2010 in Review

Happy New Year everyone!!!  I hope you all had a wonderful and save new years eve celebration and are all ready to brave 2011 with full force.  I  know...I've been missing from bloggy land.  I have a good excuse, I promise.  In addition to being abducted by aliens, I was sick for most of the holidays.  It was horrible, I tell you. Even the aliens that abducted me told me I looked horrible from sneezing and coughing that they felt sorry for me and sent me home to rest.  And to my surprise, aliens are not all green, bug eyed, and freakishly tall.  They more or less resemble the Minions from the movie Despicable Me.  Totally cute and adorable.  I tried bringing one back on earth as a pet, but that would be abducting one...and I wouldn't want to do that to them.  We humans don't abduct...that's just mean.

I know I've also not been commenting as much as usual, but I promise I've been reading every single entry I'm following.  It was extremely fun reading all your entries about looking back on 2010, so I've decided to compose one of my own.

1). Getting Married

The best thing that happened this year, and probably in my whole life thus far, was getting married to my one and only love.  We've had four months of wedded bliss and there's just no words to explain how great married life is.  I know it's a cliche to say I married my best friend...but I think who I really married is my funniest best friend!  He makes me ROFLOL every single day.  He...is the biggest reason why we work so well as a couple.

2). Our New Home

It was a long process, almost seven months, but we finally moved into our first home together at the end of June last year.  We've slowly decorated the living space to make it our own and already have rooms set aside for family and a little baby in the future.  :)

3). New Job

Last year right before the holiday season, I was dropped with the news that I was being laid off from a company that I absolutely wanted to stay and invest myself in.  It was the first time I've ever been let go from a job and it crushed me.  I looked at it positively though...and as a believer of "things always happen for a reason", I saw the lay off as a blessing in disguise.  In late February this year, after only three months of being jobless, I was hired by my current company.  It was a huge relief because when I lost my job, we were in the process of finding a new house and planning our wedding.  So my new company definitely gave me the ability and security to continue on with my life.

4). First Thanksgiving and Dad's 60th Birthday

This year Chris' family and mine celebrated Thanksgiving together at our new house.  My dad's birthday also fell on Thanksgiving day, so that also called for celebration.  It was a day filled with good Chinese food (my uncle, the chef, cooked most of the dishes) and just fun hanging out with our parents.  Chris and I hope that this can be our new Thanksgiving tradition since we all had such a great time!

5). Honeymoon

Immediately after our wedding, Chris and I spent our first few days married in Honolulu.  It was his first time in Hawaii and although it was my third time back, I never enjoyed the island until I spent it there with him.  I always have fun traveling with Chris so Hawaii was the perfect place to relax after the wedding.  We loved it so much that we want to go back in the near future.  Time to start saving up!

6). Christmas

We spent our first Christmas this year in our first home.  It meant a lot to us that this year, rather than exchanging smaller gifts to each other, we wanted to pool our budget together to get big items for our house.  And boy...was that a great idea.  One of our splurges for the house?  A Kinect and Xbox package!!  We are using the Kinect to get back into shape with fitness games and we've already had so much fun with our families playing games on it.  A great gift to one another!

7). Camping Trip

I went camping for the first time this past fall.  What better way to share this first experience than with my closest friends.  My close circle of friends are all either married or is getting married in the upcoming year.  It's only a matter of months now, I'm sure, before one of the married couples break the news that they're having their first baby.  Once that snowball starts to roll, it'll just keep building.  And before we know it, all of us are busy with kids, focusing on our families.  We try to take every opportunity to spend time with one another before we get too busy with our lives and I'm so glad we were able to take this trip together.

8). The Love for Photography

While researching for a wedding photographer, I fell in love with pictures and photography.  I've always admired a trained eye and how someone can take such fascinating pictures of such simple images.  But it wasn't until this past year, I really wanted to invest in some good equipment and try to develop this love and admiration into my own hobby.  I admit that I have not invested as much time as I did money in this hobby, but it is a determined goal of mine for 2011.  I

9). Simply Cindi

I stumbled upon Anthropologie fashion blogs when I was online searching for outfit ideas for my engagement shoot.  The first four blogs I started obsessing over were: 1. Anthroholic, 2. You, Me and Anthropologie, 3. Adiaphane, and 4. Anthropologie Girl.  In fact, Tien from Adiaphane was my very first follower.  After going through every single blog entry ever written by these lovely ladies, I decided to try this blogging thing out myself.  I wrote my first entry on April 30th and my idea of a successful blog for myself was to get to 20 followers.  It was never my intention to become famous through this blog or try to collect more followers.  So, I am extremely happy to have my little community of 123 followers to date.  I've made so many friendships through this online channel that I never thought I'd make.  Without Simply Cindi, I would have never discovered this whole community of ladies that support one another without even knowing each other.  Simply Cindi will continue and I have a lot more in store for you guys...so stay tuned!

10). Discovering My Sense of Style
Prior to starting this blog, I was a 30 year old woman, stuck in a rut!  Actually, in order to get into a rut, one must have at some time been stylish, then lost that sense.  But for me, I never had a grasp on style, so I guess I wasn't in a rut, I was just sloppy.  Till last year, my usual work wardrobe was a pair of black, gray or cream slacks, and a sweater on top.  The sweater could be any color, just as long as it's not the same color as the slacks (I at least had that much style sense...although I did often wear black with black!).  For weekend wear, I went as simple as I can.  Typically, sweat pants, comfy jeans and a track jacket or simple tee on top.  Don't believe me?

Exhibit 1: The famous Li Ning track jacket I got in China.   Nothing screams "I am Chinese" than this red and yellow jacket.  But it was made of a great material and I loved wearing it.  What was I wearing underneath?  Lululemon sweats!

Exhibit 2: Thanksgiving 2008 at Chris' parents' house.  The top I was wearing was a Hawaiian Local Motion tee and I had sweat pants as usual.

Exhibit 3: New York City in 2008...Jeans and an Adidas track jacket.  Lovely.

See...I wasn't lying.  I truly did not know how I wanted to look.  I tried to follow certain trends...like buying expensive jeans and Lululemon sweats to be some what stylish.  But finding a sense of self in terms of fashion did not mean buying expensive trendy items.  After starting my own blog, I was determined to be as comfortable as I was in sweats and track jackets, but I wanted to be stylish at the same time.  And stylish meaning what looked good on my body, not what's trendy.  I threw almost all of my black and gray clothes out and discovered color.  I also found that I loved cardigans, layering pieces, simple skirts and dresses.  I was sick of being uncomfortable in my high heeled shoes, so I started collecting shoes that were more comfortable and girly at the same time.  My wardrobe now is filled with pieces I love, investment pieces really.  And at the proud age of 31, I'm still narrowing my own definition of what style is for me, but I'm closer to finding it than ever before.  I'm sure as I age, my style will evolve.  But I'm determined to not find that rut to get stuck in.

I want to thank everyone out there that's supported me and this little blog throughout this year.  2011 is going to be a great year, I can just feel it!  I continue to look forward to use this blog as a window through my life to share with the rest of the world and I am excited to see what's in store for all of you!  Happy New Year, everyone!