!

On the above picture, you can see the right side attached to the house. The picture below is an inside view of the bay window and the couch/closet-thingy in front of it. I think it looks awesome, but then again I’ve always been a fan of bay windows.

Day #3

Fed up with construction work, we decided to do the inside wallpapering first. I found this cute wallpaper online, which fit perfectly with the type of furniture I had in mind (in light colours, with some touches of green and white). So we started wallpapering the bottom floor. The wallpapering wasn’t easy and included a lot of handy-work with measuring things that were practically unmeasurable, guessing, and basically making a huge mess of things. But in the end, I’m pretty glad with the result, considering it’s our first try.

We also wallpapered the upstairs room, but unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of that!

Day #4

Back to construction work! First we added the inside window trims, which instantly made the inside of the house look a lot better! Unfortunately the kit doesn’t include window trims for every window (for instance there aren’t any for the inside of the door or bay window), but oh well…you can’t have everything in life!

A view of the bay window, with the wallpapering attached, and a window trim. I still have to put the windows on the bay window couch.

Day #5

On the last day of the week, we tried to attach the roof to the house. It was hard work, since most of the pieces didn’t fit – again! – but I’m very, very happy with the end result. The house is looking so cute right now, and a lot larger than I first expected. With the roof attached, it looks even larger than before, and really spacious.

The inside of the house, with the roof in place. There is no wallpaper on the right side of the upstairs room, because I plan on making a bathroom there, but I haven’t found appropriate wallpaper yet.

The front side of the house. My boyfriend is still holding a part of the roof that we recently glued together, but I simply couldn’t wait to take a picture! It’s amazing how far we got already, considering the house was basically just pieces of wood in a box two weeks ago. Needless to say I’m very proud of the work we’ve done.

So what’s up next? Finding furnishings online, making some myself, sewing curtains, attaching shingles to the outside roof, wallpapering the bathroom, and adding some of the left-over ornaments.

