SAVORY MUFFINS

I have caught the muffin craze, which means that I have been making muffins like crazy. Turns out, muffins are very easy to make!
I've already written about the Triple Chocolate Chunk Muffins, which were mouth-watering. I've also tried a recipe for Banana Walnut Muffins, which were also great; unfortunately, I wasn't able to photograph them. However, I did photograph these delicious savory Spinach, Feta, and Baked Pepper Muffins that you see below. Believe me, they are very very tasty. I got the recipe from the First Cook, Then Look blog, so head over there to learn how to make them and enjoy!

NEW YEAR'S RESOLUTIONS

The new year is here, and for the first time in what feels like an insanely long time, I felt great celebrating it.
This past year was a year of changes and of putting my life back together after it fell into pieces in 2009. I moved past a heartache that threatened to unglue me completely (and almost succeeded), I changed jobs, I took a much deserved relaxing vacation. I signed up for a photography course, I gained some of the weight I had lost due to stress, and I got a new haircut. Maybe I don't have thousands of close friends, but I have been blessed with a few close friends and loved ones that stood by me and supported me through the difficult things, for which I am eternally grateful. All in all, it was a good year, and it was definitely better than 2009.
I don't really have a ton of resolutions for the new year, even though I could whip up a list of things to do in 2011 in something like 3 seconds. I just want to be happy. I want to feel like my life is back under control where possible. I want to be healthy and happy, and I would like to think of myself and my own well-being a little more. Life is short, so I guess I should try to enjoy it as much as I can.
Thinking about resolutions and hopes for the future, I looked around for interesting quotes and sayings, and I compiled a small list of the ones I liked best. I hope that they inspire you like they have inspired me.

1. This first one is what I have begun to call my New Year's Resolution. It's a quote from a poem by Mary Oliver. The design is mine.

2. This one is wonderful, and when I read it, I thought to myself "this is exactly what I've been trying to explain to people all these years." :) I found it here.

3. This third one is quite true. I found it here.

4. This is also good for a New Year's Resolution. Check out i can read for more stuff like this.

5. I strongly believe in this one below. I would like to be loved like that.
I found this quote online with a similar design, but I decided to make my own, which is the one I'm posting here:

6. Finally, a really cool quote I found online. I love this quote. Again, this design is mine.

A CHOCOLATE BOMB

Triple chocolate chunk muffins! Yes, you heard that right - triple chocolate chunk muffins. I don't care how many calories these have, they are amazing. Now that's what I call delicious! The recipe for these beauties is from the same cookbook that has the Nutella Cinnamon Almond Cake. It's an awesome book, full of decadent desserts...

RED AND BLUE CHRISTMAS

Here are some more ideas for decorating your Christmas tree, this time in blue, silver, and red. This is not a combination you will see often, but I think it looks nice. Back in the day when I was really obsessed with blue, I used to decorate the tree in my parents' house only in blue and silver, but as the years passed, we decided to add some red and make the decorations look warmer.
Here they are in order from top to bottom, left to right:
- an ornament we bought from a Christmas shop in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, where I took my parents after my college graduation
- Christmas fairy on a laundry pin - it's so cute
- a green fairy godmother, which was a gift from a friend of ours, who knows where you can get the coolest things ever
- a snowman carrying a stack of snowballs, which I bought years ago
- a "sugar apple"
- a disco ball, so that our tree is a party tree...haha
- Christmas bells (notice my reflection there)
- a blue ball (again, notice my reflection because I think it turned out pretty cool...my camera looks huge from the distortion)
- a big red glittery ball that is just gorgeous

CHRISTMAS CARD

I am quite proud of myself.
Before you ask why that is, I'll let you know, and I'll do it in a very smug, self-satisfied sort of way (hihi): I made an animated Christmas card all on my own! Yey me!
Of course, I only did the animation; the drawings were free vectors I found online, and while the audio choice was mine, the sound was edited by 4040. The card is nothing special in terms of effects, but I think that it is really quite funny in a crazy ad agency sort of way. Of course, the firm where I work is a crazy ad agency, so its' all good :)

CHRISTMAS DECOR

The holiday season is upon us, and I've been decorating like crazy. Since I might be moving soon, I bought a Christmas tree and for my new place and set out to make it pretty. At first, I was thinking of going with the traditional red and gold theme, but since my living room is in the white-beige-chocolate brown theme, I decided that red would be too gaudy. Then, I went to the other extreme by thinking about having a tree decorated entirely in white, but I decided that it would look to plain. Finally, I settled on a gold-silver-white color scheme, which would be Christmasy enough, while still stylish and elegant.
I bought a bunch of sparkly decorations: golden and silver balls, silver hearts, golden bells, white icicles, and fluffy white balls that look very much like snowballs. I wanted to have an angel on top of the tree, and after an extensive search, my mom actually found a suitable porcelain angel that is just adorable. She got me a bunch of smaller angels for the tree and the house, and I also got several golden angels who play different musical instruments. Instead of garlands, I decided to get a bunch of Christmas ribbons; this turned out to be a great idea because they made the tree look really classy. As a finishing touch to the decorations of the living room, I put a bunch of pine cones that I had gathered in the fall in big glass vases.
Here are some photos of my tree and my decorations:

MAGGIE STIEFVATER IN SOFIA

As you already know (from several of my previous posts about books), I enjoy Maggie Stiefvater's writing very much. Her book Shiver is one of my favorites, both in terms of writing and in terms of the design. Shiver makes even the cold winter season seem magical, providing a wonderful backdrop for the story of the boy/wolf/poet/songwriter Sam and smart and practical, yet fascinated by the mystery of the wolves, Grace. The covers of the three books from the series are all designed by Christopher Stengel, and the text in every book is in a color that matches the respective cover: Shiver is blue, Linger is green, and Forever will be red.

Today I was very happy to have the chance of meeting Maggie Stiefvater here in Sofia during a book signing in Pingvinite bookstore near the Sofia University. There was a good turnout of people, mostly girls, of course, but also a bunch of guys.

Maggie was great, and I was very excited to get all my books signed, here in Sofia of all places. It's really great that the publishing houses in Bulgaria have started inviting authors. Her visit was also a part of the winter book fair, which is going on right now in the National Palace of Culture (where I purchased a big stack of books yesterday). Check out the photos from the book signing: