2014 ... The William Shakespeare year ... For real this time

2014 ... The year I read the complete works of William Shakespeare. ... For real this time.

... Each book (ie. play) is commented about on my blog. Here they will be permalinked so just click on the title to go to that blog post. ...

The Plays

1. Two Gentlemen of Verona
2. Taming of the Shrew
3. Henry VI, part 2
4. Henry VI, part 3
5. Henry VI, part 1
6. Titus Andronicus
7. Richard III
8. The Comedy of Errors
9. Love's Labours Lost
10. Richard II
11. Romeo and Juliet
12. A Midsummer Night's Dream
13. King John
14. The Merchant of Venice
15. Henry IV, part 1
16. The Merry Wives of Windsor
17. Henry IV, part 2
18. Much Ado About Nothing
19. Henry V
20. Julius Caesar
21. As You Like It
22. Hamlet
23. Twelfth Night
24. Troilus and Cressida
25. Measure for Measure
26. Othello
27. All's Well That Ends Well
28. Timon of Athens
29. King Lear
30. Macbeth
31. Antony and Cleopatra
32. Pericles, Prince of Tyre
33. Coriolanus
34. A Winter's Tale
35. Cymbeline
36. The Tempest
37. Henry VIII

White Flower Wreath progress

Several months ago for a church Relief Society activity we made wreaths. We got felt of our color choice and a twig wreath. The idea was to make felt flowers (which I was all down for) and put them on the wreath. It would look similar to this one, which I do like. But I had a different wreath in mind. I wanted the flowers to be the wreath, like this one. I got the twig wreath though. It's been hanging on my bedroom door for months. I saw a wreath like my twig one that was spray painted bright blue. I kind of like that idea. Maybe I'll spray paint my wreath a bright color someday. Anyways, the reason for this post is because I am finally getting around to hot gluing all those felt flowers I made to a wreath form. I am about halfway done and I love it so far. Here is a progress shot...

I need to buy more white felt and make more flowers. And then I can finish this wreath. I think I'll hang it on my bedroom door when it's done.

2014 Resolutions

Reviewing last year's resolutions I did two two most important ones. I kind of sloughed on the other three. Let's take a look ...

1. Get out of debt. I did pretty good at this one. I paid off my credit card like I wanted. I still have a little bit to pay my parent's back. But I should be straight with them by April.
2. Paying tithing. I paid my tithing at the end of every month. I do see a difference when I do and don't pay my tithing. My life just goes better when I follow this little commandment.
3. Organizing my room. I did get rid of lots of clothes I never wore. And I did go through some papers that I was hording. But it never got as organized as I would like. And I still have areas of my room I haven't cleaned. Like under my bed.
4. Chat on FOJG more. Yeah. I never really did that. Which in turn makes me think if I should keep paying for the membership. But to be honest I like all the stuff I get. So I'll probably keep on being a member of Friends of Josh Groban.
5. Do a photo-a-day. I think I did a month but then I got bored. And I never remembered to take a photo every day. I completely failed at this one.

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So what are my goals for 2014? In no particular order ...

• Go to the temple and receive my endowments. I would like to do this before my 26th birthday in June. But we'll see how that goes.
• Pray and read the scriptures every day. I do both of these sporadically. I am pretty good about saying my nightly prayers but I don't say them in the morning. And as for scripture reading I would like to read some everyday. I was thinking in the mornings.
• Get out of debt completely and continue to save money. I just have a couple more months of payments to my parents and then I am out of debt with them. I would like to continue saving a lot of my money after I get out of debt.
• Read the complete works of William Shakespeare this year. Thirty-seven plays. Twelve months. I have no biography to read because I already read that. It's about 3 plays a month in order to read them all by the end of the year.
• Journal every day. I got back into writing in my journal. I only missed a few days when I was sick just before Christmas.
• Complete the starburst quilt. I want to sew this quilt. Maybe I'll do another this year. But fabric is expensive.

Christmas: The Stages of Presents

Christmas Eve.

I went to work that morning. They were only open until 2pm. I was manning the phone. And Tito was manning the walk up sales. It was pretty slow. But it was nice. I got to get away from the holiday decorating and gift wrapping at our house. Plus I had been sick the previous week so I had not been to work for a whole week.

Chad and Amber and the kids were at our house when I got home. They had just barely gotten there. Shortly after that Eric and Carly arrived. They came over for our Christmas Eve dinner. We had the Higgins traditional spread of yummy goodness. Chicken Cordon Bleu. Cheesy Broccoli, Potatoes, and Cauliflower. Jello, we had it with whipped cream this year. Shrimp and cocktail sauce. We had both the cold normal kind and hot, popcorn shrimp kind. I like popcorn shrimp. And sparkling apple cider to drink. For dessert this year we had chocolate cake with fudge frosting and strawberries. That was really yummy.

We opened our Christmas Eve presents after doing the dishes. We of course got matching pajamas. I think I’ll only wear the bottoms. The top, also same as the bottoms, is way too big for me. I just wore a white t-shirt that I had in my pj drawer instead, which is probably what I will do from now on. The bottoms are super comfy. Mom buys men's pjs.

The whole Higgins clan. Each family had their own matching pjs.

Steven, Myself, and Brian

One of our Christmas Eve traditions also includes opening a new movie that we watch. We watched ‘Despicable Me 2’. It was cute but I think I still like the first movie better.


Christmas day was fun this year.