1. Get my bachelor degree in Law. Currently studying International and European Law, and it’s going quite well, but I only have my first exam in a week so…we’ll see.
2. Write atleast one chapter/short story per week. Haven’t written anything yet and the week ends tomorrow, so…this might go totally wrong. Or it might not. I do have some inspiration, but time will be the issue.
3. Exercise for atleast twenty/thirty minutes every day. YES, THANK GOD. Heh. One week into 2011 and I’m still exercising every day, and it makes me feel good and healthy. Plus, I’m actually pleased that I already accomplished something, and didn’t put this list aside like I usually did the past couple of years. I did the Zumba Express workout everyday, considering I can just do that in my living room and it only takes twenty minutes (which is ideal, considering I’m still studying roughly eight hours a day, and can’t get myself to spend hours working out then).
4. Lose 10kgs. Well, ofcourse I didn’t lose 10kgs in a week, that would be absolutely ridiculous. Yet, I already lost about 1kg compared to last week, and I’m very pleased with that. I know it will go a lot slower from now on (ideally 1kg/a month) because I probably lost this due to the sudden exercise routine. But it has given me even more motivation, which is always a good thing.
5. Read atleast one book a week and buy atleast fifteen new books this year. Preferably cheap ones. I already read and reviewed Rage of A Demon King by Raymond E. Feist, and have finished reading the follow-up Shards of a Broken Crown yesterday. Didn’t review it yet, and just started on Tome of The Undergates by Sam Sykes this morning. So, I’m doing pretty well.
6. Create an online portfolio to showcase my webdesign work, try to enhance my knowledge by possibly taking an online course and create at least three websites for clients during the next year. I have some inspiration for the portfolio, but most of the site building stuff will have to wait till after finals (february 3th), due to obvious reasons.
7. Play less World of Warcraft, and don’t go totally berserk every time something minor goes wrong in the game. Permission to go berserk is still granted if the game won’t play properly, or I can’t login for mysterious reasons. To be honest, I haven’t played WoW at all in over two weeks. I did log on once, because my boyfriend sent me some profession levelling stuff, but got bored quickly (in twenty minutes, so you can’t exactly call that “playing”). Pretty proud of myself, but soon I will have to change this one into “Play WoW more often”.
8. Redecorate my bedroom. Delayed till after university exams, ofcourse. Plus, I’m making my bedroom dirtier with the minute (there is trash EVERYWHERE, mostly consisting of pages I need to study, study books, pencils, etc).
9. Create atleast one sketch/painting/other crafty thing a week. It might even be scrapbooking. As long as it’s something creative. And not utterly hideous. I started a new painting yesterday, and surprisingly it’s turning out better than the previous one (entitled Zombie Voodoo Cat and Weird Color Cat), this time with a dog, and three kittens. It’s cute. I’m too scared to go back to painting humans yet, because I find them a lot more difficult than painting animals, so I will practice with animals a bit first. Even if that makes my paintings a bit childish, or overly cute.
10. Finally pay the library, and get myself a new library card. Ehm, nope, not yet.
11. Get my driver’s license. I made my Mom promise me to drive to one of those “driver’s license schools’ that teach you how to drive properly next week, and enroll me in some classes. According to my boyfriend, there’s a special program that teaches you how to drive, and lets you go to an exam, in under two weeks, and I’m going for that one (I have one week off, plus two weekends, and I could always take a day off in uni) because I NEED my license before 20th april.
12. Build and furnish The Buttercup Dollhouse, which I currently own, and try to buy, build and furnished atleast one more dollhouse this year. Preferably more, but this depends mostly on time/budget, since dollhouses are pretty expensive. I already blogged about the construction of this dollhouse during week one, and I have some pictures ready covering construction during week two (which I have delayed uploading till tomorrow, because I hope to finish the wallpapering and some ornamental details by then, so I can show you all the nicely finished house without a roof installed (roof is for next week ), and you can all gasp in awe at how amazing a house without roof can look!
13. Get a job for during the summer holiday, preferably in a lawyer’s practice. This is something I will dive into once university tests are over.
14. Practice playing the clarinet atleast twice a week. This one is going terribly wrong. I haven’t touched my clarinet, and the chances I will come near it before end of uni finals, are very slim, and nearly none-existent.
15. Clean up my old playroom and turn it into something different: a library/miniature dollhouse workspace/dressing room/videogames play area, of sorts. Well, believe it or not, but I did mangage to clean up a little, and the fact that I only did ‘a little’ has nothing to do with my work ethic, but with the fact we hardly have any boxes to store stuff in. But I’m getting there.
16. Learn to cook and play the guitar. Also, take up photography. Sleep is overrated. Don’t expect me to get cooking or playing the guitar in a long while, but I did take a couple of pictures, and am currently designing a layout for a photoblog.
17. Do a Harry Potter marathon during the summer holidays. Already asked my boyfriend about this one, and he said he would join in during the holidays (he’s a huge Harry Potter fan too!)
18. Reuinite with some old friends. Well, I did send text messages to all of my friends saying Happy New Year, including some people I haven’t spoken to in a long while, but apart from that I haven’t made any steps for this resolution yet.
19. Be less mean to my boyfriend. I try. Honestly. He only got me upset once this week, and I wasn’t extremely mean then (a bit short and sarcastic, not exactly mean), so I’m doing rather well. I’ve also let him our date tonight, which is a lot coming from a control freak like me.
20. Be a more organized person: keep an agenda, a daily schedule when needed (like during study periods, or when I’m really busy) and stick to it. I’ve started to use daily lists, and they’re actually helping my productivity, since I feel overly relieved when I get to scrap something from the list. Actual agenda use is more directed towards the second semester.
21. Blog more often, atleast twice a week. Join NaBloPoMo for any random month of the year, and maybe do a month of daily WordPress-related posting. I think I did pretty well on this one. I made three posts since January 1st, so basically three posts a week, which is already more than I initially expected. Plus, this one makes the total to four, so not bad, eh?
22. Get four of my characters to level 85 in World of Warcraft. I didn’t play WoW, so no progress on this one.
23. Visit my grandmother in the nursing home atleast once every two weeks. The last time I visit my grandmother was the wednesday between Christmas and New Year, but unfortunately she’s fallen ill since then. She has a lot of trouble with recalling things correctly, and sometimes she talks in the past or sees things that aren’t really there. Ninety percent of the time she’s absolutely fine, but now and then those episodes happen, and then I can’t see her for a couple of weeks because I upset her, and she upsets me, which is not something I can deal with when I have a strict studying schedule, nearly no spare time on my hands, and my nerves are already wrecked. But I will try to go next week, if she’s feeling better.
24. Go on a trip to a foreign country, any country. Nothing planned yet.

How are your New Year’s resolutions doing? Kept up with any of them, or already forgot all about them?

I haven’t touched a paint brush in over six years, so naturally my first painting would be catastrophic, if not a forebode of a nearby apocalypse, but even I am surprised by how hideous it looks. On my defense, the reason I felt the need to paint was because my beloved aunt gave me an aquarel painting set for Christmas, and I felt obligated to try it out. However…I have never painted anything ‘aquarel-style’ before. So the colours turned out way too dark, the painting is really bad, and as I already mentioned, the kitten on the left looks like a living dead doll. Anything good come from this? Well, it has inspired me to work more on my painting skills. An absolute necessity. By the way, the dark red behind the painting is, in fact, my wall. So apologies for that.

I call it: Zombie-Voodoo Cat and Somewhat-Normal-But-With-Awkward-Colours-Cat. Thoughts, anyone?

Day #1

“The Buttercup” Dollhouse kit offers one detailed guide of how to put the house together, and then about ten sheets of wood with half-cut parts. First step was sanding the necessary parts, and then painting them. The house comes with a lot of decorations, in the form of window trims and door trims, and painting those did take a lot of time. Fortunately my Mom still had some white paint leftover from painting an old closet at our home, so we could start right away.

We applied two layers of paint to the trims and decorations, and then let them dry for the rest of the night. It took us approximately two hours and a half to paint of all them, so it was time to take a break anyway.

