Chinese New Year.


Happy Chinese New Year from Shanghai!
My college roommates are visiting, and we celebrated the holiday with fireworks and sparklers. The Chinese here love their fireworks... we've seen (and heard) amazing explosions go off all over the city, including our own neighborhood every night this week. 
Even though we're still in the dead of winter (and it definitely feels that way), I'm excited about the Spring Festival celebrations that have me looking forward to warmer weather.

Have you ever taken pictures with sparklers? We started with this tutorial from Nicole's Classes and played around from there.

the new year.


Twenty-twelve was the year of China, of change, of soaking in the California sun, knowing that we would be leaving it for a while. Twenty-twelve was a trial run for 2013. Many of my goals and intentions took root last year, with January 1 just making it official. As this month rolls on, I'm learning even more about my productivity and how I'm spending my time... like how the key to a productive day for me is starting work at 7:45 a.m., having exactly two cups of coffee,  going from task to task without stopping for anything other than bathroom and lunch/snack breaks and then ending the day with a workout, dinner, a tiny bit more work and then an early bed time. Stopping means letting my body realize how tired it is, so better "breaks" are moving from an intensive task to a chore-checker task like putting away the laundry. And yes, at the end of the day, there's usually a thing or two still left on the to-do list, but I'm ok with that. This year is about enough