June 2012 in pictures

Ok, back to this picture thing. I will finish this. I will.

June was a big month for us. After many months of begging, presenting all the pros, and debating the cons, I convinced Jamie that we should get a kitten. The problem was, we couldnt find one! Finally after a couple weeks we found one on Marktplaatz and we picked her up. We had a choice between her and her stripey-tiger-looking sister, but sister was terrified of us. Our little kitten nestled up to me immediately and didn't want to let go. So basically, she chose us. She was born on April 13, 2012; she was 7 weeks old when we brought her home.

Here she is sleeping in her carrier shortly after we got her home.
We named her Islay (pronounced eye-la or ay-la)

This is her on my pillow after she came out of hiding on her first morning with us. I found out pretty quickly that she hates cameras and especially flashes. 

When she finally got comfortable with us she liked to sleep on our laps or snuggle her way behind our back and sleep there. She also slept snuggled in between us at night - she was the middle spoon.

We didn't know it at the time, but she was sick this weekend. Here she is 2 days before her first vet visit, 2 days before we discovered she was not the healthiest little kitten. 

Oh and also, our amaryllis bloomed again. This time with 4 flowers!

Like all cats she loves paper bags

We had a giant cardboard box that we used as a kitten playpen. Such a tiny little thing with her ping pong ball and mousie. 

Always trying to catch or capture my camera - probably so I'll stop taking pictures of her. 

And she loved to kill and wrestle the carrot we got her from Ikea. Gotta eat those veggies!

May 2012 in pictures

Getting a bit behind in my photo wrap-up of 2012. Or maybe it 's just that i was avoiding blogging about the month that I turned the dreaded 3-0. Still pretending to be "over" it. I guess we all have to deal with the inevitable. Since I started off discussing the birthday, lets get on with the pictures of the birthday.
We were crammed into a tiny part of one of my favorite bar/restaurants here in Utrecht (Cafe Olivier) so I could only get a picture of the whole group (that remained by 23:00) by taking two pictures.

Among other awesome gifts, Jamie bought me these chocolate brains skulls

Lots of other things happened besides my birthday. For instance, I finished the blanket for my nephew:

Also our amaryllis bloomed:

a smidgen of happiness

Been having a tough time lately with my impending unemployment and deportation.... It's not easy to never buy anything and be poor.... Too many things I dont want to go into here or now BUT i did see this wonderful yarn in the most fantastic colors and for 2euros a ball, i can afford to buy some for socks.

Also, i've been fiddling around, trying to figure out how to take good pictures with my new camera and this is the best picture yet. Maybe I just got lucky.

Without further ado, here is the fantastic circus sock yarn (click on it to see a bigger version):

April 2012 in Pictures

In April we had to come back home from the most amazing trip and go back to reality (e.g. work and PhD life). We finished some work on the roof-terrace, started our graden, and I did some knitting (of course).

Here is a neighborhood cat surveying our changes to the covered bit of our roof-terrace:

The start of our new garden

A close up of plants we would eventually manage to kill (except the aloe, that one is still miraculously alive)

A nearly finished mitered square blanket for my nephew

March 2012 in Pictures

Picking just a few pictures for the month of March is almost impossible. In March Jamie and I took one of the most amazing trips of our lives to South America. There was a scientific congress for my field, and it's only held every other year in different locations. I was accepted to present a poster and I was determined to go to present it. It's a great experience to present your work at a congress full of people who not only understand the work, but are also interested in it. It doesn't hurt when the congress is held in an amazing location. This edition was set for Iguazu Falls, Brazil.

I really should do a blog post about our trip. ... I have such a bad memory you'd think I would blog all the time to help me remember, but I am just too busy being lazy when I'm not working my ass off for the PhD.

Ok enough talk, lets get to the amazing pictures!

Strelitzia flowers at our hotel in Sao Paulo

One part of the amazing Foz do Iguazu

A toucan friend pondering me at the bird sanctuary in Foz do Iguazu (the city, not the national park)

Our hostel in Porto Alegre, Brazil

A massive tree among other massive trees spanning more than a city block in the Recoleta area of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Smoke and deliciousness in the Mercado del Puerto in Montevideo, Uruguay

A tropical storm coming in at Ipenema beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The strangest flower I've ever seen at the botanical gardens in Rio

February 2012 in pictures

Feb was a month full of knitting pictures. Yes, this definitely exemplifies the winter blues I mentioned before. I mostly want to curl up in a quilt and not come out until spring.

I made progress on the baby blankie of love

And I finished a stranded color-work hat for Jamie. Which he loves and i have never washed even once because he wont let me. I'll try again this summer.