Day #2

I called my cousin, who has recently repainted her entire kitchen, and asked if she still had some wood paint and primer lying around. Thank god, she had, and I went over to her house to acquire some nice colours for the outside walls of my dollhouse. She had khaki green, yellowish, and the one I eventually settled on: a mix of green and yellow. I want my dollhouse to be a Victorian-era summerhouse, so light colours are a necessity. So far, paint didn’t cost me a thing, and I’m very glad about that. When I got home from my cousin, I invited my boyfriend over, and we started painting the outside walls of the house.

This is how they turned out. I was rather pleased with the colour, and it looks really good when I hold the decorations near the yellow/green. It fits nicely. Because we still had some time left over, I decided to start working on the floors inside the house too. It was quite simple, actually. I just mixed some lightbrown paint with white, gave one layer of paint to the floor, and then made circular movements with a piece of kitchencloth. The result was, in all fairness, absolutely amazing, and it turned out exactly the way I wanted to.

Since I want most furniture to be white, I think the floor will fit perfectly with that. We gave the outside walls a second layer, and then left everything to dry overnight.

Day #3

Well, then it was time for the real work. My boyfriend started the construction of the dollhouse while I glued the windows into the window trims.

And here’s how the door looked like with the windows attached. I love the result.

For the construction, we started by creating the bay window, and the bench inside the bay window. It doesn’t look all that good right now, because it still needs paint.

We called it a night, with half the dollhouse construction (unfortunately I took no picture of that) finished, and all windows attached to the window trims.

Day #4

I was convinced putting the remaining pieces of the dollhouse together would be easy enough, but boy, was I wrong. We spent another two hours trying to put every piece together, without making the other half collapse. Eventually we managed, although the side with the bay window still isn’t attached. The upper floor is in place though, and the house is starting to get shape.

The house is larger than I had anticipated. Originally I was convinced only two rooms would fit into the house (one downstairs, one upstairs), but considering the actual size, I might turn the upper floor into a bedroom and bathroom, and create a kitchen/living room downstairs. But first, we still have to attach the bay window, glue the window trims and front door to the basic dollhouse construction, and attach the roof. So, still a lot of work ahead!

Here’s a sneak preview of the wallpaper I will use for the upstairs bedroom. I found this wallpaper online – it’s miniature dollhouse size, meaning 1:12 – and printed it. I think it’s a wonderful wallpaper for a Victorian bedroom!

So, what are your thoughts about “The Buttercup” dollhouse thus far? Do you like the colours I used for the floors, outside walls and window trims? And what are your thoughts on the wallpaper I chose for the bedroom? Heh, and be kind, it’s my first dollhouse ever, so naturally it’s not perfect!

List of things to do/goals to achieve in 2011.