Everyone came into my room and woke me up. It was 9:30am and I was the only one still sleeping. I was sort of waking at that point so it was okay. We went upstairs and ate breakfast. We had cinnamon rolls and an egg casserole. After we did the dishes a bit we opened our “stocking” presents and the other presents from Mom and Dad (and Santa).

I got a pretty fashion scarf, a cream colored sweater, and some jeans. I also opened my gift to myself. I bought a 1000-piece puzzle of the TARDIS exploding that Van Gogh paints in Doctor Who. I really like it. I bought a while ago. Our stocking bags had the normal stuff like candy, toothbrushes, toothpaste, and other goodies. We got granola bars, popcorn, gum balls (that have a maze), fruit snacks, and of course socks. My socks are a pack of six. They are bright colors. I really like the lime green ones. lol. We also got a lint roller, and tiny Goo Gone bottles, Burt’s Bees lip balm, tiny Bag Balm containers, tiny Gold Bond lotions, and a thermos mug cup container. (I traded my red one with Steven’s green one.) I also got some tiny lip gloss, four O.P.I. nail polish colors, and some nail art glitter stuff. And I got some headphones. They look like nice ones. They are in-ear headphones that actually go in your ear. My headphones are made for women so they are the smaller versions. Also they are a cool purple and white color.

Jeans, Sweater, and Scarf

My Doctor Who 1000-piece puzzle

Junk food goodies

Other "stocking" stuff

New headphones

O.P.I. nail polish

Steven and Brian and Dad got these 3D paper puzzle planes. They look really fun and were interesting to put together. I wanted one. Maybe not a plane, but a dinosaur or one of the other kinds they had. Mom actually went to that store they got them from and got me two dinosaurs. (She was there exchanging some things.) They are so cute.

The two dinos Mom bought for me

The whole dino collection

We had a few more presents to open from Mom and Dad and siblings. Chad and family came over about 3pm. Eric and Carly didn’t get there until about 4pm. We opened more presents and it was fun. Cayden was quite excited about every present and wanted to open them all. He had a hard time waiting and watching other people open their gifts. lol. I got a few more things. Mom (and Dad) gave me a $30 Barnes and Noble gift card. We all got some sort of fleece blanket. Mine is pretty. It’s striped with bright colors. Carly, Amber, and I got leggings. They were in the same box and we got to choose which ones we got. Each of us got solid black ones and a pattern one. The pattern ones were all different. Mom got the two that we didn’t pick.

Fleece blanket

Leggings

I gave gifts to Brian this year. I got him The Piano Guys’ CDs (both one and two) and a giant jawbreaker. I found out that he already has the first CD so I’ll keep that one and I bought him an Owl City CD that he wanted instead. (In that same order Brian bought another CD. He paid me for that one. I also bought a DVD on the same order. All from Barnes and Noble. I love that place so much.) I wrapped his presents in Spongebob Christmas wrapping paper that I found at the dollar store. It was awesome.

Chad and Amber were giving to me this year. They gave me Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. I have the first three books and I needed the last, fourth book. They also gave me an Imagine Dragons CD that I wanted. It’s called ‘Night Visions’ and it’s really good. Chad also gave me a Mountain Dew. Its old school designed bottle is nifty.

When I was ordering Brian's re-gift I ordered Doctor Who season 7 on DVD. I used that Barnes and Noble gift card from Mom and Dad. I had to pay a couple of dollars because the gift card wasn’t enough to buy all of it. And I still need to purchase the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Special. But it airs after season 7 so I’m not worrying about right now. I’ll keep an eye on it and buy it later.

And that was my Christmas Eve and Day. It was a lot of fun. Let's do it again next year. :)

Overflowing Scarves

Today I went to Target and got my 2014 planner. It is lime green! I love it. While I was there I got a couple of white tension rods. I have wanted to organize my scarves for a while now. And since I got a scarf for Christmas it reminded me of this project. I used tension rods in the side of my closet and now I can hang all of my scarves. I have two rods. One I use for the thicker knit scarves that I use a lot during fall/winter. The other rod I placed in front and a tiny bit lower than the other. I use it for my fashion scarves. I wear those all the time. I hung up all of my scarves and they look so lovely. I think I’ll keep my scarves a lot more organized now.

Before and After

Tension rods without any scarves.

Starburst Quilt

I found a quilt that I like from Megan of Canoe Ridge Creations. It's a giant starburst quilt. I love the simplicity of the design.

via Canoe Ridge Creations. (HERE)

Instead of doing the points in the four different colors I wanted each of them to be different. So I got eight different greens. I think it'll be cool.

So more like this ...

I love the colors and think they will look really good together. I already ordered my fabric from Pink Chalk Fabrics. I wanted an array of greens from Kona fabrics. I'm using Peridot, Lime, Sprout, Chartreuse, Kiwi, Leprechaun, Pear, and Fern for my eight greens. And my base white is Kona Snow.

I still have to choose the backing and binding fabrics.

This is going to be my first real quilt and my first quilt-along. I'm looking forward to it.

P.S. I have made quilts with my Mom so I am not a complete novice to quilting. :)

Pom Pom Christmas

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I thought it would be fun to do for Christmas. So this past week I went to the dollar store and got several little packages of red, green, and white fuzzy pom poms. Today I strung them on some red thread. There isn't a pattern. Just no same colors in a row and I tried to make the three sizes somewhat random. There aren't a lot of the big poms in the bag and I like them. I think I'll have to go back and get some more bags so that my garland is really long. I haven't measured it. I just keep adding pom poms to the strand. I like it. It makes me happy. I want to do another garland with all the bright colors someday.