Pictures: January 2012

So I take a lot of pictures throughout the year, and I dont really do anything with them. Sometimes I put them on Facebook to share with friends, and sometimes not. I thought it might be nice to go post and discuss some of the pictures I took last year, by month. I'm going to do my very best to stick with this and review each month of 2012. It might take me all of 2013..... But gosh darnit, i'm going to finish something I start.
Looking back, January of last year was not very exciting as far as pictures go.

I backed a really cool Kickstarter campaign for a 3D printed sculpture. Here it is next to another fine piece of art (reproduction, of course).

I started knitting two big projects. The first was my very first cardigan, a raglan construction one using Malabrigo sock yarn. This particular iteration was eventually frogged since i was holding the yarn double and it was too tight and using too much yarn.

The second project was a baby blanket for my sisters baby. He was scheduled to be born in May, so I thought I had plenty of time. This was the third try after several failed attempts at a different pattern.

And that was pretty much it for January. Winter is always a bit of a depressing bummer here in Northern Europe.

2012 in Review

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?
Obtained a LoLcat kitten of my very own

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Yeah ok, after thinking about this one for a couple hours i've given up. resolutions are nice but i just dont have time for that shit with a PhD needing to be finished by this summer. so basically, i just want to get published, finish my thesis, have it approved, defend, get my diploma and get a post-doc. sigh. crazy year ahead. 

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Holy cow it seemed like Everyone had babies this year. My cousin Shannon had a daughter, my friend Cat had a daughter, my sister had a son, my friend Amanda had a daughter, my cousin Tom's wife had a daughter, and lots of people I'm facebook friends with had kids. 

4. Did anyone close to you die?
I think 2012 was the first year in many years that there hasn't been a death of someone directly related to me....

5. What countries did you visit?
New countries that I had never been to before: Brazil; Argentina; Uruguay; Sweden

Countries that I have been to before: England, Belgium, Germany

6. What would you like to have in 2013 that you lacked in 2012?
Same as last year: A first author scientific publication.

7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
Again, I'm really bad at remembering actual dates, but visiting Foz do Iguazu was amazing. And our first night in Uruguay when we ate the most amazing chorizo in the whole world. 

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Not quitting my PhD and surviving Islay's kittenhood.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Having my paper rejected three times already. 

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Managed to sneak by this year without injusry. Had a couple colds, maybe a flu, some sunburn. Nothing dramamtic.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
hmmmm we got our cat for free so i guess all the toys we bought her were pretty fun. Couple of nice art prints for Jamie's room cheer me up too.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
Same as last year: Jamie for being awesome and taking care of me during my hellish PhD. Knitting friends who welcome me back after long absences each time i try to have a social life.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
So many... the world is going to hell yadda yadda

14. Where did most of your money go?
Rent, traveling, beer, yarn, savings.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to South America! Going to Stockholm to see my friend Andreas!

16. What song(s) will always remind you of 2012?
Not sure really. Not a huge year musically for me.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer?
Happier, fatter, tad richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of?
Exercise. Sleep.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of?
Worry about my PhD.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Same as last two years: We spent Christmas and Boxing Day with Jamie's family in Stevenage, England. 

21. Did you fall in love in 2012?
I stayed in love with Jamie. And I guess you could say I fell madly in love with my fierce kitty Islay. 

23. What was your favorite TV program?
Pretty much same as last year. Pretty boring here.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?
Not sure? 

25. What was the best book you read? 
"I could Pee on This" a poem book by cats.

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Nothing new, how lame

27. What did you want and get?
To go to the pneumococcal congress in Brazil. To travel around in South America. A kitten.

28. What did you want and not get?
My paper accepted. An extension of my PhD. The data of a trial, on time. A new camera. Nicer weather. Lose weight. Kick insomnia. Less migraines. 

29. What was your favorite film of this year?
Oh jeez I am so bad at remembering what films I saw and when. The Avengers 3D was pretty epic i suppose.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
The "big" 3-0. I invited friends out for dinner and drinks, and they actually came! It was fun.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Same as last year: A magical understanding of the Dutch language. More contact with the people, friends and family, I left in the States. Less insomnia. Less migraines. Less pain and suffering on my part in general.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012?
Mostly the same as previous years - whatever doesnt make me look pudgy and lots of black with a creeping towards a bit of "Dutch" and "European" fashion.

33. What kept you sane?
My office-mates and my boyfriend.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Well it was an election year so I guess I should say Obama? I voted for him and am super glad he won but it wasnt as crazy awesome as the first time.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?
Same as last year: Marriage equality - no reason the States should discriminate. Immigration rights. Oh and several places voted in marriage equality laws so that was pretty amazing.

36. Who did you miss?
My friends who are not in the same country as me. My Grampa and Gramma.

37. Who was the best new person you met? Why?
My nephew Jacob who I met on skype. He's the cutest little stinker

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012.
Don't roughhouse with kittens - you'll end up with bleeding, shredded arms/hands.

39. A Quote or song lyric that sums up your year.

not really i guess. just trying to not drown