1. Get my bachelor degree in Law. This year is my third and final bachelor year at university, and when all goes as planned (hopefully!) I will get my bachelor degree in Law. Ofcourse, this is my first and most important goal for 2011, and one I will most likely (I hope…) achieve. Wish me good luck anyway, because some classes (read: Penalty Law) aren’t all that easy…
2. Write atleast one chapter/short story per week. As I already mentioned in my post on Hobbies for 2011, I haven’t written all that much in the last year, although I do really, really love writing. I hope that by setting myself some short, but achieveable goals, I will be able to write more and get inspired enough to write an original novel.
3. Exercise for atleast twenty/thirty minutes every day. What? EVERY DAY? Yes! I have been doing this on and off for the last couple of weeks now, and it actually isn’t all that hard, if you keep it down to about twenty/thirty minutes. My preferred choice of exercise is a Zumba Workout (usually the Zumba Express video, or Zumba Cardio Party when I have more time on my hands) but it can basically be anything, ranging from going for a swim, to jogging in the park, or just talking a long walk. Ofcourse this doesn’t include when I’m really ill (can’t imagine myself really exercising when I feel like throwing up, or have a fever) or the days when I have an actual exam for university – usually those tests take up to six hours, and leave me feeling really drained, so I don’t see myself doing ANYTHING after that, let alone workout.
4. Lose 10kgs. My ideal weight, considering my height and age, would be about 54kg. Instead, I weigh 10kgs more, give or take, and am a bit overweight. It’s not something I’m really happy about, but I have to admit that I have been overweight all my life. I wasn’t exactly a “fat” or “chubby” child, but I wasn’t all that skinny either. But the difference is that when I was younger, I did do a lot of sports: I had swimming class every week, I went to gym class twice a week, I played tennis and my friends and I usually played outside, running through the forest nearby, building stuff there and doing other ‘active’ stuff. When I went to college and university, I sort of gave up on all of that, due to lack of time (and well 20 years old don’t exactly build castles in trees anymore), and well things have just gone downhill from there. I’m not a big fan of crash-diets, or any diets whatsoever, so I will try to lose these 10kgs over the course of one year by just eating healthy and exercising on a daily basis.
5. Read atleast one book a week and buy atleast fifteen new books this year. Preferably cheap ones. This one is pretty self-explenatory. I love reading, and I want to read more. I also joined some Reading Challenges to encourage me to read not only more books, but from more different genres too. I will keep you updated on my booklog about how these challenges are going.
6. Create an online portfolio to showcase my webdesign work, try to enhance my knowledge by possibly taking an online course and create at least three websites for clients during the next year. Well, webdesign is my passion, and when I got to make a website for a client a couple of months ago, I was in seventh heaven (and not only thanks to the payout ) so I really want to enhance my webdesigning skills in the next year, and maybe get some much-needed cash by doing so. I’ve wanted a portfolio for years now, but this year…I will actually make one. Hopefully. I think now is pretty much the best time to start building out my offside webdesign career, so what am I waiting for?
7. Play less World of Warcraft, and don’t go totally berserk every time something minor goes wrong in the game. Permission to go berserk is still granted if the game won’t play properly, or I can’t login for mysterious reasons. This is a very important goal for me, since last year I did spend a lot of “unnecessary” time on WoW, time I didn’t actually do anything interesting, and time I could have spent doing more important things like studying, working, or anything along those lines. So I’m going to cut back on playing WoW, which is going very well for the time being, and I’m also not going to get worked up for the game that much anymore. It should play for entertainment, not to make myself nervous when things don’t go 100% as planned. I’m not going to put a time-limit on it, because I know I won’t keep that anyway. Just playing less, not saying no to social activities simply because I want to play WoW anymore, and no more berserk-mode, that should do.
8. Redecorate my bedroom. When my grandmother moved out of her old house, my Mom asked me if I wanted to have her bedroom set, because my room is still somewhat childish, and my grandmother’s bedroom set is more grown-up like, although it does look like a bedroom fit for a fairytale princess (white and pink, but with a kingsize bed, dresser, nice chairs, etc.). Since I had been tired by my old bedroom for years now (have it since I was born, and twenty years is a long time) I said yes, and we moved the new furniture set to my bedroom, but…then my two weeks of continuously studying started. My Mom, my uncle and me are goin to redecorate my entire room, with new wallpaper, a new floor, new ceiling, and ofcourse the new furniture, but naturally this was put on hold for a couple of months because I can’t study when people are wallpapering or painting right next to me. Normally, we will take up this project again come february/march. I will try to post about it, and give you some of the cool details with pictures included.
9. Create atleast one sketch/painting/other crafty thing a week. It might even be scrapbooking. As long as it’s something creative. And not utterly hideous. This will probably be one of the most difficult goals for me, but I’m commited, so it might work. I have some ideas I really want to put on paper or canvas, so creativity and inspiration isn’t really the problem (it’s time and dedication that is).
10. Finally pay the library, and get myself a new library card. First of all, thanks to Clementine who also mentioned she still has to pay the library, I realised I owe the library some money too. Plus, I’d like to get back to reading some library books on a regular basis, and I sort of need a pass for that. It’s a win-win situation. Also, going to the library is a social thing for me, since then I can ask my fellow-book-lover friend Sarah to come along, and we can talk about the old days and how life was so much fun when we were still young and fearless.
11. Get my driver’s license. Also a very big and important goal. I want to get my driver’s license, and more importantly, I want to get it this year. The sooner, the better, so I will try to schedule some classes right after my exams for this semester.
12. Build and furnish The Buttercup Dollhouse, which I currently own, and try to buy, build and furnished atleast one more dollhouse this year. Preferably more, but this depends mostly on time/budget, since dollhouses are pretty expensive. My boyfriend bought me a dollhouse for Christmas, and we’ve spend the last couple of evenings painting the walls, window trims, front door, etc, and are now glueing everything together. Trust me when I tell you it’s looking fabulous right now, and I’m really, really proud of our work. It’s also a lot larger than I imagined it would be, and there might actually be enough room for a bedroom, bathroom and living room/kitchen in one. Plus, building dollhouses is actually a fun activity for my boyfriend and I to do together, and it’s a welcome change from watching Supernatural or playing WoW. I will post something very soon about my progress on The Buttercup Dollhouse, along with pictures.
13. Get a job for during the summer holiday, preferably in a lawyer’s practice. Last year, because of some failed exams I had to redo during the summer, I wasn’t able to get a job, which means I’m short of cash for the rest of the year, and my Mom is contstantly complaining about it. So this year I want to do things differently, and I want to find a job early-on, so I can do it in the month of July and not have to worry about possible failed exams, since you only get to redo those in August. I would prefer a job that is somehow connected to what I’m studying, namely law, and I’d love to work in a lawyer’s practice. But we’ll see how that goes, if I don’t find anything there, I’m more than pleased with a job as shopkeeper or whatever too.
