This is the End

So here it is. My last post of the year. As a whole I'd say 2014 was a dang good year, in fact, I'd go as far as to say it's been one of my best years on this planet. This year I got to spread my wings and finally see the world. I got to meet my bestest friend face to face and spend 3 unforgettable weeks together touring Europe. My business continued to grow and I sold more art than any other year and doubled my revenue from last years numbers. One thing that also happened this year that is very important and that I'm very proud of is that I truly started to love myself and my body. For years I've struggled with insecurities (the majority of my anxiety stems from being insecure and worrying about how I'm perceived by others). But this year with a lot of encouragement from positivity blogs on Tumblr  and some very dear friends I finally was able to see myself clearly. I may not be perfect (and honestly, who is?) but I'm a smokin' hot babe and I'm proud of my body and the way I look. For the longest time if I were to see or meet a girl who I felt was prettier than me I would get so down on myself and feel inferior to them. But now I'm able to see a cutie and be like, "Wow she's pretty but I'm pretty too. We can be pretty together!" Just this simple thing has helped me so much. The media and the fashion industry have such a limited view on what beauty is and it's pretty messed up. Beauty comes in all shades and sizes! I wish I could go back and hug my past self sometimes and tell her how lovely and perfect she is exactly the way she is.

So yeah, many good things happened in 2014 and it makes me hopeful for things to come in 2015. Already, my life is starting to change. My job at the retirement community recently became full time so that's going to be an adjustment. I got kind of used to only working part time and having the rest of my time free to work on my crafts. But I knew that that was only temporary until I could find a full time position. Now I'll have to work on my time management skills and find time to make art after work. Ideally, I'd like to get one hoop done a week but we'll see how it goes.

My dad plans on retiring sometime next year or possibly early 2016 so I'll most likely be living with them until then to help take care of my mom. By living at home another year I'll be able to save more money that I would like to put towards my first home in 2016. I've tried living with roommates but it's just not for me and I don't have any plans to move out of state in the near future so I'd like to buy a condo. My original life plan was to move in with my future life partner but since I'm starting to realize that that may not ever happen for me, it's time for me to start planning for my own future and how I'm going to take care of myself. I don't want anything large, just a cute 2 bedroom condo with a small yard big enough for a pug or two. And it'll be so great to be able to decorate and paint the place how I want to and not have to ask anyone for permission. So I just need to make it one more year and not let my parents drive me completely insane.

What I'm most excited about in 2015, though, is getting to travel more. In just 4 weeks I'll be leaving for Thailand and getting to see Asia for the first time. Then in October I plan on visiting London for a week to celebrate Melissa's 23rd birthday. Originally, we weren't going to see each other again until summer 2016 but since I'm only visiting Thailand for a week and get 2 weeks of vacation time from work, I might as well use that time to get to see my favorite human on her birthday. We only got to see London for 2 days this past spring and that just wasn't enough time so it'll be awesome to have a full week to explore.

Alright, well, I wish all of you a very happy and healthy New Year and I'd also like to thank you for reading this blog and supporting me. It truly means a lot! Mwah!

Duchess Gummybuns
9 inches
*SOLD*

Your friend,
Courtney

All About New Year's Eve

HAPPY 2014, MAH BABIES!

I'm really really stoked about this year. I have all kinds of positive feels for this year. I think good things are going to happen, which is rare for me but I dunno, I just feel it in my bones that this year is going to be awesome.

But before I start fangirling 2014, let's wrap up 2013 first. So my New Year's Eve was pretty good. Not great, but still good. I met up with my friend Ashley for dinner at Pita Jungle and I must say for a place called Pita Jungle their pitas kind of (really) suck. All of their other dishes are great but c'mon guys, let's work on making the pita bread edible. My jaw seriously hurt after choking down one pita.

Me and Ashley

Anyway, we finished eating around 8:30pm which was still super early but we had nothing else to do so we walked down to Crescent Ballroom. They didn't open up the actual ballroom until about 9:45ish so there was a lot of standing, eye rolling at creeper guys attempting to talk to us, and evaluating other folks outfits. When they finally let us in to the ballroom there was an opening band that's music wasn't very memorable for me (sorry, guys) but soon after a DJ came out and everyone started dancing. The first hour of dancing was pretty good but then it got SUPER crowded and kind of nutzo. It was just a wall of bodies in there and everyone had spilt their drinks EVERYWHERE so the floor was wet and sticky and we kept stepping on empty cups. I kind of don't get why they let people drink on the dance floor. You should have to drink your drink in the bar and when you've finished it THEN you can come out onto the dance floor. But that's just me.



I saw this dude who I was very briefly interested in but later rejected and he saw me too so that was kind of awkward. He kept dancing nearby wherever we were too so that made me feel a bit weird but at least he didn't say anything. I hate that. After midnight people got really crazy and were like shoving each other and we thought we were going to die. Ashley managed to plow her way through the sea of sweaty drunken bodies but I wasn't aggressive/strong enough to navigate my way through so I got separated from her for about 3 minutes and it was TERRIFYING. I kept thinking, "SHE LOST FRODO!!!" And I don't have a cell phone so that made it extra scary since I couldn't just text her. But Ashley had the good sense to wait for me outside so I wasn't lost for too long. When I found her I said, "Don't you lose him, Samwise Gamgee." and got no response u__u

After things had calmed down a bit we went back inside and danced a bit more but decided to leave at about 1:30am. By the time we got home it was a bit after 2am and I was friggin' exhausted but still didn't fall asleep until around 4am. Although I didn't work until 2pm the following day I awoke around 8:30am and couldn't fall back asleep. My work day was easy though since it was a holiday and it's usually pretty quiet on holidays. One of the residents at my work even brought me a whole plate of food! It was a FEAST!

I got out of work around 8pm and made a beeline for my friend Heather's house so we could watch episode one of Sherlock Series 3. I don't know if it was due to our lack of sleep (she had only gotten 2 hours of sleep that day) but we found the episode to be all over the place and hard to follow. Sherlock is our favorite show and we'd been waiting to see this episode for 2 agonizing years so we were pretty bummed that things didn't go the way we'd hoped they would. I don't want to spoil the episode for those who haven't seen it but I'll just say I hope the next two episodes will be better.

Alright, I guess that's all for now but I wish you all a very happy and healthy New Year!!

xoxo,

Courtney