two thousand & eleven | two thousand & twelve

in the spirit of this letter writing style, a review.

a photo of myself and my new husband in downtown toronto.

two thousand & eleven | 

this was a bit of a flip year for me. things feel a lot better at the end than they did at the beginning

hearts | i got married in the spring of two thousand & eleven. things were tricky before that with the stress of planning and the related financial issues. but after the wedding, it has been bliss. i hate to be cliche "newlyweds." but i'm not sure that term is relevant because j and i had been together for six years and living together for almost three years when we got married. regardless, i do feel as if our relationship has grown immensely since the wedding. i honestly think we are closer than ever. we still have our tiffs (mostly my fault as i can be very fair weather), but we are just generally very good.

it was great to see my whole family and my old friends at the wedding (as much as one can at a wedding), and my parents came out to stay with us in august. i feel really pleased and proud of my parents this year. we become closer to equals every year, though i still call them with ridiculous child-like questions. we weren't able to go see our families for christmas this year but i think we were both okay with that. i do miss my little brothers.

clubs | from january to august of two thousand & eleven, i was working somewhere that made me incredibly unhappy. actually, the job itself was completely fine and the location was adorable but it was quite far from our apartment, and the person i worked for made me cry on a weekly basis. finally, after my parents left in august, i began sending out resumes to various galleries around town. i got lucky because one place was hiring and i didn't even know it! although money is tight, i'm now quite pleased with both of my jobs, and my schedule! (i begin work at 12 most days and have two weekdays off!).

in addition, my stationery business has been doing quite well. it still gives me great joy to create and sell my handmade goods.

diamonds | well, we just got married - how do you think our finances are? lol.

spades | i think making the job change has really contributed to my overall happiness. which kind of outweighs anything else i'm feeling!

a photo of my new colleague and myself at a really neat art exhibition entitled "never dine alone"

two thousand & twelve | 

while am excited at the prospect of a new year and do have goals, i am quite happy to be complacent with the way things are!

hearts | since things are so good with my beau, i'm resolving to call my family more often, and to write more letters to my friends. i have such a wonderful collection of friends and i haven't been keeping in touch nearly as well as i could. so more snail mail is the answer!

clubs | i have some really exciting projects on the go at work and i'm looking forward to working on them! at one job i am organizing a traveling exhibition of artwork to schools across canada (eventually). at the other i'm going to be putting together workshops with the artists, and some of my own with letter writing/mail art etc. we are also going to be doing a really sexy, cool exhibition in february! and the best part will be the huge art awards in the spring!

i'm really hoping to take my stationery shoppe to the next level. i'm going to start properly tracking my expenses and revenue and try to make it a real contributor to our income.

diamonds | well, you know. but on the bright side, we just made our last car payment so things should feel a bit lighter from here on out!

spades | as long as my little biopsy goes well and this cavity i had fixed doesn't need a root canal, then i should be a happy lady.