14. Practice playing the clarinet atleast twice a week. I used to play the clarinet, but I haven’t touched it in over two years. Since I feel like my social life is lacking, and I really miss the weekly band practices with my friends whom I hardly see anymore now, I feel like getting back into playing the clarinet. Ofcourse I can’t really burst in and say ‘hello I’m back!’ when I hardly know how to play it anymore, so first I will need to spend a couple of months practicing. I hope the goal of twice a week is realistic. However, I’m NOT starting this until AFTER exams, meaning the third of february. Not sooner, because I simply don’t have the time right now.
15. Clean up my old playroom and turn it into something different: a library/miniature dollhouse workspace/dressing room/videogames play area, of sorts. My old playroom is still stuffed with barbie houses, playmobil, dolls, and all other stuff I used to play with. Since I’ve stopped playing with toys a long, long time ago I think it’s time to clean up the mess in there, put everything that still looks decent into boxes, put the rest on ebay, and then turn the room into something that’s actually useful to me. I want to divide it into different parts: a mini dressing room (mostly for my accessoires and bags), a library area (atleast one or two bookcases, since the ones I currently have in the living room and my bedroom don’t provide enough space for my personal book collection), a videogame play area (I bought a fake Wii some time ago, and installed it on an old TV we still had lying around, and I’d like to give it a proper space in my old playroom) and a miniature dollhouse workspace area, where I can put my finished dollhouses and work on the unfinished ones without bothering my Mom, or turning her kitchen into a gigantic mess.
16. Learn to cook and play the guitar. Also, take up photography. Sleep is overrated. There are just some random hobbies I would like to take up in the next year. My Mom got me a guitar for my birthday a couple of years ago, but I’ve never really played it before, which sort of makes me a bad daughter >.< Can't have that. Also, I can't cook anything. Not even spgahetti, or pancakes, or other basic dishes. Wish is kind of bad when you're twenty years old, so I have to change that too.
17. Do a Harry Potter marathon during the summer holidays. With the release of the last Harry Potter film in june (or july? not sure!) I think the summer holiday is probably the best time to celebrate my Harry Potter fangirlness in epic fashion: by doing a Harry Potter marathon, either with some friends, or with my boyfriend, or on my own when none of them feels in the mood for it. The Harry Potter marathon would basically include rereading all seven Harry Potter books, and rewatching all Harry Potter movies during the course of one week. E-P-I-C.
18. Reuinite with some old friends. I have some friends, both online and offline, that used to be really, really good friends and although we never got into an argument or anything, we just drifted apart. One of these friends is Sarah, one of my best friends when I was younger and someone I actually miss a lot, especially the last couple of months. We just drifted apart because we went to other schools, and other stuff. But it’s sad really, because we had so much in common and we got along so well. Another one of those lost friends is Annelies. We went to high school together, but when she went off to college and I went to university, we drifted apart too. We do regularly still see each other when we go out, but it’s not the same. So I’ll have to work on that friendship too. There are some other lost friends I’d like to get in contact with again: Sarah G. my cousin, Emma my online friend from England, Aaron my online friend from America, and maybe some more I can’t think of right now.
19. Be less mean to my boyfriend. Sometimes, I’m a very, very mean person, especially towards my boyfriend. I’m overly protective, and I can’t stand it when he even talks to other girls who aren’t friends of mine, a nasty habit I really have to get rid off. But I’m working on it, and things are starting to get better. Now I only have to be less mean towards him. I tend to give him these nasty remarks whenever he does something I can’t stand, or plainly tell him I want to break up with him whenever something doesn’t go my way. I know this isn’t something that will go away immediatley, and both of us know that. It will be a long journey, but one I do wish to continue successfully in the next year. He deserves that, if only for putting up with me for so long.
20. Be a more organized person: keep an agenda, a daily schedule when needed (like during study periods, or when I’m really busy) and stick to it. I already made this resolution last year, and although not a total success, it wasn’t a total failure either. I do tend to use my agenda more often, it’s way better organized than it was in 2008, and when I make a daily studying schedule, I keep to it 50% of the times (whereas it was 0% of the times before). Although nice progress, not exactly good enough already. I want to keep on improving on this, because I know it will definately be helpful in my future career. So more planning, finishing assignments earlier on (although I’m already waaaaay better than two of my best uni-friends when it comes to that) and actually studying before the ‘weeks of insane studying’ start, giving me a nice headstart. Ofcourse this only applies to the second semester, as the first has nearly come to its end now.
21. Blog more often, atleast twice a week. Join NaBloPoMo for any random month of the year, and maybe do a month of daily WordPress-related posting. I really want to blog more often, preferably daily, but since that is unachievable, or may lead to extremely boring and pointless blog-entries, I will keep it to twice a week. To encourage me to blog more often, I will try to enter NaBloPoMo one random month of the year, most probably March or April, since those are the less busiest months for me. Also, the idea of doing WordPress related posts for an entire month, focusing on tutorials, themes, and plugins, has been haunting my mind for quite a while now, and I hope to actually get down to it this year. Keep your fingers crossed.
22. Get four of my characters to level 85 in World of Warcraft. Alright, so I promised to cut back on playing WoW. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop playing it entirely, and that I can’t have in-game goals as well. So this year, I hope to bring atleast four of my characters to the maximum level. At the moment I have one character on level 85, my main, a warlock called Asarhia, and my number one alt is on level 82 – so quite close. Then I have one character stuck on level 55, and one level 41 warrior. I also have a couple of lowbies (level 20ish) so options enough. This is the only real goal I will set for myself in WoW, I promise. Really, I promise!
23. Visit my grandmother in the nursing home atleast once every two weeks. Do you think I’m a bad person if I told you this will be the most difficult achievement of all the ones I mentioned here, for me? I don’t really have a very loving relationship with my grandmother, and at times she can be really selfish and annoying, and all those things old people tend to be. But, I do love her. And I don’t visit her enough. I usually play university, assignments and studying, but I know that if I really wanted to, I could make time to atleast visit her once every two weeks.
24. Go on a trip to a foreign country, any country. Two years ago I went to London, and the year before that to Austria, but last year I just didn’t have the time, money or desired company to go on a trip abroad. This year, I hope to change that, and visit atleast one foreign country during the summer holidays. That’s my ultimate goal for 2011.

