Hectic Week 1 — Feeling The Holiday Blues, Creating Exciting Resolutions.

Work-from-home morning setup

Well, the holidays are over and it is the first day back at work — it's tax season!

For those of you know do not know what I do, I work for a bookkeeping software company in which I help bookkeepers resolve complex bookkeeping problems. I usually start off the morning by having a good ole cup of ginger tea.

Had a bunch of meetings to catch up on — being back from the holidays, we mainly discussed what we got up to during the winter breaks. ❆

Overall, I was very surprised my team did not receive a lot of questions from bookkeepers, hence, I devoted some of my time to completing LinkedIn learning courses. One of the courses I am currently completing is Graphic Design! Graphic design has always been one of my passions and I am excited to see the types of opportunities that will open for me in the future.

Thought about my resolutions/goals for the year and some of the things I will love to focus on this year are:

Transition and build a Graphic Design Portfolio.
Read more books! I am a huge lover of storytelling and I am hoping to get back into the swing of reading! Aiming to read at least 5 books this year (it is very little, I know 😅)
Illustrate some more kidlit art — it is difficult to find a balance between full-time work and my hobbies so I am hoping to complete one illustrated piece monthly. You can view my illustrations here or via Instagram.
Blog more!
Enjoy life more — oftentimes we get so busy with work and responsibilities we tend to forget about the beauty of life! Hence, I am hoping to get out in the world and go on many adventures!

Finally, had a peaceful day at work! Got to stream and watch some TV shows in the background while working. Do other people do this as well or am I guilty of this? xD That said, I got to watch some Bluey. If you haven't seen it yet, I highly highly recommend it; it is one of the best children's shows I have seen — season 3 is super amazing!

Chinese New Year is fast approaching and I have been eyeing a new Lego set — the money tree. The set had been sold out so fast since its release so I have been waiting patiently for it to be back in stock. And finally, today is the day when Lego kindly notified me that it is back-ordered so I placed an order. :) I am beyond excited to build this.

It's finally Friday! The workload was average as usual. Recently updated the Zoom application, and the camera feature decided to turn me into a grinch during my meeting with my team. Does anyone have an issue with this as well?

After work, I treated myself to some sushi (California rolls with a couple of salmon pieces) for surviving my first week back at work and to celebrate that it is finally the weekend. Treat yourself, am I right?

I stopped by the grocery store (the Superstore) to pick up some fruits and veggies and right before checking out, there was a short power outage. This was the first time I experienced this. Everyone surprisingly remained calm and good thing the store had emergency lights turned on.

As I left the grocery store and headed home, it turned out that there was a huge power outage that occurred in Toronto. Everything around me was pitch black and dark; it was very chaotic. There were multiple firetruck sirens and cars roaming past each other. That said, I was still able to get home safely. The power was restored within 30 mins.

Meet Ellie the elephant :)

Started off the weekend by heading to the Toronto Pan Am Sports Center for an hour's walk with my family. It was peaceful overall, there were however a lot more people than usual.

I went back to the grocery store to grab some ingredients to prepare for my family's Chinese new year feast (in 2 weeks). We also stopped by Winners for our last stop so my mother could find some new slippers to wear at home, but instead, I gained a new friend!

For the rest of the day, I chilled and continue to watch Gilmore Girls (currently, on Season 2). Has anyone seen this series? So far, I am enjoying it! It is super hilarious at times. :)

The power decided to go out again during the morning (for around an hour this time).

Stopped by T&T Superstore to look at some more ingredients, and it is starting to feel like Chinese New Year. The store was already filled with a variety of Chinese new years food (rice cakes), rabbit decorations (this is the year of the rabbit 🐇), and red pockets.

elleventures