Archive for December, 2017

December 26th, 2017

Year in Review: 2017

It’s not quite the end of the year yet, but my plans for the rest of the week is to be as lazy as possible, so I might as well sum up the year now! Here is my usual year in review!

Life in General

I’ve had a lot of crazy transitions at work throughout the year. Even though my title didn’t change, I went from managing a team of developers and a team of designers, to managing two teams of developers, and then finally got myself back to one team. At the craziest point, I had 14 direct reports. That is way too many for one person! Now I’m down to managing 7 developers, which is about the perfect number for me. (Can I just brag about how my team is made up of 4 women and 3 men? XD)

Even now, we’re still going through a big organizational rework, and 2018 is going to be a lot of new things for the development department. We’re looking forward to seeing changes though!

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14 · Posted in Year in Review
December 18th, 2017

My Favorite Things: December 2017

Lately, I’ve really been enjoying getting into art again. It’s been very therapeutic and relaxing, especially as I realize that it’s ok that I’m not where I’d like to be yet and that I just need to keep practicing. I used to stress out about it, but now it’s a nice hobby I can do on and off in my spare time. There’s some art supplies that I’ve been really loving, so I thought I’d do a My Favorite Things around them!

Pentel Arts Pocket Brush Pen

I came across this brush pen when I was researching supplies for Inktober, and it seems to be a popular item for many artists. $11-20 might seem like much for just one pen, but it’s refillable, so it’ll last you. (I bought a 12 ink refill pack on Amazon.) I love how smoothly the ink flows out of the pen, and the brush tip lets you make variable widths in your lines. It took me awhile to get used to it, but it’s fun to use!

Copic Sketch Markers – Sketching Grays

I wish I had these for Inktober, but I ordered them afterwards because I wanted to continue working with ink. Though they’re double ended, I’ve only used the brush tip. It’s a good range of grays, and the ink flows and blends smoothly. I find them pretty easy to use overall. I love the result, and working in grayscale has been good practice too.

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10 · Posted in Art, Hobbies, My Favorite Things, Series
December 2nd, 2017

Recap: November 2017

Even with (US) Thanksgiving, November felt like a pretty chill month for me. Not much happened early in the month, and then when Thanksgiving came around, I took that whole week off. I realized I hadn’t taken a long vacation this year like I usually do and was starting to really feel burned out. I just needed a break.

Some things I did this month:

  • I treated my husband to a birthday dinner at a Spanish tapas place. We had never been there before, but a coworker recommended it to me, and it was really good!
  • I saw Thor: Ragnarok, and man, that was a fun movie.
  • We had Thanksgiving dinner with my parents, my husband’s parents, and his grandparents. It was at the grandparents’ house, and they have a pretty traditional Thanksgiving dinner – you know, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc etc. Oh, and also four pies. Yeah, it was a lot of food.
  • I did Black Friday shopping online and bought myself new winter tops. Of course, I’m still waiting for winter weather. I’m wearing a T-shirt here sometimes!
  • We also took advantage of Black Friday/Cyber Monday deals to buy new appliances, specifically a new microwave, stove, and dishwasher. Such adulting.

  • I got my hair cut and colored. I normally grow out my hair during the winter, but the length and amount I had was driving me crazy! I asked for it to be cut to my shoulders and dyed to a dark red.

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13 · Posted in Monthly Recaps