Phew, that’s done. Or well, atleast I think that’s about it. Once again I realise I have too many goals, some of them easily achievable, others veeeeery difficult to achieve. And the list is long, very, very long. My apologies by the way for putting you through this, and making you read this insanely long list. Do you have any New Year’s resolutions or goals you have set for yourself in 2011? If you have, feel free to link to it in your comment, so I can read it, if you have posted about it (you don’t actually have to repeat all your goals in your comment here, that would be sort of silly ). I wish you all a Happy New Year, and lots of love, friendship, fun and happiness in 2011.

My favourite hobby, ever since I was about eight years old and got my first Windows 95 computer – a long, long time ago – is writing. I used to spend hours behind my computer (well, in all honesty, the thing was barely worth the name computer, as it had no internet and not even MS Word, as I wrote most of my stories on Notepad) imagining things and writing them down, ranging from a young girl with superpowers batteling vampires or about three witch-sisters fighting evil. Yes, I basically invented Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Charmed. Then I wrote about this young girl in a wizard school, and before I knew it my idea was stolen, my main character turned into male person with a goofy name (Harry Potter…can you believe it !?) and once again I saw millions of dollars dissapearing in front of my eyes. Oh well. Years of therapy, some anti-depressives and an awesome drink called ‘Alcohol’ got me through it. Nah, I’m kidding. Sort of. I did write those stories way before there was ever any series or books regarding those topics, so you can say I sure was creative. Ever since those days, I kept on writing, although I only really finished a handful of novels, and none of them ever got published (aka I never did send them out because I’m scared). But ever since I went to university, it feels like my creativity has dried up completely. Or well, maybe not completely. I do still write fanfiction, and usually get good reviews for them), but it’s been a long while since I’ve written an original novel. Why? I have no idea. It’s a mix of lack of time and inspiration, and the fact I do spend eight hours a day with my nose in a book, studying. However, I do intend to pick up writing again, and then see what comes from it. I’m not going to force myself to write something in particular, as long as I write, be it original fiction, essays, fanfiction, etc. that will be sufficient.
Goal: Write atleast one chapter/short story every week.

Another favourite hobby of mine from back in the old days when I was still really young and had a lot of spare time on my hands, is reading. I still enjoy reading – my 500+ book collection is the proof for that – but last year I hardly found the time for it. I did read a bit while on holiday, but that was it. Now, when I no longer travel to the university nearby every week (which is about half hour train and bus drive) but go to a university about two hours away from where I live, I spend a good four hours on the trains every week, which has really caused my reading to increase signifanctly, because you have to admit there aren’t that many other things to keep yourself occupied with on a train. Also, opening up my booklog, where I review most books I read, was a very good call, since I feel guilty when not posting enough, which naturally requires me to read and review more. Sometimes I’m such a genius . However, I want to keep going, and keep on reading, maybe discover some new novels and genres, and expand my already quite impressive book collection.
Goal: Read atleast one book a week and buy atleast fifteen new books this year. Preferably cheap ones.

What else? I used to play the clarinet, and I didn’t really suck at it all that much, considering I did take classes for it for approximately eight years. But I didn’t really like it, and ever since I quit classes, my clarinet is carefully hidden away in some secret room in my house that I’ve forgotten the entrance to. Well, not really, it’s somewhere in my house – I just don’t know where. And I’m not even sure if I want to know. There were parts about playing the clarinet that I enjoyed, for instance playing in a band, the clarinet-playing friends I got to meet up with on a weekly base (most of them I hardly see anymore) and the feeling of accomplishment when I finally learned to play something new. I immensely enjoying playing well-known songs with our band/orchestra thing, ranging from Pirates of the Carribean to Moulin Rouge, Indiana Jones and everything inbetween. But there were parts about it that I thoroughly hated too. I hated going to class, because I wasn’t that fond of my teacher, and she didn’t exactly like me that much either. I hated the fact my dog started barking everytime I played a high note, or the fact band practice required me to get up at 10 o’clock every sunday morning, but it got even worse when practice was rescheduled on friday evening. I also hated how much it hurt to play two, three or sometimes even four hours in a row, and how I had to wear those ridiculous clothes when we played for an audience. Playing the clarinet had its upsides and its downsides. But about a week ago, I woke up and found myself debating whether or not I wanted to take up this hobby again. I mean, I do miss the additional friends I had back when I was still playing. Not like they dumped me or something but you know, people get busy, they go to college or university, or work a full-time job, and if I could somehow go to band practice again, I feel like atleast I could see them again and talk to them, etc. I don’t know. Maybe. But if I ever want to get good enough at it again, I will have to start practicing. Maybe the New Year is an excellent time to start with that.
Goal: Practice playing the clarinet atleast twice a week.

