So Kendal and I fell off the running wagon a little bit in the last two weeks. I work days and Kendal works nights so our running time is already limited. Add a few unexpected events that conflicted with our set running time and some under the weather days and we ended up with a few sucky runs followed by a complete dearth of running last week.
As of Tuesday 1/24 we got back on track and we have a sweet goal to work towards! On Saturday, March 24th Kendal and I will be participating in the Richmond SPCA 5k! We are super excited to be contributing to such a worthy organization. If you would like to help us reach our team goal you can go to the Duly Noting Team Page and choose one of us to donate to. Even though you make the donation to our individual page it will still show up in our team total. If there are any other 5k runners that would like to join our team we would love to have you!
Happy New Year! I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday, and that your year to come is awesome! As far as New Year’s Resolutions go I don’t really like to make any. I like to have goals for my year, but calling them resolutions feels…too demanding. I always feel like it’s harder to get back on track when you’ve “broken” a Resolution rather than veered off the path for a goal. So without further ado here are some of my goals for 2012:
Exercise more! I’m so glad I have someone to exercise with now. I have a difficult time motivating myself to work out alone.
Eat more fruits and vegetables. I do pretty well with fruit, but I’m a little lacking in my veggie consumption.
Eat at home more. This saves money and gives me better control of my diet.
Save money! I’m sure this is on everyone’s list this year, and it’s something I definitely need to do more of.
Work with my dogs more. This means more walking and more training. We have a large yard so I’ve been a little lazy about keeping up their walks.
Clean, preferably get on a cleaning schedule. Like Kendal I am not the biggest fan of cleaning, but a tidy house is so satisfying.
And this last one isn’t really a goal, but something I just decided to do. I’m cutting out pretty much all of my soda intake in 2012. I haven’t been a regular soda drinker for years, but in 2011 I started drinking a lot more of it (especially Coca-Cola which I never liked before). Sodas are bad for your health in a number of ways so I’m going to stop drinking soda almost completely. I make exceptions for soda with popcorn at the movie theater because that happens once a month, tops.
My goals aren’t as life-changing as Kendal’s, but they will be an improvement and that’s what life is all about, right?
The New Year is here! Have you broken your resolutions yet? I spent a week or so thinking up a list that I believe I can stick to.
Here it is:
Buy a house, preferably before summer. Must be brick and have room for the mutts to romp.
Excercise Regularly. Amy and I are doing pretty well with this thus far, we ran over 11 miles last week and we’re even signing up for a 5k!
Save money by opting to make things by hand at home. This includes food, crafts, gifts and whatever else is makeable. This will also make for wooonderful Duly Noting content. The photo is from the amazing Valentines dinner Aaron cooked for me last year.
Clean regularly. I am horrible at cleaning.
Work on compositing 3D into video. Below is my first attempt which needs some work but really could be worse.
Composite Test 1 from Kendal Dennis on Vimeo.
Reorganize studio and break out the paints. Maybe even plan a show…?
Laugh More, Stress Less.
Happy Holidays! Here are some photos of the decorations around my office (finally)! I made the wreath with a wreath form, yarn, and a bit of spare ribbon. The greenery is from a bush in my yard and is attached with straight pins so I can easily replace it. I also have a garland that is still a work in progress, but should be done in time for New Years. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!
Isn’t it funny being an adult during the holidays? I keep finding myself thinking i’m going to get a winter break and have a whole free period of doing nothing until sometime after the new year begins. The truth is I got lucky to have a 3 day weekend for Christmas and New Years just happens to fall on a weekend.
Christmas this year was filled with a joyous overload of family, friends, food, and booze. Aaron and I made our way to the mountains Christmas Eve for my Grandparent’s holiday gathering. My Grandmother, being the entertainer of the century, was already prepared with a full spread of finger food (complete with minced meat pies), mulled wine on the stove, and a bottle of champagne for the sparking punch. We spent the evening telling stories, listening to holiday tunes, and cracking Christmas Crackers. For those of you who haven’t been raised with the cracker tradition I highly recommend beginning it for the sake of the crowns, toys, jokes, and merriment that comes along with them. At the end of the Eve my Grandmother broke out the bottle of chocolate wine that she has been “saving for an occasion”. Aaron was clever and didn’t partake, those of us who did took two sips and someone declared “That’s HORRIBLE!” ….and it really was. We ate the trifle instead.
