2009 - the year in review

Well it's been a heck of a year both personally and for the world at large.  I thought it would be fun to do a review of this past year, I dug around on the internet to see what interesting tid-bits I could find and compiled a little list of the odds and ends that I thought were interesting (or at least too outrageous to leave out).

Top 10 films of the year, I am so out of the "loop" I didn't see even one of them!

10. "Adventureland"
9. "The Hurt Locker"
8. "The Girlfriend Experience"

7. "Fantastic Mr. Fox"
6. "(500) Days of Summer"
5. "Food, Inc."
4. "I Love You, Man"

3. "Precious"
2. "Inglourious Basterds"
1. "Up In The Air

Top 10 REALITY TV shows of 2009:
Ok I am feeling kind of relieved because I could not find an actual list of the top 10.  I did, however find a ton of sites that listed their personal top 10 favorite reality shows......sad I know......I am going to list my favs, but hopefully I will not have 10 (if so I need to make a resolution to get out more in 2010 ;)

Keeping Up with the Kardashians (smut TV at it's best)
Bridezillas (it's a sickness, I know)
Property Virgins
Iron Chef
Man VS. Food

*sigh* this is all I can think of, YAY!!!


Top 10 TV shows of 2009 - this list is actually the top 10 most pirated shows.  House is my favorite.

1	Heroes
2	Lost
3	Prison Break
4	Dexter
5	House
6	24
7	Desperate Housewives
8	Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles
9	Grey’s Anatomy
10	True Blood

Top 10 songs, at least I have heard some from this list......still you would think I live under a rock, I have not heard the majority of them.

1	1	Fireflies	Owl City
2	3	TiK ToK	Ke$ha
3	2	Bad Romance	Lady GaGa
4	4	I Gotta Feeling	Black Eyed Peas
5	5	Replay	Iyaz
6	6	Down	Jay Sean Featuring Lil Wayne
7	9	Party In The U.S.A.	Miley Cyrus
8	7	Whatcha Say	Jason Derulo
9	10	Empire State Of Mind	Jay-Z + Alicia Keys
10	--	All I Want For Christmas Is You	Mariah Carey

Top 10 news stories: (subjective from www.slate.com,  I had trouble finding something non-subjective?)

Earlier this week, Slate asked readers to help rank the 10 most important news events of the year. You responded in droves with your picks for the most compelling topics of 2009. Find out where your selections ranked below. (Sorry, Balloon Boy, you came up a little shy.)

1) The historic inauguration of the United States' first African-American commander in chief, Barack Obama, topped your list of the most important events of the year with 16 percent of the vote.
2) Health care reform was either a topic of consternation or a cause for jubilation, depending on whom you asked; it garnered 14 percent of the vote.
3) Some pundits declared the recession over, whether the populace agreed or not. Economic recovery efforts snagged 12 percent of the vote.
4) The president's decision to send more troops to Afghanistan in hopes of bringing most soldiers home in 2011 finished with 9 percent of the vote.
5) Alleged fraud and widespread protests marred the Iranian presidential elections in June, garnering 7 percent of the vote.
6) King of Pop Michael Jackson's death shocked millions and spurred worldwide mourning, coming in with 6 percent of the vote.
7) Panic over the lethal swine flu pandemic caused at least one nation to eradicate pigs and others to stockpile vaccines—you ranked the hysteria seventh on the list with 5 percent of the vote.
8) One of President Obama's first moves from the Oval Office was to nominate Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court, and she was subsequently confirmed, which earned 4 percent of the vote.
9) International and domestic efforts to draft climate change laws are gaining attention due to this week's Copenhagen conference. The subject drew 3 percent of the vote.
10) And finally, a topic we haven't seen the last of: The ever-increasing federal deficit finished with 3 percent of the vote.

I can say that 2009 has had it's up's and downs, and I would say that they have been fairly evenly distributed.  In my personal life, 2009 also had it's ups and downs.  
+ I got engaged (wedding in 2010!)
- I accepted a position at another company for more pay, but it turned out that the grass was not greener.