Alright well, I’m still not done yet. There’s still another used-to-be-very-important hobby of mine: art. I used to love sketching, colouring, painting, making doodles, whatever the heck I could get my hands on. It’s a passion I share with my aunt, who although mentally handicapped, still manages to make amazing drawings and sketches. I think I don’t only share this hobby with her, but I think the reason I got interested in art to begin with, was because of her. When I was younger, my aunt and I used to sketch, colour and paint together for hours. Somehow it was our way of communicating and saying things to each other neither of us could really express in words. Around the time my grandmother, who lived nextdoor, got really ill and spend months in the hospital, and my Mom and I had to take care of my aunt, I lost my interest in art. I think it was because I wasn’t longer able to just sit down and create art with my aunt, and I didn’t find it half as fun when I did it on my own. Or maybe it was just the lack of time, the constant running from hospital to hospital, finding an appropriate place for my aunt to stay, the piles of paperwork, and everything else that went on then. But those days are over now, both my grandmother and aunt are well, and I think it’s time to pick up where I left off in the art-department. Because although I did turn my back from it for years, painting and sketching has always managed to make me feel relaxed, calm, and serves as a great creative outlet. I touched a paint brush for the first time in six years about a week ago, and although the result was somewhat mortifying (I might show you later on this week, or whenever I find the time to upload the pictures) it wasn’t too horrible. I hope. I wish. :p Anyway, more painting and sketching. Aye, aye, captain.
Goal: Create atleast one sketch/painting/other crafty thing a week. It might even be scrapbooking. As long as it’s something creative. And not utterly hideous.

Ofcourse, I shouldn’t forget about blogging. I absolutely love blogging, whether it is here on personal blog, or on my booklog, and no matter what the subject is, tutorials, personal stuff, etc. I didn’t really blog all that much in 2010 though, and I hope to change that in the future. I have some cool ideas of what I want to blog about, and I hope I don’t loose interest somewhere along the way again. The last couple of months were really a turning-point for me when it comes to websites and webdesign (I created a new design for the first time in two, three years, and created my first paid for website for someone else) and I really do hope to expand this hobby in the future, and learn more about WordPress, PHP, HTML, CSS, and webdesign in general. I would love to get a degree in webdesign through online courses, but although I have been looking for this for quite a while – my ultimate goal is to do some freelance work, which would naturally go better if I had a degree or atleast something to prove my skills, plus I hope the courses could teach me some more things in the webdesign bizz, and I love to learn new stuff – I haven’t found any genuine courses yet that don’t cost a bazillion tons of money.
Goal: Create an online portfolio to showcase my webdesign work, try to enhance my knowledge by possibly taking an online course and create at least three websites for clients during the next year.

No worries, I’m near the end of this post. The last hobby I wish to indulge in during the next year, is building miniature dollhouses. I already mentioned that my boyfriend bought me a dollhouse kit for Christmas, and I’m currently in the process of painting and wallpapering everything, so hopefully I’ll be able to put it together by sunday. Then I still have to do a lot of ‘finishing touches’ and furnishing. I’ve been wanting to get into the miniature dollhouse hobby for years now, ever since I stumbled into one of those miniature shops by accident and rediscovered the child inside of me. I hope this is my chance. So far, I’m loving every single thing of it – my boyfriend doesn’t like it all that much since all he gets to do now everytime he comes to visit me, is glue, paint, and then glue and paint some more – and I hope this dollhouse is finished by the end of my exams. I’ve already promised myself I will treat myself to a new dollhouse kit if I pass all my exams. So uhm, keep your fingers crossed?
Goal: Build and furnish The Buttercup Dollhouse, which I currently own, and try to buy, build and furnished atleast one more dollhouse this year. Preferably more, but this depends mostly on time/budget, since dollhouses are pretty expensive.

I will end this post with some hobbies I would like to cut back from and some hobbies I would like to start with, if I ever find the time. Number one cut-back-from-hobby, without a doubt, is World of Warcraft. I’m not going to stop playing WoW alltogether though, since I do love the game, the social contact with people all over the world, the challenge, and well, I still have a WoW blog to maintain. But I will try to spend less time playing WoW than I did last year, and not stay home when friends invite me out, just so I could play WoW. Just trying to go from being a casual-hardcore player to just a casual player, and not get insanely upset when I don’t get my daily amount of Valor Points. So far everything is going well, because I hardly looked at WoW since the start of study period (other hobbies sort of took over…read: building my dollhouse). I will let go of my unachievable dream of becoming the most epic warlock in the whole of Azeroth, and just focus on having fun (because I can tell you, getting in huge fights with my boyfriend because of our group wiping on ICC bosses wasn’t fun at all). So more fun, less drama. Number two cut-back-from-hobby is…non-existent. Alright so, I only have to cut back from playing WoW. Fine.
Goal: Play less World of Warcraft, and don’t go totally berserk every time something minor goes wrong in the game. Permission to go berserk is still granted if the game won’t play properly, or I can’t login for mysterious reasons.

