Remembering a Passion

     February has started, along with Semester Two on the school calendar. After just about a week I'm beginning to adapt to my new classes and locker location, but I still find that I miss my old habits a little. The one that I miss the most is spending second period in the music room, pouring out my heart into something beautiful, (sometimes something not so beautiful) and learning about ways to expand my musical horizon. 

     After school today, I sat down at our piano and realized that it had been over a week since I played anything at all and I felt out of practice, even though a week is hardly drastic. I miss being able to sit down and work on pieces that I'll be presenting, writing or recording, the way that I did for music class. 

     I decided to make a list of every song that I remember playing throughout last semester and combine them all into a giant medley that I can listen to, not only for remembering what I learned, but also because each song has its own knapsack of memories that makes me smile. It took me the night, but I think I finally worked in every song that I either performed, wrote or recorded throughout all of my music classes.

     Maybe you'll recognize some of the songs, maybe they'll hold memories for you too, or maybe they're nothing but pretty melodies to listen to. For me they are a great reminder of the things I learned, and a memento of all the amazing, talented people I met and got to work with along the way. Here's to learning, passion, friendship, music and what was simply, an awesome first semester!  

 ~In Honour of Music Class~

Little Projects

I've been in a crafting mood lately, and for a change I decided to try my hand at some crocheting instead of knitting. After I exhausted the traditional granny square I was glad to pick up some interesting books from the library that contain beautiful patterns. I'll admit I was a little scared to start on something new because the last few times I tried to work on a project each ended in a tangled up failure, however I figured that it would be best to start with something cute and simple. My latest project, which I completed today, is a pair of baby mittens!

This was one of the main patterns that stood out to me as I was flipping through the pages of my third borrowed book and I surprised myself when I learned how easy they were to make. Between single and double crochet stitches I whipped up these precious hand warmers in a little over an hour and then tied a violet ribbon around the ends to complete the sweet accessories.

The nice thing about these is that they are fast to finish and still look special, plus there's next to no counting involved and you can make them for a boy or a girl by simply switching the colours. However, to be honest what really makes the entire mitten is the ribbon around the end. It draws attention with a contrasting colour and causes you to focus on the detail of the pattern, leaving you to ooo and aww over how cute the two of them are.

Although I have no idea who's baby these will be for, they were a fun project that will leave somebody's little fingers toasty!

 
 

~Special thanks to Nicki Trench for the pattern~

Life, Exams and Pillsbury Crescents...A Quick Summary

     It's been a while...
In all honesty, it feels like forever since I last blogged. I have been having an amazing month and new year so far and the more I think about it, things couldn't be going any better. 

     I plan to post more now that I'm starting to sort the new year out, but as of now I'm taking the few minutes I have to give you a quick sum up of my life's events. After Christmas I bought a Macbook Pro which is serving me very well in school and out. Over the weekend of January 12th, I attended The Pulse on Tour in Toronto with some old friends and was taught how to dance by some of the choreographers from So You Think You Can Dance. It was my second year going and honestly one of the best experiences ever! As of right now, Rihanna's "Diamonds" is playing on our speakers and making want to dance one of the routines. 

A rule that my brother taught me how to ignore...

     On the topic of dance, we also recently switched danced schools to a much closer studio so that we are no longer dancing in Oakville. Although it's different, I can say that it's a good, healthy change and it it would also be good to point out that I'm in love with Lyrical! ;) 

     Today, a friend and I performed an original song in Music class to complete the second of my four exams. It went really well and already I can feel a load of stress lifted off of my chest. Tomorrow the calendar is labelled with "Science Exam" and then Wednesday with "English Exam" as well as Braces! As of January 30th I'll have upper and lower braces...While this seems like a damper, it's a good sign because it means I'm halfway through the torture of Metal Mouth! 

     Right now, a quick school break has resulted in baking some Pillsbury Crescents for a snack...then it's straight to Science studying! Nothing like snacks, music, dancing and studying on a foggy Monday afternoon!

Let the Countdown Begin...with a sprinkle of thankfulness

Our bedroom that now looks like a
gingerbread house. 

     With less than a month left until Christmas, I have to admit I'm pretty excited...but it might not be for reasons you's expect. I look forward more to writing Christmas cards and buying things for other people, than I do to getting lovely little presents on Christmas day...I'm not sure why. It might sound strange to you that whenever Christmas comes around, the first thing that goes through my head is "What can I get for (Insert name here)?" But other than that, I love skating, (which we did the other day) and baking and dancing...and decorating is always fun too!

Lights

     If it wasn't for my incredible older sister, I don't think we would have decorated at all this year, so my extreme thanks go out to her since our house-both inside and out-looks absolutely beautiful. lit snow-covered candles accenting the ebony of the piano, garland twisted around the banister with lights, and red and silver runners on tables here and there. I congratulate myself because I have the privilege of being able to say that I helped out in this enchanting setup. 

     Another thing I'm very proud of myself for is the fact that I actually got around to Christmas cards this year! I bought my own, pretty cards that are sprinkled with sparkles and carefully wrote messages in each of them, which is a huge improvement from last year...when, I confess, I never got around to completing them. Now, all I have left to do is address those of the envelopes that I'm sending and then I can check cards off my mental to-do list! J

       One thing I have yet to check off however, is snow that lands. We've been lucky enough to have some of it sprinkle on us like icing sugar on a cake, and if my story book hopes and dreams come true, we'll have the first bit of it on the ground by 2:45 pm on December 21st so that I can finish fourth period, say goodbye to friends and teachers for Christmas break and then wait to get picked up while snowflakes find themselves in my hair and eyelashes. Fingers crossed, prayers said, that would make my last day ten times better than I'm already anticipating. 

     Finally, I add a touch of thankfulness to this post. 

After another amazing day at school I am exploding with happiful feelings and warm thankfulness for everything! Amazing people that care and make me smile and laugh all day long, for teachers that help me learn along the way. For a family that picks me up after school, for a little spare time to write before I enslave myself to studying for a chemistry test, for dinner downstairs that smells amazing, and for Christmas music playing in the background off of a koala shaped speaker to give me inspiration.