After trekking over the mountain to my parent’s house afterwards we all couldn’t take the pressure and opened all the gifts. We got wayyyy too many wonderful things. Aaron’s favorite being the pressure cooker and mine being the leather bound sketchbook that he and dad secretly picked out for me.
Christmas morning started early with 7am eggs and bacon. I even found the opportunity to take Kassidy’s first Christmas pictures! I’ve been documenting her since she was in her mom’s belly and she just keeps getting cuter. After thoroughly cuddling the precious little lump Aaron and I drove from the Valley and past Richmond to have Christmas with Aaron’s family. By that time we were entirely exhausted but it was just as lovely. The handmade gifts were a total hit. More to come on those in a future post.
More photos from the holiday can be found
here. Now to start planning my New Years Resolutions.
(Source: Flickr / kendalpaints)
Alright guys, I’ll be honest…I haven’t been posting because i’m….addicted to Skyrim. I bought it for Aaron and I “From Santa” 3 weeks ago with every intention to hold out until Christmas morning. But last Sunday rolled around and it just sounded like so much fun that I couldn’t take the pressure. I wrapped it half way with some old wrapping paper and he was very surprised. Aaron always appreciates the fact that I’m incapable of keeping secret gifts. I woke up at 6am a couple days later and he was still up playing. Its a beautiful game with extreme attention to detail. I’m no video game nerd…but this is different.
Whats even more exciting is that my cousin Matt works for Bethesda and helped make Skyrim! In his words…
“
I’ve been working at Bethesda Game Studios for a little over a year. I contributed some stuff to Skyrim (the hirelings, the wandering Khajiit merchants, the player housing system and a lot of dialogue in Windhelm and Whiterun) but the game was mostly done when I started here, so I cannot take too much credit.”
Mat and I both ended up with media jobs that let us show people are artwork daily without them ever knowing…which we decided makes us secretly famous.
——-
On an entirely different note we had a wonderful morning getting coffee with Derek and Sibi. I’ve known them both throughout college and they are as sweet as they are talented. Sibelle made me some blown glass chain earrings that I absolutely adore and I gave them some of the hand warmers that Amy mentioned in her previous post. Check out
@thehip their lovely Richmond blog.
The photos above are a sneak peek from our Christmas present crafting Kendal mentioned in her moose post. It was a great reason for me to break out my new (to me) sewing machine. It’s an old machine and it needs a good cleaning, but it’s all metal (making it seriously heavy), in great condition, and it works. Best of all it was only $28.
In other holiday news, my office is holding a cubicle decorating contest and the competition is becoming heated. So far my supervisor LaToya, co-workers Carolina and LaNette, and I are the only ones with decorations up, but we are going all out. I’m just getting started with mine, but I’m hoping to tackle some of these crafts to add to both my work and personal decorations:
White Winter Wreath
Paper Ornaments
Glittery Dinosaurs!
P.S. I’ll be back soon with more about the holiday decorations, holiday crafting, and something about First Friday. I’ve been without power since last Wednesday and it has really put a damper on my photo editing and crafting!
The day before Thanksgiving Kendal and I had a little time to run around downtown taking photos before she had to be at work. The difference in this photo exploration was that Kendal is learning to use the studio at her job and borrowed their fancy video camera. This afforded me the opportunity to borrow her lens (85mm f/1.8 medium telephoto), which is something I’ve been wanting to do since she got it. It was awesome. That lens is sharp, fast, and the color is great! Above are a few of my favorite images from the walk.
Last Night, Amy and Aidan met me on my dinner break and we booked it to the Broad Street First Friday. We got caught up at Quirk Gallery who has a beautiful jewelry showing just in time for the Holidays. I could have stared at Marta Mattsson’s Beetle Brooches all evening. I now consider them #2 on my dream Christmas list. My cohorts headed on to other galleries and as I meandered back towards work I got caught up looking in the windows of the buildings down Broad Street. I’m a sucker for glamour, if it were logical I would wear red lipstick and pumps all day everyday. Hidden sparkles in closed stores and dark foyers with illuminated chandeliers reminded me of the Richmond that once was and I wish it could always be. But I suppose if Richmond didn’t hold so many secrets I wouldn’t like it as much.
(Source: Flickr / kendalpaints)
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