2012

It's hard to believe that another year has gone by. A lot has happened in the world and it will be interesting to see what will happen in 2013. :)

Personally, I had a really great year. I hope I can do just as well in 2013 as I did in 2012.

I read a heck of a lot of books (some of which I don't even remember).

Best Books I Read This Year (But weren't necessarily published in 2012):

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

I mentioned this one in an earlier blog post but I had to bring it up again. It made me laugh and cry. Sometimes both. John Green is an awesome writer and I am excited to see what else he will publish in the future.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontё

I read this in my Lit class and I loved it. At first there were terms and such that were unfamiliar, making it a difficult read. But in the end I came to sympathize with Jane and I loved the rest of the book. It really cemented my new found interest in literature.

The Liar Society by Lisa and Laura Roecker

I could not put this book down even if I tried. It was exciting and thrilling from beginning to end. There were many twists and turns, not to mention mysteries. I look forward to reading the sequel (which is currently sitting on my desk, waiting to be read).

A Midsummer Tights Dream by Louise Rennison

Another one of my favourite authors. Louise Rennison`s books never fail to amuse me. Her characters are fresh and quirky and make me laugh. She was the first author to ever make me laugh out loud while reading a book. I can`t wait to see what chaos Tallulah and the gang will get up to next. :)

The Sweetness of Salt by Cecilia Galante

The title says it all. It intrigued me to find out how in the world salt can be sweet. It was definitely a good read with a nice ending.

Bittersweet by Sarah Ockler

Yet another one of my favourite authors, her 2012 release was just as great as her other books. Next year she is releasing a new book and I am eager to see what it is all about.

Dear Teen Me

Various young adult authors wrote letters (or draw cartoons) to their teen selves. It was interesting to see how far all of these authors have come and what they had to overcome to achieve their dreams. It really inspired me to reflect on life in this kind of way.

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The other day I came across this list of young adult books coming out in 2013:
http://novelnovice.com/2012/12/28/new-ya-releases-coming-in-2013/

Super excited to finish several different series and start a few new ones!

Happy New Year!
Emma :)

The Trials and Errors of Gingerbread

    I am sorry for the lack of blog posts in recent months but I've been quite busy. Last week I completed my first official semester of university!!! Woohoo! :) I can remember starting in September and being so completely nervous. Plus it was sunny at the time, now....... *looks out window* it's snowing. Quite heavily.

    Now that winter break is here I thought I would catch you up on some stuff. Mostly I wanted to talk (more like rant) about all the experiences I have had with gingerbread in the last couple of weeks. Last year we bought a gingerbread kit to make a village of mini gingerbread houses. It failed. Miserably.

    First of all, they didn't stay up. We tried everything we could. There were different methods of stacking involved. As well as a boat load of icing and frowning. Finally we resorted to toothpicks. What were supposed to be cute and festive little houses but turned into haphazard tents. It was very pathetic looking and cleaning up all of the icing afterwards is always a pain.

    So this year we decided to cheat. We bought ourselves a gingerbread kit with an already assembled house. Hooray! No problem, right? Wrong wrong wrong. On the plus side, it was standing. The negative? I cannot pipe very well. So my icicles turned into blobs, and the roof? Um....it doesn't look like any of the sample pictures on the box. Our track record in the past few years has not been very good when it comes to making these houses. Maybe next year, eh?

    Anyways, I thought that would be the end of my gingerbread troubles this year. Well, it turns out that that wasn't the case. My sister had to bake gingerbread for school and I helped her out. It all started with molasses.

   None of us had ever bought molasses but we managed to find it at the store. We were wondering what is in it. Guess what the carton said?

    Ingredients: Molasses

    So helpful.
   
    We brought it home and began the (very) tiring task of making it from scratch. Never again. Try singing that to the tune of Taylor Swift's "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together."

"We are Never Ever Ever Making Gingerbread Again!"

    The smell was so unbelievably horrible. Nasty. I can't even begin to tell you how ill I felt. The cleanup afterwards was the worst part. It would NOT come out of the pot. We ended up soaking it 2 or 3 times. I really don't want to think about gingerbread for a while. Until next year gingerbread!

   So for now I'm just going to say that there are big things coming. Great things, really! I am working on a couple "new" projects and I hope to share them with you all in the next couple of months or so.

    Happy Holidays everyone! I hope your experiences with gingerbread are a million times better than mine!! :)

P.S. unlike last time I really am going to try to blog more.
P.P.S But who knows what will happen when school starts again in January.