And now, a short list of hobbies I’ve never really tried before, but would like to give a try in 2011. Numero uno is cooking. Even though I live on my own five days a week (well I do share my dorm with friends, but still) and have been doing so for three years now, I can’t cook if my life depended on it. I can’t even bake waffles, pancakes, or make a simple dish like spaghetti. I simply can’t cook. So not only will this be a necessity for me to learn if I want to survive the next year, but it also is one of the things I’ve always wanted to try but never really got around to. Number two is photography. I have this beautiful Samsung digital camera, but the only time I really use it is when I go on a trip to a foreign country, or someone gets married. Time to change that. Mostly because I think later on in life, I would find it really sad to have all these ‘missing years’ in which I never took pictures of anything – including me, that is, and my Mom constantly nags about the fact there are no pictures in our house from the last three to four years. Number three is playing the guitar. I got an acoustic guitar for my birthday approximately three years ago, but I hardly ever touched it. About time, eh?
Goal: Learn to cook and play the guitar. Also, take up photography. Sleep is overrated.

So, what hobbies would you like to take up, cut back from or just keep on doing in the new year?

This is the layout of the entire insides of the dollhouse. The creator made it by scratch, meaning there was no kit involved whatsoever – which I find very impressive, seeing as I would have no idea how to start this in the first place!. You can already see that the dollhouse is fairly large, with no less than nine rooms, and every room is very detailed and carefully decorated.

Here are some closer shots of seperate rooms.

Frodo’s Room, which I’m sure a miniature Frodo would love to live in. If I was a miniature doll, I certainly wouldn’t have had any trouble with this room.

A closer look on the kitchen. It’s so gorgeous because it really looks like people live there, with the food and beverages on the table, etc. It’s those little details that turn a nice dollhouse into a gorgeous dollhouse.

The pantry. I find this room the most beautiful room of the house (yes, I’m weird like that) simply because there is so much stuff there and the details are incredible. I’m sooooo jealous.

The living room. Large, spacious and yet it looks very comfy with the fireplace and carpet. Bilbo is one lucky fellow.

So, what are you still doing here? Go visit the creator of this gorgeous dollhouse, and take a look at her other pictures!

On Christmas’ Eve, my boyfriend, grandmother, aunt and uncle came to have dinner at my house. My Mom had already bought all the necessary ingredients and beverages and we cooked the menu together. I made gorgeous menu cards too Later in the evening, my Mom told me I could unwrap my presents: she gave me a really nice dress in grey/black colours, and a fantasy novel I’ve wanted for ages: Dragon Emperor by Markus Heitz (unfortunately not available in English, so I roughly translated the dutch title: Drakenkeizer). Then my boyfriend gave me my present. I was so, SO, SO SURPRISED and HAPPY. He bought me a miniature doll house kit. I mentioned it to him once, ages ago, that I really wanted to make a miniature dollhouse once (yes, it’s actually a hobby for adults) but my Mom would never allow me to buy one of those kits. Well now he bought one, and there’s nothing she can do about it. Except be happy.

The Dollhouse kit is the Buttercup House by Greenleaf. The kit is unfurnished, and there is no paint in the box, but we’re going to buy some paint next week, and then my boyfriend is going to help me build the house. For instance, he’s in charge of the electricity, and all the other things I can’t do.

I gave my boyfriend a book about Linux servers (he really is into that kind of thing, and actually did it as his bachelor in college). For my Mom, I bought a bottle of really nice perfume. Both of them were really pleased with the presents. The evening was really nice, and they stayed till one o’clock in the evening, so they must have enjoyed themselves too. Afterwards my boyfriend helped to clean up a little, and at around one thirty everything was as clean as ever, my boyfriend went home and I went to bed, tired beyond belief.

Saturday afternoon, on Christmas day itself, my entire family was invited to have lunch at my aunt’s house. So we all went, my boyfriend also came along (for the very first time ) and there were about eighteen of us. My aunt had arranged for the smaller children to sit in the kitchen, while the adults had lunch in the dining room, a good call since it would have gotten very crowded otherwise. I received some more presents from my grandmother, aunt and two cousins. The first two just gave me some money, but my first cousin gave me a coupon for make-up, while my other cousin bought me another fantasy novel: The Portals of the Underworld by Sam Sykes. Another one on top of my wishlist, so I was very, very pleased.

All in all, Christmas was a blast this year, and I really love all my presents, especially my dollhouse kit. I will keep you guys informed of how the progress on the house is going, but I think I won’t start on it till new year (then I get another half day off Thank you hoilidays!) because before that it’s studying, studying and studying!

So, what did you get for Christmas and how did you spend the holiday? Merry Christmas!

This semester I’ve taken four classe: Penalty Law (huuuuuuge books to study, sometimes easy and logical, at other times it seems like Chinese to me), Procedure Law (boring, complicated, all those little rules to learn, and then those rules have exceptions, etc, etc), Comparing Law Systems (fun, interesting, not that difficult, basically comparing Belgian Law to French, UK, VSA and Islam law), and International and European Law (AMAGAWD! difficuuuuuuult). This is to give you a basic idea of what I’m up against. Also, my pile of books – yes, each year at the beginning of a study period I put all my books on top of each other, and then determine the length of said pile, which is in some mathematical ratio to the difficulty of the things to study – was significantly larger than last year. So, urgh, wish me luck?