things to be happy about

Merry (belated) Christmas, people!

I had so much to be happy about and grateful for yesterday, and I do still. All my Christmas presents, Christmas dinner, my family, our beautiful tree, and Jesus. And so much more.

Here are some of the things worth being very happy about:

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My new camera.

I couldn't be happier with my (Panasonic) Lumix DMC-LX5. It's still a point-and-shoot camera, but it has many of the same features of a DSLR. I'm so excited that I can adjust the aperture and shutter speed and stuff on this new camera!

Here are some pictures taken with my new camera..

I can do Christmas-tree-light bokeh now!

salt water taffy for my brother and I from my dad

my friend gave me a Christmas lights necklace, with all these mini, differently-colored Christmas lights on it that can flash quickly, slowly, or stay on a steady burn. I set them on steady burn and then hung it on the branch from the tree.

view of our backyard from my window, unfocused

Oh, and I need help thinking of a name for my new camera! I'm considering Renee or Gioiello (pronounced "joy-ee-ello, I believe), which means "Jewel" in Italian. Haha. Anyway, what do you think would be suiting for my Lumix? ;)

New outfit for my doll.

Mom bought an outfit on Cyber Monday from American Girl, and saved it for yesterday. It is so pretty, and I couldn't recommend it enough! (Except for the price. This thing isn't really even worth ten dollars, half the price we paid for it, in my opinion..)

The only.. 'mishap' is that the pants are sorta long and baggy, but that's okay. ;)

denim jacket is from Michael's.

bad picture of the American Girl tag on Lissie's pants.



the headband is really sparkly!

Music.

Mom got me new earphones for Christmas. They were just like my old ones, the ones our rabbit, Honey, chewed in half. (I'm not kidding-that's the reason Mom got them.)

On Christmas Eve, my mom and I watched the sound of music together and I cannot get the tune "How do you solve a problem like _ " out of my head and it's driving me CRAZY.

Presents.

My other presents for Christmas (besides my camera, the doll outfit and the earphones) were..

.aforementioned salt water taffy for my brother and I to share

.a little bag of gummy worms
.a poncho

.a big, really genuinely professional drawing kit

.a big, not really genuinely professional but still amazing painting kit

I was going to get Addy's dress and bouquet from American Girl instead of the last two up there, but Santa instead brought me art supplies, which I am still quite happy with (even though I don't know how to work with charcoal). ;)

Painting.

I've been working on painting lately with my new supplies (see above note), and it's been so much fun! Most of my work has turned out terrible just okay, but I still kinda like it. It's really fun to dip your fingers in leftover paint and make a unique piece of artwork with splattered paint all over it. I mean, at least it's unique.

Sticks of charcoal.

I don't know what it is about sticks of charcoal, but.. I don't know. They almost make me feel like a real artist, charcoal stick in hand, with a crisp, white sheet of paper spread out all over a table, ready to sketch in the great outdoors on a crisp autumn day.

New nightstand.

Mom had the idea to make me an old-fashioned-looking nightstand out of old milk crates. Tell me if you'd like pictures of it and instructions on how to do it, because I really like it and it's super easy to make.
I promise it's not tacky as all. I promise. It actually is quite attractive and cute, but I like vintage, old-fashioned things so if you're a lover of modern decor, this may not be for you.. ;)

Fireworks.

Last night people were letting off fireworks out in the distance and I tried to take some pictures, even though they didn't turn out that well. (I still don't know how to work my camera perfectly!)

no fireworks, but I still thought I'd include this picture anyway.

Merry (belated) Christmas! Tell me-how was your day yesterday? What are you happy about?