+ The job helped me to remember who I am and to take control of my life again, I have enrolled in school (once more) for 2010 and am looking to what the future may bring with this career changing decision. 
- I have to stick with the job for another year......haha, I will survive though.
+I started to make my own soap among other products and plan to launch my line in 2010 (check me out at http://www.myserendipityquest.com )
- I don't have enough time to make all the items I have ideas for currently

+ Aside form a few colds and aches, myself and everyone I love has been fairly healthy this year.
-  there's not counterbalancing minus to something like that.


All in all 2009 was tolerable, I look to 2010 to bring new ups and downs as well as adventures and more stories to share here on my blog.


I am signing off now, I hope that everyone has a wonderful and safe New Year's Eve!!!!  Look for me in 2010!!!!!


~City Mouse - last blog of the year!!!!!

Here are a couple of other year's in review that i found to be pretty cool, enjoy!

 http://www.miamiherald.com/living/columnists/dave-barry/v-print/story/1397654.html

http://www.walkingoffthebigapple.com/2009/12/strolling-year-in-review-2009.html

What's Cooking Good Looking?

Greetings from my Brooklyn winter wonderland.  I made two batches of soap today and am very excited about them.  The one batch is made with avocado, olive and coconut oils, I also added french clay and the most delicious cucumber melon fragrance oil (my kitchen still smells wonderful!).  It is supposed to be a very moisturizing soap.  It has a mildly green tinge (from the clay) but it otherwise uncolored. 

The second soap I made was made using sunflower, coconut and palm oils.  I added a little bit of fuchsia coloring and one of my favorite scents of the moment, baby rose fragrance oil!

Keep warm and enjoy the winter wonderland if it's snowing near you.


Good night
~CM

Silver Bells

Well I had a productive weekend.  I managed to wrap all of the gifts that I have in preparation for Christmas, can you believe it's only a couple of weeks away!  All the delightful soaps from prior posts, yup, all ended up being gifts, I will have the cleanest friends and family around!  All in all I think they came out really cute and there are so many different scents and types that some can be shared with others or tossed into a guest bathroom, I mean, it's soap!  Who would not find this to be a useful gift?  Well I am just beat today, we spent the past few hours giving the house a good thorough cleaning and straightening so now I think I will go relax on the couch.


Happy Sunday All!


~CM

Tiny Bubbles!!!!

Well maybe big bubbles.  I was a very busy soaper this past weekend.  I was feeling very creative and started to play around with scents, colors and patterns.  Guess what I also made two batches completely from scratch!!!!  It's called cold process soap making.  I feel like a mad scientist when I do this method but oh - it is so worth it!  Please enjoy the pictures that I took of my soaps.  I think these will make great holiday gifts!


Cheers
~CM

These soaps are plumeria scented,
it is a soft floral scent that kind of just tickles your nose.

These little cuties are "celestial water" scented.......

i guess to describe this i would say if has a great fresh scent

that has a hint of cucumber at the end, it smells really clean.

Apple for the teacher? 

These soaps smell like cinnamon, yum!

Kaleido"soaps"  These are an inspiration of Mr. Mouse. 
The colored pieces are also soap, just colored then cut up,
I added them in layers to facilitate a fun 3-D look to this bar. 
This soap has the bright scents of Spanish Oranges.

Relaxing chamomile, this delightful soap is part of the 

nekked soap collection. 

With dried chamomile throughout this bar it also has hints of

white tea and ginger - go on, get "nekked."

 Almond delight is all I can say about this. 

This soap it made with goatsmilk and ground

up almonds along with a hint of almond fragrance,

it truly smells good enough to eat!

 

The gems of the day, these are the soaps I made from scratch!  I made two small batches, the soap on the right is lavender scented and has coconut and olive oils in it, the soap on the left is vanilla scented and has palm and olive oils in it.  They probably need a week or two to cure and dry out, once that is done, into the shower I go!!!!  I can hardly wait!